Despite a clearly slow start in reacting to the coronavirus, the dynamic capabilities of the Chinese state have enabled it to seemingly quell its rapid spread within China (New infections globally exceed those in China for first time, 27 February). While there are undoubtedly many unsavoury aspects to their authoritarian rule, the capacity for leaders to rapidly mobilise the full power of the state has led to an unprecedented response to such a crisis. From placing whole cities and provinces in complete lockdown, and quarantining entire neighbourhoods, to building hospitals in a matter of days, the response has been enviable.

More tellingly, China also has the means to significantly restrict – if not stop – the spread of misinformation concerning coronavirus through its vast surveillance and control of the internet. In such an existential emergency, doing so is useful in terms of reducing the fear, paranoia and uncertainty that an outbreak causes. It also helps avoid widespread panic, instability and hysteria that can be more detrimental and dangerous than the physical spread of the virus itself.

It is difficult to imagine the UK or other western countries being able to react with such speed. Not only are our own capabilities less inclined and less numerous to allow for such a fast deployment, so too are our populations less conditioned to openly following the will of our leaders. Both factors could have a major negative impact on any measures that the British state takes to counteract a major outbreak of the virus. With official guidelines potentially being ignored and necessary measures sidestepped, it is little wonder Whitehall sources note that “it’s as much about winning the battle for public confidence as it is about winning the battle against the disease” (UK warns against mass panic as race to halt outbreak intensifies, 27 February).

Indeed, in the short term, it may be necessarily for the UK to behave more like China, shutting down cities, travel networks and entire regions – and even the internet. And if the outbreak does become any overwhelming pandemic spiralling beyond the control of our leaders and the power of the state, with a population that is increasingly scared, angry and unstable, we might end up wishing that we all lived in China until the situation has been resolved.

Chris Ogden

(Associate professor in Chinese politics, University of St Andrews), Edinburgh

• Is it possible that the British government’s lackadaisical approach to coronavirus preparation (Letters, 26 February) is due to it actually hoping that there will be a breakdown in social order, allowing it to impose a state of emergency and martial law under which it can lock up opponents and sweep aside the inconvenient democratic and legal checks and balances that stand between it and its authoritarian ambitions? A preposterous notion, of course, but with government policy now being written by weirdos and misfits, can we be sure that it is a fanciful one?

Rob Sykes

Oxford

• When Matt Hancock says that people who have been anywhere in Italy north of Pisa should self-isolate if they develop flu-like symptoms”, has he considered the personal and public health implications of the current employment and welfare benefit climate? How could a person “self-isolate” if they effectively have no right to sick leave?

This is the case for the masses of people living hand to mouth, for instance on zero-hours contracts or forced to be “self-employed” delivery drivers. Even if they are employed for contracted hours, workers now can be sacked with no redress if they take days off sick (even with a sicknote) before they have worked there for two years.

Many such workers have families in the affected regions abroad and may well have returned from visits to family there, but they could not afford to take two weeks off to self-quarantine if they show mild symptoms and so could be infectious. And I would not be surprised to hear of benefit claimants being sanctioned for failure to attend appointments or to seek work for that reason.

Jennifer Mirdamadi

Liverpool

• To get some perspective on the relative severity of the coronavirus now causing panic in Europe, I looked back at the impact of an influenza epidemic that swept through Britain more than half a century ago.

An article in the British Journal of General Practice published in 2009, with the headline History Lessons: The Asian Flu Pandemic, looked at how GPs had coped with a highly infectious outbreak in 1957. The statistics are startling. The year after the pandemic it was estimated that 9 million people had been infected, 5.5 million of whom saw their doctor. About 14,000 died of “the immediate effects of their attack”.

The Guardian reported in November 1958 that offices, shops and mines closed, causing a “recession through influenza”.

Gavin Weightman

London

• There are up to 650,000 flu-related deaths worldwide each year, about 600 of them in the UK. How many cases of influenza have there been so far this winter? Probably several million. And all of this with a vaccination programme.

There is a danger of a government- and media-fuelled overreaction to coronavirus. It’s time the government and the media took a balanced, calm and fact-based lead on this. It’s sad that people are dying, but it appears that this virus is relatively mild.

Am I worried about coronavirus? No. Am I worried about overreaction and panic? Yes. We can’t isolate people, businesses and towns. We don’t isolate people with flu.

Stephen Collins

Finchdean, Hampshire

• Those who recommend trapping sneezes in the crook of the elbow if no handkerchief is available need not repine. We hay fever sufferers always carry handkerchiefs. But I begin to be concerned about being dragged off and confined before I have time to say “atishoo”. Is there some kind of badge I could carry in order to ward off the pitchforks and torches?

Bob Jones

Worcester

• The advice to teachers to wash their hands at least nine times throughout the day made me smile (School closures: Official advice is ‘inconsistent’, 27 February). Anyone who has any experience of being a teacher in a state school will know that you barely have time to visit the bathroom at all, for any activity!

Deirdre Burrell

Mortimer, Berkshire

• With all the publicity surrounding the coronavirus, I thought it would be prudent to buy a clinical thermometer. When I got it home I found it was made in China. I am wondering if this is significant.

Madeline Weston

Norwich

• Once the coronavirus epidemic has caused a global financial crisis, how long will it take for the Tory government to blame the outbreak on the Labour party?

John Lancaster

Peterborough

• Does Michael Gove know that Matt Hancock is listening to experts?

Tim Chicken

Sandgate, Kent

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition