Despite the vaccine success, fear is driving the country into unending coronavirus restrictions
Sir – Increased testing is producing more results that are positive. An overwhelming majority of these people have minor symptoms or none at all. Deaths and hospital admissions are very low and are not increasing at a concerning rate.
The economy cannot wait until we are risk free. Fear must not drive the agenda.
Where is the balance of riskassessment in evaluating the country’s health? Our epitaph could be: the Covid elimination operation was a complete success but the nation died. Christopher Hunt
Swanley, Kent
Sir – Thousands, even millions, may be infected; most will recover naturally. Quite a few will be hospitalised, but the NHS should by now be ready for this. Sadly, a few will die – but fewer than in “normal” times.
So how will keeping me locked up help in any way?
Brian Foster
Shrivenham, Oxfordshire
Sir – England supporters on Sunday were hugging each other, social distancing was non-existent and no masks were evident. Loud singing and cheering were allowed.
We have just had to cancel our first Women’s Institute meeting in 16 months. (We are all over 70, all double-vaccinated and mostly widows.) Those of our generation have behaved themselves impeccably, and yet we are penalised in this way.
I think the decision to continue restrictions is unfair and unnecessary. Jennifer Harper-jones
Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire
Sir – Covid restrictions are to continue beyond June 21. I had an appointment at Guy’s Hospital on Saturday and took a bus from Liverpool Street station.
Half the passengers were not wearing masks and I saw no one challenged by the driver.
On the return train journey to Stowmarket, a whole family boarded with no masks. What is the point of imposing rules if they are not policed?
It should also not be forgotten that those behind the “science” that forecast half a million hospitalisations in the first wave and led to the building (at great speed and efficiency) of the Nightingale hospitals are the same people now forecasting more dire outcomes.
When are we likely to see some common sense prevail?
Patricia Clifton
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Sir – Why are we the public (responsible adults in the main) not allowed to assess our own risk?
Government advice should be just that – advisory not compulsory.
Hugo W Taylor FRCS
Pleshey, Essex
Sir – Tim Stanley is right (“In Orwellian Britain, lockdown is perpetual and sickness is health,” Comment, June 14). I believe 1999 saw the high tide of civilisation, with freedom and progress most in balance.
Think what we were allowed to say and do. Go on holiday to Egypt? No problem. Use the internet without being scammed or tracked? Fine. Talk to a human being on a customer-care line? Carry drinks on to an aircraft? And, heaven forbid, smoke outside in the open at a railway station?
And what of freedom of expression? Say the wrong thing now and you’ll be in trouble, even if it is not a crime.
As Covid restrictions show, all that is required to eliminate democracy is for citizens to do nothing. Our leaders will take care of the rest.
David Henderson
East Molesey, Surrey
Sir – A friend flew from Luton to Edinburgh. They were all sitting three in a row, as in pre-covid times, and there was no system for disembarking other than in hugger-mugger fashion. The flight was full.
Where is the logic of theatres being unable to open, even when they can have socially distanced seating?
Theatres have suffered enough. If rules are to be made, they should be seen to be fair and equitable for all. Patricia Noel-paton
Abernethy, Perthshire
Sir – The Prime Minister, being a Churchill acolyte, will understand my military analogy, emphasising the necessity during challenging times for pragmatism, courage and risk.
Had Montgomery listened to his medical team before El Alamein, to the extent the Government is influenced by theirs, he would have cancelled the attack. Too many casualties; aid posts overrun; not enough hospital space; the shadow of further failure. You get my gist.
Instead, the attack was mounted and the battle won, leading to the defeat of Axis forces in north Africa. Timidity now, as it would have done in 1942, will further undermine morale.
Variants of one kind or another will come and go for years and, frankly, it’s time to put our shoulders back and get on with our lives, free of the state. Richard Drax MP (Con)
London SW1
Sir – We voted for Churchill and got Chamberlain.
Malcolm Whittle
Newbury, Berkshire