Editor:
I am responding to a letter to the editor sent by Mr. Sullivan recently.
A remarkable accomplishment of the current Democratic governor and public health administration in New Mexico has been vaccinating over 70 percent of our adult population against COVID-19 and the rapid deployment of vaccines for children as soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would allow.
From the point of view of a retired pediatrician over the age of 65 with underlying medical conditions, I feel that my life and those of many others have been saved by the effective mobilization of vaccine in our state.
This has also allowed our hospitals to cope with the pandemic without our limited capacities in terms of beds and personnel becoming overwhelmed. New Mexico had rapid and early availability of vaccines and has been one of the top five states in vaccination rates.
Our Democratic governor has an advisory team including epidemiologists and modelers from Los Alamos National Labs and the University of New Mexico that have provided outstanding guidance in dealing with the epidemic in New Mexico and are looked to by health departments and state public health officials across the country.
This is a wily, frightening virus, and we have to deal with constantly changing circumstances to ward it off. I trust our governor and her team to keep me and my family, including grandchildren, as safe as possible and am grateful to have had such effective leadership during this time.
Many physicians that I know have great respect for our state’s efforts at dealing with the pandemic.
Carla Bloedel, MD
Retired pediatrician
Corrales
