SEAN Bloomfield's reply to Sally Yalden's letter was of particular interest due to his analogy of continuing to wear a mask being like stopping your car on a green traffic light in case another car jumps a red light.

My point being is that Public Health England attributes between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths each year to long term exposure to air pollution, and this is government estimate. Other studies have higher figure and this is every year, not just one year until a vaccine is found.

Sally may be wise to keep wearing a mask to reduce inhalation of particulate pollution.

Driving is part of the problem, not the solution, especially if you then add the 1,600 to 1,700 road deaths and in excess of 25,000 serious injuries on the road every year.

To really save lives, driven miles must be drastically reduced, eventually to near zero.

If this cannot be done we should stop agonising over virus deaths, because they are just a drop in the ocean compared to the many other mortality risks.

Colin Hems Southampton