Deaths where COVID was incidental are not counted by the CDC as COVID deaths.

I don't know why this talking point won't die, but deaths where COVID was incidental are not counted by the CDC as COVID deaths. The CDC only counts deaths as COVID deaths if COVID was the underlying (primary) cause of death or a contributing cause.

All of this is captured on the death certificate. In Part I of a death certificate will be the underlying cause of death and any immediate causes of death. Part II will list contributing causes of death.

CDC's WONDER database can show you all deaths where COVID was listed on the death certificate including only the ones where it was the underlying cause of death. Generally still most of the coronavirus deaths have COVID as the underlying cause of death. As seen in the image below, for December, 69% of COVID deaths had COVID as the underlying cause of death and 31% where COVID was contributory- for example worsened Alzheimer's or heart disease. In the beginning of the pandemic this was more like ~92% and ~8% respectively.

Jurisdictions may vary on this dimension, especially earlier in the pandemic, but there has been an effort to harmonize state health department death definitions. In any case you can also just rely on the CDC numbers, which follow the CDC's definition, unchanged from the beginning of the pandemic. Where you may see incidental numbers be counted is with hospitalizations as people may end up testing positive while admitted for something else. Though even there COVID can worsen other conditions.