The writer is a science commentatorThe constant swirl of cold and damp can make for an early grave. More people expire in the winter than in warmer months due to an increase in heart attacks, stroke, respiratory disease (including Covid), flu, falls and hypothermia.

The approaching change of season coupled with the prospect of soaring energy costs prompted researchers to warn last week of an impending “public health and humanitarian crisis” as people struggle to heat their homes. Sir Michael Marmot, a health equity researcher at University College London, together with paediatricians Ian Sinha and Alice Lee at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, wrote in the British Medical Journal that the health consequences will be felt not just by the elderly but also by the young, whose maturing respiratory systems may be impaired for life.

Without immediate political intervention (new prime minister Liz Truss has promised action on energy bills this week) the crisis threatens to escalate into an avoidable health emergency that will widen inequality and shorten lives. That would be unforgivable, given this comes on the heels of a pandemic which has already disproportionally hit the most vulnerable.