Early in May, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released its report on the global ‘excess’ deaths associated with COVID-19 from January, 2020 – December, 2021.The report found, among other things, that India had the highest COVID death toll in the world, accounting for 4.7 million deaths (almost ten times the country’s official tally of 0.48 million) and that in absolute terms, it had undercounted deaths by more than any other country.The Union government vehemently refuted the WHO’s figures, sticking to its own and not publishing any new statistics.Given the size of the country, undercounting COVID deaths is not all that surprising, however, to completely reject the global health body’s figures is certainly cause for debate; and it’s something that no other country has done.Banjot Kaur takes a look at the WHO’s figures in greater depth to separate the truth from the lies.