Social media users are sharing reports trying to undermine the global COVID-19 pandemic by claiming that ‘third countries’ have basically no deaths due to COVID-19 and that there have been no deaths among homeless people in America. This claim is untrue: although the health impact of COVID-19 on the least developed countries has so far been less severe than initially expected, COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in developing countries as well as among the homeless population in the United States. .
The posts (here, here, here) show a screenshot of a tweet from 9 July 2020 (here), which says: “IF it were actually a deadly GLOBAL pandemic body, they would accumulate in third world countries that can have no social distance and no sanitation. But there are basically NO deaths. NO ONE in the media “I’m not even curious about this. That’s all I need to know.”
Captions on some of the reports question COVID-19 death rates among homeless people, for example: “I would also appreciate it if someone could explain to me how the entire homeless population in America is magically immune” and “Have you ever seen any homeless people die? on the sidewalks of American cities of the Chinese virus? ”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that COVID-19 could be marked as a pandemic on 11 March 2020 (here, here). A pandemic is by definition ‘global’, as the word pandemic means the spread of a new disease worldwide (here).
At the time of publication, according to WHO data (covid19.who.int/), 2 543 755 deaths were reported worldwide over COVID-19.
Reuters had earlier falsely dismissed other reports, claiming that COVID-19 was not real (here, here, here).
COVID-19 DEADLY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The term ‘third world county’ is no longer used here, and it can be difficult to define a country in a developing or emerging market.
The World Economic Situation and Prospects for 2020, compiled by the UN, mainly classify all countries into three categories: developed economies, economies in transition and developing economies (here). A list of countries classified into which categories can be seen here.
A World Bank classification of countries according to income levels is visible here.
According to the WHO statistics on COVID-19 deaths worldwide (covid19.who.int/table), at the time of publication of this article, three of the five countries with the highest COVID-19 deaths were developing economies: Brazil had the second highest total with 255,720 deaths; Mexico was third with 186,152 deaths; and India fourth with 157,346 deaths. Brazil, Mexico and India are also not part of the World Bank’s definition of high-income economies.
In particular, COVID-19 deaths in Ecuador – also not a high-income country – made headlines in April 2020 when corpses piled up on the streets while authorities struggled to prevent outbreaks and deaths from the disease (graphic warning, here , here, here).
DEVELOPMENTS OF COUNTRIES LESS NUMBERED THAN EXPECTED
While some developing countries occupy high positions on the world list of total COVID-19 deaths, some of the least developed countries (LDCs) (here) are in lower positions: the highest of the UN LDCs was Bangladesh in 39th place, followed by Myanmar in 63rd; and the largest of the World Bank’s low-income economies was Afghanistan, which ranked 70th in the world.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development’s “The Least Developed Countries Report 2020” (here), published on 3 December 2020, explains (here) that although it is feared that the LDCs will be worst affected by the pandemic, the consequences for health was not as serious as initially feared in the period to mid-September for which data were available.
The report identifies several reasons why LDCs could have a health impact less serious than initially feared, including: underreporting due to lower COVID-19 testing ability and less effective casualty counting and reporting; LDCs are usually affected by the pandemic later than other countries, meaning they had time to take control and mitigation measures (but later they were able to experience a wider spread of COVID-19); lower population density in rural areas where two thirds of the population of LDCs live; higher percentage of young people who tend to be more resistant to infections; and experience with previous epidemics such as Ebola (here).
The social media reports claim that no one in the media is interested in the death toll in less developed countries being lower than expected, but articles have been written on the subject, seen here, here, here, here and here.
COVID-19 DEATH AMONG HOMELESS PEOPLE
The social media messages also indicate that no homeless people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes that homeless people may be at risk of infection if there is a spread of COVID-19 in the community, as homeless services are often offered in community settings and many homeless older adults are or underlying medical conditions (here).
Although Reuters could not find an official version of the total COVID-19 deaths among homeless people (perhaps due to the short-lived nature of homelessness, here), a few deaths were reported by official sources: there were 25 COVID- 19 deaths among individuals in the Homeless Service System in Washington DC from March 2, 2021, according to the Government of the District of Columbia (here); and 180 deaths recorded among homeless people in Los Angeles, California, according to a report by the LA County Department of Public Health, published March 1, 2021 (here).
According to the non-profit organization Coalition for the Homeless (here, here), homeless people in New York are dying of COVID-19 at a rate 78% higher than the general population.
VERDICT
Untrue. There were COVID-19 deaths in developing countries as well as among the homeless population in the United States.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.