Originally Posted by
boozehound
I'm sorry but this is, at best, a misleading statement. It's very different.
Roughly 600K deaths have been attributed to COVID in the United States thus far. If you look at 'excess deaths' (all causes) in the United States during that same time you get over 500K excess deaths. That does point to a potential 'overcount', but nowhere near the level you seem to be implying.
I assume your point lies in your distinction of what 'direct cause of death' means, and that you are playing the game where is someone has diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc. and contracts COVID and subsequently dies, COVID isn't the 'direct cause of death'. The thing is most of those people wouldn't be dead if they hadn't contracted COVID.
The number of all cause deaths in the United States has been relatively stable for 20+ years. Except for this year where it's almost 500K higher (roughly 20%, I believe). The only thing that has really changed in COVID. That seems to suggest that COVID caused those deaths, whether directly or indirectly.