> To see how measures against COVID affect deaths you need to look how rates change during the pandemic because measures taken changed over time. The problem w

> To see how measures against COVID affect deaths you need to look how rates change during the pandemic because measures taken changed over time. The problem with this is that you're assuming the rates changed primarily or exclusively because measures changed (if they even did). There are bigger factors you're not considering. Take, for example, New York. It was one of the first epicenters of the pandemic in the US. Large numbers of people got infected early on, and decisions were made that actually contributed to the spread of the virus in some of the highest risk groups. As a result, lots of people got natural immunity or died in New York in the first waves, so there were fewer people to infect in the later waves. Anyway, the data has clearly established that in terms of the risk of any individual anywhere dying from COVID if they become infected, age, weight and metabolic comorbidities (namely diabetes) are the primary factors. You've been arguing that if you live somewhere where your risk of being infected in the first place is reduced by restrictions/preventative measures, that's a bigger factor. That's totally irrelevant to the discussion of individual risk when infected.