The opening paragraph on my Associated Press story said the state was closing out its best year in history in fighting the disease. A top health official predicted it could be eliminated if everyone got vaccinated.

No, it wasn’t about the coronavirus. The story was dated Dec. 20, 1956. Here’s the lead sentence:

“New Hampshire is concluding its best polio year on record, and a state health official said today, ‘We might wipe out polio altogether if we have 100 percent participation in the Salk vaccination program.’ ”

Well, the Salk, and later Sabin, mandated vaccines did conquer polio, as other mandated programs have beat back smallpox, diphtheria, mumps and rubella, saving untold numbers from infection, sickness and death. Influenza, on the other hand, with no mandate, still kills tens of thousands of Americans a year.

So has the time come for broad COVID mandates?

The virus’ delta variant has already caused a frightening number of new cases here in Maine and around the world, nearly all of the newly afflicted unvaccinated. And no one knows how many additional variants an undefeated coronavirus has up its sleeve. A host of unvaccinated children are headed back to schoolrooms and playing fields. Restaurants and bars are jammed. Parks and recreation areas are overflowing with visitors. Workplaces, theaters and other public venues are reopening.

Large numbers of unrelenting anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers continue to put your family and mine at risk. There’s an old truism that your freedom to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose. In other words, no one has the right to endanger someone else

Mandates in Maine? Bring ’em on, and the stronger and sooner the better.

Norman Abelson
former Associated Press reporter, Maine and New Hampshire 
Moody

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