Just this once, Boris Johnson should listen to the experts about Covid and keep all schools shut tomorrow

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

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I am absolutely disgusted that Boris Johnson has called on people to send their children to primary schools on Monday. Just this once, for the first time ever, the prime minister should listen to the unions, listen to the scientists, listen to the doctors. Hospitals are already overflowing and the spread of Covid-19 is rising rapidly.  

It is obvious – totally obvious – that schools need to remain shut until at least the February half-term, as Jeremy Hunt hinted. Why does Boris Johnson want to put teachers’ lives at risk?; why is he willing to break the NHS?; why is he fine with the virus spreading even further, even faster, as soon as Monday? Boris Johnson is putting lives at risk. May we never forget this abdication of governance.  

Sebastian Monblat  

Sutton

Let’s get the children back to school and safeguard school staff by vaccinating them against Covid-19 as soon as possible. I am old and vulnerable and would willingly wait for vaccination. There are vulnerable parents and carers who are in danger of getting Covid from their children.

M Holland

Surrey

In response to yesterday’s letters page, my heart bleeds for these pampered, spoiled, entitled young folk. You mean to tell me they have spent a whole year not living exactly how they wished? Did their phones and computers stop the social interaction that they had chosen previously over eyeball to eyeball interaction?  

The arts disappeared for an entire year of their lives – oh how will they ever recover? And how many were submerged in the arts rather than the world of selfies and which label could be plastered to their clothes beforehand?

Ah yes, they will be denied the big homes because for a year or so they were denied the right to work, save and sacrifice for their futures. And let’s not forget those huge pensions bestowed on their elders for saving the world, building this civilization and actually getting their hands dirty in factories and mines so our very deserving youngsters can sit in a cubicle, staring at a screen, never getting their hands dirty or calloused and earning a living.  

Yes – they should pay for nothing – they have earned very little, sacrificed nothing and are so precious they should not have to participate in the rigors of the real world.

You dear writer are the problem, not your elders.

Bob Miller

Addressed supplied

I feel the need to point out the fact that Covid-19 has affected everyone, not just the young (Letters, 2 January 2020). We have all had a year of not being able to visit friends and family, although some selfish people have broken the rules, with a complete disregard for the lives of others.

People over the age of 55 have suffered the most, becoming seriously ill and dying, while a relatively small number of young people have been affected in the same way. Is it right that they should be punished further by being burdened with the bill for the cost this virus has had on the whole of society?  

Not all over 55s live in a large house with pots of money at their disposal. Some live in council accommodation and struggle to exist on benefits, some have mortgages to pay and have lost their jobs, so they may find it hard to secure another position, and they cannot afford to retire, since not everyone over the age of 55 has had the luxury of being able to contribute to pension schemes when they were young.

It really is quite simple. The cost this virus has inflicted on our country should be paid for by the wealthy, regardless of age.

Kathryn Jackman

Aberdeen

Has anyone noticed a tarantula creeping around recently? The education secretary must have been allowed out again. Oh, there he is, pirouetting on the political ice again. Better plan for all possible scenarios then.

Here is an excellent example of the unique blend of incompetence, absence of empathy and unbridled privilege that characterises this government. He can’t cooperate with other stakeholders (not even the eminently practical headteachers’ unions), seeks to blame others and turns everything into a culture war. The pandemic must be such an annoying distraction for him.

David Lowndes

Soberton, Hampshire

After a year of obfuscation, half-truths, lies and deceits, we need our prime minister to reinvent himself and do those basic things that one would expect of a leader.

Quite simply, Mr Johnson, do not make wild, unsubstantiated promises like being “world beating” or “oven ready” and so on; start treating us like intelligent adults. Don’t tell us how everything will be back to normal by April or next summer when you have no evidence for such claims; just provide us with some assurance that you are working to a strategic plan and tell us clearly how it will work.  

Start dealing in details: tell us exactly how many vaccinations have been administered, to whom they are being given, how long it will take to safeguard the most vulnerable and what the successive next steps will be.  

Of course, planning ahead has never been his government’s strong point; hence the catalogue of U-turns to which we have been subjected that have made it nigh on impossible for those in the front line of health, education and business to plan ahead themselves.

It’s time for the prime minister to break the habits of a lifetime: to stop promising that on which he knows he cannot deliver and start telling the hard truths, even when they are painful to himself and others. Better still, it might be advantageous for him to start putting the needs of others before his own.

Graham Powell

Cirencester, Gloucestershire