Thread by @DrEricDing

BREAKING—Mexico's 🇲🇽 government is acknowledging in a quietly released report that the country's true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic now stands above 321,000. That is almost 60% more than Mexico’s official test-confirmed number #COVID19 cases.🧵

apnews.com/article/corona…

2) Mexico does little testing, and because hospitals were overwhelmed, many Mexicans died at home without getting a test. The only way to get a clear picture is to review “excess deaths” and review death certificates.

3) “The higher toll would rival that of Brazil, which currently has the world’s second-highest number of deaths after the United States. But Mexico’s population of 126 million is far smaller than either of those countries.”

4) “The new report also confirms just how deadly Mexico’s second wave in January was. As of the end of December, excess death estimates suggested a total of about 220,000 deaths related to COVID-19 in Mexico. That number jumped by around 75,000 in just a month and a half.

5) “Also suggestive were the overall number of “excess deaths” since the pandemic began, around 417,000. Excess deaths are determined by comparing the deaths in a given year to those that would be expected based on data from previous years.”

6) This report comes exactly 1 month after Mexico 🇲🇽 coronavirus czar Lopez-Gatell was revealed to have been secretly hospitalized for 5 days from #COVID19 himself without telling anyone.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1366231159676547081

7) this also comes 2 months after Mexico 🇲🇽 President ALMO was also diagnosed with #COVID19 as well, after downplaying pandemic seriousness & urgency before.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1353503803396513795

8) This comes after 9 month ago last year in June 2020, Lopez-Gatell dismissed my cries for 🇲🇽 about the positivity and lack of testing in Mexico. He even discussed my criticisms at his coronavirus press conference then...

https://twitter.com/Rodpac/status/1275235859407581184

9) Mexico 🇲🇽’s coronavirus czar was so arrogant and confident when dismissing my concerns about Mexico.

https://twitter.com/rodpac/status/1275239220450222080

10) **I STILL CRY FOR MEXICO**...

For everyone last year who mocked and dismissed me for worrying about Mexico’s sky high positivity — you have the blood of many of Mexican #COVID19 deaths on your hands... history knows who you are.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1274816278197342209

11) Former Mexico President @FelipeCalderon wrote in his Twitter account Saturday that “more than 400,000 Mexicans have died, above the average for previous years ... probably the highest figure in the world.”

This 🇲🇽 #COVID19 report is DEVASTATING!! 😢

apnews.com/article/corona…

12) Here is a rundown of what happens last year when I tried to warn. I have never met @SafaMote - he breaks down the stupid nitpicking about Mexico 🇲🇽 positivity whenever it was clear Mexico was in a full blown crisis!! The anti-alarmism crowd should be ashamed.

https://twitter.com/safamote/status/1275505728061616128

13) I hope people will now listen about Mu extreme concerns about #Brazil’s #P1 variant.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1373501475805102082

14) when I see these horrendous numbers in Brazil, I’m now sure #P1 would do the same to Mexico as well if given the outbreak chance.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1375983917015126022

15) Just how crazy was Mexico’s deaths recently? This crazy.

I know several friends in Mexico 🇲🇽 who were both reinfected and parents hospitalized.
coronavirus.gob.mx/exceso-de-mort…

16) Let the history record remember that Mexican leaders refused to do mass testing and dismissed the need to do lots of testing.

@MattRiversCNN filed this report last year when Mexico had 1/32 the volume of tests per capita.

cnn.com/2020/05/15/ame…

17) “But the lack of testing has prompted criticism that a dearth of confirmed data has left the government with, at best, an incomplete view of how bad the outbreak is just weeks before the country will start to re-open.”

18) "That's worrisome because it means that we don't have the full grasp of the magnitude of how much the disease has spread," said Dr. Julio Frenk, Mexico's former health minister 2000-2006.

@julio_frenk was also Professor and Dean of @HarvardChanSPH—he knows public health.