In October, the Governor announced the formation of the Massachusetts Vaccine Advisory Group, made up of leaders from health care, the faith community, community organizations, local government, and others, to advise the Commonwealth “on communication, distribution, and equity issues relating to a COVID-19 vaccine.” See the full membership here. The COVID-19 Command Center and the Department of Public Health developed the vaccine distribution plan in consultation with the Advisory Group. The three-phase vaccine distribution plan seeks to: protect the most vulnerable and limit mortality, maintain health care system capacity, and address inequities in health care access and the COVID-19 burden. See the Governor’s Press Conference, rolling out the distribution plan, here.
The challenge for the Advisory Group was to determine how to best distribute a highly sought-after public resource that has been distributed to the states in limited allotments by the federal government. To meet its goals, the Advisory Group was forced to make difficult decisions and had to prioritize some groups ahead of others. The COVID Command Center is likely to continue to honor these prioritization decisions, unless very compelling new information about a particular group is brought forward.
If you have compelling new information regarding the priority status of a certain group that you think was not considered by the Massachusetts Vaccine Advisory Group, you may share it with the Command Center: COVID-19-Vaccine-Plan-MA@mass.gov However, they are unlikely to provide substantive feedback at this time.
Additional Resources:
Governor’s Press Release naming the Advisory Group: https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-announces-covid-19-vaccine-advisory-gro
Governor’s Press Conference on Initial Steps for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution: https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-announces-initial-steps-for-covid-19-vaccine-distribution
COVID-19 Vaccine PowerPoint Presentation: https://www.mass.gov/doc/ma-covid-19-vaccine-presentation-1292020/download
News coverage of the initial plan: https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2020/12/09/massachusetts-vaccine-rollout-plan
Thank you, Will. My greatest concern is that we will have to wait in line and be exposed to the risk of others since both Kevin and I are high risk. Our roll out seems to be moving slowly and I am not sure why because I believe we finally have the vaccines.
Big day, tomorrow. Such a relief to have a man with integrity leading our country once again. Let’s hope we never experience the likes of a Trump again. Such a violent and inciteful four years and so painful to watch. I used to think it could not possibly get any worse and last week I was proved wrong; a sad time for democracy.
Praying for the safely of all our public servants and especially Joe and Kamala.
Be well, mask up, get vaccinated, and stay safe,
Mary Mahony