Adrian Chiles invites us to “pick your personal gripe about the state of the world” (When the same awful thing happens often enough, it ceases to be newsworthy – and that is a big problem, 30 March). Mine is the failure of most of broadcast and print media to report the continuing death toll from Covid. This plays into the hands of libertarians who care little about public health, still less about the hugely unequal distribution of those deaths, and fuels the myth that Covid is just another virus that we have to live with.
Chiles’s distinction between “interesting” as the basis for what is newsworthy rather than “important” is spot-on. But he omits examples of dogged journalism that do keep a story alive precisely because it is important, such as Amelia Gentleman’s outstanding work on the Windrush scandal. I hope that someone of her calibre takes up the Covid death toll and keeps it in the public eye. Last week it was over 1,000. Covid has definitely not gone away.
Alan Walker
Professor of social policy, University of Sheffield
• At last the NHS Covid symptom list has been expanded to include additional ones such as fatigue, sore throat and headache, following the compelling evidence of the Zoe Covid-19 symptom tracker app (Report, 4 April). Zoe has consistently been the country’s most reliable source of information about symptoms and virus prevalence over the entire pandemic, as well as providing an extraordinarily rich basis for future research.
The government’s response has been to cancel Zoe’s public funding, presumably on the basis that no news is good news, or perhaps to shoot the messenger. Meanwhile, cases and deaths continue to rise.
Marcia Heinemann
London
• It was interesting to read the piece on Covid etiquette, like when to wear a mask, isolate, etc (How to navigate Covid etiquette now England has ended free testing, 1 April), coupled with the excellent article on Omicron myths (30 March). I volunteer at a local hospital vaccination clinic as a steward. I take a lateral flow test before I go on shift and wear a mask. Social distancing is sometimes difficult if helping less mobile people. Volunteers are in direct contact with the public and we have a responsibility to protect them and ourselves. Without free testing kits, the risk to all is increased.
Jonathan Hauxwell
Crosshills, North Yorkshire
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