The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least 3% of U.S. adults have a compromised immune system and are therefore at high risk for severe or fatal COVID-19 infection, even after receiving two doses of the vaccine. In recent weeks, the CDC has recommended that high-risk immunocompromised individuals get a third dose of the vaccine to try to increase protection against COVID-19. Several small studies suggest that many “breakthrough” cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated people are occurring among those who are immunocompromised.
Also in recent weeks, immunocompromised and other high-risk adults who test positive for COVID-19 have been urged to contact their primary care provider to determine whether they should consider and are eligible for “monoclonal antibody” infusions. New Hampshire has identified 15 hospital sites (so far), including Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Cottage Hospital, that can provide monoclonal antibody infusions. Further information about monoclonal antibody infusions is available on the state of New Hampshire’s “COVID-19 Response” website, https://www.covid19.nh.gov/resources/covid-19-treatment-resources.
CAROLE STASHWICK
Hanover
The writer is a physician and a retired Geisel School of Medicine professor.
Now, after days of insisting that the last drone strike took out important militants, the Pentagon admits that the car it blew up contained 10 innocent civilians, seven of them children. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, known for marching next to President Donald Trump on the way to a bible thumping photo op while the police tear-gassed peaceful demonstrators, called the drone strike a “righteous strike.”
Truly a fitting conclusion to our 20-year “operation” in Afghanistan.
Hurray! On to the cold war/arms race with China, our next trillion-dollar transfer of funds to the military-industrial complex!
FRANK LAMSON
South Royalton
While President Joe Biden is trying desperately to ignore the human tragedy on our Southern border, more than 8,000 migrants are sitting under a bridge in Texas waiting to enter as Border Patrol facilities overflow.
Joe Biden also expects us to forget his hasty order to remove 2,500 American military personnel from Afghanistan and surrender Bagram Air Base. Then word comes that the drone strike Biden authorized has killed an aid worker with a U.S.-based group and seven children — not Taliban terrorists.
How long does America have to put up with this cognitively deficient man?
I know, just shut up, wear a mask and blame everything on climate change.
JOHN NELSON
Wilder
I am outraged by the actions of Executive Councilor Joseph Kenney (“Council targets abortion providers,” Sept. 16). New Hampshire residents, particularly those here in Claremont, deserve access to the full panoply of reproductive health and family planning services.
The Executive Council’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood means members of my community will suffer from the lack of such basic medical care as low-cost sexually transmitted disease testing, cancer screenings and contraception. The last, by the way, is essential to preventing unwanted pregnancies and, of course by extension, abortion.
If that is or was indeed the council’s intent, Kenney obviously made the wrong choice. And if he truly cared about life, specifically that of his constituents, he would not vote in favor of denying them access to affordable health care.
How does he justify harming Granite Staters as he just has?
Doesn’t adversely affecting others’ health make any difference to him? How can he claim to represent my city when his decision-making is so deliberately contrary to its best interests?
Shame on him.
LIZA DRAPER
Claremont
I am bewildered that Executive Councilor Joseph Kenney and three other councilors voted “No” for Planned Parenthood funding (“Council targets abortion providers,” Sept. 16).
When the New Hampshire budget was passed, the Department of Health and Human Services was mandated to provide a financial audit of reproductive health facilities to ensure no public funds were paying for abortion-related services. It found no evidence of commingled money.
And yet the Executive Council denied the funding, which also provides health care services, including birth control and screening for cancer and sexually transmitted infections.
I ask: Why?
If public money is not used to provide abortion-related services, on what did Kenney and the other councilors base their “No” vote?
DIANNE ROCHFORD
Newport, N.H
I read Forum contributor Alice Morrison’s letter (“Supporters of Trump and Taliban are similar in many disturbing ways,” Sept. 15) and had to take the time to respond.
The letter calls Trump supporters “loud and aggressive” troublemakers. I have watched Black Lives Matter supporters burn city blocks and loot businesses with weapons and violence. On any given day, former President Donald Trump can draw a crowd of tens of thousands with his message and never have his supporters burned buildings, looted shops or destroyed police vehicles. Those who believe they did, please share those incidents.
I am not in love with Donald Trump, but he did exactly what he said he was going to do and the Democrats tried every method they could to remove him from office.
To those who refer to Jan. 6, I will resort to the Constitution, which includes a means for the people to remove a tyrannical, out-of-control government, which is what I believe we have in Washington today.
This group was made up of a lot of just plain fed-up Americans — former police officers, military folks who served their country for many years.
Jan. 6 was not about Donald Trump. It was about everyday, working-class Americans fed up with the left-wing, drug-addicted, anti-police Democrats who I see as systematically destroying our nation.
And the only problem I have is, the politicians learned nothing. They are ignorant of the world around them.
DOUGLAS TUTHILL
West Hartford