The letters of protest come from public health leaders in some of the most densely populated areas of the state, including Boston, Springfield, the Merrimack Valley, the Metro West area and Plymouth County. The State Health Department is expected to seek the local letters and include them in the CDC’s emergency funding application.
“The Commonwealth continues to operate under a limited federal offering and has 170 public vaccine sites across the country, including several local health councils that support several of our most severely affected communities and receive vaccinations each week,” a COVID spokesman said. -19 response command from the state said. Center said in a statement. “Local health councils are working with the state to develop plans for vaccinating residents who are home-bound, who live in low-income or affordable housing, and who are more difficult to reach populations, and still a critical part of the pandemic response will be.”
After a slow start, Massachusetts rose in the state’s vaccination rankings, with more than 2.3 million total doses administered as of Wednesday, according to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker. Massachusetts ranks 9th nationwide for total doses administered, based on population.
The state’s application to the CDC aims for $ 13 million in federal funding, and local health leaders say their letters outlining the major problems in Massachusetts’ pandemic response are not intended to derail funding. The protest is unlikely to do so either, they said. Their sharply worded letters, according to them, are to highlight the failures and urge the state to move forward in a way that better serves communities, especially those hardest hit by the virus.
“There seems to be a complete break with the well-known and established plans that communities have built up since 2001,” reads the letter from Jeffrey Stephens, Westford’s health director, who also heads the Upper Merrimack Valley Public Health Coalition.
Following the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Massachusetts spent millions of dollars planning how to mobilize its large network of local public health departments to respond to an emergency, including the construction and management of mass vaccination sites. Many of the letters say that the state threw out the blueprint during the pandemic.
“We feel that developing plans seems almost useless for future responses,” the Stephens letter read. “The non-use and dismissal of current plans has damaged the relations in our region and is helping the deteriorating confidence in public health by residents.”
The widespread manifestation of disapproval of the state’s local health coalitions is unusual. The last time this happened was in 2006, when many people felt that there was no communication between Governor Mitt Romney’s health department and local health leaders.
In a number of the letters, various communications were quoted.
“Local health councils were left out of state planning and faced a response to guidance as it came from the state, which was often different from the plans we drew up together,” said Stacey Kokaram, director of Boston Public, declares. Health Commission’s Office of Public Health Preparedness, in her letter.
At the end of December, local health leaders were about to set up vaccination clinics for first responders after the state health department only gave them about two weeks to secure ultra-cold storage units for vaccines, as well as to find adequate protective equipment and personnel to administer the shots. But around the same time, the Baker administration quietly set up private mass vaccination centers in Gillette Stadium, Fenway Park, and other large venues as they moved away from local clinics.
Local health leaders sued the state over a lack of communication during the pandemic, which led to widespread confusion in communities.
In one case in the fall, the COVID Command Center abruptly changed how it measured the number of COVID-19 infections, which determine the risk levels in communities and affect business closure and more.
The change directly contradicted decisions on closure of businesses and other guidance to residents that many public health departments issued earlier the same day, local leaders said.
Shortly afterwards, the commando center relaxed the quarantine rules, again without notice to local health departments. Public health nurses ordered by telephone to place residents in quarantine and explain the rules at the same time as the governor was on television and set different rules, local leaders said.
State indifference to local expertise, as well as poor and sporadic communication “has resulted in confusion and frustration between us and the communities we represent,” Christopher Goshea said in his letter from the Hampden County Health Coalition, which states Springfield and Holyoke includes.
“We are open to thoughtful discussions, so this critical work can continue and be relevant to the answers of the future,” he said.
Kay Lazar can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKayLazar.