If a weekly chart demonstrated a different result, but excess deaths for the year didn't change, then a reasonable conclusion would be that COVID-19 brought som

If a weekly chart demonstrated a different result, but excess deaths for the year didn't change, then a reasonable conclusion would be that COVID-19 brought some deaths forward in time, but not any further than a year. That makes plenty of sense. The vast majority of those who died of COVID-19 were in advanced age or had preexisting conditions. Some fraction of those people would have died even if there was not a pandemic. This is neither controversial nor disputed.