I READ Kevin McKenna’s opinion piece “We’ll never have a vaccine to cure contagion of deadly capitalism” (April 15) with a jovial smirk on my face.
McKenna’s simile of capitalism to the coronavirus could not be any further from the truth if he tried, filled with hilarious concoctions of different stains of capitalism and hinting at the idea that capitalism is much more dangerous than the coronavirus itself, like it is contrary to a country’s normal function. It was so beyond ludicrous to almost be unworthy of attention … but alas, here I am typing out my reply.
READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: We'll never have a vaccine to cure contagion of deadly capitalism
Looking at the economy in its most simplified, base form it is no more that a network of individual participants wilfully and freely negotiating and exchanging with one another. This, after all, fits in with Merriam-Webster’s definition of economy as “the structure or conditions of economic life in a country, area, or period… especially of interaction and exchange”.
Let me put it into even simpler terms; an economy is comprised of people. It’s people’s lives, livelihood, aspirations, dreams, their means to an end, and everything else in between. It’s filled with millions of little interactions and exchanges each and everyday between two willing participants. Nothing is forced in this. It also goes by another name, the free market.
This ties in with Merriam-Webster’s definition of capitalism as “an economic system characterised by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market”.
McKenna describes capitalism as almost being unnatural to a country, like an infection to the body, but for those who pay attention this is intellectually dishonest. The ordinary person 100 years ago never could imagine such technologies the modern person has at their fingertips. We are so much better off compared even to 30 or even 40 years ago, the progress has almost been unbelievable. It is capitalism we must thank for it! It is a capitalist economic system which facilitates human innovation and ingenuity, the human desire to do better than before, right down at the individual level, which has led to a reduction of extreme poverty across third-world countries, allowing those peoples to improve their lots in life.
Instead of describing capitalism as a contagion, McKenna would have been better off saying as the rich get richer the poor get richer too – so long as governments embrace the principals of freedom and liberty, and respect private property rights.
Daniel McBride
Motherwell
CAN I once again thank Kevin McKenna for another superlative article? He and his colleagues on The National are beacons of integrity who bring comfort to so many of us in this time of unprecedented sorrow and grief and no praise is too high for them.
Not only does he lay bare the greed, incompetence and moral bankruptcy of what passes for an English government, but he also exposes the paucity of genuine, honest and justifiable criticism of the rest of the press, who, in failing to appropriately address this national disaster, would appear to be colluding with these feckless charlatans.
Kevin hit the nail on the head: capitalvirus, unlike many victims of this pandemic, is alive and well.
Joe Cowan
Balmedie
THERE is good evidence to suggest that vitamin D is an important contributor to a healthy immune system (references 1-2 below). During the present Covid-19 pandemic people can help protect themselves by avoiding vitamin D deficiency, defined by most researchers by concentrations of serum 25(OH)D higher than those needed to prevent rickets and osteomalacia (3).
We believe that the UK’s highest risk groups for severe Covid-19, many of which are also known to be at the highest risk of vitamin D deficiency, should be provided with vitamin D supplements at 2000 to 4000 IU/day (4000 IU/day being accepted as safe by the NHS) (4,5) for the duration of the emergency posed by the current Covid-19 pandemic.
The high-risk groups are those occupationally exposed to the virus including frontline healthcare workers, carers, BAME communities, those who are housebound, in residential care or night-shift workers. Those furthest north (Scotland) have additional risks of deficiency due to latitude (6).
Vitamin D deficiency is endemic in the UK (4-8) and although NHS guidance suggests people should take modest amounts of vitamin D daily, especially in winter, this advice is not always known or followed (4). Furthermore, the doses currently advised are known to take weeks to months to correct deficiency,so that the larger doses suggested are needed for timely improvement in immune system function to help “protect the NHS and save lives”.
Vitamin D3 is cheap and, being available over the counter, no new checks would be necessary for its distribution as a matter of urgency.
Barbara J Boucher MD, FRCP Hon Prof of Medicine, The Blizard Institute, QMUL London;
Peter Cobbold PhD, Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool;
David Grimes, retired consultant physician, Blackburn, Manchester;
Helga Rhein, retired general practitioner, Edinburgh, www.scotsneedvitamind.com;
Anne Thomas, speech and language therapist, Nairn, Inverness;
Elizabeth Roddick, F.R.Pharm.S. Glasgow;
Robert Reid, retired nuclear safety engineer, Glasgow.
References:
(1) https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/988/htm
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24795646
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21646368
(5) https://cks.nice.org.uk/vitamin-d-deficiency-in-adults-treatment-and-prevention#!scenario
(6) https://doi.org/10.3378/027.085.0402
(8) https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/downloads/Report_Final.pdf
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