Sage under scrutiny

sir – The Government must publish all the scientific advice it gets, along with the minutes of meetings of its Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee (Leading Article, May 20).

Boris Johnson pledged that he would be more open, but his Government is treating the people who elected it like fools.

Graham Mitchell

Haslemere, Surrey

sir – One expert thinks there could be a vaccine by September; another says coronavirus will never be eradicated. Yet another thinks that it will die out naturally. Perhaps, like me, they don’t really know.

Andrew Horrocks

Bury, Lancashire

sir – It may be heresy to say so, but the Conservative MP Thérèse Coffey is quite right to suggest that the “science was wrong” (report, May 20).

There are now only three countries with a worse coronavirus death rate than Britain, but officially appointed scientists still boast daily of “success”.

The “science” in Britain has produced a wretched death rate per million of 513. Japan’s figure is just six; South Korea’s is five, and Australia’s four. New Zealand’s rate is four per million, as is Singapore’s; in Thailand that figure is 0.8, in Hong Kong 0.5, and in Taiwan 0.3.

Martin Burgess

Beckenham, Kent

sir – Instead of fixating on the number of deaths attributable to coronavirus, it would be equally relevant to report the number of survivors.

Britain has been declared the nation most scared of the virus. We need a measure to put things in perspective.

Paul Reed

Stirling