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That’s not what the CDC actually said. The CDC statement you’re referring to was with regards to how some death certificates were filled out. In short, where COVID-19 is listed on the last line of Section 32 Part I of a US Standard Certificate of Death, COVID-19 was the Underlying Cause of Death (UCoD) and the death is listed as COVID-19 in the statistics. You don’t die of multiple things. The other items listed in Section 32 Part I are all a consequence of the UCoD. That includes ARDS, pneumonia, hypoexmia, etc. Anything listed in Section 32 Part II may complicate survival, but they are NOT the cause of death. A person may live for decades with diabetes or hypertension. If they get COVID-19, those decades may be reduced to days or weeks because of COVID-19. Diabetes and hypertension can make it more difficult for the person to survive COVID-19, but they were on track to live many years later until COVID-19 came along and killed them. And yes, their deaths matter.

But I’m glad you brought up the increase in the total number of deaths. Unfortunately, you’ve got the wrong number. It isn’t 5%; it’s an over 18% increase from 2019:

Number of deaths in the US in 2018: 2,839,205 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db355.htm)
Number of deaths in the US in 2019: 2,854,838 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db395.htm)
Number of deaths in the US in 2020: 3,389,700 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm)

So in 2020, there was an increase of 534,862 total deaths. You’ll notice that from 2018 to 2019, there was a 0.5% increase in total deaths in the United States. The normal range is 0.3% - 0.7%. In 2020, there was an 18.7% increase over 2019. That’s unheard of outside of incredibly extreme situations. Like World War II.

For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.9 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups. Values in the table represent number of deaths that mention the condition listed and 94% of deaths mention more than one condition. As such, the rows should not be summed. Additional notes are listed at the end of the table.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/covid19-comorbidity-expanded-12092020-508.pdf

Unprecedented, 336k of the deaths were overage 75. ~55k were over 50.

~26k were under 50.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-from-covid-by-age-us/

Imagine had we treated the elderly before they showed up in ERs unable to breath.

In short, where COVID-19 is listed on the last line of Section 32 Part I of a US Standard Certificate of Death, COVID
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If that response was your idea of short, I'd hate to see long.

I actually was going from memory on total deaths of some numbers that I had seen before the end of the year. I think it may have been May or June. My post was not meant to be a definitive declaration.

And I know perfectly well about birth certificates, cause of death, and contributing factors, as I had to bury both my parents and take care of their funerals and estate settlements.