Understandably Jean Rose, Gazette, letters, April 2nd, is suffering from emotional upset and I think we pretty much all are because we are in a crisis situation that is unfolding all the time.

But because it is a crisis it is important not to lose track of all the background issues which unless carefully managed will come back to bite us down the line. 

First of all has to be the crashed economy. This too is a crisis because there is a direct link between wealth and health.

So even in much better times than now, those who are poorer have more health problems and live shorter lives.

Add to this more normal situation, the health crisis situation, and you can see that down the line those suffering most now under the lockdown will suffer most longer term from worse health and life expectancy outcomes. 

Then there is the immediate problem of access to money. This is putting a lot of people under stress and if this continues, this problem will feed through too into health problems.

So overall, of course no one would deny the Coronavirus crisis is top priority, but we also have to plan as well and not run and rush to apparently solve one problem, whilst creating many other problems long term that we did not intend. 

As regards the economy too, if this does not function properly then there are no consumers and no advertisers to promote their products.

This is a crisis too for the media.

We tend to think they will always be there and we can express our views on the Letters pages and social media etc, but if the media organisations lose dramatically on advertising revenue, the media itself is under threat.

So matter what our views we could not then express them on these public platforms.

Elizabeth Smith

Woodmancote

Glos