Death tolls are often bullshit. They're also indispensable.

Welcome back to The Long Version, a newsletter by Jonathan Myerson Katz.

Over the last forty-eight hours or so, there has been a noticeable uptick in reporting about the rising cost in human lives of the coronavirus pandemic. Each story is greeted with broad alarm and an undertow of skepticism. “These death tolls are HIGHLY inflated,” someone invariably …