Currently, the only public vaccination site in Suffolk County is the South Boston Community Health Center. A mass vaccination site at Fenway Park is scheduled to open on February 1 for priority groups.
The scarcity of state-administered vaccination sites in hard-hit places like Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, East Boston and Chelsea has frustrated and confused infectious disease doctors and community advocates, who have seen the deadly virus run rampant for months in these black and Latin communities .
“Once again, we are at the end of the line and we are forgotten and neglected,” said Dinanyili Paulino, director of operations for Chelsea-based nonprofit La Collaborativa, which operates a food pantry that serves thousands of residents a week . “Why would we have to come to Fenway? We are the epicenter. They should come to us. … Our members don’t even have 50 cents to ride the bus. “
In a statement to Globe Friday, a spokesman for the state’s COVID-19 Response Command Center said the Community shares a “commitment to equitable distribution and access to vaccines” and more vaccination sites for eligible recipients will be opened in coming weeks, including in Suffolk County.
There are currently more than 150 COVID-19 vaccination sites in Massachusetts. Most are for first responders and the rest for other groups prioritized in Phase One of the state’s vaccine distribution plan, such as health professionals and assembled health unit teams, such as shelters and collective houses.
These sites include more than a dozen CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, as well as centers for the elderly, local government buildings, schools and doctor’s offices. For example, in Weston – where the population is almost 80% white and the average income is over $ 207,000 – qualified residents can receive vaccines at City Hall. In the predominantly white and affluent suburbs of Needham and Newton, there are three vaccination sites located 3 miles apart: in a recreation complex, a clinic and one on a University of Massachusetts Amherst satellite campus run by a private practice physician.
Across the state, access to these sites is fairer among Latino, black and white residents than in Suffolk County, one of the state’s most populous and diverse counties, according to a Globe analysis of US Census data . About 54 percent of Latinos, 49 percent of whites and 45 percent of blacks living in Massachusetts live in census tracts within 1 mile of a state-supported vaccination site.
The Baker government has promised that more public vaccination sites will be added on an ongoing basis, including another 40 at Wegmans, Price Chopper and Stop & Shop supermarkets, starting Monday, which could improve accessibility. Potential vaccination sites, noted a state official, are being identified based on logistics and geography, but declined to provide further details on how these sites are chosen. Currently, most people who are eligible for vaccines are being vaccinated where they work.
The lack of vaccination sites in black communities in Greater Boston appears to be at odds with Governor Charlie Baker’s promise to make equity the cornerstone of the state’s distribution plan. The Baker government has pledged to reserve 20 percent of doses in the second and third phases to supplement allocations for vulnerable cities and towns with high rates of COVID-19 infection. And despite a barrage of criticism from the elderly who have not yet had broader access to the vaccine, the administration made the decision to prioritize people in correctional institutions and shelters for the homeless in the first phase.
Still, white residents remain largely the beneficiaries of the state’s vaccines. The proportion of white residents in Massachusetts is 9 and 6.5 times that of black and Latino residents, respectively. But according to the latest state data, white residents received at least 15 times more doses than black residents and 12 times more doses than Latin residents. Of the 359,919 doses administered until January 19, about 41% were for whites, while just under 3 and 4% were for black and Latino residents, respectively. Asians also received less than 4% of doses.
(Vaccination data published in the state on race and ethnicity are incomplete. For about a quarter of the total doses administered, the race and ethnicity of recipients is unknown or labeled “other”).
Michael Curry, CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and a member of the panel advising Baker on vaccine distribution, said he expects these numbers to improve, especially in Phase Two, scheduled to begin next month, when eligibility extends to elderly, people with qualifying health conditions and essential workers.
In Chelsea, a city of almost 40,000 and one of the first epicenters of the state outbreak, the COVID crisis is still acute. The city is 67% Latin and almost half of its residents are immigrants. Many are undocumented, work in low-paid jobs and live in crowded apartments. The average daily incidence rate of virus cases in Chelsea is among the highest in the state, with 142.6 infections per 100,000 people.
Chelsea city manager Thomas Ambrosino said he had initiated preliminary discussions with some local hospitals about creating a large-scale vaccination post in the city. Otherwise, he is unaware of any plans by the state to do so. Ambrosino said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the state will provide Chelsea with the resources it needs to increase a mass vaccination site as more groups become eligible. Ambrosino said the city’s “tiny” health department has been able to handle the few hundred residents of nursing homes and first responders, who are being vaccinated at the Rumney Marsh Academy in nearby Revere. But the challenges will arise in Phase Two.
“We have defended the state that they should prioritize sites in the most affected communities and I hope that they will make that decision soon,” said Ambrosino. “It is a message that we are sending and I hope it will be transmitted. I think it would be very embarrassing if that didn’t happen. “
The Boston Public Health Commission, meanwhile, is finalizing plans to open another mass vaccination site in addition to the one in Fenway Park, an official said; the first respondents in Boston are being vaccinated at Tufts and Boston medical centers.
As in the rest of the country, blacks and Latinos living in Massachusetts have suffered disproportionately since the pandemic began. The age-adjusted mortality rate for black and Latino residents in the Commonwealth is three times higher than for white residents, according to a December analysis by researchers at the UMass Donahue Institute and UMass Amherst. Massachusetts cities and towns with large black and Latin populations are also associated with surprising increases in COVID-19 infections per capita.
“If you’re running to put out a fire, you should put the fire hose in the place that is burning the hottest. It’s an analogy here, ”said Dr. Regina LaRocque, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “We need this tool to be taken with intensity to the places where it is most needed.”
LaRocque was among more than 250 medical professionals and activists who signed a letter delivered this week to Baker and other state health officials, urging them to prioritize black and immigrant communities when launching the vaccine. Merely “reserving doses,” the letter writers argued, for communities with high infection rates “is insufficient to ensure that they actually reach marginalized communities.” They recommended partnering with trusted community organizations, such as La Collaborativa, to deliver vaccines immediately.
“COVID-19 obviously widened the disparities that already exist and when we have effective interventions to solve the problems and we don’t take them to the most vulnerable … we will end the worst disparities,” said Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, a disease specialist infectious diseases at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals, and one of the signatories to the letter.
For people who already suffer from “basic inequality,” added Ojikutu, “more effort and more resources are needed than other people. That’s what equity is about. “
Deanna Pan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on twitter @DDpan. John Hancock can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Hancock_JohnD.