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 anti-vaxxer 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 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.
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
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
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
