WHO's calculation method and data on COVID-19 deaths in India is incorrect: Writer Priyam Gandhi-Mody
May 10, 2022
By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], May 10 : Writer Priyam Gandhi Mody, who authored the book "A Nation To Protect: Leading India Through The COVID Crisis", criticised WHO's data on COVID-19 deaths in India terming it as "incorrect".
Priyam Gandhi Mody said, "The method that they use is the Calinski method which is from the year 2002. The researchers have used it in Argentina. Now, the problem with this method and why this cannot be applied to India is that it can only be used if the death rates are uniform across a period of time."
Terming the data as "mischievous", she said, "Across India, every state has reported different COVID data. It wasn't uniform. But if you see the COVID impact in India across the states over a period of time, you will see the higher and lower waves. It came in waves and the waves were not uniform across the state. There were some states that had got were highly impacted at a certain point in time while at the same time there were other states which weren't as deeply impacted. So, this method is incorrect."
"So, we have to rely on data from all states first, across a period of time for their model to give some type of accuracy. They cannot generalise it, countrywide for a large country like India. It's simply not going to give accurate results," Modi added.
Health Ministers of various states who attended the 14th conference of the Central Council of Health and Family Welfare have slammed WHO for its estimates of COVID-19 related deaths in India.
