President Trump provoked outrage on Twitter and in the media in mid-September with his tweets that denied the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria in 2017 and blamed Democrats for artificially elevating it.
Measuring the mortality in epidemic or emergency periods has long been controversial. Authorities often deny reports of high mortality because they seek to avoid being blamed for mismanagement. But all too often, the reports are indeed accurate—and understanding why is essential to helping save lives in future disasters.
