John le Carré has died

[Thasaidon]

John le Carré was the pseudonym of the author David Cornwell, judged by many to be the master of the spy novel.

Please see the link below to the BBC Obituary

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-19888446

[binaryhermit]

I hate to have to add this, but the AP's saying it wasn't COVID...

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I'm guessing that the cause of death was extreme old age. If only we could all lead such long lives.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

I'm guessing that the cause of death was extreme old age. If only we could all lead such long lives.

Since he was only 2 years older than my father currently is, I'm going to describe 89 as "a good long life" rather than "extreme old age", and use that label for people who make it to triple digits

[93terp]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I hate to have to add this, but the AP's saying it wasn't COVID...

I believe I read in the NY Times that it was pneumonia.

[Luffy]

I have never read anything of his. But he has such an intimidating reputation it's hard to ignore his work for the rest of my own life.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by 93terp

I believe I read in the NY Times that it was pneumonia.

If he had pneumonia they should have tested him. Depending on how quickly it progressed from "He has pneumonia" to him dying, I'd think there's a good chance they'd have his test results back by now.

That said, a coworker's husband died of COVID way back in the day, I think in the first 10 people to (EDIT: Officially) die of it in this state, and his test apparently came back several days after he was dead, so who knows.

EDIT: I believe pneumonia deaths early this year were way up even after you removed those among COVID-positive individuals, so it's likely at least early on there were a bunch of COVID deaths that weren't officially counted as COVID deaths. I'd suspect this is less of a thing now that testing is way more available, though.