Last January my wife was hospitalized for a week with COVID induced Pneumonia. She fits squarely into several of the more serious comorbidity groups - but she pulled out ok, although it was nearly a month after discharge until she was back to her normal self. She was at home for a week and a half after testing positive, not 'quarantined' away from me or the grandkids that live with us - and neither the kids nor I came down with it, even though she and I shared out marital bed during this time. Curious.

Also - just this last week about a dozen and a half of the workers at her plant became symptomatic and were sent home and told to stay home for two weeks should they test positive for COVID. One of these workers was found dead at home a few days later. Still don't have official word if he tested positive or not - although I understand an autopsy is scheduled.

My parents (who are in their 80's) live in a retirement community - and they're in an absolute panic about this - and refuse to visit with anyone that hasn't been 'vaxxed' - because so many of their friends have died recently. What I haven't had the fortitude to bring up with them is the uncomfortable question of: How many of these folks might well have died during this last year and a half or so, regardless of the pandemic. Unfortunately, that's a hard question to answer on an individual basis - even though it's possible via a statistical evaluation of how many 'excess deaths' occur in a large enough group of people.

Unfortunately due to the incentives that many major hospitals received for 'COVID' patients - it may never be possible to know for sure how many died OF COVID as opposed to just 'WITH' it (there are several cases in my area of folks in car accidents that are listed as COVID deaths because their corpses tested positive). 800,000 COVID deaths? I doubt it. How many? The world may never know.