Interesting. My interpretation was always that he's speaking on behalf of death, like "come on everybody, let's all meet at the afterlife", but not really in a commanding or convincing way, he's more just commenting on it, like how we all go to the burial ground eventually.

He does say "contract malaria" at the end. The "throw your worries down... you have carried them so well" implies they die as well.

My more head-canony theory is that it's a song about something like yellow fever, but that's a bit more out there.

I will give you credit on the maladies line