I am writing to concur with John Balentine’s excellent column, “Lockdown madness must end May 1” (April 23). I personally think this whole pandemic and our response to it is way overblown. There is not a single person alive on this planet who had ever lived through such a nightmarish experience, the complete shutting down of the world economy because of a biological threat. Let’s look at the facts.

More people die every year from common influenza than will ever die from the coronavirus, but do we stop the world because of that? No.

And what about the media hype? Twenty-four hours a day of nothing but COVID-19 coverage has got people living in fear. I’m sick and tired of seeing people everywhere I go with their faces covered up, afraid that they’ll catch the virus.

From what I can see, it’s mostly the old and infirm who are at greatest risk. They account for most of the deaths.

I heartily agree that the madness must end. And let’s not hear any more talk about the “new normal.” We have to get back to the old normal and we have to do it now. Enough is enough.

As FDR told us in 1933, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Let’s get rid of this COVID bogeyman once and for all.

John Moon
Falmouth