Wearing masks reduced transmission of Covid 19 , freeing up beds for other illnesses
Is the answer to your question
That number is actually 127,704 against the five year average. And the hospitals are always overwhelmed by something*
You are just like the MSM you love to slag off so much
there IS a bigger picture ,not just a clickbait headline
the 175,000 is a good indication of deaths due to the Covid 19 pandemic
not a yearly number
of the 330 deaths recorded today, I imagine not many died purely of Covid ,if any .
with treatment you may well recover or die weeks or months after a positive Covid test .
but there is several thousand patients in hospital receiving treatment for Covid 19
that means several thousand hospital beds taken up that could be used to treat cancer etc .
so to summarise ....
175,000 people could still be alive if Covid 19 hadn't happened
the true figures may never be known