I am so glad to see John Balentine giving Gov. Mills the credit she deserves for her handling of the COVID pandemic (“Here’s Something: An overabundance of caution is our undoing,” Aug. 13).
He expressed that we have had an “abundance of caution” in our state, and I quite agree. This allowed Maine to have the fifth-lowest death rate in the country while managing to keep the unemployment rate in 2020 the sixth lowest in the nation. In 2021, this rate has gone down further to 4.4% as Maine’s economy has had the third-best economic recovery rate. It seems Mainers are not afraid to work after all.
He suggests this “abundance of caution” is due to people just repeating what they hear in the media, and he makes a good point. People do tend to share what they learn from the media, and those who choose reputable media with well-researched evidence are likely to be better informed. Balentine told readers in an earlier column that some of his preferred sources are the highly questionable, frequently discredited OAN and Newsmax.
Finally, he also says that the miracle vaccine is a “game changer,” so he must be happy that, thanks to Gov. Mills’ programs, we rank third in the nation with over 64% of Mainers fully vaccinated! He did insult the intelligence of most Mainers, though, by implying that they were either too stupid to know enough to change their paper masks frequently or know they should probably wash their cloth ones.
Since nationally less than 48% of Republicans are vaccinated, we probably should continue to mask up until they catch up. You never know when you will meet up with one in some store.
Susan Chichetto
Bath
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