One unintended consequence that people seem to be missing in the conversation about vaccines is price control. If people are mandated to get these shots or be blocked from school, then what in the world is to stop pharmaceutical companies from price gouging and charging hundreds of dollars per shot? 

I’m thinking of the price gouging the pharmaceuticals are doing with lifesaving medications like insulin and EpiPens. Those aren’t even mandated. What will people who have no health care do if the prices predictably soar? It’s only common sense. 

As a parent who is still in the process of vaccinating my child, I have to wonder what the Legislature was thinking by allowing the pharmaceuticals to have a mandated monopoly on our vaccine program.

Our vaccine program in Maine is working fine as it is. I’ll be voting yes on Question 1 to keep  our state vaccine program the same and  deny a monopoly to the same price-gouging drug companies who make the vaccines. 

John Eder

Biddeford