I think it is reasonable to look at excess death counts since the number of deaths in any given week can be predicted with reasonable accuracy statistically. So

I think it is reasonable to look at excess death counts since the number of deaths in any given week can be predicted with reasonable accuracy statistically. So assuming most excess deaths are due to COVID and not other causes (likely more actually are since deaths for things like Flu and car crashes were down this year due to social distancing): Anywhere from 6,000 to 30,000 deaths a WEEK in the US alone between May 2020 and May 2021 [1] Or in other words, enough to put it as the third leading cause of death globally[2] and the NUMBER TWO cause in the United States. Now some people can and will argue that COVID deaths are misattributed because of co-morbities. However, the excess death statistics pretty clearly suggest that to not be the case. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm [2] https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/just-how-do-deaths-due-covid-19-stack https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/just-how-do-deaths... I only did a few minutes of searching so I'm not sure how accurate thinkglobalhealth.org but I trust the CDC numbers quite a bit.