No worries, some more responses...

'The problem with your cut off of "no comorbidities" for under 65s is - if it includes high blood pressure, the definition of co morbidity is so loose that the filtering becomes a clinically unjustifiable haircut of the true numbers of dead.'

Well it's not my cut off, that's what the ONS listed as their number 3 pre-existing condition for deaths 'due to' covid in 2020, considered a contributing factor in 13,092 deaths (1,426 under-65; 11,666 over-65). They mention ICD-10 codes of I10-I15 which I see refer to:

I10 - Essential (primary) hypertension
I11 - Hypertensive heart disease
I12 - Hypertensive chronic kidney disease
I13 - Hypertensive heart and chronic kidney disease
I15 - Secondary hypertension - https://icd.codes/icd10cm/chapter9/I10-I15

which I guess indicates some additional complications to simple high blood pressure. The codes for diabetes don't specify beyond these:

E08 - Diabetes mellitus due to underlying condition
E09 - Drug or chemical induced diabetes mellitus
E10 - Type 1 diabetes mellitus
E11 - Type 2 diabetes mellitus
E13 - Other specified diabetes mellitus - https://icd.codes/icd10cm/chapter4/E08-E13

Not saying they should (what do I know?) but that it doesn't indicate what stage of the disease they were at - feeling a bit light-headed between meals or full-on feet falling off, going blind, organ damage etc. Otherwise the diseases/conditions mentioned all sound pretty serious to me:

Heart failure and complications and ill-defined heart disease
Cardiac arrhythmias
Cerebrovascular diseases
Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue
Parkinson's disease
Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid haematopoietic and related tissue
Malignant neoplasm of prostate
Pulmonary heart disease and diseases of pulmonary circulation
Pulmonary oedema and other intestinal pulmonary diseases
Nonrheumatic valve disorders
Malignant neoplasm of trachea bronchus and lung
Obesity
Other peripheral vascular diseases - https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=%2fpeoplepopulationandcommunity%2fbirthsdeathsandmarriages%2fdeaths%2fdatasets%2fpreexistingconditionsofpeoplewhodiedduetocovid19englandandwales%2f2020final/preexistingconditions2020final.xlsx

Fair point about their prevalence in the population, I guess - feel free to take it up with the ONS!

Thanks for the further info on ethnic minorities and the poor. I think we talked about the greater vaccine hesitancy among those demographics before, often through (understandable) lack of trust in government but also for other reasons. I disagree with the vaccines being forced on anybody and still think there are big unknowns about the long-term potential side effects, but I don't deny their effectiveness in lessening hospitalisations & deaths esp in the elderly & vulnerable groups we've been discussing, and it's tragic if this then disproportionately effects minorities & the poor, as you've noted.

'We could say when you look at rich white people under the age of 50 no one died. What's all the fuss about. It's probably what most Tory MPs are thinking when they aren't counting the reduction in pension payments accrued from killing the elderly.' - no doubt they are. I hope you don't think I was trying to put that message across... I did acknowledge the 'privilege' of good health in my original post, and admittedly that is the perspective I bring to this as a young(ish) middle-class(ish) man with few medical complaints, but I've known enough people felled by chronic disease or mental illnesses to have a sense of 'there but for the grace of god go I' and that good health can't be taken for granted (or worse, viewed as a reflection of moral virtue and good life choices).

'The final part of the story that we can't provide anything other than emergency care to prevent loss of life or limb for young fit people when hospitals are full of patients with covid. Though we seem to have weathered the storm this winter we now have an almost insurmountable backlog of investigations and treatments. No doubt many otherwise well people are going to die on waiting lists.' - you have my sympathies, fwiw, as do those waiting for treatment - I know one from back in leafy Surrey who was lucky to catch throat cancer before it got too advanced, had chemo & surgery and now seems to be recovering ok, touch wood. But for many it'll be too late... For me the issue is 'why was the health service not adequately prepared for a pandemic?' as opposed to 'who can we blame for selfishly overcrowding the hospitals?' (not your stance, I know, but it gets said plenty). Any suggestions of things we can do to help? (You're going to say 'get vaccinated' now, I know it )

All best,
I