Sir, – Mr Dingwall-Fordyce (Press and Journal, December 16) believes anti-vaxxers should be denied care from the NHS.
Now I have been fully vaccinated, including booster, but in no way could I condone the NHS “playing God” should someone turn up at their door in an ambulance yet had not been vaccinated.
Treatment is a fundamental human right, which everyone has paid for, and should not be denied to them for whatever reason.
Personally, I believe everybody should get the vaccination – I also fully believe in vaccination certificates, which after all are not that different to what all those aged over 60 will recall regularly carrying with them in the 1960s and ’70s. However, forcing people by jailing them (as in Austria) or denying them NHS care is absolutely not what our democratic society should be about.
Gordon Morison, Frendraught, Forgue, Huntly.
PM really can’t win in Covid situation
Sir, – As the threat of Christmas being ruined for many families by the deluge of infections caused by the Omicron variant gets more possible every passing day, pressure mounts on the beleaguered PM.
Does he follow the advice of scientific advisers whose modelling suggests that even without attaining the worst-case scenario, further restrictions on social interaction are required to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed?
Or does he rely on present figures that indicate though infections are rocketing, neither hospital admissions nor deaths are increasing to the same degree?
There is one certainty, however. Whatever decision he makes it will be wrong in the eyes of many and this will be amplified continuously on every available news channel.
The truth is there is no perfect resolution.
Does he ruin Christmas and incur the wrath of many families or does he risk, thanks to the incredible booster rollout plus evidence from South Africa, that Omicron does not lead to unsustainable hospital admissions?
If you are a politician now is a great time to be in opposition, only a masochist would enjoy the reins of power.
I am no Boris Johnson devotee but in this instance he has my sympathies.
Ivan W. Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
It’s time to target the unvaccinated
Sir, – I just heard Sajid Javid saying that, while the severity of Omicron may be less, the actual number of serious cases and impact on the NHS may be higher.
He also said nine out of 10 of the most critical Covid cases in hospitals are unvaccinated people.
Surely the answer is not to imperil the economy, jobs and daily life by limiting the freedom of the vast majority of responsible citizens who are vaccinated, and focus on measures to prevent those who choose not to get vaccinated from endangering themselves and others.
Allan Sutherland, Willow Row, Stonehaven.
Oil industry must know its time is up
Sir, – Regarding Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce’s latest ploy of deluding itself about oil industry relevance, the call for a “reasoned debate” reads like a who’s who of people still dangerously stuck in the gormless greed of the 1980s.
They have failed to grasp the fact that overdependence on oil is because of people like them who’ve stopped genuinely progressive, and ultimately better for the planet, ways.
Being reliant on 73% of our energy needs from fossil fuel sources has dramatically increased Aberdeen and Scotland’s energy vulnerability. Not only that but it makes the city, and its businesses, seem massively out of step with the paradigm shift at the true cutting edge of the energy market.
Given, too, that some of these people were also supporters of some questionable vanity plans which brought the city into serious worldwide disrepute and who stubbornly support dim-witted and equally dubious hydrogen plans which impact on one of the poorest parts of the city, maybe it’s time for the oil industry in its entirety to waken up and realise its time is up.
Ian Beattie, Baker Street, Rosemount, Aberdeen.