I do not believe a word from the govt...either far fewer died or it’s multiples more.
Covid stats have been memory holed. Covid was nasty and killed a bunch of folks for various reasons. From what I remember, Covid was only the fourth or fifth cause of death behind heart attacks, cancer and etc. It was brutal in nursing homes because those folks were at various stages of end of life progressions. Bless their souls, but the decrease in SS payouts for those people is just a rounding error.