Who knew that printed solar panels generating water from air and green hydrogen are all innovations emanating from our regional university? At a time in our history that is crying out for planet-saving, sustainable employment opportunities, what a crime it is that such a future-oriented, job, creating institution has to endure "an increasingly volatile funding environment" by an anti-intellectual, Luddite federal government blind to the value of your work.

I'm encouraged by your enthusiasm to "bring people together" through your multidisciplinary approach to problem solving and hope it will be enough to overcome the funding shortage. In the meantime I intend to contact the Prime Minister in support of your efforts and encourage other Hunter residents to do the same.

FOUR months ago I wrote an article to this esteemed publication saying that the worst mistake in this crisis so far was to suggest the young were more or less invulnerable. I think that is true still, but now for two reasons.

I remember once jumping from a shale cliff into the sea, hoping there was no rock beneath. I was lucky there wasn't. And such is youth; a necessary experiment in life and its boundaries. Now I am at the other end of this spectrum, and I still appreciate the feeling but less so the effect.

I am not sure what bouncing off a rock would have felt like, but I am certainly now more disinclined to find out. There are many things in life for us all to still discover. What damage does this lurgy do? Does this virus come back? Are we more susceptible or more secure next time round? Does any irreversible damage occur, like hitting a rock? I'm not sure, but surely it's better we don't find out.

SCOTT Hillard (Short Takes, 27/7) is again trying to bend reality to fit his hope that COVID-19 is no worse than seasonal flu. When Mr Hillard refers to Dr Kerry Chant saying up to 500,000 Australians might possibly have been infected, it would be honest to add that she also said her estimate of how many Australians actually have been infected was "under one per cent" - fewer than 250,000. So Mr Hillard's maths about the Australian deaths per infection rate is exaggerated.

He is right that more people have been infected than we currently know. But think of New York State, with a population of 19.5 million. So far they've had over 32,000 COVID deaths. Even if we assumed every single New Yorker has been infected, which is certainly not true, that would give a mortality rate of over 0.16 per cent. The reality is New York's infections according to the highest estimate have been around 25 per cent of the population - five million - so the mortality rate is at least four times that first estimate: over 0.6 per cent.

The mortality rate in Australia has certainly been better. That's a great relief, but it's wilful ignorance to cherry-pick Australia's success so far to draw conclusions about this disease. It's new. It isn't well understood. Long-term effects are already proving debilitating or disabling for many who recover, in ways that have never been seen from the flu.

I understand that uncertainty scares people. We must try not to let that fear become denial of the reality that this bug is in a different category to regular influenza.

IT'S interesting to note that City Of Newcastle councillors have precious time to waste on Captain Cook ('Council to review plaques', Herald 30/7).

Maybe they could find some time to consider the potholed back streets, overgrown impassable footpaths, the scandalous waste of taxpayers money on the penthouse headquarters, the granting of a nine day fortnight to their Labor union mates and the zilch response to ratepayers doing it tough because of the virus crisis and the lack of upgrading drainage services as shown up during the recent rains. When they look at these many more shortcomings can be identified, but I do not want to over work them.

AS Greg Giles (Letters, 30/7) has pointed out, it is a misuse of language to say that Captain Cook discovered the east coast of Australia when at the time of his visit it had been populated by large numbers of people for thousands of years. We do not say that the first European to visit China discovered China.

However there is an even greater error that he has overlooked. The officer in command of the barque Endeavour when it sailed into Botany Bay in 1770 was Lieutenant James Cook. He was not promoted to Captain until later in his career. I am aware that the commanding officer of a ship at sea is often informally referred to as the captain regardless of his actual rank, but that does not apply to official documents and should not apply to plaques on historical monuments. Our first governor, Arthur Phillip, was promoted to the rank of Admiral later in his career but we always refer to him as Captain or Governor Phillip, the ranks he held during his time in New South Wales. We should treat Cook in the same way.

THE former Newcastle Maritime Museum's collection needs a permanent home by the harbour ('Maritime's of the essence', Herald 29/7).

Some of the maritime artefacts could be moved to the Newcastle Museum, but this should only be a temporary solution as the Newcastle Museum building does not have sufficient space for both collections. Many maritime museums around the world are in close proximity to waterfronts and in Newcastle there is the possibility of doing this as well.

The Newcastle council owns the Queens Wharf buildings. Mayor Nuatali Nelmes not too long ago acknowledged the Queens Wharf complex is "nearing the end of its useful life". I suggest council move forward the master plan for the foreshore (Herald, 31/8/18) and incorporate a plan to accommodate the Maritime collection at Queens Wharf.

Newcastle's large maritime collection deserves a purpose-built facility. Historic vessels, such as the William the Fourth, could be docked at the wharf adjacent to the museum.

THE University of Newcastle is offering early retirement to staff over 60 ('University wields axe over virus', Newcastle Herald, 30/7). Does it mean those staff will not be eligible for redundancy payments under their enterprise agreements? It appears to be another form of voluntary redundancy, which was covered in previous EAs.

MARGARETE Ritchie (Letters 28/7): coal has been the backbone of NSW economy for a long time and it will get us out of trouble again. People must let it go ahead because tourism will not bring the money back.

GREAT to see the Geographical Names Board once again rejects council's third or fourth attempt to create a suburb called Lake Macquarie ('Suburb 'dead in the water'', Herald 29/7). Let's put it to bed.

A BIG thank you to all this involved in the Black Lives Matter rallies during this pandemic. Sadly COVID-19 does not discriminate based on our skin colour. All lives matter to the unheard majority of society, which in my opinion these protesters do not appear to respect. Stay at home.

DAVID Stuart (Short Takes, 30/7) might struggle with my Sahara-like wit at times, but I have no doubt that his tongue was firmly planted in his cheek when he stated that "health workers are stretched to the limit". Based on today's data, just 323 of our 62,000 hospital beds are occupied by people diagnosed with COVID-19. I'm confident that even Australia's health system can cope with 0.52 per cent of our hospital capacity being absorbed. If only Centrelink had such a small workload.

I BELIEVE Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszckuk and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews meet the criteria for the current day Ma and Pa Kettle.

I BELIEVE there are too many people wanting to name change monuments, places, plaques, and products without checking their history. Dr Brian Roach (Short Takes, 28/7) who believes a brand of cheese is offensive to our Indigenous people may be interested in the fact Coon cheese is named after its American creator Edward William Coon (1871-1934) of Philadelphia, who patented a method subsequently known as the Cooning process for fast maturation of cheese. Mr Coon and his family would have been proud of his product, and it is entitled to carry his name.

I REFER to the general disquiet regarding the plaque commemorating Captain Cook's discovery ('Council to review plaques', Herald 30/7). Most of the world were unaware of its existence at that time of the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. Instead of removing the plaque, why not add (in some words) that he also encountered (discovered) the original (or native) inhabitants of the Great Southern Land and acknowledge them as well.