More than 500 Massachusetts residents received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday at Gillette Stadium, at what is hoped to be the first of several large-scale vaccination clinics in the state that will help fight the pandemic. CIC Health, a Cambridge technology company with a focus on COVID-19 testing, is running the site in Foxborough with assistance from the state.
So far, under the states phased schedule, vaccinations in Massachusetts are only permitted for clinical and non-clinical health care workers doing direct COVID-facing care; long-term care facilities, rest homes, and assisted-living facilities; first responders; and as of Monday inmates in the states correctional system, residents of congregate-care facilities, as well as staff in those settings.
Phase Two, expected to start in February, would prioritize vaccinations for people over age 75, those with two or more comorbidities, as well as residents and staff of public and private low-income and senior housing. It would also allow other workers including teachers and grocery store employees to get doses. The effort would later expand to people over age 65, and those with one co-morbid condition.
The general public is expected to be able to get vaccine doses in Phase Three, slated to begin in April, according to the state.
Baker has pledged to set aside 20 percent of its supply forvulnerable cities and towns with high rates of infections,but not until Phases Two and Three. The authors of the MLK Day letter argue that the state has not identified a program for actually delivering and administering those hotspot vaccines.
The doctors also pointed to neighboring Rhode Island as one state that has taken steps to provide the vaccine to the hardest-hit communities.
Rhode Island offered up doses to residents of Central Falls, one of the hardest-hit areas in the Northeast, during its first phase of the vaccine rollout. In some cases, the vaccine was delivered to the front door of residents in the community where about two-thirds of the citys residents are Latino and thousands are undocumented. Many work poorly paid factory and food-processing jobs and live in cramped triple-deckers with several family members.
Rhode Island intends to prioritize other highly dense ZIP codes in the first phase of the states distribution plan.
[The] arrival of effective vaccines should prompt our state to use this tool to prioritize their protection as Rhode Island is doing, said Regina LaRocque, MD, MPH, adult Infectious Disease specialist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, in a statement accompanying the letter.
The letter was written by the Chelsea Collaborative, or La Colaborativa, a nonprofit organization that has been leading the humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Chelsea, the early epicenter of the virus in the state.
We cannot afford to neglect our hotspot communities during the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine. We call on you to partner with community organizations, like the Chelsea Collaborative, to immediately deliver vaccines directly to our hardest-hit communities in Massachusetts starting now. The healthcare professionals among us are ready to assist you, concludes the letter.
Among the signees are medical students from Harvard and Boston University, doctors from Mass General Brigham hospitals, and leaders from community health clinics across the Boston area.
As with the rest of the United States, COVID-19 has taken a disproportionate toll on the Black and Latino communities in Massachusetts. Cities with the largest population of those two groups suffered high infection rates and death. A study from the summer found that a 10 percentage point increase in the Black population was associated with 312.3 more cases per 100,000 people. The same increase in the Latino population was associated with 258.2 more cases per 100,000.
Not only are people of color suffering more from COVID-19, but they also are among the most skeptical about the vaccines, a consequence of generations of unequal medical access and treatment. Many residents of immigrant communities avoid medical care for fear of alerting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, noted the statement accompanying the letter.
We found so many sick Chelsea residents in our food line, said Dinanyili Paulino of La Colaborativa. We now want to help offer our community members the vaccines.
The Baker administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letter. But Baker did acknowledge that there is a racial justice component to the states distribution plan when he announced it in December.
We recognize that the pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color and low-income people, Baker said. Our vaccine advisory board has been intently focused on ensuring that these voices have been heard during the planning process, and included representatives from this community.
John Hilliard of the Globe staff contributed to this story.
Hanna can be reached at hanna.krueger@globe.com. Follow her on twitter @hannaskrueger.read more
Hundreds of medical professionals call on Baker to prioritize vaccine access for Black and immigrant communities
