Britain leading the way with Covid plans

JON Sebastian loves having a go at MPS, and his letter (“Useless Government doesn’t have a clue”, Opinion, November 20) is no exception.

But criticising the removal of travel restrictions when Europe is currently experiencing high Covid levels is bizarre, as the infection level in the UK is higher (and has been for some time) than many European countries.

Travel restrictions were imposed to reduce the risk of new Covid variants entering the UK, but the entire world now has the Delta variant, so there is no point in imposing restrictions on travel.

Covid is endemic in the human population, and will be for the foreseeable future.

We have to learn to live with Covid. That means living without any restrictions – no masks, no social distancing, and no coercion or segregation of the unvaccinated.

The only way to achieve that is with a high level of immunity. That level of immunity can only be reached by a combination of vaccination AND infection. While vaccination prevents serious disease in most cases, infection is important in training our immune system to respond when the virus appears.

Thankfully our Government, with the support of a population that is used to vaccination programmes, is well on the way to achieving this objective.

Spacing the first two doses by 12 weeks was criticised initially, but has been shown to be correct.

The decision to relax restrictions in mid-summer raised eyebrows in some quarters, although Professors Whitty and Ferguson recognised the “sweet spot” offered by the school holidays to allow a controlled level of infection in the younger population, who are at very low risk of serious disease.

The experience of Israel with booster jabs, and the tests conducted in the UK of giving the opposite vaccine to the first as a booster, means that the most vulnerable in our society have the best protection.

The UK has been “running hot” with high infection levels since the late summer, much to the consternation of many in continental Europe, who have spent most of the time trying to suppress transmission.

There are now genuine signs that our strategy is working.

Predicting the future course of a pandemic will always be difficult, but there is a growing body of scientific opinion that is starting to believe that the UK is on the right path.

Neil Stafford West Bridgford