Letters: Coronavirus is worthy of alarm

People wear masks while shopping in Singapore which has had positive cases of coronavirus. Photo / Getty Images

First, I would like to wish all the staff and the page-turners of the Rotorua Daily Post a very healthy and prosperous New Year.

It was the Health Minister's recent comments that have prompted these writings: "... We are alert, but not alarmed ...".

He was referring to the coronavirus which is sweeping through China and is now being found in many other countries.

In my opinion, we should be alarmed. Look what happened after the World War I, when our soldiers returned and an epidemic swept through New Zealand and devastated families even more.

As a country, we should be acting for prevention now, not when the first case sets foot on our soil.

Pauleen Wilkinson
Fenton Park

Pork pie price rise

My favourite pork pie has gone up by 75c, ok this may seem like a trivial thing to most of you, but this happened in one week - seven days and the pie that cost $5.35 last week is now $6+. Why?

It is not just pork pies that have gone up, just about everything from petrol to imported newspapers have suddenly shot up.

The most worrying thing is that the store had sold all but one of a dozen and I was the only person who complained. Why do we accept these price rises?

Some wages went up, most didn't, pensions certainly didn't go up.

Have we become so blasé about money that we just idly accept price increases?

I really believe it is time we stood up and made a fuss about things - otherwise before we know it 1984 will have returned to consume the freedom we once thought we had attained.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

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