Erik Swenson: NH should stand with the rest of the northeast on vaccines

To The Daily Sun,

As a pulmonologist and critical care specialist, readers can imagine I’ve seen my fair share of COVID-19 infections. During the pandemic, our country suffered well over 1 million confirmed COVID-19 deaths — the most of any country. States with lower vaccination rates bore the highest per capita COVID-19 deaths.

For these reasons and more, I am very concerned that Gov. Kelly Ayotte has decided not to participate with neighboring Northeastern governors to coordinate strong and evidence-based vaccine recommendations. Gov. Ayotte stated she did not wish to politicize vaccinations, but she is doing just that. Instead of taking a reasonable and long-established proven public health stance, she is forcing us to take a political posture. A stance which may cause fellow Granite Staters to suffer needlessly in the long term. 

Massachusetts is organizing a bipartisan coalition of states to band together and coordinate recommendations for vaccines. This is what good government is all about. Working together to make life better and safer for our citizens. Public officials from our eight nearest states are joining forces for this common cause. They include every New England state with the exception of New Hampshire, along with New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

With federal guidance by Health and Human Services under Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. now falling short, it behooves us to work in tandem with neighboring states to safeguard our population. We stick out like a sore thumb by not participating with the rest of the region, and I fear our lack of coordination may come back to haunt us with greater deaths from easily preventable illnesses.

Erik Swenson, MD

Moultonborough