Were it not for us, there would be no jab for EU to block

■ Further to EU threats of a vaccines blockade to the UK (Metro, Thu), should we not be reminding Brussels that without the UK investment into development of the AstraZeneca vaccine, they would have done virtually no vaccinations as of now, except the small number of Pfizer doses given?

The first French effort from Sanofi did not even get past the testing stage. The UK has invested millions making a cheap vaccine easily transportable at a fraction of the cost of any others – we, through our government’s efforts, deserve to get what the UK government has contractually ordered.

Keith, Stafford

■ It’s a good job we left the EU because there would be a lot less Brits alive now if we hadn’t.

Tony, via email

■ So Angela Merkel does a U-turn on lockdown (Metro, Thu). It’s nice to know it’s not just the UK that doesn’t know what it’s doing.

Roger, Wolverhampton

■ If – as it has been suggested – it becomes a requirement for carers to have the Covid vaccination, it must follow that patients can only be admitted if they have the vaccination.

Visitors must then also be vaccinated as well as anyone coming on to the site, such as postal workers, delivery people and maintenance staff.

Jim McGlynn, Tottenham

■ Three months into Brexit and the government has snubbed the NHS, proposed breaking international law on asylum, threatened the Good Friday Agreement, raised tensions with the EU, broken the ministerial code, defended accusations of cronyism and promoted nationalism. I’m staggered at how quickly we have reached this point.

Neil Dance, Birmingham

■ ‘Greed and capitalism’ were behind the vaccine success, were they, Mr Johnson? Well, they definitely played a massive part in the mess we were in.

Has our prime minister forgotten austerity? Shareholders got the millions while the country crumbled.

T Deng, Sussex

■ The government at last realises that a third wave of coronavirus on the continent could see an increase of infections here and that we might need to implement restrictions on travel to mainland Europe.

It’s a shame the government didn’t take this approach a year ago when Boris Johnson kept reminding us we were three weeks behind Italy but didn’t implement any travel restrictions. In fact, he encouraged people to return from coronavirus hotspots and spread it around the UK.

■ If we are ever to succeed in controlling the virus it is crucial we prevent people from bringing the virus into the UK. Even with the current lockdown, people are coming into the country and only some are being quarantined.

Brian Barney, Suffolk

■ Can Ged Brookes (MetroTalk, Wed) really be arguing that we should replace goods manufactured in China with domestic production when it would be impossible to match Chinese economies of scale, with higher land costs and input costs than are likely to prevail in China?

The inflationary implications are enormous. This country can only survive as a manufacturing nation by specialising in higher value, exclusive goods.