“I called my GP’s office and they didn’t know anything. I called the city nurse and she doesn’t know. I asked, asked and asked, “said McQuilken, who noted ironically that he is in a position to ask why” when you are in the group over 75, you are in contact with doctors. “
Tens of thousands of older Massachusetts residents are in the same location as McQuilken. The second phase of the launch of the Baker government vaccine, which includes the elderly, was scheduled for February on a calendar released last month. People aged 75 and over must be at the front of the line.
But state officials last week notified home health workers – a much smaller group scheduled to be vaccinated in January – that their injections would not begin until February 1.
This, in turn, could delay the immunization of 450,000 high-risk residents over 75 years of age – almost three times the number of vaccinated residents since the state’s deployment last month. And a recommendation issued on Tuesday by the Trump administration, urging states to immediately start vaccinating all 65-year-old Americans, could make the state’s job even more difficult. Governor Charlie Baker said the state will ask the COVID-19 advisory panel to consider lowering the age limit to 65 for the next round of vaccines.
Elderly people and their advocates say that the delay in vaccinations by home health workers already increases the risk for residents who depend on them to bathe, dress and prepare meals. “These workers are in the community and should be vaccinated as soon as they can,” said Lisa Gurgone, executive director of Mass Home Care, which provides services to some 60,000 elderly people who are homeless across the state.
Access to the vaccine depends a lot on where older residents live. Those in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities are already being vaccinated. But residents over 75 who live in low-income apartments run by public housing authorities and some non-profit organizations are waiting to know when and where they will be vaccinated. Many have been confined to their apartments for months and have experienced physical and cognitive decline.
“You have this patchwork approach,” said Andrew DeFranza, executive director of Harborlight Community Partners, a nonprofit organization that operates half a dozen subsidized senior citizen housing in Beverly, Rockport and Ipswich. “These are very fragile and very vulnerable people who live in affordable homes for the elderly, but are not yet eligible to receive vaccines.”
State officials directed the first shipments of vaccines to hospitals and long-term care facilities, locations with staff qualified to administer vaccines. But the logistics became more complex this week when the state designated 119 smaller, more dispersed locations, including schools and senior centers, to vaccinate the first respondents, such as police, fire and emergency medical technicians. Some of these sites can also be used by the elderly and the general population as the implementation expands.
The challenges will multiply again when injections begin for residents over 75 who live independently or in accommodation for the elderly not covered by Phase 1 vaccinations, a group larger than the first three combined. And the pressure to accelerate the pace of vaccinations is increasing.
“Everyone thinks we can’t get this done fast enough,” said Elissa Sherman, president of Leading Age Massachusetts, who represents senior service providers and senior nonprofit housing operators. “Older adults carried the [pandemic] burden for 10 long months now, and everyone is looking forward to getting the vaccine as soon as possible. “
Baker said Tuesday that Gillette Stadium in Foxborough was considered the state’s first regional “mass vaccination site”. The site will be operated by CIC Health, with Brigham and Women’s Hospital acting as medical director and Fallon Ambulance supporting the team, the governor said.
Vaccination of the first respondents will begin on Thursday, initially serving about 300 people a day, but eventually increasing to about 5,000 a day and “numbers potentially much greater than over time,” said Baker.
The governor said his government, which administered 141,000 doses of vaccine until last Thursday, is acting to accelerate the vaccine’s release. But he said it depends on vaccine distribution coordinated by the federal government, which quickly warns states when doses will be sent.
“We are going to move as quickly as the distribution plan moves,” said Baker. Last Thursday, the state had reported receiving 328,000 doses, which is nowhere near the next vaccination phase.
The new federal recommendation could complicate what is already a difficult task for the Massachusetts authorities, making another 560,000 residents aged 65 to 74 eligible for vaccination at once. Baker said his COVID-19 advisory committee would study the plan, although other governors, including Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York, said they would abandon eligibility for 65 years.
Some public health experts questioned how realistic the Trump administration’s proposal is, given the slow pace of implementation so far and the many obstacles to vaccinations.
“Currently, the country is nowhere near vaccinating all those in the first set of priority groups,” said Dr. Howard Koh, professor at Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan and former US assistant secretary of health in the Obama administration . “We need much more detailed information about whether the vaccine doses available can also meet the need to cover people over 65.”
Residents over 75 who live in nursing homes and assisted living centers have already received their first vaccines through a federal pharmaceutical partnership that hired CVS and Walgreens to operate clinics there. Pharmaceutical companies have also started clinics this week in nursing homes, as well as in some private settings for the elderly and communities of retirees with continued care, where residents have access to various levels of care on a single campus.
“As soon as people are vaccinated, we will start to open community life again. People are hungry for it, ”said Amy Schectman, president of 2Life Communities, who said that most residents were confined to their rooms in their organization’s subsidized lodgings in Brighton, Brookline, Newton and Framingham.
But residents of other popular housing units, including those operated by more than 200 public housing officials, have not had the opportunity to sign the federal pharmacy program – and they don’t know why.
“Our residents are some of the lowest-income seniors in the state and still need to be put on a schedule where they can get vaccinated and get back to normal,” said David Hedison, executive director of the Chelmsford Housing Authority and president of the Massachusetts chapter. of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. “All elderly people in subsidized housing should receive the vaccine.”
Martin Finucane, of the Globe team, contributed to this story.
Robert Weisman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeRobW.