[wfu_deacons]

By your methodology, if you performed a linear regression on the monthly deaths from WWII from 1941 to 1946, there would be a positive trend (upward slope) in 1946 after the war had ended. You can not detect a recent trend by inclusion of data from 4 years ago. Certainly, there is insufficient data to demonstrate a recent downward trend and I don't need to perform a spreadsheet statistical analysis to come to that conclusion.

[stormer]

You are correct. However, the upward trend is even more pronounced if only one year’s data is used.