Thanks. The flu claim is dealt by that BMJ article.
The issue from what I've read is that pinning down excess deaths in the last ten years to specifics is difficult
My second argument was that the specifics are irrelevant if you look at the graph. The 10 year overall deaths are quite steady until you get to 2020. You get a sudden jump. We have looked at this graph before and a large portion is before the 'lockdown'. Hence no wriggle room there imo : ).
No, we didn't seem to care about the deaths of old and infirm in the UK before except for an odd article in the Independent etc., but we do now, to help us understand why we are at this juncture.