Demonstrations could spread virus

PUBLIC demonstrations may be a source of Covid-19 infection. According to ONS, the present infection rate is running at 53,000 in a total population of 59 million in England and Wales.

This suggests that the recent Whitehall demonstration of at least 15,000 people may have contained several demonstrators who were carrying the Covid-19 virus.

It is clear from the TV pictures that many were huddled together and not wearing masks, which implies that the actual level of infection could have been higher as they were Covid-19 risk takers.

It only needs one infected person to start an epidemic. In the UK, at times we have seen the pandemic doubling every three days. It doesn’t need much imagination to realise that over 60 days the number of extra cases caused by one single infection could be as high as one million; creating 10,000 deaths, most of whom be over 60. Old lives matter.

This is not just a theoretical argument. After World War

One, victory parades may have been a source of the resurgence of Spanish Flu. Philadelphia is the most notorious example.

Of course, people have the right to demonstrate, just as they have the right to use public transport. But here, very soon, the wearing of face masks will be compulsory. This should also apply to public demonstrations and mass meetings.

Finally, it should be noted that even smaller demonstrations in regions where infection rates are significantly higher than in London, such as the North East, could create a Covid-19 risk.

Last Saturday, at least 1,000 people congregated in the centre of Newcastle, many close together and not wearing face masks. It is odds-on that at least one of them was carrying Covid-19 and maybe even more based on the argument above.

Ironic that those imbibed with a sense of justice and a personal mixture of risk and sacrifice could be the source of a new Covid-19 epidemic in the North East. John Urquhart, Newcastle