@feld I was referring to recent reporting (post US emergency declaration ending).
Personally, I've never thought death counts were the best measure of the pandemic's severity anyway. Long COVID incidence is much more concerning to me, because it's 10-20x more likely than dying, and the underlying mechanisms are only now starting to be understood, and there are no proven treatments.
But showing death counts going down is a great way to get more people infected and more Long COVID.