The state has a draft plan to vaccinate police, firefighters and paramedics in Massachusetts, but firefighters and paramedics are stepping back, saying they are ready to fire themselves. The Baker government is expected to meet with early respondents on Thursday.
The provisional start date for vaccination of first responders in Massachusetts is January 11, depending on the availability of the Moderna vaccine, which does not require deep-frozen storage.
The first respondents are the third group in phase one of the state’s vaccine distribution plan. They follow the frontline health workers who went first and the staff and residents of long-term care facilities where vaccinations started this week.
The preliminary plan would give paramedics, police and firefighters two options: go to a regional state clinic or receive vaccinations from nurses in the local health department. Some municipal health departments say they will distribute coronavirus vaccines in the same way they do flu – at the beginning and end of shifts at police and fire departments.
“The benefit of doing this, more or less, at the local level is that we can really adapt clinics to meet the needs of our public safety partners,” said Sigalle Reiss, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Officers and director of health. Norwood public school.
Reiss estimates that all first responders in Norwood and the nurses who deliver the vaccines will receive their first dose in two weeks.
Norwood and nine other communities will work as a group to receive and distribute vaccine shipments. The state is encouraging smaller cities to collaborate so that they have enough rescuers to ensure the minimum delivery of 200 doses of Moderna. Reiss says that about 30 groups that include more than 100 municipalities have been formed so far.
The president of the state fire department says he is not convinced that smaller local health departments can administer the vaccines. Richard MacKinnon Jr. says Massachusetts Professional Firefighters (PFFM) represent more than 700 paramedics and paramedics who could, with a little training, vaccinate fellow firefighters.
“We have the infrastructure, the resources and the staff,” said MacKinnon. “We could have coordinated some sort of plan ourselves instead of, you know, putting that on our local health councils.”
Paramedics generally do not deliver vaccines, but the state department of public health issued an order in mid-December authorizing them to do so during the pandemic.
Some of the largest ambulance companies in the state say that if they receive and deliver vaccines to their own employees, it will be easier to schedule vaccines in a way that does not hinder shifts. About 10% of vaccinated people may have a fever or other mild symptoms of COVID that make them miss a day of work.
“Without being able to dictate the timing of when the team will be vaccinated ourselves, it just makes it a little more difficult for us to ensure that the team is properly timed to ensure that all of our ambulances can stay on the road,” said Cataldo Vice Ambulance Service President Daniel Hoffenberg
If current plans remain, Hoffenberg said Cataldo employees will be vaccinated by nurses from the local health department in five of the communities where the company operates. Hoffenberg says there are talks about EMTs helping with large-scale vaccination campaigns next year, but nothing is definitive yet.
The union is asking members to call local health councils and ask for details about the state’s first aid vaccination plan. The leaders say they are frustrated that firefighters in other states are already receiving vaccines while members here are not, although cases among firefighters are on the rise.
With additional reports from Hannah Chanatry of the WBUR