Don’t listen to vaccination deniers, and take responsibility for yourself and your children

The article from Louise Soraya Black about her children having a genetic immune deficiency is very welcome as it correctly points out a section of the community that are at greater risk from not only coronavirus but all infectious diseases. There are also many people with reduced immunity due to various medical procedures, eg, cancer treatment.

All of these people need protection from what are, be in no doubt whatsoever, life-threatening illnesses. It is vital that we all play our part in reducing the risks and the most important area is vaccinations. Once the take-up rate is nearing, let us say, 95 per cent, then the vulnerable in society are being reasonably well protected.

Unfortunately, we are plagued with “crazy vaccination deniers” in this country and across the developed world, who are showing no regard for immunity-suppressed people: just look at the surge in mumps cases – last year over 5,000!

The old chestnut I have read and heard many times, “they are my children, it is my choice”, does not hold water. Unvaccinated children risk infecting the above mentioned group with tragic consequences.

Robert Boston
Kingshill

A real threat?

Face masks, quarantine and general panic for an infection that has caused more than 1,500 deaths. Common influenza kills up to 650,000 people worldwide each year. I know what I am afraid of!

Lyn Atterbury
Poland

No beacon

So our solicitor general, Michael Ellis, thinks that where human rights are concerned, “The UK is a beacon in ... around the world”.

What kind of dream world does Ellis live in? Does he know nothing whatsoever about our Home Office’s deplorable record? Does the word “Windrush”, for example, mean nothing to him?

D Maughan Brown
York

A defence of Corbyn

I’m getting very tired of reading “advice” from correspondents as to how Labour should win back votes. It mostly seems to consist of telling them to become Tories.

The last election was given to the Tories by people who were tired of the Brexit saga and by those who had been influenced heavily by negative coverage towards Jeremy Corbyn in the media, particularly the press. How else can we explain the huge deterioration in support for Labour between the last two elections? Sustained denigration of Corbyn took its toll, as it was intended to.

Labour had a decent and constructive manifesto, and it beats me how people can interpret this as communism. Did these critics actually look at Labour’s policies, or just read them through the malign filter of the Tory press? I am also stunned that activities undertaken by the Tories pre-election, such as falsely posing as a “fact check” website, were overlooked by the electorate. You can’t say they weren’t warned of the calibre of the people they were electing.

It seems appearances matter hugely to the British electorate. Johnson has fooled everyone into believing he is a benign, bumbling sort of character, while just behind his shoulder lurks the clearly malign Dominic Cummings. We are already seeing plenty of extremely dubious behaviour coming from this Tory administration, and it will undoubtedly get far worse. What a shame it all is.

Penny Little
Great Haseley

Time to move on

Jeremy Corbyn epitomises everything a leader shouldn’t be: he says he accepts responsibility for the defeat but refuses to support his hollow words by his actions and thereby insults his own party and indeed the entire electorate.

The country has moved on and he needs to move on forthwith to expedite a fresh start for a more centrist opposition leader with the true interests of the people at heart rather than one peddling self-defeating Marxist ideologies.

Carl McMullan​
Burgess Hill

Reading 25 books doesn’t make an expert

Jared Kushner, who is the architect of “Trump’s Middle East Peace Scam”, recently told Sky News Arabia that he read about 25 books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That does not make him an expert on conflict resolution or qualify him to be the US special envoy to the Middle East. I have just read 25 medical books and am here to perform a brain surgery!

Kushner has the audacity to tell the Palestinians to accept the plan or shut up. He later warned them not to come to the UN to express their displeasure with the plan.

The truth is, Kushner is no expert on the Middle East and his only qualification to be the senior presidential adviser or an expert in conflict resolution is that he is married to Trump’s favourite daughter.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph
Westerville, Ohio

Steve Mumby argues in his letter that because, since he has left school, he has been expected to make all his decisions about his life, then he should have the right to decide when he wants to die.

But he didn’t decide to be born. His parents made that decision, so I ask why does he feel he has the right to choose when to die? This issue is not simple at all, but very complex, because it asks what is free will?

Kartar Uppal
Sutton Coldfield

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