I can only read the Abstract, but from the quote above, it may seem that the containment measures had only a limited effect in reducing excess deaths... but wouldn't the number of excess deaths in a hypothetical world where no measures had been taken at all (no masks, no vaccines, no social distancing) be exponentially growing?? Say, it started at 1 million, went to 1.2 million the next year (with some containment measures already in place) and it would probably have gone way higher the next year (but it didn't) if the pattern continued, wouldn't it? I guess eventually it would go back down, but that would probably only have happened when most people who are prone to dying from the virus would've have died already, which probably would take many millions more (ignoring the fact that viruses naturally become less lethal over time, as killing too many hosts is bad for spreading further). So I don't know, given all of these variables I would say 800,000 excess deaths in 2022 is perhaps showing that containment actually did work, just not as well as one would've hoped.
Re: Excess mortality across the Western World since the Covid pandemic
#21"In 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic onset and implementation of containment measures, records present 1 033 122 excess deaths (P-score 11.4%). In 2021, the year in which both containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines were used to address virus spread and infection, the highest number of excess deaths was reported: 1 256 942 excess deaths (P-score 13.8%). In 2022, when most containment measures were lifted and COVID-19 vaccines were continued, preliminary data present 808 392 excess deaths (P-score 8.8%)."