Figure 5.
The infographic consists of three adjacent panels illustrating the calculation of excess mortality. The first panel displays a baseline representing the average number of deaths from all causes between 2015 and 2019. Values above the zero line indicate more deaths than expected, while values below zero indicate fewer deaths than expected. The second panel shows deaths officially attributed to COVID-19, represented by a shaded area corresponding to fatalities recorded by government reporting systems, typically based on confirmed cases. The third panel presents excess deaths as a red line measuring the difference between observed deaths and the expected number of deaths derived from historical averages. The excess death measure includes officially reported COVID-19 fatalities as well as deaths indirectly associated with the pandemic, including unconfirmed infections, delayed treatment, healthcare disruptions, and other related factors.How to read excess deaths (The Economist, 2022, n.p.)