Inflated numbers don’t count and usually during flu outbreaks, governors are not actively infecting vulnerable nursing home patients by sending sick people into the nursing homes, thereby killing them off.
Agreed on the second part, and those governors should be in prison for their actions.
But the numbers aren’t inflated; they are what they are. The total number of deaths in 2020 rose by over 17%. Over 530,000 more deaths than in 2019. Normal year-over-year death increases are 0.3% - 0.7%. 2019 had 0.5% more deaths than 2018. That’s overall deaths, so moving categories around doesn’t affect it. Not that that’s happening either, considering deaths from things like cancer and heart attacks were at or just slightly above normal rates in 2020.
Further, suicides were actually down in 2020 (https://www.axios.com/suicide-decreased-in-2020-pandemmic-mental-health-26196eaf-a245-4d21-85eb-eeb864a24449.html) and while drug overdoses rose, a 20% jump in drug overdoses only equates to about 14,000 deaths total. COVID-19 killed around 500,000 Americans in 2020.