Suicide coverage: it’s a complex issue | Brief letters

Teen mental health | Inoculation | Justice system | Football | Crows v rooks

Hadley Freeman excels often but her piece on the blaming of Instagram for the suicide of Molly Russell was both brave and clever (Blaming Instagram is too easy, Weekend, 2 February). She rightly points the finger at a lack of investment in CAMHS mental health services, and the dangers of simplistic causality in teen suicide. Each case is unique, involving a complex interplay between underlying personality, abuse, predisposing factors, environment, and family dynamics.
Steven Walker
Psychotherapist and former head of CAMHS, Anglia Ruskin University

• Surely the point your eminent correspondents (Letters, 4 February) miss is that Edward Jenner proved that inoculation with cowpox protected against smallpox by his experiments on James Phipps. He never claimed to be the originator of the theory of the protection afforded by cowpox against smallpox and was certainly aware of variolation (mortality 2%). Before his experiments all was theory and anecdotal but not proof.
Dr Peter Estcourt
South Chailey, East Sussex

• A minor correction to Peter Jeffries’ letter (4 February): I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed, but would substitute “defendants” for “offenders”. Not all defendants are guilty: everyone should be entitled to a defence.
Alison Evans
Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

• Page 48 in Monday’s Guardian: Football in brief, Scottish Premiership. All of 18 lines. You can’t get any briefer than that!
Tom Lucas
Garrowhill, Glasgow

• For elegance and brevity, you can’t beat this from Norfolk: See crows, them’s rooks; see a rook, thass a crow (Letters, 4 February).
Tony Hufton
Norwich

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