LAUSR

The counting of deaths has a long and notorious history. And today in the face of a global pandemic, counting continues to have enormous cultural, religious, political and economic significance. Reports of the number of COVID-19 deaths have become a daily public health message around the world, whilst debates continue to rage over definitions and modelled projections of the ‘true number’[1]. Deaths due directly or indirectly to COVID-19 are having huge effects on families, communities, health workers, society and the entire ‘industry’ of health care, services and research. Indeed, the very ‘worth’ of death is subject to investigation, as in the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death, and calls made to redress the imbalances in what are being called ‘death systems,’ which determine how death, dying, and bereavement are understood, experienced, and managed [2]. And on 16 August 2020, in the midst of this heightened attention to death, one of the champions for capturing information about mortality, tragically and unexpectedly died – Professor Peter Byass. This gentle giant was our friend, colleague and mentor, and our personal words of tribute are given in the panels below. He shared this special position in the lives of so many others in the global health community, and particularly those striving to improve the availability, quality and use of empirical data on mortality – as Peter did for over three decades and through over 300 journal articles. This Special Issue of Global Health Action is not only dedicated to the career – a ‘life in death’ – of this great man, but also sets out to demonstrate through eight original, commissioned articles, a key principle of all data science: to make a difference This principle lay at the very core of Peter’s work and ethic. Indeed, reflecting now on his contribution as a data scientist reveals a simple, logical pathway that seems to have operated across his entire career. We illuminate this here to introduce the eight papers comprising the Special Issue. The four steps in the logical pathway implicit in Peter’s contributions over three decades are shown schematically in Figure 1. This sequence is of course a simplification of reality: the process is neither unidirectional nor conducted in a vacuum. Many other drivers and influences impact at each step and operate outside of the sphere of data science, such as political instability limiting stakeholder commitment or economic shocks affecting funding for new research tools. But the simple pathway does help to highlight Peter’s ability and commitment to work at all levels – never losing sight of data mechanisms as a means to an important end – reducing burden and achieving health. This underlying logic can also be seen in much of the work described in the eight papers and which strongly reflect Peter’s legacy. Each of the papers underscore the focus of myriad bodies, including the World Health Organization, to advocate, through initiatives like the SCORE for Health Data Technical Package [3], for investment in all countries towards wellfunctioning civil registration and vital statistics systems that register all births and deaths, issue birth and death certificates, and compile and disseminate vital statistics, including cause of death information. Collecting good quality primary data remains a huge challenge – the WHO SCORE assessment shows that almost 40% of the world’s deaths are still not formally registered. In Papers 1 & 2, led respectively by Kobus Herbst [4] and Chodziwadziwa Kabudula [5], the value of covering whole populations through health and demographic surveillance sites (HDSS) for understanding mortality transitions and the implications for health system responsiveness are clearly illustrated. The history of HDSS, as described in Paper 1, is closely intertwined A personal tribute from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus The Peter Byass I knew wore many hats but he did so comfortably, elegantly and, above all, humbly. First and foremost, he was a leader and a giant in the field of global health, committed to championing science and research in this domain. What drove his research was the need to achieve impact and improvement in the health and lives of all people. His goal was to respond to real problems, by collecting insights from all people on the broader determinants of their health, in order to find real, lasting and equitable solutions. Second, Peter was a teacher and a guide, responsible for imparting great knowledge, and offering supportive counsel, to so many students and peers alike. This came from his belief that we need to build capacity, especially, in the developing world, throughout which he trained many masters and PhD students, including me. Peter’s legacy lives on through the guidance he provided to an untold number of professionals from around the world to carry forward this vital area of work and learning. Third, on a deeply personal level, he was a true friend, someone who was always there for me, first as a collaborator in Ethiopia, where we worked on a joint project between the Tigray Health Bureau and Mekelle University, dealing with the interplay between agriculture and health. This subject went onto become the focus of my PhD studies that Peter guided me through at Nottingham University. I also had the chance to learn from Peter’s excellence in the field of epidemiology at his beloved Umeå University. We spent countless hours discussing many subjects on all manner of areas, from the pursuit of data science to its application in Africa for the betterment of people’s health and wellbeing. Peter possessed so many wonderful traits, a collection which I have rarely found associated with any one person. He was very helpful, honest, friendly, warm, calm, candid, intelligent, humble, and, above all, kind. I had the great privilege to experience each of these sides of Peter, and know that many others around the world enjoyed the same opportunity. For this reason, his mission to help all, from those behind the data to those to whom he could impart his knowledge, has helped make the world a fairer, healthier place. He continues to be sorely missed. GLOBAL HEALTH ACTION 2021, VOL. 14, 2056377 https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2021.2056377