‘Don’t mention the virus’ has become a mantra, says Joan Twelves, while Joe Sim and Steve Tombs say the government is silencing discussion about the disease. Plus one reader describes how her husband’s death was not recorded as caused by Covid
John Harris is right (We desperately need a government who will say it: Britain is still reeling from Covid, 29 May). It’s as though the pandemic never happened. The long-term effects that it has had on our and our children’s mental and physical health, our NHS, our public services, as well as the global economy, have been swept under the carpet. “Don’t mention the virus” has become the guiding mantra of our media and our politicians.
The past is being erased. The present is being ignored. Even though the pandemic is still with us, all protections, surveillance and data collections have been dismantled. Those millions still at the highest risk are reporting being told to take their masks off in hospitals. The roughly quarter of a million people who died from Covid are no longer even a number.
