@evan I have trouble believing averages mean shit all to survivors. The problem is cumulative as long as it continues.
If last year, your neighbors are missing or dead, and you were forced to flee your home with your family, uncertain of how to get help— but this year, your family is dead, your neighborhood has been crushed into the ground, and you question if anything will ever matter again— then there's no "better" until there's peace, safety, and a chance to actually heal.
We see this, simplified (from our perspective), with endangered animals. Anything that adds to "surplus" losses is making the situation worse.
It's not better until there's recovery. A decrease in the extremely death counts isn't recovery— especially when the counts are less accurate, likely undercounting the deaths as reports are increasingly difficult to confirm.