Two Commons committees criticised the government's response to Covid last week in a report. They said that it had apparently pursued herd immunity by infection during the outbreak of the pandemic. The high Covid rates continue to indicate that little has changed other than the ability of the public to respond. Experts (Why Britons tolerate sky-high Covid Rates and Why this May Not Last, 15 October) claim that the normalization of Covid infections and deaths by government is the reason. This normalization is not normal in reality.
The UK is the plague island of Europe. It is time that we realized that Covid protections are effective across the Channel. The UK's inaction continues to cause unnecessary suffering, death, and illness. Let's hope the experts in your article are correct and that the British public doesn't remain apathetic.
Dr Jo Fayram
Durham
We wrote earlier this year that many of the more than 100,000 deaths in the UK were officially recorded and condemned the government for what Friedrich Engels called "social murder" (Letters 27 January). This point is now more important in light of the Commons committees' report. Ministers and other officials should be held accountable, through the courts, if necessary, for the lamentable failures to prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths. This might also help support bereaved family members, whose horrific experiences were shamefully ignored by the Commons Committees.
Joe Sim Professor of Criminology, Liverpool John Moores University
Steve Tombs, Open University Professor of Criminology
Brazil's Covid parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI), has ended after 17 days and five months of televised sessions, which became compulsive viewing by many in Brazil. Jair Bolsonaros negationism, and his cheerleading for irresponsible behavior, hampered a coordinated national pandemic response. CPI revealed potential criminal acts by revealing secondary actors in politics and business. There are possible misuses of public funds, irregularities when obtaining vaccines, prescribing ineffective Covid kits containing both hydroxychloroquine & ivermectin, as well as testing for treatments without ethical approval.
The Brazilian CPI has been a success because it was conducted in full public view. This makes it more difficult for participants to keep a poker face and allows them to start without any delay that could be exploited.
Prof Patricia Deps
Vitria, Brazil
