Re: “Lockdown is unjustified,” Letters, July 2
People who write letters about COVID-19 should really try to get the most up to date information. New information is coming out all the time, which makes sense. The novel in novel coronavirus means that it’s new. Not only had nobody in the world had the virus when it first started circulating, but the medical people had almost no information about it. They were guessing at first and now know a lot more. They are learning all the time and thus modifying the information given out.
In the letter mentioned above, the writer uses Sweden as an example we should be following. The author of Sweden’s policy has since repudiated it because they are having far more deaths than the surrounding Scandinavian countries, which did lock down. It definitely is not the path we should be going down.
The writer also is using old information when he says that we should only quarantine sick people. That would be all well and good if people with mild or no symptoms could not pass on the virus.
Unfortunately they can. Nobody can know if the person breathing or sneezing on them has the virus, and nobody can know unless they have just tested negative whether they have it and could be infecting others.
The writer doesn’t mention it, but I suspect he believes the nonsense that only old people and people with underlying conditions get severe cases. That just isn’t true.
Young healthy people have been and are getting severe cases, some so severe they wish they could die. Of course that doesn’t happen as often, but do you really want to take the chance?
Tia Leschke
Winlaw
