Those elevated death rates were only for about two months. Also the better metric would be years-of-life-lost from a societal perspective. It'd be unfortunate b

Those elevated death rates were only for about two months. Also the better metric would be years-of-life-lost from a societal perspective. It'd be unfortunate but much less impactful on society if the excess deaths were 76 year olds with only a year or two of life left than if 20 year olds were dying at that rate. Also there were a few surveys by the BBC and other news organizations during that time which showed that a majority of people thought the death rates were 1/10. The age adjusted death rates show the 2021 rates were about the same as the year 2006 [1]. 1: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7326a3.htm https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7326a3.htm