The Baker-Polito Administration has announced that it is stopping sending vaccines to hospitals to prioritize mass vaccination sites. This probably further hurts non-white and low-income individuals, who were already lagging in vaccinations. It also led to hospital networks notifying their out-patient populations that they would not be able to provide vaccinations to anyone not already scheduled. In some rural settings, including Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, the local hospital is the only place to get vaccinated. However, these local hospitals are part of larger hospital networks, so their out-patients got the no vaccinations message. This created great consternation in these communities and many phone calls to the local hospitals. It turns out there’s an exception in the Baker-Polito Administration policy for a “rural regional vaccination site.” So, all might be well, except for the many anguished phone calls the hospitals had to respond to, except that …
The Baker-Polito Administration has told these rural hospitals and other sites that have vaccines on hand that even if they have completed vaccinating the currently eligible group (those over 75), they could not begin vaccinating the next group (65 to 75 year olds) until the 75+ group has been completed statewide.
The Baker-Polito Administration continues to botch the rollout of vaccinations despite its supposed management and health care system expertise. Problems with its confusing, conflicting, and non-sensical guidelines, coupled with the disaster that the state’s vaccination sign-up system has been, led a Harvard analysis to give the Administration’s vaccination rollout a grade of F. (West Virginia, by comparison, got an A.)