In the Covid-19 pandemic commonly 50-70 per cent of deaths are people in rest homes, and surely it is obvious that we need some special strategy to protect these people, says a letter writer. Photo / File
In the Covid-19 pandemic commonly 50-70 per cent of deaths are people in rest homes, and surely it is obvious that we need some special strategy to protect these people, says a letter writer. Photo / File
A standard to aspire to
I read with interest Rob Rattenbury's column regarding faith (Opinion, August 17).
Having recently read some of the history of the Crusades I would totally agree on the point that negotiation would have been a much better option.
When I was young I read abook of Lord Cobham's speeches; one of which he started with the quotation: "If God did not exist it would have been necessary to invent him." And he went on to say "We need God to give us a standard to aspire to."
I knew about Darwin and the Origin of the Species and I was in the business of breeding stud stock but I have always held on to that quotation.
I believe that the Ten Commandments are a simple set of guidelines as to how we should live our lives and also that the most we can hope to achieve in this world is to leave it a little better for our having been here. My faith has certainly been a help in times of trouble.
JACK HENDERSON Feilding
Caring for the vulnerable
In reply to Jay Kuten (Letters, August 17) I did not say that elderly and vulnerable people should be rounded up and moved to rest homes to isolate them from society.
Rest homes are generally already catering for elderly, frail and sick members of our community who are unable to live in their own homes. These people should be treated with dignity and care.
In the Covid-19 pandemic commonly 50-70 per cent of deaths are people in rest homes, and surely it is obvious that we need some special strategy to protect these people. At present we are under level 2 restrictions but rest homes are already in isolation under level 4 lockdown, in recognition of this need for protection.
However, it seems that most countries have failed abysmally in protecting the elderly in homes.
Similarly we need some strategy available to protect people in the general population who have health conditions, where catching Covid would probably be fatal.
Your letters
Again I did not, and do not, suggest rounding them up in isolation camps. If the disease was rampant it would make sense for them to be given a choice to be isolated at home, and the Government to support them.
Jay Kuten and others have rightly pointed out that Sweden will suffer economically, despite not having a lockdown. As soon as the rest of Europe and the USA shut down it was inevitable that every economy in the world would be affected, lockdown or no lockdown.
Sweden is a trading nation, with an open economy highly dependent on exports; so an economic downturn was inevitable.
Also major industries like Volvo have been unable to source parts so could not operate effectively.
The old axiom that Wall Street sneezes and the rest of the world catches a cold has a lot of truth in it. However, it is worth pointing out that in the first six months of the year Sweden's economy contracted by around 8 per cent while the European Union average fall was over 15 per cent.
