IT is not unusual for me to strongly disagree with my MP, Conor Burns. He is a Tory. I am a Liberal Democrat.

But when the Echo (‘Lifting restrictions “is absolutely right”’) quotes him insisting “It is incredibly important to be relaxed and calm about” more cases (of Covid-19) leading to more hospitalisation, I am far from relaxed.

Surely it is “incredibly important” for people to understand what we are being told to be relaxed about.

The understanding so enthusiastically promoted by the government concerns their incredibly successful world-beating vaccine programme. This will protect us, allowing the country to be engulfed in a wave of infection deeper than the first two waves.

The Prime Minister himself tells us vaccines provide “more than 90 percent protection” but he fails to say how deadly this third Covid-19 wave will likely be.

My reading of the numbers is that “90 per cent” is wishful thinking. It seems to me the data is misused so often that policy becomes driven by propaganda.

The new health secretary tells us hospitalisation is 10 times less than “the last time we had infections” at today’s level. But 10 times less ignores the age-group dependence of such a statistic and makes his statement utter nonsense.

Because it is difficult to admit that we undoubtedly face thousands of deaths in this third wave, it seems the government ignores the potential for it being many tens of thousands, or more.

So with this inept government dragging us into their “uncharted territory”, I see no reason whatever to “be relaxed and calm”.

Dr Martin Rodger Bloxworth Road, Parkstone