THE only way to come to terms with Covid disease sweeping the country is surely to take the same view as was taken in 1940.

We don't like it at all.

There is huge damage to our lives and to our country.

We are all fearful but in the end we have no options.

We have to take measures that are very much against what we want and indeed what in many cases we can barely cope with.

But then take note of testimonies of those contracting Covid, turning then into long Covid : "The virus hit me hard.

"My whole body ached, my throat burnt and my head was foggy.

"My fever temperature went from 37.7 to burning hot 39.4 (103F).

"The pain in my back was agony. I couldn't sleep. I felt nauseous and had horrific abdominal pain.

"I sweated and shivered all the time. Then the breathlessness. It felt impossible to fill my lungs."

"Long Covid has now lasted five months. To this day I am fatigued.

"On good days I manage a slow walk. On bad days it is impossible to leave my bed".

That is what we are up against. Russian Roulette. Do we get the disease, or not.

There can then be only one way to proceed and that has to be tilting the odds in our favour.

Protecting ourselves and families.

Wear masks, sanatise, keep our distance, and follow national guidance.

Not to do so is surely like someone in 1940 saying "Wont wear gas mask", "Not going in bomb shelter", let alone going on the front line to protect the country.

On these points instead of our MPs fixating on the hits on business (Echo 27 Nov), which are certainly enormously damaging, they would serve us far more positively if they spoke in support of us protecting ourselves.

The reason businesses are going down, and livelihoods lost, is not just because of the virus. It is a consequence of how we run our capital driven system in the West.

All mortgages and rents could be suspended. Everyone in the land could be ensured basic income. But we run a predatory capital system.

The system itself has to be fed or we face "mountains of debt". But this is all smoke and mirrors. It could all be written off.

The economy (buildings, hotels, bars, infrastructure, stock) will be there when the virus has died out. Tens of thousands of lives lost will not.

Tens or hundreds of thousand more will suffer long term consequences for who knows how many years to come.

Jeff Williams

Parkstone