Not publishing our coronavirus statistics worries me that the numbers are being massaged

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The government review of how coronavirus statistics are calculated and their non-publication is a clear example, in my view, of trying to massage the statistics and lower them. That a number of deaths occur longer than 28 days after testing positive does not necessarily mean they are not coronavirus related. It has been shown that longer-term effects on health occur after the initial symptoms have ceased and the patient appears to have recovered. Moreover the number of deaths over the normal average for the period are unacceptably high. That figure cannot be massaged.

Maurizio Moore
Essex

Few friends out there

Having just watched Andrew Marr interviewing Dominic Raab, it seems that our government has finally realised what an unpleasant regime China is with its suppression of minorities and lack of human rights. This, along with the threatened retaliation from China following our decision to follow the US’s bidding and remove all Huawei kit from our 5G network looks like the end of the “Entente Cameron” as far as our relationship with China is concerned.

Given that we are a relatively small player on the world stage, and given Russia’s continued malevolence towards us (the Skripal poisoning, interference in the EU referendum and general elections etc), and Trump’s increasingly Stalinist behaviour and isolationist tendencies, where in the world are we going to find regimes that share our values of freedom of expression, democracy, decency, environmental protection and workers’ rights, that we can form an ongoing relationship with? How about the European Union?

Richard Barlow
Gloucestershire

Is it down to genetics?

A shame Jenni Murray has gone down the road of blaming genes for obesity. Scientists have said we all have the genes to eat more but we have to control this. If genes are the culprit, can she explain this relatively new crisis which is happening worldwide? Look at school, family and newspaper photographs going back just 20 years and you will see a much smaller population. Type 2 diabetes was unheard of when I was in school in the 70s; now it’s the norm. Unhealthy school diets, take away outlets and cheap supermarket food and fizzy drinks all have a role to play in this problem.

Linda Theobald
London

Racial profiling is a stain

Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu wrote about a magazine editor (who happened to be black) who was told by a security guard at his workplace to “use the loading bay”. This reminds me of the old white male Tory MP who told a young black female Labour MP in a lift in the House of Commons “cleaners are not allowed to use this lift”. The resemblance ends there, as the Tory MP is still in post, and the mother of parliaments still has a problem with racial profiling.

Sam Boote
Nottingham