Stay on ground

It is arguable whether the cost of precautions against the spread of coronavirus is proportionate to the number of lives they will save. Whether one will feel in retrospect that we got the balance right may depend upon one’s relationship to those who die.

Yet, even if this epidemic is less severe than expected, we always face the possibility of one so devastating as to justify the most draconian of measures to hold it at bay.

There may have been people saying “We mustn’t interfere with trade” as the Black Death approached, but we know they soon had reason to regret this. It would be useful to treat our current situation as a rehearsal for such an event.

We need to develop the mental or moral preparedness to impose and accept restrictions, clamping down early and hard on international travel, even though the alarm may prove to be false. Otherwise we will be behind the game, waiting for public opinion to catch up and run ahead when it is too late.

Anyone who claims to agree with Greta Thunberg can hardly object to an occasional downturn in economic growth or a “no fly February”.

The dip in air travel after 9/11 showed that many travellers are willing to see their journey as non-essential when it is their own lives at stake.

Remember those carefree days not so many moons ago when correspondents to this letters page were largely preoccupied with such light-hearted topics as Indyref2 and Brexit?

MARTIN REDFERN Woodcroft Road, Edinburgh

Isn’t it interesting that HG Wells conceived a situation in the 1900s where the planet would overcome a species that was damaging it by way of a virus. What cost global warming now? The planet always fights back.

JOHN CUTLAND Montgomery Street, Kirkcaldy

If the coronavirus gets much worse and Nicola Sturgeon has to forget Indyref2 for this year, that really would be a Bacterial Change in Circumstances.

ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven

While, like most, I am concerned by the current epidemic, there might be an upside. Hopefully it may banish