“There are approximately 120 million smokers in India. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers. More than 10 million die each year due to tobacco in India. According to a 2002 WHO estimate, 70% of adult males in India smoke.”
If India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers, but 17% of the world’s population, smoking is *not* the reason they have such a low death rate. I would first suspect a reporting problem, like most of the world.
The quote doesn't even make sense.
1) If 10 million out of 120 million smokers in India die each year, India will run out of smokers fairly quickly. (India's fertility rate is way down compared to 2 generations ago.)
2) There are at least 400 million adult males in India. Even if that 70% is down to 50% (20% died or quit?), which I suppose 18 years later is quite possible, that's still 200 million male smokers.
In any event, your "first suspicion" is likely correct. 12% of the population "protected" in some way would not affect overall fatality numbers greatly.
“If India is home to 12% of the world’s smokers, but 17% of the world’s population, smoking is *not* the reason they have such a low death rate. I would first suspect a reporting problem, like most of the world.”
I think we will see a lot reporting problems in in many third world countries.
The news is reporting Ecuador is being hit hard with lots of deaths. The Worldometer is only showing 576 deaths. BNO showing 507.
Like past outbreaks we will not know the true numbers for a couple of years. Even those numbers will be debated.