In the Aug. 13 edition of The Southern Forecaster, John Balentine published an opinion column with the headline “An overabundance of caution is our undoing.” In it, he argues that “in our fully vaccinated present (an abundance of caution) merely yields an abundance of unfounded hysteria, fiscal waste and confrontations between shoppers in stores.”

Let’s unpack that assertion. First, though the Maine population has a relatively high vaccination rate compared with other states (at roughly 75%), we are by no means “fully vaccinated.”

More to the point, far from just “an abundance of caution,” wearing a mask is absolutely vital in stopping the spread of the virus. According to the Bangor Daily News, “the number of Mainers currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine reached the highest level in more than two months on Tuesday as the virus continues to spread mostly among unvaccinated people. As of Tuesday, 84 Mainers were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 42 two weeks ago and 27 a month ago. It marks the highest single-day hospitalization number since June 2.” National news outlets tell us that the current spike in cases across the country is hitting young people harder than in the past. Does Balentine want to go maskless and thereby gamble with young people’s lives?

Further, Balentine argues that we shouldn’t worry. Though case counts are up, deaths continue to “hover around 900.” However, it’s a fact that a certain percentage of hospitalized patients will die from the disease. And their deaths will likely have been preventable if they had been vaccinated and had worn a mask. It’s for this reason that the University of Maine system and a growing number of public and private employers are instituting mask mandates.

These decisions are being made to follow the science and prevent increasing hospitalizations and deaths. They are based on the facts, not some erroneous notion of an “abundance of caution.”

Eve Raimon
South Portland