.. and have been since at least 1945.
Congratulations on an excellent first post, FRiend Aloysius.
I was asking myself the exact same question the other day: “How many have died in excess of what could be considered normal for this time of year?” This won’t tell us everything about the severity of the pandemic, but it’s a bit of data that will add some useful context.
All I can say it’s about darn time that some of our “experts” and newscreatures start asking what really should be an obvious question.
I worked in the newspaper biz for 25 years as reporter and editor, and I can tell you that journalistic standards on the Podunk Gazette were higher than what we see today in the Washington press corps.
.. and have been since at least 1945.