The corona wall

I have been thinking about Boris Johnson’s comment when he came out of hospital that this was the moment of maximum risk. The figures and the mood music at present suggest that the current situation is passing. We see the headline figures going downwards, people are debating the fine details of easing the lockdown and politicians who largely don’t know any better are trying to pick fault, create differences in opinion and differentiate their views on how to progress from others. It is particularly outrageous and disrespectful to be counting the dead bodies and comparing

us to others at the moment. This problem has a long way to run yet, and we don’t know what the final situation is going to look like.

There are plenty of signs that the discipline and resolve we all require is beginning to break down. We can see the extra cars on the road, people are being a little less cautious and over and above this, for many people the unnatural life we are currently living is mentally tough and beginning to bite. There is most certainly a corona wall which many are currently running into, even with the best intent to stay the course.

In Scotland, there is an underlying political need to differentiate ourselves from others, at least in some quarters. Having now been to the shops since the announcement that we should wear masks, I know that no-one is wearing them, no-one is asking that they should be worn, no-one cares if they are being worn and there is no obvious supply of them. That particular policy did not work well.

This week’s wheeze is to replace Trace, Track and Test with Trace, Test and Isolate, only without using the UK app, although people can use it if they want to and the Scottish Government are engaged in producing it. That is clear as mud as well.

This is indeed the moment of highest risk and the relentless splitting of hairs is making it more so. I think that staring death in the face will have cleared Boris’s mind on this matter and given him a clarity and understanding that others do not seem to yet possess.

VICTOR CLEMENTS

Aberfeldy, Perthshire

I notice a new governmentinspired initialisation creeping into everyday usage; TTI – Test, Trace, Isolate – joining the likes of PPE, WFH and ICU in our post-coronavirus vocabulary. In the event of testing positive for Covid-19, surely it would be more sensible and effective to isolate immediately, before the tracing operation kicks in, even though this would prove acronymically

rather unfortunate.

ANDY DAVEY

St Andrews Road, Peebles

Does it really make sense in times of intense pressure on local council budgets to replicate a Scottish version of the UK government’s planned contact-tracing app? Do we really need to incur the costs and training of 2,000 people to replicate something already

paid for and staffed by the UK taxpayer, whose usage could easily be extended from 56 million people to 66m? It won’t be long I suspect before we will be discussing integration delays and costs, and who pays for them, so that the man on the Duns to Berwick bus feels as protected as anyone from Cornwall or Inverness

IAN GRAY

Moray Place, Edinburgh