Objections about ‘personal liberty’ are no reason to abandon Covid measures

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Shoppers wearing facemasks inside a shopping centre in East London (PA)

I would like to ask for a change in policy in the latest unlocking from Covid measures. To scale back or even scrap the social distancing measures and policy about mask wearing is reckless and seems set to undo all of the hard work by people in society and especially the NHS. I would like to draw attention to all of the people who work in public facing jobs who will be put at extra risk. What about all of the people who have poor immunity or have a low response to the vaccine?

The objections around “personal liberty” are based on a mistake which was played out before when crash helmets on motorbikes came into force, or seatbelts in cars and coaches, or no-smoking zones. Our environments and lives are better for all of these things and yet at the time the regulations were met with opposition based on “liberty”. Countless tragedies have been avoided because of these new laws yet we think very little of them now, as they are accepted.

We all need to accept a new way of living with Covid. Individual responsibility needs to be guided by law. As with most established “rules”, we accept them now because it is for our own and the public good. “Health and Safety” hasn’t gone mad; it is saving lives and helping to avoid tragic outcomes in people’s lives.