Letter: Is there a third way to deal with coronavirus?

From Robert Peck, York, UK

The comparison of mitigation and elimination strategies for covid-19 misses an interesting alternative approach – tolerance (19 June, p 10).

This focuses on accepting covid-19’s spread and deploying practical, focused hygiene measures rather than societally disruptive interventions. It has been used in Sweden and in Florida, where it was introduced in time for the winter wave.

It also matches the advice of Donald Henderson – the mastermind of smallpox’s eradication – and his colleagues in a 2006 paper on handling respiratory pandemics.