COVID-19 Mortality Underreporting in Brazil: Analysis of Data From Government Internet Portals.
Lena Veiga E SilvaMaria da Penha de Andrade Abi HarbAurea Milene Teixeira Barbosa Dos SantosCarlos André de Mattos TeixeiraVitor Hugo Macedo GomesEvelin Helena Silva CardosoMarcelino S da SilvaNandamudi Lankalapalli VijaykumarSolon Venâncio CarvalhoAndré Carlos Ponce de Leon Ferreira de CarvalhoCarlos Renato Lisboa FrancesPublished in: Journal of medical Internet research (2020)
The significant rates of underreporting of deaths analyzed in our study demonstrate that officially released numbers are much lower than actual numbers, making it impossible for the authorities to implement a more effective pandemic response. Based on analyses carried out using different fatality rates, it can be inferred that Brazil's epidemic is worsening, and the actual number of infectees could already be between 1 to 5.4 million.