Where’s the public anger about the government’s over-confident and irresponsible plan to remove all restrictions on 19 July (Global experts urge Boris Johnson to delay ‘dangerous’ Covid reopening, 7 July)?
Why should any more people die or be affected by long Covid when these tragedies can be avoided? Why should our exhausted NHS staff be made to go through a third wave of Covid which will prevent them dealing with the backlog of other serious illnesses and may endanger their own health?
The prime minister’s response to exponential growth in the number of infections over the coming weeks that will threaten to overwhelm the NHS will be: “These are unintended consequences.” They are not. They are totally predictable now.
The answer to Boris Johnson’s question – “If not now, then when?” – is surely: “When 99% of us have been double-jabbed and deaths and hospitalisations are minimal.”
Frank Coffield
Durham
• My vulnerability in relation to Covid is confined to being in the over-80s age group and living alone, but I can empathise deeply with Laura Elliott (Covid ‘freedom day’ means nothing of the sort for clinically vulnerable people, 10 July). Why on earth could the prime minister be so shortsighted or gung-ho in announcing that the wearing of masks is to become a matter of choice? I have become fearful, perhaps irrationally, of using public transport or shopping in supermarkets, where so many people are even now not wearing masks.
While I have been doubly vaccinated for over two months, every step that I take outside my front door requires a degree of courage, though I long for, and often still enjoy, the outdoor experience.
After 19 July there could well be an increase in the correlation between the eschewing of mask wearing and my fears, while for those like Laura Elliott who are much more vulnerable, there can be little or no freedom – and much despair.
Jill Westby
Nottingham
• Scientists are right to warn of the risks when it comes to the lifting of Covid restrictions on 19 July. One area of great confusion and increased risk will be the workplace (including schools). The Health and Safety at Work Act sets out the duties employers have to employees and members of the public, that employees have to themselves and each other, and that certain self-employed people have to themselves and others.
Every employer has to prepare, and where appropriate revise, a written statement of their general policy with respect to health and safety and conduct their business so that the public are not exposed to risks to their health. Should employers now be revising their policy statements and taking Covid and the lifting of mandatory restrictions into account?
It is lucky for the government that the Health and Safety Executive and numbers of local government environmental health officers have been so cut back that enforcement of this legislation is sporadic at best. What advice should they be giving?
Not so lucky will be those infected with this virus and future variants. The government, whose first job is to lead and protect public health, is failing to do so and is shifting responsibility to everyone else.
Dr Stephen Battersby
Surbiton, London
• My reaction, as a well-off pensioner, to the relaxation of Covid rules is to cancel travel plans, eschew public transport and stop eating out in restaurants. How will this help the economy to recover?
Roderick Floud
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
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