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I’m sure that’s a factor - and reasonable to an extent - but the govt isn’t the only source of information about Covid/lethality. Non-government doctors and other medical personnel report fatalities from it, people personally know others who’ve died from it or have had it themselves and been very ill (some continue to be), etc. Others may dismiss that information because they don’t trust the govt. but IMO there’s zero logic in that.

Non-government doctors and other medical personnel report fatalities from it, people personally know others who’ve died from it or have had it themselves and been very ill (some continue to be), etc.

Yeah, but here's the sticky wicket - how do you know any of this? I'll give an example of how cynical the thinking can be:

the news media can be lying about the number of doctors reporting COVID deaths, or even inventing doctors.

For those doctors that are real, how sure are they that the cause of death was COVID? Were they the ones making the final determination of cause of death, or was it an administrator (this concern is based in fact)? Was it a clinical diagnosis based on something like CDC guidelines?

How do you know that there are people who personally know others who have died from COVID? Is it the media reporting this? Is it because anonymous people on the internet have claimed this? Or do you know someone YOURSELF who has died from COVID (because I don't, not one)? Where is this information from?

The same with severe illness from COVID - media? anonymous people on the internet? People you know, but how do they KNOW it was COVID and not one of the hundreds of thousands of other common causes for human illness?

I'm not even trying to argue that COVID doesn't exist, or that it doesn't kill anyone. I accept that it probably does, but my point is that we are way past the point where we CANNOT take anything for granted. That may seem like some kind of conspiracy-theory paranoia, but, as a counter-point, I will simply refer you to the last 12-14 months.