Mixed messaging has helped this virus surge
In March, Boris Johnson was telling us we could send the virus packing. At the end of April, he said we were past the peak. By June, he wanted the bustle back, and in July, the message was we would be back to normal by Christmas. But now he says a second wave has been “absolutely inevitable” (UK entering second wave of coronavirus, Boris Johnson warns, 18 September).
It would be good to think that this was a dawning realisation that the virus doesn’t respond to bluster, casual optimism and dangerous overconfidence – but unfortunately it is just the PM rewriting the story to appear that he always knew this was coming, and that it’s nothing to do with him since it was unavoidable.
Bill Stothart
Chester
• I wonder why we are the worst in Europe to comply with rules designed to limit the spread of Covid-19 (Health official urges people not to flock to ‘heaving’ Blackpool, 20 September). Could it be anything to do with Boris Johnson being photographed shaking hands against his own government’s guidelines? Or with Dominic Cummings travelling hundreds of miles north while having Covid-19 symptoms, and then going out for the day to test his eyesight – again, against government guidelines? Why on earth would you expect anyone to follow government guidelines?
Colleen Darby
Manchester
• Ian Richardson (Letters, 17 September) offers evidence in relation to the failure of the British public to comply with Covid rules. During the lockdown here in a small town in France, the police set up roadblocks to check the papers we were all obliged to complete and carry to ensure that the rules were being respected. Substantial fines and potential imprisonment for repeat offenders were the sanctions for those who were outside of their homes without authorisation.
Currently, entrance to railway stations and access to trains are refused to anyone not wearing a mask, and is all monitored by officials in uniform. In the absence of any deterrent, the public will do as they please.
Dominica Jewell
Bazoches au Houlme, France
• I have recently returned to Beijing after a number of months in involuntary exile in South Korea with my family. We eventually returned to China with a charter flight out of Italy.
When we quarantined at home, courtesy of our local neighbourhood committee, they placed an alarm on our front gate which was triggered when we left the compound around our house. The only excuses for opening the gate were accepting deliveries and putting out the trash. We had a sheet to complete to justify the gate being opened.
Of course we could have run away from the house and arranged to be let back in, but we, like most Chinese citizens, realised that the greater good of the many outweighs the individual needs of a few, and we made it to 14 days without any breaches.
I fail to see why this sort of system, relatively cheap and installed in two minutes, cannot be introduced around the world.
William Dawson
Beijing, China
• The last time pub opening hours were restricted, by the Defence of the Realm Act in 1914, it took 74 years to change them back. One hopes that MPs will put a regular review in place this time (Coronavirus: pubs and restaurants across England to be forced to shut at 10pm, 21 September).
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London
