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Original poster

The tragic news of this Omicron death

218 replies

User135644 · 14/12/2021 09:01

Very sad news that someone has now died of Omicron. Are the media going over the top though? I always thought a death was likely at some point. Sadly they may not he the last either.

Is it just the old adage of one death a tragedy, many deaths a statistic?

OP posts:
Cornettoninja · 14/12/2021 10:28

@DynamiteFilledRadish

There’s a good article in the Telegraph about it today you can read online

It's behind a pay wall Sad

If you Google the headline you can read paywall articles for free.

@Twiglets1 thanks I’ll look it up. Regardless, there are a lot of variables that mean figures from SA may not be entirely accurate or translate to our population. I think we’re still at a point where anyone claiming conclusive knowledge is at best being misleading because we just don’t know based on available data. I don’t think the telegraph is an unbiased source but am happy to stand corrected if there are further publications that conclude the same with reliable reasoning.

To touch on the on/with argument again, if half the people with cancer in this country had their deaths hastened by covid over the next two months we would still have a big issue as far as the NHS is concerned. Deaths that are destined to occur over the next twelve months aren’t a problem unless they all happen within a short time frame. That also does nothing to address the significant numbers who are affected seemingly with no underlying cause known about before infection by covid.

Buzzinwithbez · 14/12/2021 10:29

There is a 7 day average in England up to 7th December of 95 people per day during from/with covid.

Was the first Delta death reported like this? Why do we need to know which strain it is?

HangingDitch · 14/12/2021 10:29

The reporting of deaths would be fine if they’d report the number of deaths from all the other various illnesses, injuries and accidents that take place on a daily basis. You know, give us a bit of context.

Also, how old was the person? Did they have underlying conditions? Were they most likely going to die anyway?

Just saying someone is dead with omicron is a meaningless statement that can be interpreted however you like.

Trixiefirecracker · 14/12/2021 10:30

@Cornettoninja that was 2020. Before the vaccination scheme and with a novel virus. It would be interesting, informative and less scaremongering to get it in to perspective against similar viral diseases, like the flu. People are dying of all sorts of illnesses, we don’t need to single this out and make it our sole focus anymore. How will they carry on reporting these figures like this? Indefinitely? One death from Omicron and it’s reported everywhere. I just don’t think this obsession is healthy or helpful.

Motheroftigers · 14/12/2021 10:30

@TinaYouFatLard

Human life has a 100% mortality rate. Every death is sad but not necessarily a tragedy. The media and politicians are being revoltingly ghoulish for their own means.
I agree
Politics4me · 14/12/2021 10:31

We’ve not got much information on this fatality. Tbh, I’m not sure if it makes much difference...
Yep!

EasterIssland · 14/12/2021 10:31

It suits the media … and the scaremongering we continue living it… it just feels a dejavú tu last year with alpha and delta. People catch the virus ? Yes. People will die ? Yes. Is this news really?

lotusgirl909 · 14/12/2021 10:32

@User983756

Because we know nothing about this death we cannot say it is tragic news, it could be someone very elderly which is not a tragic death.
Could be someone's mum or dad. Still tragic
MarshaBradyo · 14/12/2021 10:32

We don’t have any details so we?

No idea re with or of

But it’s worked, just chatting with someone who responded someone’s died when I mentioned the variant

50ShadesOfCatholic · 14/12/2021 10:33

@DarknessAndLight

Yes it’s tragic but the reporting is very vague and done intentionally to make everyone fearful. There will be more tragic deaths but don’t succumb to the fear. We don’t need to live lives under constant restrictions and limited freedoms.
Reporting isn't deliberately vague to create fear, reporting is minimal until more information comes to hand. That's how news works. Stories break, then develop then die or morph into bigger or longer stories.
Getyourarseofffthequattro · 14/12/2021 10:33

@multivac

Please could everyone just fuck off with this 'with not of' crap? As if that's some kind of mic drop.

Whatever your feelings about the actual situation we are in, if someone with 'underlying conditions' dies 'with' Covid-19, then the likelihood is that it was Covid-19 that was the trigger for them to die at this point. Not later, with more years lived and shared. Just like my partner's brother died at 27 "of" shingles - but "with" Hodgkin Fucking Lymphoma.

Can you explain how it's likely that it's the trigger?

For me personally, if I was dying in hospital anyway, and caught something that made it slightly swifter, I wouldn't necessarily see that as a bad thing. I don't think prolonging suffering is a particularly good thing.

I am very sorry about your partner's brother but I think you're almost proving the opposite point with that.

Cornettoninja · 14/12/2021 10:38

@Twiglets1 you want figures for 2021? Think we’ll have to wait for year to be done first.

I’m well aware that circumstances have changed, my point is that I’m not sure what publishing more death statistics daily would achieve?

Current statistics are published to give a indication of what the current status of risk of infection and the likelihood of availability of NHS services is. Cancer, dementia, coronary disease etc. have no bearing on peoples day to day lives because they’re not contagious and subject to extreme infection control measures.

I think there’s a mismatch between what some people are concerned about and what some people think they’re concerned about. Deaths and sickness are inevitable, overwhelming of health services and infrastructure doesn’t have to be.

Cornettoninja · 14/12/2021 10:40

@Politics4me

We’ve not got much information on this fatality. Tbh, I’m not sure if it makes much difference... Yep!
How very Tory of you to pick and choose parts of a whole quote 🙄
2022HereWeCome · 14/12/2021 10:40

It isn't tragic if someone 85+ has died after a full and happy life. It is sad but not entirely unexpected

Puzzledandpissedoff · 14/12/2021 10:41

Because we know nothing about this death we cannot say it is tragic news, it could be someone very elderly which is not a tragic death

It is when it's the BBC - it was when they announced in funereal tones the "tragedy of a 93 year old's death" that I gave up completely on this government mouthpiece

AnEpisodeOfEastenders · 14/12/2021 10:41

They died WITH Omicron, not OF.

DynamiteFilledRadish · 14/12/2021 10:41

If you Google the headline you can read paywall articles for free

Oh I didn't know that, thanks.

Gilda152 · 14/12/2021 10:42

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Remmy123 · 14/12/2021 10:43

I'm sorry that someone died but what about all the other deaths from different causes!! It's dictated the media for two years!!!

It's out of hand the hysteria!

otterlybonkers · 14/12/2021 10:44

@Trixiefirecracker

I wish the reporting of deaths would stop, or at least be reported along side other fatalities to give us some perspective.
but nothing else matters or exists. Many of us have a broken future as of now anyway. I am so depressed I feel beyond hope, thoughts in my head i am not familiar with. i do all i have to, get jabbed, but let's not pretend this is ok.

Something is just very, very wrong here: and we need to be able to discuss this without polarising insults and presumptions that those who are afraid are interested in loony conspiracies. There is a very healthy middle ground, and many of us feel the world has gone mad.

RunningInTheWind · 14/12/2021 10:46

It has been said this person was 94 years old and already in hospital.

Potentially wouldn’t have been having another full 20 years of life.

otterlybonkers · 14/12/2021 10:46

That said, ive stopped caring if i wake up. I have enough money, people close, but my life is like a stuck record of no car, no hope and no future possibilities..for nearly 2 years all i have seen if fucking tesco. There is more to life than covid.

HopefulHetty · 14/12/2021 10:48

Listen to the precise wording.

MarshaBradyo · 14/12/2021 10:49

I think that we are back at the start of the ramping up again - 1st case - 1st death is crazy

We should step off the case rollercoaster.

The numbers are going to get really high. Of cases anyway and the emotive prodding each time should go.

SilverGlassHare · 14/12/2021 10:50

@SickAndTiredAgain

I agree with you in the sense that, while obviously awful for the family, was there anyone thinking that omicron wouldn’t cause any deaths? Surely that was a given. I know some people were hoping it was milder, but I doubt anyone thought fatality would be 0, and one death proves nothing about how mild/severe it is (obviously it may give an indication to medics who know the patient’s medical history, but I meant to the general public). I don’t understand the focus on the omicron death over the presumably much larger number of people who died of delta on the same day.
Yes, agree. While all are tragic for their families, there's massively different implications for public health if this person is 25, perviously in perfect health and double-jabbed, or if it's a 50 year old obese patient with diabetes and a heart condition who refused to be jabbed, or if it's a 89 year old who was already in hospital because of a stroke.