In my 40-year career in medicine I saved a few lives; women with ruptured ectopic pregnancies, cancer, postpartum hemorrhage, babies requiring emergency caesarean delivery, etc.

There is one physician in Maine, however, who has saved almost three thousand lives in the past year alone. That person is of course Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine CDC. Dr. Shah’s calm, compassionate, science-driven leadership, with the support of the Mills administration and the dedicated staff of the Maine CDC, has resulted in Maine continuing to have lower death rates due to COVID-19 than most other states.

This in spite of sometimes vitriolic opposition to some public health policies and the difficult economic consequences of those policies. In comparison to New Jersey, the highest rate state, Maine has had almost 3,000 fewer than expected deaths over the past year.

Maine owes Dr. Shah a debt of gratitude and the continued support of his public health leadership as we hopefully are nearing the end of the pandemic.

Jay Naliboff, M.D., FACOG

Chesterville