Well the central point to the skepticism of causation here boils down to whether or not covid causes all the deaths that would not have happened without it.
Sort of depends on how you define causation, right? More like covid is a contributing factor to many of the deaths, rather than a central/primary cause. If even merely the straw that broke the camel's back. Deaths can have an ensemble of causes, with this or that condition situationally proving to have more of an impact. Each condition having system-wide ramifications that are complicated further by compounding with other conditions - and people watching the news can't afford to bear all this complexity in mind.
But like someone just pointed out, the mainstream media sources, at least here in the US, seem to have pointedly emphasized the gross effects of covid, rather than attempting to identify covid's net effects within a broader context of pre-existing health issues. But hey, I can't imagine it would be easy, either to precisely understand covid's effects or to effectively convey nuance to an anxious audience.
Additionally, the fear mongering works to the advantage of the anti-trump crusade, which sometimes appears to me as being more against Trump than for anything in particular. Reactive. Can't blame anyone there, though.