Dear Editor:

In March 2020, voters in Maine overwhelmingly defeated Question 1, which would have eliminated vaccine requirements in the state, by a margin of 72.5% to 27.5%. The people's voice rang loud and clear. Mainers want their children to be protected from measles, mumps, rubella, and other childhood illnesses.

Sen. Susan Collins could not have been thinking of her fellow Mainers when she voted to approve Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in February of 2025, despite having misgivings about his qualifications and agenda.

Since his ascent, RFK Jr. has systematically dismantled crucial pillars of our national health system, including summarily firing all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a key panel overseeing vaccine recommendations, replacing them with members skeptical of vaccines.

Senator Collins has defended her decision: “I have been able to work with him on several important issues.” A hearty endorsement, indeed.

With Senator Collins, it’s one egregious error of judgment after another: Not only did she abandon her obligations to the people of Maine with her deciding confirmation vote for RFK Jr., but she cast the deciding vote in Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, exposing Maine women to the overturning of Roe v Wade, and she gave billionaires a generous Christmas present in 2017 with her deciding vote on the Trump Tax Cuts.

I’m reminded of the song “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” which ends with a sober recognition: “Yes, it’s over, the chips are down / Nearly all our bridges tumbled down.”

At some point, Collins’s “concern” is not courage. At some point, her reassurance is not leadership. At some point, the bridges really have tumbled down.

For Maine voters, that point has arrived.

Geoff Bates

South Bristol