The Hereford Times has done an excellent job of updating readers in real time on the fatalities in the county due to Covid-19. We now need this to be contextualised with details of the numbers of excess deaths arising as a consequence of the lockdown: deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer as a result of the ejection of patients from hospitals and the denial of healthcare to anyone other than sufferers of the coronavirus; the suicides, deaths from domestic violence, alcoholism, and other forms of self-harm? According to the British Medical Journal, only a third of the excess deaths seen in the community in England and Wales can be explained by Covid-19.  Context is key in helping people to understand that the lockdown ‘cure’ is more harmful to our health than the disease. Unfortunately, the excess deaths as a result of the lockdown will be happening over a much longer timeframe, as hospital waiting lists have backed up, people are unemployed, poverty ensues, and mental health deteriorates. The government’s own document on ‘rebuilding the economy’ acknowledges as much: “The longer the virus affects the economy, the greater the risks of long-term scarring and permanently lower economic activity, with business failures, persistently higher unemployment and lower earnings. This would damage the sustainability of the public finances and the ability to fund public services including the NHS. It would also likely lead to worse long-run physical and mental health outcomes, with a significant increase in the prevalence of chronic illness.” Time to end the lockdown now, before even more fatalities occur. Emma Telford Hereford