Letters: It was scaremongering to announce an omicron death with no other data

SIR – On Monday evening the Prime Minister announced the first death of a person in Britain with the omicron Covid variant.

There was no mention of whether this person had been vaccinated or had any underlying health problems, or of how old they were. This is scaremongering at its worst.

Nigel Fountain
Reading, Berkshire

SIR – I fear that even if the omicron variant causes only mild disease for most people, our death figures will still be seen to rise significantly because we count deaths “with” the virus rather than “of” it. Why do we have to present the figures like this? I do hope that it will not be used as an excuse for further lockdowns.

P J Heard
Wraxall, Somerset

SIR – In the pharmaceutical world, the significance of real-world evidence versus laboratory evidence is fully recognised. Medicines are approved based on controlled conditions but then often behave slightly differently depending on how patients actually use them. So why are politicians continually claiming to follow the science in imposing restrictions, then ignoring the real-world experience in a largely unvaccinated population in South Africa?

We hear that there will be a large wave of hospitalisations due to omicron. That is not what the real-world evidence is currently showing.

Andrew Holgate
Derby

SIR – I have been a fellow of two royal colleges for 50 years and a consultant general surgeon with specific training in cancer diagnosis and management for 40 years. I am fully validated and appraised by the General Medical Council to work in these fields and am in full-time practice.

Rather than joining the vaccinators, I and similarly qualified colleagues across Britain should be running emergency two-week-wait clinics in NHS hospitals to see the desperate and worried people with overtly suspicious cancer or vascular symptoms who are on interminable waiting lists. My generation of surgeons were trained more widely than our younger colleagues and can cope with all types of surgical cases.

I have asked college presidents to trawl databases to identify people who could work in this way, and present the list to the Government, whose challenge would then be to overrule NHS trust bureaucrats and get us face to face with patients without delay.

F D Skidmore
London SE3

SIR – My wife and I had a booster jab at the end of October. Since then we have received letters and texts requesting us to book appointments to get one.

Are we counted among the people who have had their booster jab, those that haven’t, or both?

Steve Crockford
East Grinstead, West Sussex

Conservative hubris

SIR – Strategically, Brexit, the pandemic and an 80-seat majority for the Conservatives came together to provide a unique political opportunity to implement truly revolutionary reform across all departments and institutions.

Instead, the parliamentary Conservative Party is now doing what it does best: staring at its navel, undermining the leader and chasing irrelevant personal hobby horses based on idealistic twaddle.

The public hates political hubris. Unless Conservative MPs wake up, raise their eyes and concentrate on delivering the revolution in governance that the Red Wall is seeking, then there will likely be an electoral reckoning.

Robert Birch
Northallerton, North Yorkshire

Dental desperation

SIR – As a retired dental surgeon, I am only too aware of the problems that will arise from the unavailability of dental treatment on the NHS (Letters, December 14).

Recently a friend has been in desperate need of a dental appointment, but has been unable to find any practitioner who will accept NHS patients. A private appointment was offered almost immediately from each practice she approached, but at a fee she had no possibility of paying.

Dentists had a hard time during lockdowns, when they were not allowed to work, and it is appreciated that their expenses continued without income to compensate, but it must be time to start opening their surgeries to NHS patients again.

Ruby Gordon-Wilson
Newick, East Sussex

Keep universities open

SIR – We urge the Government to commit to keeping universities open in the event of any further restrictions arising as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of such restrictions more broadly, what is certain is that, in our experience, online education is vastly inferior to face-to-face teaching, and inflicts serious intellectual, social and psychological harm on students.

Even before the pandemic, academic research had already shown that these harms particularly affect struggling students and those from deprived socio-economic backgrounds.

Young people have repeatedly borne the heaviest brunt of Covid-19 restrictions, despite being least at risk from the virus. We cannot fail them again.

Professor Lee Jones
Queen Mary University of London

Professor Alison Pike
University of Sussex

Dr Nicholas Joseph
University of Derby

Professor Paul Dennis
University of East Anglia

Clive Hambler
University of Oxford

Professor Jon Tonge
University of Liverpool

Dr Barbara Turnbull
University of Nottingham

Professor Michael Stewart
UCL

Professor Bill Durodie
University of Bath

Professor Ayse Zarakol
University of Cambridge

Dr Cheryl Hudson
University of Liverpool

Dr Jim Butcher
Canterbury Christ Church University

Dr Adam B Lerner
Royal Holloway, University of London

Nadine Buchmann
QMUL, Imperial College, Birkbeck, UCL

Stuart Waiton
Abertay University

Sean Frost
University of Hull

Dr Donncha Marron
Abertay University

Dr Eva Moreda Rodriguez
University of Glasgow

Professor Peter Ramsay
LSE

Emeritus Professor Dennis Hayes
University of Derby

Dr Luis Rodrigues
Bournemouth University

Dr Carlton Brick
University of the West of Scotland

Professor Jeremy Lane
University of Nottingham

Professor David Paton
University of Nottingham

Dr Robert Craig
Bristol University

Professor Matthias Schwannauer
University of Edinburgh

Professor Andrew Murray
LSE

Dr Branko Latinkic
Cardiff University

Dr Jon Swain
Canterbury Christ Church University

Dr Vanessa Pupavac
University of Nottingham

Dr Adrian Hilton
University of Buckingham

Professor Kai Möller
LSE

Dr Jennie Bristow
Canterbury Christ Church University

Dr Misha Glenny
UCL

Dr Colin Axon
Brunel University London

Dr James Strong
Queen Mary University of London

Professor David Adams
University of Manchester (retd)

Dr Colin Axon
Brunel University London

Dr Lars Iyer
Newcastle University

Dr Reuven Leigh
University of Cambridge

Dr Richard Johnson
Queen Mary University of London

Professor Roger Watson
University of Hull

Dr Charles Devellennes
University of Kent

Professor Dean Wilson
University of Sussex

Dr Julia Jordan
University College London

Dr Simon Mills
Newcastle University

Professor Ellen Townsend
University of Nottingham

Dr Philip Cunliffe
University of Kent

Dr Eric Langley
UCL

Dr Linda Freedman
UCL

Professor Roger Motson
ICENI Centre for Laparoscopic Surgery

Dr Peter Hewitson
Brunel University London

Dr Ruth Mieschbuehler
University of Derby

Professor Martin Loughlin
LSE

Sarah Longwell
Keele University

Dr Sonia Lopez de Quinto
Cardiff University

Dr Penny Lewis
Dundee University

Professor Ellie Lee
University of Kent

Dr Lorens Holm
University of Dundee

Robert Peck
University of York

Dr Ben Hickman
University of Kent

Dr Maren Thom
Westminster University

Dr Robert McLean
University of the West of Scotland

Dr Marcus Nevitt
University of Sheffield

Dr Toby Andrew
Imperial College London

Matthew Lloyd
Queen Mary University London

Professor Ross Deuchar
University of West of Scotland

John Baird
University of Aberdeen

Dr Thomas Mills
Lancaster University

Professor Jonathan Jones
University of Oxford

Dr Tara McCormack
Leicester University

Professor Toby Green
King's College, London

Dr Peter Martin
University of Manchester

Dr Matthew Ingleby
Queen Mary University of London

Professor Alan Floyd
University of Reading

Joseph Thurrott
University of Dundee

Pedro Teres
Imperial College

Dr Tim Green
University of Lincoln

Dr Thomas Lundberg
University of Glasgow

John Payne
Teesside University

Dr Matthew Owens
University of Exeter

Dr Kevin Yuill
University of Sunderland

Not much to report

SIR – I am now in the midst of writing end-of-term reports for my class. I try to make them informative, of a good length and as positive as possible.

I rather envy the teachers of the junior school that I attended in the 1960s, whose reports were generally only one sentence long. My report for art, when I was seven years old, simply reads: “Catherine has no aptitude for this subject.”

Mrs Fairbairn was spot on. I teach many subjects to my Year Three class, but fortunately for my pupils, art is not one of them.

Catherine Kidson
Bradfield, Berkshire

Russian aggression

SIR – The Russian threat to Ukraine signals a very real risk of military conflict in the Baltic states.

Vladimir Putin is concentrating military forces around the borders of Ukraine – a vast country that contains significant numbers of ethnic Russians, particularly in the eastern provinces, where armed skirmishes have been taking place for many months. Putin has accused Ukraine of suppressing the Russian-speaking minorities, and could use this as a reason to invade.

The resulting situation could then be likened to that faced by Neville Chamberlain in 1938, when he met German and Italian leaders in Munich and ceded the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland, a region populated by many ethnic Germans, to the Nazi regime. If a Russian takeover of eastern Ukraine takes place, Western leaders would be helpless to intervene, and would rush to achieve some kind of accommodation with Putin.

Such an outcome would no doubt embolden a strident Russia, which would then turn its attention to Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – also states with sizeable Russian minorities.

Roger Sharpe
Harlaxton, Lincolnshire

Defending offenders

SIR – Today’s students seem unable to take a joke or be brave enough to listen to views they find unpalatable.

I notice that one of the student leaders demanding the resignation of Professor Tim Luckhurst at Durham is studying law. As a retired lawyer, I recommend he follows another profession. Listening to unpalatable views and progressing them are in the job description.

John Hanson
Canterbury, Kent

SIR – The Durham students protesting against the decision to invite Rod Liddle to speak at a dinner would do well to apply some logic to their predicament. If it were Mr Liddle’s words which caused offence then they would have offended everyone, but it was in fact their reaction to his words.

To appreciate that one has control over one’s feelings and actions is called emotional maturity.

Luke Cascarini
Beckenham, Kent

SIR – If Durham students are “proud to be pathetic”, as their protest banners claim, then why are they complaining about being called pathetic?

Keith Reynolds
Doncaster, South Yorkshire

How to decorate a towering Christmas tree

SIR – Calderdale Council has banned the decoration of a Christmas tree in Bailiff Bridge, West Yorkshire, because the highest sections were deemed too dangerous to reach.

It should take advice from Wakehurst botanic garden in West Sussex, which manages to decorate the tallest living Christmas tree in Britain. True, this takes some five arborists and two cherry-pickers about eight hours, but it’s a sight to behold.

Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire

Taxpayers left in limbo by HMRC bungling

SIR – Recent letters suggest that HMRC is sinking. So does my own experience.

I am self-employed, as is my wife, and we run a company together. In October, HMRC “corrected” our tax returns for 2020-21 and demanded we each pay around £10,000 extra in tax on January 31 2022. It says we owe tax in respect of self-employed income support payments that we neither applied for nor received.

It has not responded to our letters of eight weeks ago highlighting its errors. Following a recent telephone inquiry, HMRC told our accountants that its computers are “faultless”. It has logged the matter for investigation – but not until May. Our accountants say this is typical of HMRC’s current delays, which include cases of overpaid tax not being refunded when due.

Howard Nash
Sudbourne, Suffolk

SIR – In 2015 HMRC decided to close more than 150 offices across the country and concentrate staff in 13 super-hubs in the main cities. Many experienced employees took early retirement, left for other jobs or were made redundant, rather than move.

This has meant that HMRC now has a larger proportion of young, inexperienced staff members, who are often promoted quickly to fill the gaps. This may explain its poor service.

Peter Hardisty
Grimsby, Lincolnshire

SIR – Brian Lofts (Letters, December 13) wrote to HMRC several times early this year and is yet to receive a reply.

An HMRC letter demanding payment of capital gains tax on a house I sold – and on which I paid tax in July 2020 – arrived on Monday morning.

Stuart Geddes
Monmouth

SIR – I sent a significant sum to HMRC in June to maintain my pension contributions record. I have received no acknowledgement that this money arrived, or confirmation that it has been correctly allocated.

When I was in the same position last year, I wrote to the complaints department. I was ignored. Only after I wrote to the head of HMRC did I hear anything, but even that took a month.

Sandra Hancock
Exeter, Devon

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