Why emerging from lockdown sooner rather than later is a matter of life and death for many of us

SIR David Spiegelhalter has likened the Covid-19 figures to the Eurovision Song Contest. In the week when we normally look forward to the fun event, Londonbased BBC, ITV and Sky News could not resist a league table. Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Germany and Austria are doing well but the UK, Italy, Spain, France and Belgium compare badly.

It led to the spat between the PM and the statistician as Boris Johnson tried to deflect criticism of the UK’s grim figures. Spiegelhalter had never suggested one should not analyse the reasons why the figures are so bad. We know already that population density, poverty, age, the inequitable effect on the BAME community and countries’ methodology are all factors.

Of course, this was indicative of the wider problem that London-based news, while worthy, has become tedious, repetitive, patronising and childlike. We have the familiar problem of the audience having to differentiate between news meant for England and the rest of the UK, notably on easing the lockdown. It may also explain why the snowflake generation turned away from TV, radio and newspaper news to advice from some Love Island celebrity rather than an eminent epidemiologist.

Professor Linda Bauld has said we are building up a raft of health risks for young people and for those with untreated medical conditions. The consequences of the lockdown period may emerge as far greater than the challenge we face tackling the virus.

Fertility clinics have closed their doors. Attendance at A&E is halved. Cancer referrals are down 72%. The pandemic has curtailed breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are down 20%. Doctors are seeing fewer patients who may have had a ministroke or heart attack. Nor are they seeing children with coronavirus who have mild symptoms as they will recover. That is a concern as some ailments (e.g. appendicitis, pneumonia or sepsis) can mirror the virus.

All politicians hide behind the mantra that they are guided by the scientists (so why are we the last to close our borders?), but, with one cancer death for two from Covid-19, the time has come for Scotland to take baby steps and emerge from the lockdown.

John V Lloyd Inverkeithing