So far, authorities have avoided specifying dates for the rest of the implementation, focusing on providing vaccines for about one million people who are currently eligible: the elderly, people with two or more chronic health conditions and teachers and educators.
Two other large groups – about 360,000 workers in a range of key industries and 430,000 people with a chronic health problem, according to the state – are yet to be added to the mix before Massachusetts ends all restrictions and opens vaccine appointments. to the end 2.55 million people in the general population over 16 years old.
The state’s vaccines website has long said the Baker administration plans to open consultations for the general public sometime in April, ahead of Biden’s deadline. And officials noted that the state generally follows the eligibility schedule on the website, in addition to some unexpected changes along the way, such as adding educators to the mix.
Baker also emphasized that the biggest issue in opening vaccines quickly for all adults is whether the federal government can significantly increase vaccine supplies.
“I welcome President Biden [May 1 deadline] and to redouble my appeal to the federal government to do everything in its power to increase vaccine production to meet massive demand, ”said the governor in a statement last week.
As the pace of the Massachusetts vaccination campaign increased last month, experts said the state could be behind others in opening eligibility for a number of reasons. There are demographic considerations, for example: states with older populations or larger health workforces may take longer to pass through this pool.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said there may be a negative reason why some states are able to open eligibility more quickly: a lower level of vaccine demand among the eligible population and more people who do not want or unable to be vaccinated.
“Some states have been able to move quickly because they have a lot of hesitation and many more people are not being vaccinated,” said Jha. “Revolving doors wide open. . . it is not necessarily a sign that you are doing things very well. “
In Massachusetts, some older residents who are not yet eligible fear that they will struggle to get an appointment when the general public is allowed, because there will be a lot of competition. According to current state guidelines, a 64-year-old without any health problems would become eligible at the same time as a 16-year-old, and can actually be vaccinated after that person.
“Are they going to do some kind of fight, or are they going to see that we have a lot of 64 year olds and catch so many from each age group?” asked Pam Cirincione of Wakefield, who, at 64, is less than a year from running.
Some states, including Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island, plan to increase eligibility more gradually, gradually lowering the minimum age before it is later open to everyone, a move that Maine governor Janet Mills said was aimed at balancing better supply and demand.
The Baker administration said in early March that it would consider the idea, but has since declined to comment further.
The governor said Massachusetts has the ability to dramatically increase the number of shots fired each day at various locations, but only with greater supply. Baker also asked the federal government to provide a long-term forecast of how many doses states will receive each week to help with planning and scheduling.
There are some signs that the supply is increasing. The state this week is receiving more than 170,000 new first doses from the federal government, an increase of almost 9% over last week, driven by 8,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that the authorities did not expect.
Last month, the state received an average of about 168,000 first doses a week from the federal government, compared with about 102,750 in the previous four-week period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even more doses are delivered and administered in the state through federal programs at CVS pharmacies and community health centers.
And public health analysts are widely hoping that the supply will continue to grow in the coming weeks, with some seeing national eligibility until May 1 as an easily achievable goal.
“May 1 has become the standard in most states, if not all states,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “For me, it means that there is a lot of confidence in the federal government that there will be enough doses.”
Biden emphasized that he does not expect anyone who wants an injection to be able to get it by May 1. As the floodgates open and millions of people enter the system, it will probably still take weeks for everyone to attend – even as the supply increases.
Massachusetts has already experienced what can happen when many people flood the vaccine system. In February, when the state expanded eligibility for all people over the age of 64 and with various health problems, residents struggled for weeks to make appointments and the state’s website initially crashed with all traffic. Some experts question whether Massachusetts and other states opened eligibility too quickly at a time when demand was strongly outstripping supply.
“If you have to include a warning statement [that scheduling will take weeks] at first, it suggests that perhaps they should have been a little more discerning, ”said Dr. Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety.
But there have been changes in the Massachusetts application process in the weeks since, mainly with the launch of a new pre-registration system that manages all of the demand and puts eligible residents in a digital queue.
Although pre-registration does not solve supply and demand problems, it can eliminate much of the distress in a scheduling process that previously forced people to constantly check and update a website in the desperate hope of a vacancy. Residents can now apply to be queued and notified when an upcoming appointment is available to be scheduled.
Anyone can pre-register, but only qualified residents will be queued on a first-come, first-served basis. The state says there will be no such advantage for unqualified people who sign up in advance. Instead, they will only enter the queue on the date their population is considered eligible by the state and will be randomly assigned to a place, regardless of when they signed up, officials said.
Adam Vaccaro can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @adamtvaccaro.