In recent research I did with colleagues in Oxford, Manchester and New York, we produced model-based evidence that Covid-19 transmission is linked to living in shared accommodation or the sharing of a kitchen. The finding is particularly robust in both the UK and US, and deprivation is a significant factor that forces people to live together in settings where physical distancing is difficult. The three-tier system that has emerged from the government (Tempers flare over new Covid rules as Johnson warns: ‘We must act now’, 13 October) is disappointing in that it fails to make use of these simple but predictable and important facts.
As a result, forcing people to stay at home when some threshold case rate is triggered is a reaction that may not be very protective for some households or have as much benefit in lower-income neighbourhoods, where the sharing of accommodation is more prevalent. The government’s record on consultation has been something of a curate’s egg and in this case it really should be engaging with communities about ways in which they can protect themselves, rather than just handing out overly simple messages that fail to account for important differences in the way people live.
Prof Paul Anand
The Open University
• Re the prime minister’s warning that “we must act now”, he’s had four months to act and get ready for a resurgence since the earlier lockdown measures were relaxed on 4 July. Instead, we find the government in a spin trying to get ready over a weekend to announce new measures on Monday.
Bill Stothart
Chester
• If it weren’t so serious, I’d be quite amused by the fact that we now know, from documents released on Monday evening after his call to “act now”, that over two weeks ago Boris Johnson ignored the advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies to introduce a second lockdown (Covid: Jenrick defends decision to ignore Sage’s lockdown advice, theguardian.com, 13 October).
Ian Ferguson
Pickering, North Yorkshire
• While sympathising with those areas of the country going into stricter lockdowns, a gentle reminder that we in Leicester were placed in lockdown more than three months ago.
The response of the government was opprobrium, from the prime minister down, that we “didn’t understand”, we broke the rules, we didn’t care, it was our fault, everybody works in slave conditions, we are poor, we are a majority BAME community. This at a time the government deigned not to share its non-NHS pillar 2 data with local authorities.
Has the government learned the lessons about how to implement orderly and consensual local lockdowns? Not so much. Perhaps a bit less opprobrium.
Iestyn Davies Jones
Leicester
• The government’s shambolic response to Covid has nothing to do with London (Local lockdowns dreamed up in London are causing nightmares for the rest of England, 11 October). It is the product of a private school system that imbues men like Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson with the arrogance to believe they are right even when they are patently wrong.
Dr Michael Paraskos
London
• A suitable soundtrack for our times? The Tiers of a Clown.
Phil Rhoden
Low Habberley, Worcestershire
