We were not required to wear face coverings until the virus was in remission. And we wonder what went wrong

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

I find it ironic that in the peak of the pandemic back in April and May, while people in all other countries were already wearing face coverings, one of the only countries not requiring the wearing of masks or face coverings was Britain. When the pandemic was in remission we were told to start wearing them. I can only conclude that this was due to cost-cutting.  

Our country was so ill-prepared for the pandemic that the government chose to actively discourage the wearing of masks by the general public as it didn’t even have sufficient numbers for the NHS! We have been misled or even deceived into believing masks served no useful purpose and were even detrimental to our health, bearing in mind it is estimated that we touch our faces 20 times per hour. If wearing a mask isolates your mouth and nose and contains a sneeze then it clearly gives us more protection.

Secondly, our prime minister advised us to wash our hands for 20 seconds. This was pointless as when you enter a supermarket and touch the shopping trolley or enter the toilet, touch doors, taps, and so on, your hands are immediately contaminated. The best control was using hand sanitiser containing high percentages of alcohol. Unfortunately none of this PPE was available through the peak of the pandemic.

Our government had not acted in obtaining this equipment in order to save money, at the cost of many thousands of lives.

Roy Douglas Anderson

Ellesmere, Shropshire

Get Boris out

So, nearly 16,000 people missed by track and trace. Track and trace itself is not working. Testing is not working. The nation was too late in locking down. The highest excess deaths in Europe and at the same time nearly the worst economic impact in Europe. Boris Johnson is attempting to get people back to work too soon, then reversing. The exam fiasco. A prime minister constantly in hiding whenever there is bad news. Decisions made by a small coterie driven by an unelected adviser whose agenda appears to be to ignore rules he helps to set and to create chaos. Questions of probity over the awarding of government contracts.  

The list goes on and on, and heaven preserve our country, we have another nearly four years before the electorate has a say.  

Can anyone be in doubt that we need a COMPLETELY new government, one that has some semblance of ability? I don’t argue for another election, but if the Conservative Party truly believes in this country, and if it values its (clearly now abandoned) reputation for competence, then surely even it can see the need to get rid of the present pathetic leadership before it does even more damage, and give the nation an administration that doesn’t damage us and make us a laughing stock at every U-turn.  

Arthur Streatfield

Bath

Incompetence is key

With the news of what happened to all those “missed” tests, it seems that there is one word which now describes the response to the Covid pandemic at all levels: incompetence. It could apply to our negotiations with the EU over a trade deal. It is a very sad reflection of our society.

Steve Mumby

London  

There is life at the end

This week marks Hospice Care Week and now more than ever people at end of life and their families need our care and support.

As the country’s leading end of life charity – we cared for over 8,500 people across Scotland last year – we understand how vital it is for terminally ill people to receive the very best care in their final years, months, weeks and days.

That’s why we have continued to be at the front line during the pandemic, caring for people in the community in their homes and at our hospice in Edinburgh. At any one time we support over 300 people who live at home in the capital and in West Lothian. One way we do this is through day therapy sessions which support people at end of life, both physically and emotionally.

Due to restrictions brought on by the pandemic, we are adapting the ways we work and finding creative solutions to ensure patients don’t miss out on this vital service. We now provide virtual consultations, coffee mornings, gentle exercise and relaxation online, giving our patients the opportunity to engage with others and tackle the loneliness and isolation brought on by local restrictions.

The people that we care for don’t have the luxury of time and it’s important that we continue to help people live while they are dying.

Libby Milton

Clinical services lead, Marie Curie

Labels

By condemning those who give asylum seekers and refugees the benefit of the rule of law as “do-gooders”, has Priti Patel self-identified as a “do-badder?”

Sasha Simic

London

I won’t fall for it

While I agree completely with David Wallis’s sentiment in his letter that the Immigration Service has acted, and continues to act, in the way one might expect of an organisation which has hostility to immigration so thoroughly embedded in its culture, I do not believe we should be grateful to an unknown Home Office employee for leaking the government’s ideas. I believe the government deliberately leaked its own ideas, to “test the water”, while also appealing to a certain section of Tory core voters who believe the right-wing propaganda that Britain is awash with illegal immigrants taking all the jobs and living off government hand-outs.

As time goes by, and more becomes known about the behaviour of the Immigration Service, the more I am inclined to believe that anyone with “sufficient humanity” has long since left. Only the racists, and those with no compassion are left, to happily do the will of one racially motivated home secretary after another.

David Curran

Feltham, Middlesex