Long-lasting consequences of lockdown
Dear Editor, Do people realise that: · Around 80 per cent of what are currently classified as ‘Covid’ deaths occur in those aged 75 and over. · Virtually no Covid deaths occur in those aged under 40. · New ‘cases’ actually mean ‘people with positive tests’ · The vast majority of people with positive tests have mild to moderate symptoms, if any, and do not die.
In Stirling, there has apparently been a spike of positive tests in a care home – a home owned, as it happens, by the same company as the one on Skye which, quite some time ago, had such a high number of cases that it was eventually taken over by the government. There are a lot of students in Stirling (likely to be under the age of 40) and there may have been house parties in the area, most likely not attended by anyone over the age of 40. We are coyly never told by the government where sources of positive tests are, but I doubt if Debenhams is one of them.
That the whole Stirling Council area should be shut down, including thousands of businesses and shops – all cavalierly dismissed as “non-essential” - because of positive tests, the majority of which have probably occurred in the younger age groups or in those already confined, will push many of those businesses and the jobs they support up to, or indeed beyond, the brink. People’s livelihoods most definitely are essential, and will remain so, but the government pays no more than lip service to this. They have so far come to their senses only about keeping schools open. It is notable, also, that Forth Valley Royal Hospital is apparently so relatively unburdened as to be currently taking in Covid patients from other areas.
The blunt expedient of imposing Level Four restrictions - effectively another lockdown - in this area is therefore nothing short of an offence against humanity, the negative consequences of which will be with us for years to come. Mary Maxwell-irving (aged 75)
Blairlogie
The carers’ plight tends to be understandably overshadowed by the grief experienced by bereaved relatives over the deaths of their loved ones.
The recent deaths of 20 residents in a Larbert care home shows that the pandemic is far from over in those supposedly protected environments and the dangers will possibly exist until vaccine or antibody cocktail jabs are administered.
There has been criticism of the Scottish government in overseeing the transfer of positive coronavirus patients and untested patients from hospitals to care homes at the start of the pandemic which possibly contributed considerably to the large outbreak of cases and ultimately deaths.
A recent reported statement from Jeane Freeman, the Health Secretary, to the effect that it is right and proper for doctors still to transfer patients from hospital to care homes without a negative test is irresponsible and shows that the Scottish government has failed to learn from its earlier mistakes. Such utterances will hardly re-assure families that their loved ones in care homes will be entirely safe from the disease.
Bob Macdougall