ON FRIDAY, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its mask guidance for the first time since July—including for schools, where the debate on whether to mandate them has been highly polarizing. This update follows announcements from governors of states from across the country, who got ahead of the CDC in lifting their […]
COVID-19
Posted inOpinion
Ending mask mandate won’t bring us back to normal
“I FEEL LIKE my throat is closing,” said a 9-year-old boy, between raspy breaths and a barking cough. He was admitted to the hospital with COVID croup, a condition where the upper airway closes due to inflammation from a respiratory virus. Like most children admitted during the Omicron surge, he had no medical risk factors […]
Posted inUncategorized
Getting social mobility done during a pandemic
THIS ISN’T ANOTHER COVID think piece written by a college president. This is a story about upward mobility in the face of the most significant public health crisis of our lifetime. COVID has changed the landscape of higher education in ways I couldn’t have predicted back in the spring of 2020. We have seen countless […]
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts citizenship and the importance of state power
WHEN THE PANDEMIC BEGAN, and the federal government failed, we quickly learned how much it mattered that we all lived in Massachusetts. Two years of state-by-state comparisons in suffering, death, vaccination, and recovery showed us that for the first time in hundreds of years, your life depended more on your state identity than your national […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State eases indoor face-mask guidance
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT of Public Health on Tuesday relaxed its face-covering advisory, publishing an updated version that no longer recommends vaccinated individuals mask up in all indoor spaces. Instead, the latest iteration of an advisory that has been in place since Gov. Charlie Baker in May 2021 lifted the state’s universal […]
Posted inUncategorized
State House, closed nearly 2 years, to reopen next week
THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE HOUSE, closed to the public since March 2020, is going to reopen next Tuesday. State House leaders said legislative business will see little change initially. Committee hearings will continue to be held virtually and legislative sessions will remain a hybrid mix of lawmakers appearing in person and virtually. But for the first […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker vetoes ‘unrealistic’ deadlines in supp budget
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Saturday signed into law a $101 million supplemental budget bill that puts money toward increasing COVID-19 testing, buying masks, doing vaccine outreach, and recapitalizing a COVID-related paid sick time program. The governor vetoed or returned with amendments a few sections, primarily deadlines that he called “unrealistic.” The bill, which the Legislature […]
Posted inUncategorized
Labor appeals board upholds Baker’s vaccine mandate
A STATE APPEALS board has ruled that Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for executive branch workers is legal, ending the final avenue of appeals for a challenge by the state police union. The Commonwealth Employment Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday that Baker had authority to require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 17, without […]
Posted inHealth Care
COVID: Are we ready to learn to live with it?
THREE OF THE STATE’S leading health care executives said on Wednesday that COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are trending in a very positive downward direction, but they were divided on when and how people will be able to move on and learn to live with the virus as a part of everyday life. Kevin Churchwell, the […]
Posted inUncategorized
State sending $500 checks to 500,000 low-income workers
APPROXIMATELY 500,000 low-income individuals in Massachusetts who worked during the pandemic will receive $500 bonus payments in the mail this March. Lt. Governor Karyn Polito said in a statement that the money “will provide meaningful support for individuals who continued to work despite the global pandemic.” The premium pay program was established by the Legislature […]