> And I note it is quite easy to figure out how many people you would expect to die from complications other than Covid---as a first order approximation it will be the same as in 2019 (unless you happen to know of a significant change other than COVID).
Correct, you could record the number of deaths due to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc. and subtract depressions in these death categories from Covid deaths. Subtract away reductions in non-covid deaths from the Covid death toll to account for the people that would have died absent Covid.
My point is the linked NYT article didn't do this correction and it's wrong to write that they did.
Correct, you could record the number of deaths due to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc. and subtract depressions in these death categories from Covid deaths. Subtract away reductions in non-covid deaths from the Covid death toll to account for the people that would have died absent Covid.
My point is the linked NYT article didn't do this correction and it's wrong to write that they did.