Thank you, Tim Dowling, for exposing how even the few people who still dare to say the word “Covid” (who is even still testing for Covid?) are happy to make light of it now (Tim Dowling: two of my sons are home – and have brought Covid with them, 9 November). Never mind that people are continuing to die from it (245,069 deaths by 25 Oct 2024, 316 more than seven days before, according to the National Covid Memorial Wall). Never mind the millions of us, including children, living with debilitating long Covid, some for coming up to half a decade, with new patients still joining our ranks (and many of us missing from the workforce). Never mind that some people who get Covid today will have a heart attack, stroke or new autoimmune disease in the future, when that would not have happened without one (or, more likely, multiple) Covid infections. There are now thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles on research into the virus and its effects, so the information is out there for anyone who dares to look. The scale of the problem that Covid is posing for individuals and society appears to be on a par with climate change: too big to tackle, so we look away. Or make light of it. Dr Elke Hausmann Derby I found Tim Dowling’s column in bad taste. His family’s poor awareness of Covid mitigations was not at all humorous. He made no mention of the government’s current advice of isolation, ventilation and masking. His final comment, “he makes having Covid seem a rather enviable proposition”, was outrageous. Covid is a serious illness for many, still causing a significant number of deaths, and long Covid numbers are ever-increasing. Sue Hewison Epsom, Surrey