19 hours Ago
Once again, the ugly head of the perceived many evils of the COVID vaccine is being raised by the Legislature. Bills being considered are LD 871 , An Act to Exempt All Persons, Including Health Care and Emergency Services Personnel, from COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements and LD 436 , An Act to Prohibit State Agencies from Promoting the COVID-19 Vaccination to Children. Not to bore readers with too many statistics, but let’s review some history.
During the COVID pandemic (the official years are 3/20 to 5/23, when the public health emergency status ended), there were approximately 1.1 million deaths nationally and over 3,000 deaths in Maine. Nationally, it is estimated that 319,000 deaths could have been prevented in the first year of the vaccine if more people had been vaccinated.
To put it in other words, about half of COVID deaths could have been prevented if more people had been vaccinated. Another study estimated that the vaccine prevented 139,000 deaths in the first five months alone after the vaccine rollout. It is estimated that 3.
2 million deaths and 18.5 million hospitalizations were prevented worldwide due to the vaccine in the first year after its rollout, saving $1.15 trillion.
Without the vaccine, there would have been more that four times the deaths. In Maine, a study suggests that about 1,100 COVID deaths could have been prevented in the first year if more people had been vaccinated, or, in other words, half of COVID deaths could have been prevented. As a reminder, it was in “red” states that the disease burden was higher than in “blue” states.
Maine did relatively well because of a high vaccination rate. It should be noted that the the current proposals in the Legislature are being made by Republicans. COVID has not gone away.
It’s still causing illness, hospitalizations and, yes, deaths. But a vaccine prevents serious illness and probably transmission. The microseconds of the collective American memory these days has again and again forgotten the fear, pain and tragedies inflicted on families during the pandemic.
Why the COVID vaccine is always singled out for vilification is well beyond reason. I’m old enough to remember as a child how a vaccine was considered a miracle. The return of a periodic polio epidemic before my time was no longer the feared ogre that sent well-off people in the cities to the country to wait them out.
COVID vaccines are safe, effective and prevent spread of disease to others. The state should promote them, not hide or discourage them. We believe it’s important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers.
At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It’s a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. Read more.
.. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
For those stories that we do enable discussion, our system may hold up comments pending the approval of a moderator for several reasons, including possible violation of our guidelines. As the Maine Trust’s digital team reviews these comments, we ask for patience. Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday and limited hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use . More information is found on our FAQs .
You can modify your screen name here . Show less Please sign into your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe .
Questions? Please see our FAQs . Your commenting screen name has been updated. Send questions/comments to the editors.
.
