LESS THAN A MONTH after Gov. Charlie Baker announced a COVID vaccine mandate for all nursing home workers, the administration expanded the order to include home health aides and other long-term care employees. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that all staff at rest homes, assisted living residences, and hospice programs, as […]
vaccine
Posted inNews Analysis, Politics
Baker plays catch-up on vaccines, masks
CHARLIE BAKER has fashioned a Teflon political brand by bringing a drama-averse, middle-of-the-road bearing to issues that often incite passions and polarization. That approach seems closely tied to his persistent high favorability polling, projecting an image of the state’s two-term governor as someone operating above the partisan fray. But sometimes that approach comes off more […]
Posted inOpinion
Abolish the vaccine religious exemption
VACCINES SAVE LIVES. Never has this been more evident than in the last year. Since the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 15,000 lives in Massachusetts alone and is a leading cause of death in the United States. With the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in Massachusetts, we have seen our […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker offers vaccines to ‘companions’ of those over 75
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Wednesday said anyone bringing someone 75 and over to one of the state’s mass vaccination sites can also get inoculated even if it’s not their appointed time in the vaccine pecking order. Baker said he believed the new policy, which takes effect Thursday, will encourage more people 75 and over to […]
Posted inOpinion
Missing the boat on vaccinating the black community
MASSACHUSETTS LEADERS have pledged to address systemic racism. A COVID-19 vaccination strategy that prioritizes heavily impacted black communities is the opportunity to slow the spread of the disease while bringing real meaning to those words. Black and brown Americans have shouldered the burden of the pandemic, with blacks particularly impacted. In undervalued and underpaid jobs, many have […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker’s deliberate mixed message on COVID-19
MIXED MESSAGES are not usually held up as a quality of good leadership, but a lot of things have been different about life amid a global pandemic. That included Gov. Charlie Baker’s State House briefing on Tuesday where he offered a very calculated mix of hope and dire warning with Christmas approaching. Baker implored Massachusetts […]
Posted inHealth Care
COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to be a silver bullet
FOR MONTHS, a quarantine-weary, virus-ridden nation has been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine. It’s become the endgame, the antidote to all the death and economic destruction the virus has caused. Massachusetts’s final reopening stage, referred to as the “new normal,” is predicated on having an effective treatment or vaccine. But experts are beginning to rein […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Why a COVID-19 vaccine will be no easy feat
VACCINES HAVE HAD a greater impact on human health than any medical intervention in history. We are all hoping an effective vaccine against COVID-19 will soon join the ranks of these extraordinary disease prevention measures. But it’s worth understanding first how viruses – and effective vaccines against them – work. Doing so makes clear what […]