> taking a one time "excess deaths" hit as we have done with past pandemics The black plague -the biggest one we have ever gotten as far as we know- lasted 7 y

> taking a one time "excess deaths" hit as we have done with past pandemics The black plague -the biggest one we have ever gotten as far as we know- lasted 7 years, I don't think that constitutes under any definition a "one time 'excess deaths' hit"; also I'm pretty sure that given 50% of the population died nobody was free from depression (or loneliness/suicide for that matter) given that in all likelihood half of the people you knew had died when it ended.