Social media users have been sharing posts which seek to undermine the global COVID-19 pandemic by claiming that “3rd world 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 thus far been less severe than initially expected, there have been COVID-19 deaths 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 July 9, 2020 (here), which says, “IF this was actually a deadly GLOBAL pandemic bodies would be PILING UP in 3rd world countries that can’t socially distance & have no sanitation. But there are basically NO deaths occurring there. NOBODY in the media is even curious about this. That’s all I need to know.”
Captions on some of the posts question COVID-19 death rates among homeless people too, for example, “I would also appreciate someone explaining to me how the entire homeless population in America is magically immune” and “Have you seen any of the homeless dead on the sidewalks of American cities from the Chinese virus?”
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that COVID-19 could be characterized as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (here , here). A pandemic is by definition ‘global’, as the word pandemic means the worldwide spread of a new disease (here).
At the time of publication there had been 2,543,755 reported COVID-19 deaths worldwide, according to WHO data (covid19.who.int/).
Reuters has previously debunked other posts falsely claiming that COVID-19 is not real (here , here , here).
COVID-19 DEATH TOLLS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The term “third world county” is no longer used (here), and defining a developing or emerging market country can be difficult (here).
The World Economic Situation and Prospects report for 2020 produced by the UN principally classifies all countries into three categories: developed economies, economies in transition and developing economies (here). A list of which countries are classified in which categories can be seen here .
A World Bank classification of countries by income levels is visible here .
According to WHO statistics about COVID-19 deaths worldwide (covid19.who.int/table), at the time of this article’s publication, three of the five countries with the highest COVID-19 death tolls 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 not part of the World Bank’s definition of high-income economies, either.
Notably, COVID-19 deaths in Ecuador – also not a high-income country – made headlines in April 2020 when bodies piled up on the streets as authorities struggled to contain outbreaks and deaths from the disease (graphic warning, here , here , here ).
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LESS AFFECTED 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: highest of the UN LDCs were Bangladesh in 39th place, followed by Myanmar in 63rd; and highest of the World Bank low-income economies was Afghanistan, ranked 70th in the world.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development’s “The Least Developed Countries Report 2020” (here), published on Dec. 3, 2020, explains (here) that although it was feared the LDCs would be the worst affected by the pandemic, the health effects had not been as serious as initially feared in the period to mid-September, for which data was available.
The report identifies several reasons why LDCs may have seen a health impact less severe than initially feared, these include: under-reporting because of lower COVID-19 testing capacities and less efficient casualty counting and reporting; LDCs typically being affected by the pandemic later than other countries meaning they had time to adopt containment and mitigation measures (but they could experience a broader spread of COVID-19 later); lower population density in rural areas where two thirds of the population of LDCs live; higher proportion of young people who tend to be more resilient to infection; and experience with previous epidemics such as Ebola (here).
The social media posts claim that nobody in the media is interested in the death toll in less developed countries being lower than expected, however articles have been written on the topic, seen here , here , here , here and here .
COVID-19 DEATHS AMONG HOMELESS PEOPLE
The social media posts also suggest that no homeless people have died of COVID-19 in the United States.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognises that homeless people may be at risk of infection when there is a community spread of COVID-19, because homeless services are often provided in congregated settings and many homeless people are older adults or have underlying medical conditions (here).
While Reuters was not able to find an official tally of total COVID-19 deaths among the homeless (perhaps due to the transitory nature of homelessness, here ), some deaths have been reported by official sources: there had been 25 COVID-19 deaths among individuals in the Homeless Service System in Washington D.C. as of March 2, 2021, according to the Government of the District of Columbia (here); and 180 recorded deaths among the homeless in Los Angeles, California, according to the LA County Department of Public Health report published March 1, 2021 (here).
New York City’s homeless die of COVID-19 at a rate 78% higher than the general population, according to the non-profit organization Coalition for the Homeless (here , here).
VERDICT
False. There have been 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 .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.