DR Gerald Edwards (Letters, April 29) looks at life through rose-tinted spectacles if he believes that Boris Johnson has pretty effectively "saved the United Kingdom from the true ravages of coronavirus both in health and economic terms".
Credit where it is due, the immunisation programme has been a success and all should acknowledge this. But the fight against Covid has involved much more than a successful immunisation scheme and overall has been handled extremely badly.
At the beginning of what was to turn out to be a pandemic the Prime Minister refused to wear a face mask, insisted on shaking hands despite being asked not to do so and he mocked social distancing. The short-term result was an outbreak in Downing Street circles which nearly claimed his life, but his disdain for precautionary measures set an example that was followed throughout the country. Then there was the journey north by infected senior adviser Dominic Cummings, supported by Mr Johnson, which seriously weakened public support for the official stay-at-home policy deemed necessary to prevent the spread of infection. Delays in implementing lockdowns and delays in stopping flights from countries with a high incidence of Covid infection made matter worse. His Government's policy of subsidising meals out to the tune of £10 per head has been calculated to have cost thousands of lives due to the consequential spike in infections.