Simply extending NHS workers’ visas isn’t enough – they deserve citizenship

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It isn’t enough just to waive the fees and extend the visas of the 153,000 foreign doctors, nurses and others who work in the NHS.

Given the dangers they are facing in trying to keep the rest of us alive, they all – or at least those who are still alive at the end of this crisis – should be granted UK citizenship.

D Maughan Brown
York

Gardening therapy

It is very short-sighted not to allow people to buy plants and other gardening items, especially at this time of year, albeit under the same restrictions governing supermarkets which, of course, would be necessary and sensible. People’s wellbeing, their mental health, is going to be every bit as important as their physical health, and it’s well understood that gardening is one of the key occupations which helps to maintain a certain equilibrium, which helps to lift the spirits and maintain a positive outlook.

Occupational therapists have been practising and recommending this for years, with great success. Even people without gardens can often grow things on a balcony, or in pots outside their front doors. Encouraging and enabling people to grow their own food is surely extremely sensible, far from being “non-essential”.

The thought of all those plants, those living things, which have been carefully nurtured, being left to die is heartbreaking. How will garden centres and nurseries ever recover?

Joyce Webber
East Sussex

A young man’s game

The Independent reports Mervyn King’s statement that a lengthy lockdown could cause the young to rebel. The former Bank of England governor joins the ranks of those who say that protecting the economy is more important than prolonging the life expectancy of older people.

Pretending that Covid-19 is a threat only to the elderly is to some extent a misrepresentation. The risk of death increases in a continuous way, thus there is a significant number of deaths in all age groups. You could equally say that the current policy is to the benefit of the socially disadvantaged, as pandemics’ mortality tends to be higher in the lower social classes. You could also say that the current policy is to the benefit of healthcare workers: we are trying to decrease their exposure and risk of death, at a time when we are not able to offer enough personal protective equipment.

Not all pandemics are the same: during the 1918 influenza pandemic, the young had higher mortality than the old. Obviously, we need to be smart and in the next phase increased testing may reduce the need for prolonged restrictions. But, if we betrayed the principles of solidarity, what future would we have as a nation?

Giuseppe Enrico Bignardi
Durham

According to Mr King, young people will supposedly ask why their future is at stake “to help prolong life expectancy of older people”. Leaving aside the implied eugenics and the insult to the 750,000 people who volunteered almost overnight to help, the view is still deeply flawed. Over 40 per cent of the adult population have underlying medical conditions. Left unchecked, the virus will also destroy much of our health service and harm its personnel given the high viral loads to which they are exposed. Younger people are also at risk, albeit lower – but their cases are well publicised.

His view that the economy can be “salvaged” in such circumstances is false. The world is dividing into countries who are eliminating the virus and those who risk it becoming endemic through partial or inadequate action. Our service economy is greatly at risk if we remain in the second category. Tourists do not come to plague states and the future of our young people really is at stake if we fail to act effectively to stop this threat.

Professor Greg Philo
Glasgow

Take back control

At no time since the Second World War has it been more important for Europe to be united and interconnected, yet as Jeremy Hunt has warned, we are unlikely to have access to European medical research nor will we benefit from important regulations in the future. It was reported recently that the offer of vital medical equipment from Europe was turned down by the UK government, despite the obvious shortages of protective equipment and ventilators. Boris Johnson is determined to take the country out of the EU without a deal if necessary at the end of this difficult year. No ifs, no buts.

So far, one of the few silver linings in all these clouds has been the deafening silence from the chief architect of all this potential chaos, Nigel Farage – that is, until yesterday, when he popped up online with a characteristically self-centred rant against the current restrictions. Poor Nigel! But at least we’ve got our country back – or what will be left of it when this crisis is over.

Sue Breadner
Douglas, Isle of Man

Testing, 1, 2, 3

Quite rightly, Dr Anthony Costello has asked why the UK’s 44 molecular virology laboratories have not been utilised for testing coronavirus.

The UK seems unable to deal with crises such as, inter alia, severe weather, and now a health pandemic. The government had an early opportunity to equip the country with protective equipment, ventilators and sufficient testing kits but has failed to do so. We have only just reached the 10,000 per day testing milestone, which compares woefully with other countries. Due to NHS staff shortages, doctors and other surgeons are now working with nurses to treat Covid-19 patients.

I truly trust that the government examines its performance when this catastrophic situation eventually disappears so as to protect the country in the future from another, potentially more serious, outbreak.

Christopher Learmont-Hughes
Caldy​, Wirral