An exceptional case

Every day, when the Oregon Health Authority describes the latest people in the state to die of Covid, it always adds that they had "underlying medical conditions." This leaves me scratching my head. The deceased people are mostly 70, 80, 90 years old. Of course they had underlying medical conditions. Do you know anyone over the age of 50 who doesn't have an underlying medical condition of some sort? Adding the bit about the medical conditions to the tail end of the death notice is stating the obvious.

I guess it makes the young people feel better about going out to the bars. "I don't have any medical conditions, so I'm not going to die if I catch it."

But today comes this story from Clark County. Age: 34. No underlying medical conditions that anybody knew about. Unspeakably sad, and deeply concerning, if you're paying attention.