Covid-19: England has one of the highest death rates in the world

• PROFESSOR Marc Serfaty argues that the probity of Public Health England ensures the government will not be able to use statistical trickery to mislead the public about the efficacy of actions against coronavirus Covid-19, (Early action protects lives, January 15).

This strikes me as the equivalent of accepting Donald Trump’s word as a guarantee of political integrity.

Professor Serfaty rightly warns against conspiracy theories. Fortunately my doubts about the PHE are based on a series of facts, all in the public domain.

1. Since it was established, one of the PHE’s most vital responsibilities was to ensure adequate defences against possible epidemic/pandemic.

2. Right up to the beginning of 2020 the PHE assured all inquirers that they were well on top of this task.

3. When Covid-19 struck in March it was found defences were woefully inadequate, particularly in providing personal protective clothing, PPE, to those at risk from the disease.

4. In the absence of sufficient PPE, medical staff and carers were assured by PHE that aprons and face scarfs would offer sufficient protection.

5. As a result thousands of medical staff, carers, and their patients, contracted the disease and many died.

This helps to explain why England has one of the highest Covid-19 death rates in the world.

I would not buy a used car from an organisation with a record like that, still less a self-justifying set of statistics.

My original argument, several letters ago, was that pubs and restaurants were not the prime cause of the spread of the coronavirus among the young, and closing them down would do little to help, indeed could prove counter productive, (We have to take care with Covid-19 stats, October 16).

Young people are genetically programmed to socialise, and the best a medical bureaucracy can do is to minimise the potential infections that may result.

Well-run hostelries observing the rules may not be entirely safe, but they are a great deal less dangerous than the raves which the young seem to have adopted as a replacement.

Bureaucracies can always produce statistics designed to justify their actions, but it is rather naive to accept them at face value.

HAROLD LIND
Canonbury South, N1