well to discuss that i'm now joined by robert primary professor of epidemiology microbial diseases at condell school of public health professor hi mary it's so good to talk to you thank you very much for your time well thank you for inviting me now i heard you say recently that yes sounds of history leads you to believe that the united states and russia countries separated at birth and this is definitely not a new idea though there's been a number of scholars who looked into russia as this dark double american greatness but i think your idea is different you argued that they reacted very similarly to these latest in damage if so what explains such drastically death friends just numbers. i think the issue about how deaths are counted how death certificates are written explains much of that difference i come from this from my experience with with the aids epidemic. and in that situation aids deaths always seem to be undercounted in russia when you looked into it was really because people's deaths were attributed to whenever it was the problem we call the proximate cause of death whether it was de burgh yellow says or pneumonia or our.