Onward!

Despite the Baker-Polito Administration’s promises to make equity for communities of color a centerpiece of the state’s vaccination plan, white residents have been getting vaccinated at rates well over 50% higher than the rates for Black or Latino residents. Access has been part of the problem. In Boston and Suffolk County, only 14% of Blacks and 26% of Latinos live within a mile of a vaccination site, while 46% of white residents do. In suburban Weston, which is 80% white and has a median income of over $200,000, eligible residents can get vaccinated at Town Hall. Two other wealthy, white suburbs, Newton and Needham, have three vaccination sites within three miles of each other. Furthermore, the administration has been slow to roll out a public awareness and education campaign, contributing…

The Baker-Polito Administration’s management failures in implementing COVID  vaccinations are clearly evident in its lack of clear goals, a failure to learn from past mistakes, little apparent sense of urgency, a failure to embrace best practices seen in other states, and a lack of flexibility. With the vaccinations, it has made the same mistake of focusing on hospitals and ignoring long-term care facilities that it made in the spring, which led to MA having one of the worst death rates in long-term care facilities in the country. When hospitals and universities have had extra doses of vaccines available, direction from the administration on how to use them has been confusing and frustrating. (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/28/nation/while-some-struggle-get-vaccine-colleges-hospitals-face-different-problem-what-do-with-surplus-doses) The state’s data and tracking systems are inefficient. The Baker-Polito Administration had promised local health departments an…

The Baker-Polito Administration’s latest management failure has been the poor implementation of COVID vaccinations. Massachusetts is lagging behind every other northeast state with only 5.5% of its population having received a first vaccination shot by January 24. Connecticut is at 8%, while Alaska and West Virginia are at about twice the MA rate. MA ranks 29th in the country. Furthermore, only 51% of the vaccine doses delivered to MA have been injected into people’s arms as-of January 24. Keep in mind that vaccine doses can’t be stored indefinitely. (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/23/metro/massachusetts-lagging-most-other-states-covid-19-vaccination-rollout/) The administration has not implemented a centralized process for signing up to get vaccinated. New Mexico launched such a website in December as have other states including Oklahoma, Indiana, and New York. MA has a cumbersome, patchwork of ways to sign…

Governor Baker vetoed the Next-Generation Roadmap Climate Bill. Among other excuses, his reasons—and responses from our allies at 350Mass—include: The bill would halt new construction of affordable housing. In reality, energy efficient homes cost the same or less than those using gas, save money over time, and improve health by reducing indoor pollution. Baker’s stance is supported by the real estate lobby but opposed by advocates for affordable housing. The bill is too ambitious in seeking 50 percent reduction in climate pollution by 2030; he prefers a goal of 45 percent reduction, and less frequent monitoring of progress made. As the climate crisis intensifies, the Commonwealth’s actions need to be more aggressive, not less. He complained about the Roadmap’s new Stretch Building Codes for clean energy, even though they are…

The Baker-Polito Administration has finally announced a plan for broad COVID testing of public school students, teachers, and staff. It will begin in about a month. Local higher education institutions, and some local K-12 systems, realized last summer that broad testing of students and faculty was necessary to safely re-open face-to-face education in the fall. Why it’s taken the Baker-Polito Administration this long to figure out that a similar COVID testing approach was necessary for K-12 education is a mystery. We all know kids learn best with face-to-face instruction and the Administration has been pushing communities to re-open schools. But parents, teachers, and students deserve to know if being in school is safe. They also need to know what steps will be taken to protect them if a member of…

The Baker-Polito Administration’s response to the COVID pandemic continues to be too little, too late, while failing to put forth any metric-driven plan and failing to share important data. Testing lacks a coherent system and people wait for hours to get tested and days to get results. No plans to expand or systematize testing are evident. COVID is running rampant in Massachusetts prisons with one in six prisoners and hundreds of prison workers testing positive over a recent six-week period from Nov. into Dec. Meanwhile, the Baker-Polito Administration has refused to report on how almost $3 billion of federal COVID assistance has been spent.

The Baker-Polito Administration weakened eviction protections in the state budget by: 1) removing a requirement that landlords beginning the eviction process notify tenants of their rights, 2) eliminating a pause in the eviction process if a tenant is applying for rental assistance, and 3) deleting reporting on and monitoring of the Eviction Diversion Initiative. Fortunately, the Legislature overrode these actions. Previously, the Baker-Polito Administration let the moratorium on evictions expire despite the facts that its rental assistance program is insufficient and inefficient, and that evictions are increasing dramatically as pandemic assistance is falling.

According to Mayors of five Massachusetts cities, the Baker-Polito Administration is doing too little to stop the spread of COVID, so they are taking action on their own to close businesses. As hospitals are filling up, municipal leaders are taking dramatic action despite the harm to businesses, especially in the absence of state or federal economic relief. They are frustrated by the lack of statewide action by the Baker-Polito Administration because residents and COVID flow freely among communities. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/14/metro/mayor-walsh-other-city-mayors-agree-roll-back-reopening-wake-rising-covid-19-rates/

The Baker-Polito Administration is doing too little to stop spiking numbers of COVID cases in MA, particularly given its push to have students in face-to-face classes. For all of us to feel safe and have some predictability, clear metrics should be laid for determining when restrictions need to be tightened and when they can be relaxed. This is particularly important for schools. If the Baker-Polito Administration wants to have children safely back in school – as we all do – then it should provide support and a plan for widespread testing and contact tracing in schools – as many colleges have done – so parents and teachers know that our schools are safe. The Administration also needs to invest in ensuring air quality and room for social distancing in our…

The Baker-Polito Administration has failed to build needed COVID testing capacity. Experts recommended in July that at least 140,000 tests per day were needed. However, MA is currently averaging only about 70,000 tests a day. When demand spiked to 100,000, long lines and waits occurred, but the Administration said the state would not expand testing sites. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/27/nation/across-state-long-lines-covid-19-testing-reflect-bigger-problem/