Center for Disease Control Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky was unable to provide the number of people who died with a COVID-19 diagnosis as opposed to those who have died because of their COVID-19 diagnosis when pressed by Fox News host Bret Baier on Sunday.
"Do you know how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to COVID are from COVID or how many are with COVID but they had other comorbidities, do you have that breakdown?" Baier asked.
"Yes of course, with Omicron we're following that very carefully. Our death registry, of course, takes a few weeks to collect and, of course, Omicron has just been with us for a few weeks, but those data will be forthcoming," Walensky replied.
Asked "how many of the 836,000 deaths in the U.S. linked to Covid are FROM Covid or how many are WITH Covid," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says "those data will be forthcoming." pic.twitter.com/JVcFk3aunc
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What is notable with Walensky's answer is she blamed the lack of data about deaths with comorbidities on Omicron when Baier asked her about deaths that have occurred within the last two years. One would assume the CDC would already have such data for the original and Delta variant. In either case, it is a step in the right direction to better understand who is most at risk for COVID-19 since we already know those who are elderly, overweight, or have another chronic condition are most at risk.
We further know the Omicron variant, while more transmissible, is a much more milder strain compared to others that have spread across the globe.
