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Mire of ignorance

Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by nearly 3 million votes in the 2016 popular vote, but thanks to the outdated Electoral College, Trump was formally declared the winner by Congress. Joe Biden beat Trump by more than 7 million votes this past November and also won the Electoral College. Now Trump wants Congress to overturn the Electoral College results because he lost.

And folks dare to speculate that Trump has never read the Constitution or understands how the American government works. I have to wonder if those 12 Republican senators and 140 Republican House members understand that by joining Trump to ask Congress to overturn the results of the 2020 election they revel in a similar mire of ignorance.

Roger Bowen

Prospect Harbor

Prioritize older adults in vaccine distribution

I am writing to ask that Gov. Janet Mills direct the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to follow the lead of other states and further prioritize COVID-19 vaccine distribution for older adults in Maine.

The current recommendations advise that the federal and state governments prioritize adults over the age of 75, along with frontline essential workers, to be next in line for COVID-19 vaccines. Vermont, Texas, Florida, South Dakota and Tennessee have deviated from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations citing concerns that COVID-19 presents particular risks to older populations. These states have prioritized vaccinating more of their older adults ahead of younger frontline workers.

Given the disproportionate burden of death that the older adult community in Maine has experienced from COVID-19, we at Age Friendly Saco strongly urge Mills to consider a similar approach. We know that 80 percent of all COVID-19 deaths nationally have occurred in adults 65 and older. As the oldest state in the nation, Maine must honor its obligation to save as many lives as possible; this can only be done by prioritizing those at highest risk of death.

We are confident that the state will eventually receive additional doses of vaccine that can be made next available to additional at-risk groups, but efforts to protect this group should not be made at the expense of jeopardizing older adults who are at greatest immediate risk of death.

We urge Gov. Mills and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to follow the lead of other similar states and prioritize adults 65 and older as their next priority for receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

Jean Saunders

Executive director

Age Friendly Saco

Saco

Matt Gagnon’s genius

I have never been one of Matt Gagnon”s biggest fans but after reading his commentary in the Dec. 31 BDN, I am chagrined to have misrepresented him. Turns out the man is brilliant.

On the subject of COVID-19 herd immunity, he calls out Dr. Anthony Fauci for “intentionally manipulating us.” And that by moving the bar (higher) “he could help encourage more people to get vaccinated.” This is truly remarkable. Gagnon is privy to Fauci’s inner cerebral recesses and able to tell us what the doctor is thinking.

And, by the way, medicine is not an exact science. It’s an art as I learned in med school. Treatments and modalities change, usually for the better, as more information becomes available.

Bob Friedlander

Castine