As we enter the winter months, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to reach new heights both in Maine and across America. More than 20% of the cases recorded in Androscoggin County since the pandemic began have been identified in the last two weeks. Maine is rapidly approaching 200 deaths, a terrible loss but only the beginning of the destruction if we don’t do more to get this disease under control.
What is so frustrating about this moment is that hope is on the horizon. Multiple vaccines are in the final stages of testing, and there is every reason to think that by spring, the public will be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. If we can just get through these next few months, this terrible pandemic will be over. We ought to hunker down over the winter and keep as many people alive as possible.
Instead, politicians refuse to reinstate the measures that kept this disease under control last spring. After passing an initial relief package, Congress has failed to provide any additional aid to state and local governments, businesses large and small, and ordinary people. That is an unforgivable failure. Closer to home, the state government has been far too willing to keep nonessential businesses open despite a rising caseload that threatens to overwhelm our hospitals.
How many people make it through this dark and deadly winter depends on both politicians and the public at large valuing human life above all else. We can do this.
Kiernan Majerus-Collins, Lewiston
Send questions/comments to the editors.
