The UK’s high death rate was directly caused by our contemptible, inept and single-issue PM and cronies who were in total denial for too long before our first lockdown, again too slow to lock borders when Delta was identified, and too quick to allow bouts of rule relaxations but also too focused on lining their equally inept pals’ businesses with contracts producing unusable products eg PPE, school computers, then test and trace services etc., costing our taxpayers billions which could have gone to raising medics wages etc etc. They ignored the later successful NHS etc/ contractors well equipped to hit the ground running as they did when they rolled out our amazing vaccination programme.

We had a very quiet flu season in 2020 because of isolation. We hope opening up this winter coupled with the more infectious delta variant will not again disable the NHS from clearing the backlog for other conditions and operations.

The vaccines are preventing cases of serious illness and therefore deaths and possibly long covid. As for Martyn (of Silves) comments on hydroxychlorocine and ivermectin, neither are safe to use as a treatment for covid, especially the latter which is used by vets for parasitic infestations. These are NOT approved by FDA for this use. May I also suggest that the USA is not a good example of a reasoned response to the pandemic, as it is divided into many states’ responses with their own insular idiotic conspiracy theories based on proven false ideas shown to damage their own health and economy.

This pandemic is real and was predictable and predicted, as were the effects, numbers of cases and deaths many years ago with internationally agreed plans to respond. The world has been here before but many of our now world leaders are incapable of the jobs they were elected to do, incapable of leading and blinded by their own self-importance.

Hazel, Tavira