By coincidence, the median estimate and world population are both fairly round numbers: 20M deaths on a planet with 8B people. Put another way: 1 in every 400 people on earth died from this disease. It's hard to process.
>1 in every 400 people on earth died from this disease.
1 in 400 people are (estimated) excess deaths during the pandemic. This is not the same thing as claiming that all of them were in fact killed by the disease itself.
I agree, the disease itself might not have killed as many, but the effects of the pandemic most likely did. It was by far the largest deviation from the norm during the time and therefore carries by far the largest responsibility of excess deaths (as excess deaths are deaths outside of what would be ordinary).
The number of people who died due to malpractice would have likely been much lower than normal during the first year or so of the pandemic because for at least some of that time hospitals were overwhelmed with covid patients and they stopped doing a lot of their normal procedures.
Even when doctors and hospitals weren't enforcing it, many people were putting off non-critical medical care because they didn't want to go into the hospital or doctor's office and risk getting exposed.
Fewer people being treated, and fewer elective procedures being performed means fewer chances for error.
One exception of course would be ER/ICU staff who were so stressed, overworked, and understaffed that I wouldn't doubt if the number of mistakes in those places increased to some extent.
1 in 400 people are (estimated) excess deaths during the pandemic. This is not the same thing as claiming that all of them were in fact killed by the disease itself.