Tuesday’s lead front-page Portland Press Herald article – “Long-term care inoculations start as new vaccine arrives in Maine” (Dec. 22) – carried disturbing news.
Our Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention director, Dr. Nirav Shah, has said “he has no role in or in-depth knowledge of” vaccination plans for Maine nursing homes being carried out by pharmacies. CVS and Walgreens were mentioned in the article as holding clinics for nursing homes.
Why doesn’t Dr. Shah know these vaccination plans, and why wasn’t he involved in the planning? Have CVS and Walgreens withheld that information? How can we expect Dr. Shah, who has done an outstanding job caring for us, to do that job if he is uninformed and uninvolved in aspects of the vaccination rollout and distribution?
Press Herald journalists have provided excellent coverage about the pandemic in Maine thus far. I hope they will find the answer to my question. My worry is that the current administration may have made plans with these pharmacies independent of the jurisdiction of state governments. I hope that isn’t true.
Judith C. Tydings
South Thomaston
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