SIR – The Covid testing regime currently in place causes more trouble to the
economy than it’s worth.
By far the larger proportion of those testing positive are isolating without
symptoms. Meanwhile, the omicron variant continues its relentless progress
through the population on its trajectory to becoming another version of the
common cold.
Here’s a novel idea: scrap testing. Stay at home if you feel ill but go about
your business as usual if you are well.
William Tarver
Wokingham, Berkshire
SIR – John Swinney, deputy first minister of Scotland, recently said: “What
we have got to recognise is that omicron is a serious threat to absolutely
everybody within our society and we have all got to take measures to protect
ourselves by limiting our social contacts and connections.”
I would suggest that a virus that kills fewer than 1 per cent of those who
catch it (and, of that group, many have comorbidities or are obese) should
not be described in such lurid terms.
Is it any wonder that, with politicians engaging in such hyperbole, so many
people are frightened out of their wits?
John McErlean
Elstow, Bedfordshire