I’m grateful that the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Press Herald diligently report COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations. But I think we are all woefully uninformed about the effect of high COVID case rates on our access to medical care.

For example, how overwhelmed are the emergency departments of our hospitals? How long are you going to wait to have your broken wrist set? Do I have to worry about a kidney stone attack turning into a fatal kidney infection? Where are the reports on the average wait to be seen at your local hospital?

Not knowing how our care is affected makes it easier to pretend that the COVID crisis is overblown. But when you spend hours and hours waiting to be seen in an ER because it is overrun with COVID patients, the crisis becomes all too clear.

We all need to be vaccinated. We all need to do everything we can to stop the infections.

Mary Brennan
Harpswell