COUNCILLOR Phelim MacCafferty's View From The Leader column in last week's Argus was full of complaints about the government's handling of the present health crisis, comprised largely of messages of gloom and doom and was particularly scathing about its call to "simply live with it", meaning the virus.

The councillor is clearly unaware that, last week, the average daily Covid-related deaths rate was 16 which, set against the average daily number of all-causes UK deaths of 1,700, 106 times as many.

In other words, the chances of anyone passing away, after having tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days or having it mentioned

somewhere on their death certificate, is exceeding small when compared with dying from any other cause, such as cancer, strokes, heart attacks, dementia, road traffic accidents and so forth.

He mentioned that the UK now has the highest figure of Covid-19 cases since January but failed to mention that the number of people being tested is also

at the highest it has ever been. It, therefore, should have come as no surprise whatsoever to the councillor that the number of positive results is where it is.

Quite simply, the more people are tested the more cases will be found, and that would be the result for any other illness or disease if mass testing was applied to them.

The councillor's article was headed "Government is going in the wrong direction". Perhaps his next one can contain full details as to exactly which is the right one.

Eric Waters

Lancing