Letters to the Editor | 17 February 2007

Beating bird flu

From Peter Dunnill

Sir: Ross Clark’s article on what will happen if bird flu becomes a pandemic (‘Will you have a place in the bio-bunker?’, 10 February) is correct in its criticism of government. However, our government could learn a lot from America. Mike Leavitt, the equivalent to Patricia Hewitt in the USA, has worked his way through the States with the message that ordinary people must do their part. Put a tin of food under the bed each time you shop, he advises, which is official US government advice. Ross Clark asks why children are not a vaccination priority, and US research can help us here as well. Studies done in America suggest that pre-school children and the elderly move around less than working people, so protecting the working people from infection indirectly protects the very young and old.

Peter Dunnill
Chairman, Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London, WC1

Against our ethos

From Dr Sumaya Alyusuf

Sir: I find Rod Liddle’s article (‘Not all faith schools are the same’, 10 February) deeply offensive in every way. This school has never taught any child of any age that Christians are pigs and Jewish people are apes. The current public furore is about a footnote attached to a small section of a book, which has been taken out of context. This book has, in any event, only been used as a secondary resource for one class in the school, and the actual passage has never been taught in this school. The text itself is based on a pre-Islamic story which in essence says that ‘those who transgress on the Sabbath’ will be punished by God. As a result of the public anger, these books have been removed from the school.