This is an excellent characterization u/winn, but I'll raise you one further… While Covid was busy NOT killing very many people, the powers that be tried to instill panic, massively inflated numbers, etc..

Over the last half decade, has the world's population in total declined 20–40%?

How sure are you guys that you would absolutely KNOW if the world's population, predominantly outside of the United States, has quietly declined by an enormous amount in the past half decade?

How sure…?

Revelation says 1/3 of mankind will die by the end of the apocalypse.
Apocalypse = a great revealing of something hidden.
What if Q-team figured out a way to do it without the unimaginable chaos that we would all imagine would accompany something like a 1/3 population decline globally? Wouldn't that be absolutely astounding? Revelation fulfilled without massive upheaval.
What if most of the other countries in the world (including their supposed population numbers) are now indeed "paper tigers"?
What if America is set to be the world's largest superpower by a factor of 10?

Absolute hegemony without even having to fight?

I don't know...
What if...?

The supreme Art of war is to winn without fighting.
Sun Tzu