As someone who believes the pandemic was real, that lockdowns early on were a good idea, that mask wearing is trivial and probably helpful, that social distanci

As someone who believes the pandemic was real, that lockdowns early on were a good idea, that mask wearing is trivial and probably helpful, that social distancing was also easy to do and a reasonable idea, and that vaccinations are safe and effective. My gut reaction is still that the number of deaths was relatively small. About a third of US deaths were in nursing homes, and that doesn't include people who probably could / should have been in nursing homes from a health and self-sufficiency perspective. 85% were 65 or older (65 isn't especially old that's just the lowest data threshold I could find). I am fortunate enough to not know anybody who died from COVID. Concerns about long lasting effects might be true. We might see this having substantial long term effects and that could be bad. It could be worse than the impact of the deaths. That aside however, I just don't think a one time 20% increase in annual mortality is that terrible, but that does not mean that the virus was trivial. If I'm understanding this chart correctly, forecasted 2021 death rate per 1,000 people (not covid adjusted) plus 20% is less than the 1970s... and the next 50 years as well. (EDIT: Sorry idiot math. The 2021 rate + 20% is above any historical rate since 1970, and is on par with expectations 2050 onward) https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/death-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/deat... This includes all sorts of demographic assumptions about age, but so does COVID, I would argue, in the least convincing demographic groupings possible. Maybe COVID was a genuine threat but on a whole we did a pretty good job and it wasn't that bad in total effect as a result?