Care outcome was inevitable

Sir, – What has happened in care homes in Scotland over the past five months or so has been the greatest scandal in our recent national history.

The excuse wheeled out that politicians and scientists were unaware of the danger of asymptomatic transmission is weak and pathetic and needs to be called out as such.

Even without knowing what a virus was, ancient peoples thousands of

years ago understood the principle of quarantine, that strangers could bring disease with them unless that were kept separate and under observation.

Typically, ships would be asked to remain off shore for a period of time until deemed to be safe.

Today, we all understand that if you have a group of people or animals that are susceptible to disease of any kind, even if there is not a specific threat, then others who come in must be regarded with suspicion until they have been observed

for a certain period of time. Even farmers understand that.

We may not have understood the Covid19 virus totally back in March, but we knew the gist of it.

This was an extremely contagious, flu-like illness which disproportionately affected older people and those with under lying health conditions.

We knew we had concentrations of such people in care homes.

We knew we had hospitals full of sick people, and we knew that the virus was circulating and that hospitals would be exposed to it.

Mixing these groups of people together could only have one outcome.

That many people cannot see this is simply down to an aggressive campaign of public relations and news management. No additional analysis of the situation is required.

Victor Clements. Mamie’s Cottage, Aberfeldy.