I apologize for reviving a dead thread, but a year out we know a lot more than we did, and yet there’s still much we do not know.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the death rate in the U.S. Take this for what it is- just a number that doesn’t tell the whole story. Also take into account that data from 2020 is still being processed and this could change; the CDC hasn’t published their 2020 report, for example. But take a look.

U.S. Death Rate 1950-2021 | MacroTrends
This seems to fit reports late in 2020 that the U.S. reached 3 million deaths for the first time in history. In 2019, we had 2.85 million deaths, and in 2020 we had slightly more. Maybe not the 200,000 number that some are throwing around, but it’s probably in that neighborhood.
And yet that number also fits a slowly rising death rate over the past several years. In other words, we could have predicted this mortality rate in 2020, even without the pandemic.

People will make of these statistics what they will. I’m sure it depends on their levels of anxiety, their education, and their politics, as well as other factors.
My takeaway? The world keeps on spinning, despite our best efforts to control it. We may not have the ability to influence some things, so all we can do is prepare and adapt. The USCCA may not be an authority on pandemics, but we certainly have the survival mindset.