Dear Editor – I have every sympathy with Mirrin Brewer (Unjabbed and I face the sack, January 11).

I cannot understand why so much has been sacrificed to dealing with Covid.

We have jettisoned two years of our children’s education; built up huge backlogs of essential, sometimes lifesaving, medical and surgical treatment; destroyed the livelihood of many people, especially in the hospitality, travel and entertainment industries; threatened the mental health of thousands of vulnerable people; kept us from interacting with friends and family; separated grandparents from grandchildren; removed visiting rights from the hospitalised and dying; cost the economy an as yet uncounted fortune; increased the statistics for domestic abuse; and driven many to alcohol, drugs, even suicide.

The fallout from the way the pandemic has been handled is incalculable.

All this from a sickness that has a 97 per cent recovery rate in the under-sixties, which would have been much higher in all age groups if early treatment advice had been available to reduce hospitalisation and if safe and proven drugs had not been banned.

Mirrin, and all the trusted and faithful workers in the same boat, who have every good reason to reject an unsafe medical procedure (who can inform them of the long-term effects so they can legally consent?) should, in a free society, have their reasonably held beliefs respected without any such vicious penalties.

Sylvie Jaffrey

Worcester