Time to reflect on ‘self versus society’

MARK Iles asks why I am unhappy about his criticism of Boris Johnson with regard to Covid.

The UK has performed like most nations of the western world, who have been unable to control the virus. All have tried a mixture of measures, but none have managed to avoid a large loss of life, coupled with restrictions to personal liberty that most citizens could never have envisaged in peacetime.

So singling out our Government when so many countries have struggled seems unreasonable.

Mark mentions Singapore’s success at Covid control.

Respiratory illnesses are prevalent in winter as viruses survive far better in cold conditions, and thrive when we are all indoors. Hence the struggles that all European nations are having at present.

I mention this because Singapore sits almost on the equator. It has a completely different climate to Europe – temperatures of less than 20 degrees centigrade are almost unheard of.

South Korea is a more appropriate comparison.

There is plenty of information on the website of the British Medical Association that explains why South Korea fared so much better. This in part comes from their experience with SARS and MERS.

As a result it had a huge testing capacity that was ready to roll out, whereas Europe and North America had little or no capability for community testing. The BMA article also contains an interesting quote from a Korean academic: “The Korean people are also very obedient and very responsible towards their fellow humans”.

There has been plenty of evidence from respondents to this newspaper, and elsewhere, that such obedience and responsibility to fellow citizens is not so high in the West.

An ITV programme summed it up in three words – self versus society. Time to reflect.

Neil Stafford West Bridgford