A minor but important correction for you: I didn’t say that the herd has “already” been culled; far from it since the infection has yet to move through the anywhere near the entire ~330 million people in the U.S. Rather, what I was trying to convey is that 1) the process is ongoing, and 2) it may be one of several/many factors contributing to what we’re aeeing vis-a-vis death rates. I personally belive that point #2 is especially important, i.e., the multi-factorial causes for observed death rates among different population groups. Certainly differences in the way we measure the variables is really important – we see that in, e.g., historical surface tempertures for the earth’s climate ove the last ~1.5 centuries – so I have no reason to believe that we’re not seeing this here.