It is with great pleasure that I note the rising standards of education in Malta. Well, it is either that or else we are really beginning to suffer the effects of serious graduate unemployment in this country. It seems that the minibus drivers employed by Coop Services have qualified as medical doctors, nay virologists even! As the sign in the picture shows, Coop Services is claiming (not the Health Department, mind you) that "airconditions" (if you please) will be kept turned off in order to prevent the spread of swine flu.

Balderdash! The Health Department issued instructions, so Charles Camilleri of Coop Services fame tells us in his letter to The Times (August 5), that drivers should keep windows of their minibuses open in order to prevent the spread of this disease. This, of course, is an entirely different kettle of fish and the difference is telling given the circumstances as I shall explain.

In fairness to Mr Camilleri, he does go on to say that because air-conditioning units aren't effective with the windows open, they will be kept switched off. And here he is quite right. Right? No, he's wrong! What he doesn't say, for he conveniently forgets, is that the vast majority of the minibuses do not have windows that open! Drivers, in these instances keep air-conditioning units turned off all the same to the greater discomfort of their passengers. If one dares even broach the subject with these paradigms of medical excellence, he or she is then entreated, for the entire duration of the trip, to an inane lecture in pseudo-medical gibberish that makes even the most medically illiterate, such as myself, cringe.

Now these people are either very stupid or are under the obvious delusion (surely, the heat's to blame!) that we are even stupider than they are. For if you're travelling in a heat trap as those minibuses are, at full capacity, with passengers breathing more heavily and with windows that don't open anyway - surely that would spread the hypothetical virus even more. Heart rates are beating faster, transpiration from the lungs is occurring at a faster rate with no air-exchange happening because of closed windows (contrary to the famous Health Department instructions) in a tin can which has lain roasting in the Maltese sun for an entire morning and half an afternoon! Wonderful! Indeed, the reluctance of drivers to turn on the cool air was evident from the beginning of the summer season well before it dawned on them that they could use swine flu as an excuse to circumvent their obligations. The fools that they are, must have thought that this position of theirs was indefeasible.

Yet, this is nothing but a cheap excuse bandied about by the driver/owners of Coop Services, riding on the crest of the notoriety of a serious illness affecting public health, driven to lower costs and maximise profits with total disregard for client comfort, health and safety. Well done Coop Services, you certainly gave us a dreadful summer, but boy-oh-boy, didn't you just make a killing!