Masks aren’t useless – they are a vital defence against Covid this winter and should be mandatory again

Your leader on protecting the NHS weakens its case fatally by repeating the misconception that “masks may not have much effect”. It is that attitude (combined with right-wing nonsense about Great British Freedoms being infringed) that has led to a widespread abandoning of masks in crowded public spaces.

Living in the country where the vast majority of customers at our local supermarket still wear masks, I am shocked on rare visits to London at the casual attitude to mask-wearing. Transport for London’s valiant effort to persuade people to wear masks on buses and the Underground has largely failed precisely because it is no longer legally enforceable.

The supposed uselessness of masks is not a view shared by the medical profession. The efficacy of masks and of regular hand-sanitising was confirmed by the fact that last winter saw far fewer colds and flu than in a normal year. These sensible precautions do minimise the spread of germs.

So it is vitally important to return to government-mandated mask wearing and hand sanitising during this potentially dangerous coming winter. Half-hearted exhortations by the more balanced organs of the press and by one or two more sensible government ministers will not change attitudes quickly enough.

Gavin Turner

Gunton, Norfolk

Whilst we have a government that is slow to protect the NHS from the inevitable pressures of rising Covid admissions then it would be appropriate for the media to publish daily deaths for each of the leading causes of death in the UK. Just for the public to see how many people die from heart disease, cancer, dementia, stroke, Covid and other respiratory diseases per day would show how the NHS is struggling to cope.

Kartar Uppal

Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

Isn’t it obvious? The reason why Boris Johnson doesn’t want to introduce plan B is because of the forthcoming Cop26 conference. How would it look to the rest of the world if they come over here and are confronted with a country in lockdown with people working from home, enforced mask wearing, Covid passports needed to enter buildings, etc. That doesn’t suit Boris’s image of the country.

So I predict more people are going to catch Covid and more people are going to die unnecessarily over the next two weeks until Cop26 is out of the way and then plan B will be hastily introduced.

Paul Moore

West Horsley, Surrey

Why do I feel so bitter and angry about this government?

Is it because we now know that we, the electorate, were lied to in the referendum campaign, as Dominic Cummings suggests? To Cummings and those around him it was just a campaign, in which lies and misrepresentations were simply tools used through a sympathetic media to dupe a gullible electorate. To others, however, it was about the survival of the precious culture of our nation and its relationship with its closest friends and neighbours.

Possibly it’s because those who jumped on the bandwagon of Brexit had no thought for the people of this nation, or for the morality of truth, only for their own ambition and lust for power.

Particularly it’s because those opportunists are not only now in power, arguably under false pretences, (after all, is a contract valid if it is based on lies?), but they are profoundly incompetent, and are dragging our nation down and shaming decent people with their absence of morality, ability or integrity.

Yes I am angry, and it’s about time the people of this country became angry too!

Arthur Streatfield

Bath

In Letters, June Hawkins rightly asks what we might call this government’s misguided and self-serving actions. It cannot simply be incompetence or even gross negligence. Our prime minister’s actions and inactions amount to wilful and malicious negligence which appears to intend harm to this country, to its reputation and to its citizens.

Were he to be a mole working on behalf of a hostile regime, he could hardly do more damage to this country than he already has as our supposed leader. Or is he just a puppet of those who want to turn the United Kingdom into some kind of dystopia?

Darryl Pratt

Leamington Spa

Bel Trew is right that the fatigue over northeast Syria must end. Much of the world seems to have forgotten the hellish and gruesome war in Syria. This war was fraught with enormous tragic events, gruelling desolation, destitution, diseases, destruction, slaughtering fields, compounded by a massive influx of refugees, and more importantly, the fatal impotence of governments and a fragile and divided UN to preserve life and uphold international law. The global community must muster a humane collective approach to end people’s suffering, environmental destruction and contempt for human life and dignity.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London