MDP WIRE: Baker’s vax rollout is (still) a management failure.

Baker’s Failed COVID Vaccine Rollout

The Baker-Polito vaccine rollout has been sluggish and inconsistent, with local officials begging for more urgency, guidance, and support as Massachusetts falls further behind.

Governor Charlie Baker has had nearly a year to plan this vaccine rollout, but it’s been slow, disjointed, and ineffective.
- Baker’s rollout received an ‘F’ in a report from Harvard.
- Earlier this month, over 7,500 appointments at the state’s largest vaccination sites went unfilled.
- Over 1,200 doses of the vaccine--that we know of--have gone to waste in Massachusetts.
- On Thursday, Democratic leaders in the legislature will be conducting oversight hearings into Baker’s botched roll-out.
Constant website crashes have been massive roadblocks for folks trying to secure vaccination appointments.
- At the beginning of Phase 2, people struggled to navigate the disjointed and needlessly confusing website. Attorney General Maura Healey blasted the website as “way more complicated than it needs to be.”
- In response, state legislators demanded that the Baker administration set up a hotline for folks unable to use the website.
- Massachusetts Democrats in Congress are calling on Baker to fix the “disjointed and cumbersome” sign-up process that’s led to unfilled appointments and wasted vaccines.
- Residents described the catastrophic crash last week as “The Hunger Games,” and it was revealed that the Baker administration failed to warn the company behind the website eligibility was opening to another 1 million people.
Local leaders have had to accommodate Baker’s hasty changes to the vaccination plan, and now Baker’s shutting them out of the rollout.
- From the beginning, the Baker administration has left local leaders in the dark about the vaccination plan, with health officials flagging a lack of communication.
- Baker is halting shipments to trusted local hospitals, and instead diverting their supplies to mass vaccination sites.
- At Baker’s mass vaccination sites, which are inaccessible and few and far between, thousands of appointments can go unfilled.
- Local health officials in places like Longmeadow and Peabody are the latest to lose their allotments of the vaccine, despite vaccinating hundreds of people with minimal doses wasted.
Baker has failed to prioritize communities hardest hit by the virus, creating concerning inequities in vaccine administration.
- Even though Black and brown communities report higher rates of asthma, Baker left the respiratory condition off the eligibility list for Phase 2. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Attorney General Maura Healey called it an issue of justice.
- Baker failed to establish vaccination sites in communities of color, leading to inequities in vaccinations for Black and brown folks and leaving neighborhood leaders to pick up the pieces.
- Congresswoman Ayanna Pressely sent a letter to Baker imploring him to address the stark inequities in his vaccine distribution plan.
- Mass vaccination sites are often located outside of high-risk communities, forcing residents to drive hours just to get vaccinated.
- Baker’s focus on mass vaccination sites fails folks who can’t travel hours to places like Gillette or Fenway, especially seniors and folks with disabilities.
- Baker thought his botched “companion program” would fix the issue, but instead, people online took advantage of his oversight, creating a black market of folks willing to pay to transport seniors to vaccination appointments.
Throughout the pandemic, Democrats have pressured Baker to act with more urgency, but he drags his feet every step of the way.
- As early in the pandemic as March, Baker’s disastrous testing plan prompted Attorney General Maura Healey to pressure him to increase testing and provide greater transparency.
- Democrats like State Senator Julian Cyr and State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa called on Baker to provide more resources in ‘testing deserts’ on Cape Cod and in Western Massachusetts.
- Democratic elected officials in south eastern Massachusetts are taking things into their own hands to provide tests for their constituents.
- Local officials begged Baker to take statewide action to stop the spread of COVID, but he ignored those calls and municipal leaders were left to hold the line against the virus.
- As it became clear Baker had no plan for an effective and equitable vaccine rollout, Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark, Congressman Seth Moulton, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka called for an overhaul of the process.
Baker’s disastrous vaccine rollout isn’t Baker’s first management failure. From the RMV, to the State Police, to the MBTA, Baker has mismanaged Massachusetts again and again.

President Biden Gets to Work for the American People

Following his inauguration, President Biden wasted no time getting to work for the American people. President Biden has signed dozens of executive actions and unveiled the American Rescue plan to get real relief to working folks.

This week, the Biden-Harris administration announced new ways to ensure the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) support goes to the smallest businesses and those who have been left behind in previous relief efforts.
- The Biden-Harris administration has made delivering equitable relief to hard-hit small businesses a top priority.
- The share of funding going to small businesses with fewer than ten employees is up nearly 60%. The share of funding going to small businesses in rural areas is up nearly 30%.
President Biden’s American Rescue Plan is an ambitious plan that will deliver direct relief to working families, support small businesses, and provide funding for vaccines, testing, and schools.
- The American Rescue Plan will also deliver desperately needed help to communities across every state — communities that are hurting because of budget shortfalls created by the pandemic.
- This is not a red state or blue state issue. Support for families, businesses, states, cities, and towns is essential to help Americans still in crisis.
- As the country passes the grim milestone of 500,000 deaths, it is clear Americans need support to weather this crisis and an overwhelming majority supports President Biden’s coronavirus relief plan.
Despite Trump’s failures, President Biden is delivering for the American people and continues to ramp up vaccine production and distribution.
- The U.S. is now administering an average of about 1.5 million doses per day.
- The administration is on track to exceed its ambitious goal of 100 million vaccine doses in Biden’s first 100 days.
- Last week, the White House announced states will collectively begin receiving 13.5 million vaccine doses per week, a weekly increase of 1.5 million doses
- In the fifth consecutive week of supply increases, states will receive 14.5 million doses this week, a nearly 70 percent increase from 8.6 million doses per week when Biden took office.