When will they tell us truth about Britain’s only Omicron death?

As it’s claimed victim is anti-vaxxer in 70s...

ANGeR at the Government’s silence over britain’s only Omicron death was growing last night after a caller to a radio station claimed the victim was an antivaxxer in his 70s.

So far, just 16 patients are known to have ended up in hospital with the new variant, and only one has died with it.

but the NHS and the Department of Health refuse to give any details about the victim, four days after the death was announced.

Critics say it could help calm fears about Omicron if the Government made it clear that the only person who had died was someone who had not been vaccinated.

they demanded ministers publish more details, to avoid ‘unnecessary alarm’.

A caller to LbC said the victim, who was in his early 70s, had refused the jab after becoming convinced that it was part of a government conspiracy to control the population.

He said the victim died in hospital in Northampton. because of the information vacuum, there was no way to verify his claims. to add to the confusion, NHS england said last night that the death did not occur there.

but it would not clarify where it did happen, saying it could not comment because they do not discuss ‘individual cases’.

that was in stark contrast to the approach last year, after the UK’s first

‘He thought it was a conspiracy’

known death from Covid, when the

Government revealed she was ‘an older patient who had underlying health conditions’ and died at the Royal berkshire Hospital in Reading.

the caller – who said he was the victim’s stepson and was referred to on LbC as John from Smithfield in London – claimed the victim was a pensioner who had lived alone in a block of flats and died on Monday, a fortnight after catching the virus.

John said: ‘He was a recluse to be honest. He never left the house, had all his food delivered and only left the house to go to the bins and the postbox. He was one of the cleanest guys I’d ever known.

‘but this is the important thing. He wasn’t vaccinated. My sister is gutted, but on the other hand she’s a little bit angry that he never took the vaccine. She did have an argument with him about it in October about this very thing.

‘He thought it was a conspiracy. He read it online. He was an intelligent man. Had he been vaccinated, he would probably still be here.’

John said his stepfather died around a week after being admitted. He said: ‘He… went downhill just like that. He wasn’t able to speak, he was scared. I think if you’re in hospital, having 80 per cent oxygen fired at you, you would regret it (not having a jab) wouldn’t you? I would. He was fit. He ate healthy, he didn’t smoke and didn’t drink in 30 years.’ He added: ‘It’s the people who haven’t been vaccinated – they’re the ones that need to be worried now.’

Cancer specialist Karol Sikora said earlier this week that the Government

was not providing the nation with enough information about the death, and that this was ‘unnecessarily alarming’.

‘Were they in hospital for Covid or were they there because they had been run over by a bus?,’ he said.

‘Have they had a booster? Are they elderly?

‘there are all sorts of nuances to this thing, and we’re not being given proper information. No details have been released, I suspect it’s just some old boy that’s tested positive, he may have died in his sleep or with a heart attack, who knows? It is unnecessarily alarming.’

Professor Sikora said his suspicion is that the silence regarding whether the person was vaccinated or not indicated to him that the person died of another cause while they had Omicron. ‘I suspect that it’s a death, which is unfortunate, but is due to something else, and it just happens to be Covid positive that’s why they’re not making a big noise about them being vaccinated or not,’ he added.

the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘Obviously when it comes to individual deaths there is a right to patient confidentiality so we are limited in what we can say.’