Massachusetts health officials intend to stop shipping some COVID-19 vaccines to several hospitals in western Massachusetts, diverting supplies to supervaccination sites, MassLive learns.
For a period of two weeks, Baystate Health, Cooley Dickinson Health Care and Mercy Medical Center will not receive their scheduled first dose shipments, lawmakers told MassLive. They were informed of the plan during a call with hospital executives.
Patients who make an appointment for a second dose will not be affected, according to lawmakers.
“I think it is worrying that we are placing our trust in most vaccines in a private company not in Massachusetts, instead of our local community hospitals, our departments and health councils that people trust,” said Rep. Jake Oliveira, a Ludlow Democrat, who was on the call.
Congresswoman Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat, said the move threatens to make the COVID-19 vaccine less accessible to people 75 and older.
“We want to make sure that people come and get the vaccine, that they are comfortable with it. We must decentralize the process, not centralize it, ”said Domb, who was also on the phone. “We have these mass websites where we see pictures of people over 75 waiting in the cold outside.”
Hundreds of Massachusetts residents waited in freezing temperatures and snow outside the Eastfield Mall in Springfield to receive their dose of the Pfizer vaccine, MassLive reported on Monday. Days later, a series of changes were implemented on the site.
When asked about the change, Baystate Health officials said they had received no official notification from the state.
But Baystate Health President and CEO Mark Keroack said in a statement: “We are hopeful that the MA Department of Public Health will provide enough vaccine allocations to allow us to honor the nominations for community members that have been scheduled for the next few years. two weeks”.
Officials at the COVID-19 Command Center and Governor Charlie Baker’s office did not answer MassLive’s questions.
Deputy Lindsay Sabadosa first heard that Cooley Dickinson could miss his first doses of a constituent that called his office on Thursday. She then answered a call with hospital executives.
“We are very upset,” said the Northampton Democrat.
Neither the county of Hampshire, where Cooley Dickinson is based, nor the county of Franklin has a super vaccination site. The nearest location is the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, which was investigated this week after hundreds of people waited in the cold for a vaccine.
Representatives of Curative, the supplier of the site, told MassLive that people should wait in their cars to avoid crowds and long lines. Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and Baker made similar suggestions when asked about the long wait for people aged 75 and over.
Massachusetts also has super-vaccination locations at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and Fenway Park in Boston. The state plans to launch two new sites at Natick Mall and the Circuit City website in Dartmouth.
State Sen. Jo Comerford, who with Domb pushed for a vaccine equality bill, called the pause in the distribution of vaccines to western Massachusetts hospitals “a slap” for residents of Hampshire and Franklin counties.
“It is outrageous that, in the midst of a pandemic, hospitals, which train medical professionals on whom we depend, are prohibited from distributing the vaccine, especially in an area such as Hampshire and Franklin counties,” said the Northampton Democrat.
Rep. Paul Mark, a Democrat from Peru, said he was surprised to hear about the pause in the distribution of vaccines to hospitals in western Massachusetts.
“Our local hospitals in Franklin and Hampshire County have invested time and resources creating vaccination sites locally, while our region has been ignored by management,” he said in a message. “This new policy does not help our region to move forward at all and, in fact, it seems detrimental to the progress that has been made.”