Alan Cobo-Lewis’ March 10 op-ed criticized Nirav Shah for supporting an age-based policy to prioritize COVID-19 vaccine access. He claims Dr. Shah lapsed ethically and scientifically, as Maine CDC director by ignoring the heightened risk faced by individuals with hematological cancers and Down syndrome. Although I cannot speak to others’ experience, I can speak to my own.

My 19-year old son was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia two months before COVID hit. Fears for our son’s life were compounded by concern that his chemo-induced immune suppression increased his vulnerability to COVID-19. He endured chemotherapy for three and a half years, all of it during the pandemic. At every stage, his immunosuppressed status put him in the front of the line for the vaccine. 

The letter’s assertion that people, like my son, were denied privileged access is not true in our case. Add to this the fact that Dr. Shah was our daily source of information on COVID. I watched as he relentlessly and kindly asserted evidence-based information. I listened to radio call-in shows, where vaccine deniers accused him of corruption, quackery, and worse.  He remained calm and cited the evidence.

In our double storm that was cancer and COVID, Dr. Shah was a rare source of solace. It is not my intent to deny the op-ed writer’s point of view, but to make clear that it does not represent everyone who had the misfortune to be “high-risk but not elderly” during the pandemic. For many of us, Dr. Shah made an impossible crisis endurable.

Jeanne Hey
Saco