This is another in a series of conversations between Dr. Jarone Lee, a frontline critical care and emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Paul Hattis, a fellow at the Lown Institute who participates in CommonWealth’s Health or Consequences Codcast. PAUL HATTIS: How are Massachusetts General Hospital and the […]
COVID-19
Posted inEducation
School struggles getting worse amid virus surge
AMID THE SURGE of COVID-19 cases, Cambridge Public Schools closed Monday and Tuesday to test 3,500 students. Superintendent Victoria Greer wrote to families Tuesday that 157 of 362 pools tested positive – meaning somewhere between 157 and over 1,000 students had COVID. But the district had not received individual results, so no one knew which […]
Posted inBy The Numbers, Health Care, News Analysis
Poll shows sharp divide in attitudes depending on vaccination status
WITH COVID CASES surging in Massachusetts and tests hard to come by, deciding what feels safe to do can be a moving target. But for one group at least, the decision is a lot easier. Those who are unvaccinated largely feel safe eating in restaurants, attending public places and events, and are hesitant to introduce […]
Posted inEducation
Schools face staffing shortages as teachers ill with COVID
ON SATURDAY, Brockton school superintendent Michael Thomas warned parents that although schools were planning to reopen Monday, he could not guarantee it. “Unfortunately, like most districts across the state right now we need to prepare for the possibility that some schools may need to temporarily close due to under-staffing,” Thomas wrote in an email, which […]
Posted inEducation
Most, but not all, schools reopen Monday
A NUMBER OF SCHOOL DISTRICTS didn’t open on Monday because of concerns about COVID, but Gov. Charlie Baker said none of them will be exempted from in-person learning requirements. “The rules here are pretty simple,” he said at a press conference at the Saltonstall School in Salem with Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll. “We count in-person […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
988 state employees left jobs due to vaccine mandate
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE JUST FEWER than 1,000 executive branch employees have left their jobs because they did not or would not comply with Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for public employees, including 656 people whose departures were “involuntary,” the governor’s office said Thursday. The update on state worker compliance with the requirement comes as […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Essex prosecutors will investigate claims of improper masking at Middleton jail
A PUBLIC DEFENDER in Essex County is asking that his client be released from the Middleton jail because correction officers are not properly masking. Andrew daMota, an attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services, said he has been unable to find out if there is a current COVID-19 outbreak in the jail. But there was […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Mass. closing in on 1m total cases of COVID-19
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ANOTHER 12,983 people in Massachusetts were newly confirmed to have COVID-19 over the Christmas holiday weekend, the Department of Public Health reported Monday. With a total of 993,038 confirmed COVID-19 cases identified since February 2020 and thousands of new cases reported daily over recent weeks, the state is on track to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Rapid tests play crucial role in curbing COVID-19 spread
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. AS WINTER BEGINS and the holidays are in full swing, the COVID-19 pandemic has entered another worrying phase. Emergence of the omicron variant, along with increasing rates of infections, have left many people unsure about their holiday plans. On December 2, 2021, President […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker, Spilka differ on response to rising COVID cases
DESPITE RISING CONCERNS about a surge in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday shied away from ordering any new restrictions on work and social interaction and urged the residents of Massachusetts to rely on tools they currently have at their disposal, primarily vaccines. Baker took several actions to address hospital capacity issues, but he avoided […]