Bloomberg: All Lives Count. So Should All Deaths.
Editorial Board

“Across the world, tens of millions of deaths go unrecorded each year. This lack of information is a killer in its own right: Without an accurate measure of deaths and their causes, fighting disease in low- and middle-income countries is much harder. Investing in the means to keep track of lives and deaths would be money well spent. Knowing how people die is essential to stemming epidemics of infectious illnesses and to steering people toward behaviors that protect them from lifestyle-related conditions including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, certain cancers, and even dementia. … Done promptly, this recording can alert public officials to early signs of an influenza outbreak or other epidemic. … These efforts require no technology. But when combined with electronic recordkeeping, they can ensure that the living benefit. It might seem unexciting, but counting deaths and their causes saves lives” (6/14).