Jen Nelson, director of biostatistics at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and a UW affiliate professor of biostatistics, is coauthor a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that was named Manuscript of the Year by the Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN).

Nearly 15 million people around the world have died from COVID's impact, directly or indirectly, during the first two years of the pandemic, according to a new World Health Organization report. It’s also about three times higher than governments have reported so far. University of Washington's Jonathan Wakefield, whose modeling work helped produce the report, joins William Brangham for more.

The UN’s health agency has embraced statistical methods that put the true toll of the pandemic at around 15 million. Will it shock nations that are denying the severity of COVID-19 into action? Jonathan Wakefield, professor of statistics and of biostatics at the UW, is quoted.

Statistician Prof Jon Wakefield, from Seattle's University of Washington, helped the WHO and told the BBC: "We urgently need better data collection systems. It is a disgrace that people can be born and die - and we have no record of their passing. So we really need to invest in countries' registration systems so we can get accurate and timely data."