From Lawrence Allkins, Ryde:

I finally feel compelled to write to you about the Island situation.

In spring and summer of 2020 we were largely unaffected on the Island...not so this time around.

Firstly to say that my son is an ICU doctor in West London and my wife is a nurse at St Mary’s Hospital.

I have listened to, and supported them both over the last ten months at different times.

My son’s story went viral in April 2020 on local radio (BBC Solent) and on Twitter (copied/forwarded more than 100,000 times).

Both of them have finished several shifts in tears and my doctor son was seriously ill (with Covid-19) for a month last year.

My wife is now bearing the brunt at St Mary’s.

She works some 12.5 hour shifts each week and is physically/mentally destroyed every time she returns home.

Tonight I went on foot to meet her (in Ryde) at the Queens Road bus-stop.

On the way there, this is what I encountered during my 45-minute walk.

Firstly, a small group of mothers all with very young children, discussing next week’s wine tasting event, at one of their houses.

God knows how many people will be attending that and probably the children will all be mixing and playing together too.

By the cemetery, I bumped into five youths, all the same age, coming out of the gate with drinks...of course no facemasks.

After meeting my wife off the bus, we stopped off at the local shop..

She wanted to buy a Euro-millions lottery ticket for the £79million draw — who can blame her for hoping?.

I waited outside because I did not have a mask with me.

Inside the shop were six people and four had no facemasks.

They were buying their six-packs of beer for the evening.

Neither them nor the shopkeeper cared less.

I have read numerous articles recently blaming second home-owners, booze-cruisers from the mainland, returning students, the government guidelines etc for the spread of the virus.

The sad truth is that some people on the Island just don’t give a damn and display the attitude of “it won’t affect me”.

This cuts across different age-groups, different classes and cultures.

My wife came home in tears again, but to all those selfish people can I reassure them that she will be back at St Mary’s for tomorrow’s night shift – risking her own health and safety to deal with the new intake, another batch of seriously infected ambulance arrivals await her care and attention.

With any luck this will pass in the coming months, but it will not be because of so many selfish individuals’ behaviour.

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