Massachusetts officials push Baker administration to restore vaccines for boards of health

Doug Kress didn’t receive any coronavirus vaccines to distribute this past week. The Somerville director of health and human services said it “doesn’t look like we’re getting any” doses in the near future, either.

The Baker administration announced this week that it’s largely cutting off already limited vaccine supplies to most local boards of health as part of its pivot to prioritizing mass vaccination sites. The decision — announced barely a week after the state made a similar cut to hospital allotments — prompted backlash and a growing chorus of calls to reconsider from municipal and state leaders concerned with how to best get shots into the arms of the most vulnerable.

“We really do hope that the state will rethink how they’re doing their allotments and look at the ways we’re able to meet additional needs for our community members,” Kress said.

Twenty municipalities hardest hit by the pandemic will still distribute doses locally. But many local boards of health that were key players in Phase 2 were told to no longer expect new first doses, Kress said, though they’ll still get shots to vaccinate seniors in low-income and affordable housing through a separate pipeline.

Gov. Charlie Baker explained the decision as a matter of efficiency while supply from the federal government remains limited.

“What worked for the early, targeted populations in Phase 1 is a lot different than what’s going to work for the millions of people across the commonwealth who are eligible in Phases 2 and 3,” he said in a Wednesday press conference.

But leaders of the Massachusetts Municipal Association sent a letter urging Baker to reconsider. So did a bipartisan group of more than 40 state lawmakers who said the move could “seriously jeopardize” access for seniors.

“These mass vaccination sites are inequitable for seniors, who have confronted obstacles in every step of the process,” the lawmakers wrote. “Instead of halting the ability of our communities to vaccinate their most vulnerable populations, we should prioritize the local infrastructure.”

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, said it’s “important to take into account” municipalities’ existing vaccine distribution networks.

“Certainly there is a role for large injection sites,” Tarr said on a Zoom call with council on aging directors hosted by state Sen. Diana DiZoglio, D-Methuen. “But that does not also mean that there isn’t a role for local vaccination operations.”

Local boards of health have a call with the state twice a week, Tarr said. But he and other advocates are calling for a greater voice in the constantly shifting vaccine distribution plans they say are very much coming from the top down — and often with little warning.

“We will work with you as partners. That’s what we want to do,” Amesbury Council on Aging Director Doreen Arnfield said.

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said during a livestream Saturday that community leaders must be part of the plan “to guard against vaccine redlining” and said the Baker administration “is really failing those most impacted” by the virus.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey said federal lawmakers are seeking $25 billion for vaccine equity efforts nationwide as part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.

The Rev. Miniard Culpepper said more education efforts are needed to not only address vaccine hesitancy but also to simply let people know when they’re eligible for shots.

“Pastors didn’t even know that they were in Phase 1 until we started telling them,” Culpepper, the senior pastor at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church, said on the livestream. “We need to come up with a strategy so we can narrow down and we can focus on the folks that we really want to get the vaccine.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3kk5CnL