In 1933 in his inaugural address, Franklin D Roosevelt said: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

If he were alive today during this Covid-19 pandemic, I am sure he would add, but is it the job of the media to stoke up an atmosphere of fear to keep the population cowering at home?

Everywhere you look there is gloom and doom.

In the print media, banner headlines seem solely designed to scare the living daylights out of us. If not claiming there is either a shortage of vaccines, vaccination centres or medical staff, the inside pages are filled with pictures of medics in Hazmat suits tending patient hooked up to drips.

Masked TV reporters scour A&E or ambulance centres for emotive stories and during news bulletins, po-faced newscasters pontificate about the latest infection and death rates.

It really is enough to drive you crazy. So please can we now have some good news and less of the ceaseless destructive criticism which seems intent on paralysing the government’s efforts to turn retreat into advance.

David Walker