RECENTLY Justin Walsh wrote a letter criticising four local MPs, referencing that they voted against the third lockdown.

Being no defender of the Conservative MPs that he mentions, I would however suggest that their concern was for the restriction of freedom that this lockdown would impose.

Many people have expressed the view that this lockdown should be even harsher than what it is, but let us not lose sight of the fact that this lockdown has been imposed solely to ‘protect the NHS’ and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that objective.

The concern I believe was balancing that against the financial impact of the lockdown.

The fact remains that for the majority of people who have tested positive, and that figure is now in the millions, many have suffered few or no symptoms.

Many of those who have been unfortunate to have gone into hospital will recover and be discharged thanks to the brilliance of the NHS doctors and nurses.

Sadly though, many deaths have occurred due to the spread of the virus which seems to exacerbate any underlying health issues.

However, if it were not for the surge in hospital admissions, then much of the population would catch the disease and recover and in doing so gain some immunity.

Let us hope that, with the rolling out of the vaccine, immunity is achieved without the risk of falling seriously ill and being admitted to hospital.

So, looking to the future we must hope that with much of the population vaccinated, together with those that have had the disease and recovered giving them some immunity, then hopefully with fewer hosts for the disease to latch onto it will die out as has happened with many other diseases in the past.

COLIN MOYES

Harkwood Drive, Hamworthy