The vulnerable need targeted protection, not local lockdowns

PEOPLE talk about a second wave of the Covid virus as if it is an entirely separate event, but it is not: there is no second wave, just a continuation of the original outbreak.

Lockdowns do not prevent the spread of the disease, but merely postpone it, and as soon as society starts to return to normal infections inevitably rise again.

The three tier system also will only delay it, the virus will still be in the population when the rules are relaxed. In the meanwhile, however, yet more damage will have been done to the economy, more small businesses will have collapsed, and people will have put their lives on hold for nothing.

The virus will only be beaten when enough of us have gained immunity so it runs out of people to infect, either by natural progression or through a vaccine which will take months or even years to arrive.

Suppression is not eradication, and people cannot be expected to put up with in and out ‘‘ hokey cokey’’ lockdowns indefinitely. Vulnerable people are not unintelligent and are well able to manage their own risk. For the most vulnerable, targeted protection is needed while the rest of us get back to near normal and live with this virus.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I WONDER if any of your readers agree with me that people are more fearful of losing their jobs and social way of life than they are of contracting the coronavirus? If this is the case, no test and trace or lockdown measures will control the spread and more people will end up in hospital or die.

From: AJA Smith,

Cowling.

DOES the bizarre Covid ‘‘ firebreak’’ lockdown action by the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, signal that we may now have arrived at peak Covid hysteria? And thus from here on can we expect more proportionate decisions to be taken by national and devolved governments that recognise the mounting evidence of the serious levels of collateral damage being caused by their actions?

From: Andrew Mercer. Guiseley.

WE should be blessed for the work Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner, and Marcus Rashford are doing on child food poverty. Why are they making a greater difference than MPs? Because they let their actions speak louder than their words.