No one has all the answers to virus crisis

I HAVE to take issue with the arch ‘Boris Basher’, Shaun Shute (“Johnson must quit over Covid plan delay”, Letters, 28 January).

Boris Johnson had hardly stepped through the door of Number 10 after his election win when the world was hit by the worst global health crisis for more than a century.

No country in the world was prepared for it and different countries took different approaches and, with no previous experience of dealing with a pandemic, mistakes were made (even the Swedes whose laissez-faire attitude to Covid was ‘admired’, now acknowledge that their approach was wrong).

Covid has been a learning curve for leaders (and populations) worldwide. The same people who successfully lobbied against the proposal that face masks should be worn and that we should close our borders, are now belly-aching that the decisions to enforce the wearing of masks and closure of borders were not made early enough.

The government was damned if it did and damned if it didn’t.

The pandemic has taken a huge physical and mental toll on those who have had the heavy responsibility of trying to steer us through it. Far from being criticised over their handling of the global disaster, the PM and his senior ministers deserve our heartfelt thanks for the way they have stepped up to the mark and given their all – which is reflected in the face of everyone of them – especially the sadness etched into the PM’s face when, on Monday, he spoke of the death toll from Covid having reached 100,000.

As for the much lauded ‘success’ (if it can be believed) that China has had in minimising the effect of the

pandemic on its population – we should remember that China is a communist dictatorship where people do exactly as they are instructed and do not have the freedom to express dissent.

Nor does it help the situation when former unremarkable political has-beens, like his predecessor, Theresa May (surely more of a political never-was!),who would have buckled under the pressure long ago, decide to have a go at his leadership.

Robert Readman Dorset