Measurement of death needs to be improved to save lives in future
In a world dealing with the worst public health crisis in a century, the current U.S. system for tracking deaths suffers from organizational, political and procedural flaws that actually put public health and safety at risk, and requires significant updates and reform to solve the problems laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic. Inaccuracies in mortality data have real consequences for the public health mission, said Dr. Vickie Mays, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professor of health policy and management, who said these weaknesses have played out in how the U.S. measures mortality, creating data gaps critical to accurate classification of deaths, from COVID-19 to suicides to legal use of deadly force.