If I had long Covid, I would rightly say Covid caused my long Covid. But since I don’t have Covid, I can’t say that Covid caused my long Covid so for me Covid did not cause long Covid.
I’m more interested in the distinction of Outcomes and the wording they’re using pay no attention to distinction.
If there is a statistic that guns killed 40,000 people last year in the USA, everyone knows that it doesn't mean that every gun contributed to the deaths of those people. If someone says the Earth is spherical, the discussion is made worse by saying, "Actually, it is an oblate spheroid, blah blah". When some source states that polio paralyzed xxx thousand people in 1930, what is the value add of saying:
> It only causes paralysis in the people who become paralyzed.
Tautologies are by definition true, but don't really contribute much to an argument.
So by your logic, a fall from 33,000ft does not cause death.