Conspiracy theorists are bad for our health - Readers' Letters

After watching footage of patients hit by the coronavirus, and hearing nursing and medical staff expressing how exhausted they are from the relentless fight they’re having to wage against this lethal virus, I feel nothing but contempt for those idiotic conspiracy theorists in the United States who are spreading their dangerous, contemptible lies about the virus, claiming that it’s all a hoax.

Medical staff are exhausted by the relentless struggle to treat Covid

Is it fear which drives their resistance to acknowledging the truth about the current situation? A need to feel in control of events?

If so, it’s too late – they’ve already succumbed to the biggest danger arising from this pandemic. Scepticism leads to a refusal to follow health and safety advice, making the sceptics not only vulnerable to infection, but also a potential threat to the wider public.

Research links belief in conspiracy theories to prejudice, violence and terrorism. We see the results on our television screens on a regular basis.

Which is the greater evil – a virus which can be controlled by a vaccine which has been thoroughly vetted and found to be safe and efficacious, or rumours, misinformation and downright untruths which spread faster than any virus? The answer should be obvious to anyone who has a modicum of common sense, and who believes in the integrity and professionalism of health workers.

Carolyn Taylor

Gagiebank, Wellbank, Broughty Ferry

Unfair comment

It is grossly unfair that Kenny MacAskill suggests that the present Lord Advocate, James Woolfe, resigns due to the errors of his predecessor Frank Mulholland over the Rangers FC malicious prosecution (Scotsman, 20 January). There can be little doubt that Mr MacAaskill is fulfilling his current role as Alex Salmond's bag carrier when he makes this bizarre suggestion.

Doubtless Mr Woolfe's advice to the Holyrood Parliamentary Committee into the so-called "Salmond Affair" does not please Mr Salmond. In fact, he sounded off about this in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday.

To call for the head of James Woolfe over his predecessor's actions is patently absurd. Mr MacAskill and I in separate newspaper articles have called for a full inquiry into the matter of the admittedly malicious prosecution of the two Rangers FC administrators. I believe that inquiry can only be carried out by a senior legal figure from outside Scotland – not Eilish Angiolini yet again!

Alistair Bonnington

Former Hon Professor of Criminal Procedure, University of Glasgow

A call to arms

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) becomes international law today. It bans the use and the threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as their production, possession, and any activities that could enable anyone to acquire them.

It’s worth remembering that eliminating nuclear weapons was the very first UN resolution back in 1946. 75 years later, the nine nuclear armed states – including Britain – possess many thousands of weapons, all far more powerful than those that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

So, progress towards eliminating these ultimate weapons of mass destruction has been lamentable, but the TPNW represents a real opportunity for change. It is supported by 122 national governments, so those countries that fail to sign up will increasingly be regarded as outliers on the international stage, and the possession of nuclear weapons will become a badge of shame.

We need to do everything we can to persuade our government to sign the TPNW. In the meantime, we can keep up the pressure on those companies that manufacture nuclear weapons and support systems, some based in Scotland, by pressing banks , public bodies and pension funds, to stop investing in and lending to these companies. Many local authority pension funds are held on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Scottish people who don’t want a nuclear weapons base a few miles down the Clyde from Glasgow.

Don’t Bank on the Bomb Scotland is a network working hard to remove funding from nuclear weapons. There’s still a way to go, but let’s celebrate the TPNW.

Guy Johnson

Findhorn Place, Edinburgh

EU membership

Fraser Grant (Letters, 19 January) is probably right to claim that a Scottish application for membership would be acceptable to the EU, as indeed it was for Serbia in 2009.

The trouble is that Serbia's application, I believe, might be favorably concluded by 2024, allowing full membership by 2026 – 17 years from the start of negotiations. That of course might be within the timescale of Scotland's efforts to leave the UK and become a fully working, fully independent country.

We cannot say "once again" for the latter. Few people I expect will know and acknowledge that Scotland was such an independent nation for just a few years post-1314. Prior to that, up until the death of Alexander III, the Scottish monarchs accepted the English king to be their superior. This was the reason for Edward the I's initial direct involvement in Scottish politics, as arbiter in the choice of Alexander's successor.

For about 200 years of Stuart/Stewart reigns until 1603 Scotland was very much a dependency of France (Flodden, 1513, being possibly the worst result of this) so we could just about strike out the "again" in what Jim Duffy (Scotsman, 15 January) describes as "one of the worst national anthems in the whole wide world".

Dr A McCormick

Kirkland Road, Terregles, Dumfries

Scottish Cringe

When it comes to backing economic losers, the SNP and much of the independence movement, are in a league of their own in wanting to drag Scotland back into the failing European Union with its declining share of world trade.

In a list of the top 100 European companies by value, not a single one was formed in the last 40 years. Also, consider that the EU, in its entire history, has never created an Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, Tesla or Twitter. The independence movement is crippled by a poverty of ambition for Scotland, a lack of confidence and a huge dose of the debilitating Scottish Cringe.

Jim Stewart

Market Street, Musselburgh

The next ‘disgrace’

Nicola Sturgeon has admitted the drug death problem in Scotland is a “national disgrace” and has committed £250m over five years to fix the situation as a priority – not before time (Scotsman, 21 January).

Perhaps she would like to turn her attention to another “national disgrace” and find some money for support to mums who suffer postpartum mental health problems. The lack of dedicated, professional support for mothers is appalling and needs urgent attention.

There are two excellent Mother and Baby Units, one at St John’s Hospital, Livingston and one at Leverndale Hospital, Glasgow – a total of 12 beds for the whole of Scotland. They provide care for women with severe mental ill-health, importantly along with their infants, but only if the baby is under 12 months old.

There should be dedicated units in every major town in Scotland with trained staff devoted to the wellbeing of mums and their babies for as long as required but it would appear this is not on the list of priorities for this government. The drug deaths situation has become a priority only after the disgrace of numbers. What will it take for mothers with mental health issues to be supported?

Douglas Cowe

Alexander Avenue, Kingseat, Newmachar, Aberdeenshire

Making it up

Many of your relentlessly regular correspondents like Alexander McKay (Letters, 20 January) use the vacuous cliche "you could not make it up". However, when anything can be interpreted as derogatory to the SNP, these people seem to have no difficulty in making it up.

Dr PM Dryburgh

Falcon Avenue, Edinburgh

Browned off

Can there be a national holiday in Scotland every 20 January from now on to celebrate this momentous day in world history?

No, not about Joe Biden becoming the oldest ever U.S. President! I'm talking about an even greater miracle: footballer Scott Brown finally being sent off, having near broken the legs of other players for 14 straight years yet mysteriously proving immune to the normal disciplinary rules of the game for violent conduct – a situation coinciding with his change of employment to one of the Old Firm.

Mark Boyle

Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Vaccine credit

Colin Hamilton (Letters 19 January) says health professionals receive his "total and grateful support". What a pity he doesn't extend this gratitude and support to the health professionals, including administrators, who are working very hard to establish and service a comprehensive network of vaccination centres with a complementary booking system. What a pity his sense of personal injury precludes him from acknowledging that the mass vaccination centre at the Louisa Jordan Hospital is up and running and completed the vaccination of 5,000 health professionals on day one. What a pity he didn't feel able to give any credit to the Scottish Government for putting in place a strategy to prioritise care homes residents and staff and the over-80s and successfully carrying it through.

He can't, because his principal purpose is to attack the Government, which, for him, can do no right and he can't find it in himself to acknowledge the logistical challenge facing it.

He doesn't wish to appear critical of health professionals, but fails to acknowledge that a very large number of people from many professions are working incredibly hard to make us all safer and all deserve our gratitude.

Gill Turner

Derby Street, Edinburgh