Yesterday, like most other MSM outlets, the BBC proclaimed:

'Covid: First UK death recorded with Omicron variant

By Becky Morton & Doug Faulkner

There was no attempt at critical thinking, just parroting:

'At least one person in the UK has died with the Omicron coronavirus variant, the prime minister has said.

Boris Johnson said the new variant was also resulting in hospital admissions, and the 'best thing' people could do was get their booster jab.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs Omicron now represented 20% of cases in England....

Omicron has risen to more than 44% of cases in London and is expected to become the dominant variant in the city in the next 48 hours, he said.'

Johnson provided no evidence for these statistics and offered no account of the 'first UK death'.

If anything other media outlets were even more negligent:

'Boris Johnson has declared an 'Omicron emergency' and warned people against thinking the new variant won't make them seriously ill.' https://planetradio.co.uk/cool-fm/uk/news/omicron-emergency-covid-death/

Investigative journalism, sort of....

Today, at last, a newspaper has asked a question or two:

'A lack of transparency over the UK's first Omicron death prompted fury today, as a doctor told the Government to release more details to stop 'unnecessary alarm'.

Experts are demanding answers about the UK's first Omicron fatality, such as the individual's vaccination status, if they were part of group vulnerable to Covid, and if the virus was the leading cause of death. 

Professor of medicine and consultant oncologist Karol Sikora said the Government was not providing the nation with enough information about the death, and that this was causing 'unnecessarily alarming'. 

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

The death in the UK is thought to be the first confirmed Omicron fatality in the world.

Health bosses today also revealed that 10 Britons have already been hospitalised with Omicron. But the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which confirmed all were aged between 18-85 and that most had received two doses of Covid vaccines, refused to say if any had already had a booster.

UKHSA however did reveal that the individual who died of Omicron was diagnosed in hospital.'

Sikora said the Government should release more details about the death to put people's minds at ease.   

'Have they had booster? Are they elderly?,' he said.  

'There are all sorts of nuances to this thing, and we're not being given proper information.'

What about doing some legwork?

While it is encouraging to see newspaper journalists looking for alternative views, why aren't they all doing it, and doing it better?

Interviewer after interviewer fails to ask even the most basic questions (eg: 'what evidence do you have?') and few if any seem prepared (able? allowed?) to do basic legwork.

Surely given the resources at the disposal of MSM, it would not be difficult to track down this 'world first' death and clarify the truth of the matter.

And if they can't can ODT find anything out for them?