Viral dilution

Watching the latest BBC Question Time on October 15, it was apparent Covid-19 is becoming increasingly politicised and the focus on defeating the virus is being diluted as a result.

As an example, we had a member of the virtual audience asking this very silly question: does the panel think that Nicola Sturgeon’s handling of the pandemic is better than Boris Johnson? As if it’s some sort of competition for heaven’s sake.

Of course the even sillier Fiona Bruce kept pushing the question as if it even mattered, but neglecting to mention that Sturgeon isn’t actually managing it better than Johnson anyway, and Scotland has the highest rate of infection and care home deaths in the UK if we take into account the individual population numbers.

No-one is taking this into account when comparing statistics. Scotland has a population of 5.4m. London alone has a population of 7m and England has an overall population of 54m or 84 per cent of the entire UK population.

Considering that it appears the virus likes the most populous countries, it’s not shocking that they tend to have the highest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths.

Approximately 98 per cent of Scotland is countryside with most people living in the cities as you would expect. Given there’s a population density of eight people per square mile in The Highlands they shouldn’t have any issues in social distancing.

Comparing Scotland to England with a much higher population density is not only pointless, it’s pretty dumb too.

As a footnote, who could have predicted Liverpool hospitals being swamped by Covid-19 cases given the scenes of the those irresponsible idiots partying in the streets?

The virus doesn’t care and just carries on regardless, infecting as many people as possible TOM GARDINER

They may do a two fingered salute to the government’s lockdown rules, the virus however, doesn’t care and just carries on regardless, infecting as many people as possible.

Tom Gardiner Gosport