THERE'S been much fuss from senior government advisors about the possibility of seeing 200 deaths a day from Covid in November, unless we take drastic action.

Now, I'm not an epidemiologist, but there were many more than 200 deaths a day from influenza in 17/18; only slightly fewer in 18/19.

I don’t recollect any panics then.

This year the UK has had 43,000 deaths from Covid and rising. In the winter of 2017/18 there were 61,000 deaths from flu; in 2018/19, 34,000 deaths (Centre for Disease Control).

These are of the same order of magnitude and we have vaccines for flu.

We don't grind society to a halt when we have a flu epidemic.

We don't destroy businesses, put people out of work, stop them hugging their grandchildren, stop friends meeting, stop relatives saying goodbye to dying loved ones, restrict weddings and funerals, impoverish youngsters' experience of university, close theatres, cinemas, art galleries, pubs, restaurants and generally make life flaming miserable for everyone.

Yes, Covid-19 is very nasty and long-Covid can leave people with chronic after-effects.

But is it really so very much worse than flu that we have to inflict such huge damage on people’s lives and livelihoods?

Those particularly vulnerable (including me) could be advised/ required to take precautions, and everybody else could just be allowed to get on with their lives, taking advice and common-sense care as necessary.

Any decisions on restrictions, test and trace, and so on, could be made locally, not by fifth-rate politicians 200 miles away who don’t seem to know which way is up.

Life is a risky business.

You could die crossing the road, but you don’t stay in bed 24/7 because it’s a bit risky to get up.

Geoff Holman, by email