2018: A Very 'Good' Year for Fossil Fuel- Related Deaths?

The world has been unable to stop talking about the numbers of human deaths, linked to the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 to the present). Globally, however, fossil fuels have been linked to 8.7m human deaths in 2018, without generating a whisper (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/09/fossil-fuels-pollution-deaths-research). The 8.7m deaths (and goodness knows how much chronic ill-health) have been linked to the burning of gas, oil and coal in power plants, vehicles and elsewhere. These deaths account for 20% of the total mortalities for that year. As one might expect, death rates caused by the generated fumes, are strongly correlated with the amounts of fossil fuels, burned in different parts of the world. One in three deaths in Eastern Asia (including China) were from burning fossil fuels. The figure was one in ten, for the USA and Europe. The safest places to be, from this particular 'invisible killer' (they have other problems), were South America and Africa. It's remarkable how we have come to accept this carnage as a 'fact of life'. This is without even bothering to take into account the impact of burning fossil fuels on global heating (making the planet sicker).