This is an unfortunate reality of this pandemic; the vast majority of deaths, even with Delta and the OG, were among those people with pre-existing conditions, including the most common: obesity and related disorders like type-2 diabetes.

I think Boris' statement is accurate, but you're right; our reaction to it needs to be taken in context. The media and government will talk non-stop about vaccination and treatments, which are incredibly important due to the reality of the pandemic, today. But, mentioning weight, eating healthier, exercising, critically analyzing your own risk factors (with the help of a doctor), etc; out of the question.

I wish I could scream at our leftist leadership right now: Managing fear is wildly important. Every spectrum has extremes. On the extreme right we have vaccine denialists; that's unhealthy. But on the extreme left, we have the opposite [1]; people who are so afraid of this thing they can barely live their daily lives, people who isolate, become depressed, and even kids who are so impacted by at-home learning and impaired social lives they commit suicide. That's blood; the rightwing media and government leaders spill the blood of people who won't get vaccinated, and the leftwing media and government spills the blood of people so caught up in the fear of this thing they neglect their own mental and socioeconomic health.

A (leftist) friend just told me three days ago: "Every other human is a threat."

At this point, we need to heal. Vaccinations, treatments; absolutely. But far more importantly, we gotta put COVID behind us, even if its still here. That responsibility falls on the media and government leaders. Early in the pandemic, we (probably) overplayed the severity of the disease to convince people to isolate; we didn't know how bad it would be, so it was the safer, correct route. Today, I think we need to underplay it. Don't lie; don't obscure. But the fearmongering will destroy our society far faster than COVID does.

[1] https://twitter.com/drewtoothpaste/status/147012370236491367...

> and even kids who are so impacted by at-home learning and impaired social lives they commit suicide.

Suicide rates may rise in future, but all the available data says that they have not gone up yet. This is using real time monitoring data.

> Don't lie;

Quite.

It won't be reported as an Omicron death unless it is sequenced, which excludes a vast amount of cases and lags cases by up to 2 weeks.

Initially reported Omicron cases in the US predate knowledge of Omicron, confirmed cases are from November, and today's story of 13% of samples in Washington state likely being Omicron is based on test data from a week ago.

0 or 1 deaths being reported so far as caused by Omicron is still consistent with "Omicron is roughly as bad as previous strains, and will result in a lot of excess deaths."

Do you have a source that says covid did not contribute to the death of the UK patient?

Just the quote that says "with" instead of "from" until the data is released.

I love how we often assume every single word someone says is carefully chosen to 100% reflect what one wants to communicate.

For press releases like this, they damn well should be.

> "Sadly at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with Omicron," Johnson told reporters at a vaccination centre in London.

This wasn't a press release fyi.

Before that data point resolves itself, remember that n=1 doesn't really support either meta-narrative. Not saying you are doing this, but I'm sure there are many who are preparing to both sharpen this data into a spear for the "other side", and at the same time, preparing a cognitive dissonance process to explain the data should it not support their meta-narrative.

The end result is discussion that advance little in the Shannon information sense, but maximally clarify every individuals social net.