Health boards race to form regional collaboratives
Want access to vaccine
Local board of health officials feeling whiplash over the Baker administration’s constantly changing distribution plans are now racing to form regional collaboratives to regain access to vaccines.
Less than a week after the state largely cut off already limited doses to most local boards of health as part of its pivot to prioritizing mass vaccination sites, Gov. Charlie Baker announced 11 higher-volume regional collaboratives would be receiving vaccines. And he encouraged more municipalities to band together for greater access.
“We would have done this weeks ago had we known this is what the plan would have been,” state Sen. Julian Cyr told reporters Thursday as he detailed the new consortium that plans to open a vaccination site at Cape Cod Community College as soon as this week after calls for the state to place a mass vaccination site there proved fruitless.
“I appreciate that the administration has listened and empowered us to do this,” the Truro Democrat said. “It’s just unfortunate that it’s taken us so many frustrating weeks to get to this point.”
Other municipalities watching their supplies dwindle in Phase 2 of the state’s rollout after being key players in distributing vaccines to first responders and others prioritized in Phase 1 are now scrambling to form collaboratives of their own.
Needham public health Director Timothy McDonald quickly pulled together an application for a collaborative that includes Canton, Dedham, Dover, Medfield, Milton, Norwood, Walpole, Wellesley and Westwood.
“We think there’s an important role for local public health and there is capacity there and we hope the state will provide vaccines,” McDonald said.
Somerville Director of Health and Human Services Doug Kress is also working on a proposal with neighboring communities after watching his supply of doses dry up.
Mass vaccination sites “do serve a purpose and we’re thrilled about that,” Kress said. “But it’s still not going to reach everybody. One size does not fit all.”
The regional collaboratives must be able to vaccinate at least 750 people a day, five days a week, placing them between a local board of health clinic and a mass vaccination center in size. They also must be open to all Massachusetts residents, though outreach efforts can focus on locals.
Northampton quickly scaled up to meet the new requirements, but Public Health Director Merridith O’Leary urged state lawmakers during last week’s legislative oversight hearing to rethink the “excessive and unnecessary demands” of 750 vaccinations per day “and allow health departments who have the infrastructure to take care of their own residents in a compassionate, dedicated, safe way to do so.”
Baker defended his administration’s actions during the hearing and pinned the state’s pivoting plans on limited supplies from the feds and low visibility into what’s coming down the pipeline.
“We don’t always know … what we were going to get week to week,” Baker said. “It was important for us to be able to try to move it to places where we thought we would be able to put it to work.”