Letters: Do not let the Government shift the blame on to the public

The Government seemed to make few preparations and take no serious measures to stop Covid-19 spreading to the UK. Other than a couple of hundred who’d been in or near Wuhan, people flying here from China, Iran or Italy were neither tested for the virus, nor quarantined. It was mid-March before any serious isolation measures were taken in the UK.

The Make It British group of companies say they’ve offered to make more PPE, but the Government ignored them. Health Secretary Matt Hancock urging NHS staff to treat PPE as a “precious resource” is an attempt to blame NHS staff for Government failure. Using the same gloves and mask will spread not just Covid-19 but other viruses and bacterial infections between patients.

South Korea shows the most effective containment method is mass testing, contract tracing through mobile phone records, and protective equipment. Sadly, we’ve lost time to make this fully effective due to our lack of lab testing capacity and late Government action.

This must not result in the Government shifting blame to the public. Isolation is a necessity at the moment; but enough testing and contact tracing could eventually replace it. The vast majority follow the rules. Photos claiming they’re being broken forget there may be three or more people living in the same house or flat.

Duncan McFarlane, Carluke.

WHY must it be the case that the youngest generation and those below the age of 70 have to suffer varying degrees of privation for the sake of the older generation, of which I am one?

For the last two days I have read the obituaries in the Herald and in all but two cases out of at least 20 I could identify the deaths as being of men and women old enough to be grandparents.

I am appalled that a virus that we are told primarily seriously affects or kills those deemed vulnerable – that is, those with serious underlying health conditions and the very old, results in children and their young parents in lockdown for weeks on end without the prospect of change. No government has given reason to hope that the present lockdown will be eased, for any group, any time soon.

We need young people to keep the economy going and I for one would be ready to continue to stay in lockdown if I knew that parents could resume a more normal life and little children could access the locked play parks again.

Can we not agree that those in good health, those who are tasked to build all our futures be allowed to have their lives less restricted? By all means ask them to be careful, maintain social distancing wherever possible and restrict access to older people. Or must everyone follow the diktats of those who probably have never lived in a high-rise tenement with children indoors for as much as 23 out of 24 hours a day? We are not all suffering equally, as usual it is the poorest, most vulnerable in society who suffer most in a crisis.

Kay Gall, Edinburgh EH14.

SOMETIMES, when as a child I asked where was my father, I would be told that "he is sitting with someone", from which I knew he was with a person who was doing that strange-to-me thing, dying. As an elder in our Welsh chapel he had a certain way with him to comfort people. People, of all religious beliefs round our home area would say "send for Elwyn" and he would keep the "night watch". Then be at work the next day.

When it was his time to die, he was at my home so my late husband, my mother and I were there for the weeks of his last illness. Even when he was dying my mother always shared their bed and he was never alone. The doctor and district-nurse were constant presences. His last day, as I was at work, I was phoned and broke the sound barrier to get home to be with him. I lay on his bed, held his hand and whispered. He always knew that I loved him, as he loved me. My splendid old dad.

The last few paragraphs of the article by Professor Andrew Elder ("Let us find ways to allow families to be together at the end of life", Agenda, The Herald, April 16) really struck a chord. I can live with myself because I was at my father's dying and he knew that we all loved him; he was not alone. My daughter's suicide, 24 years ago, meant she was totally alone, I could not be with her so the pain and grief are never-ending. Prof Elder is quite right when he says: "We can find ways to allow families to be together at this time". Surely that is possible?

Thelma Edwards, Kelso.

I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with Alan Simpson about the increasing number of people, with no medical qualifications, claiming to have the right answer to the Covid-19 pandemic ("Keyboard ‘experts’ should shut up about Covid-19",The Herald, April 16). I might add the increasingly annoying TV channel interviewers, who seem totally unable to listen to clear answers, given to their increasingly repetitive questions.

As a retired GP, I am sure they will all soon perfect the use of an instrument which I found regularly to be 100 per cent successful: the retrospectoscope.

Stuart Holms, Ayr.

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