Monday, July 12, 2021
Chair Comerford, Chair Decker, and Members of the Joint Committee on Public Health:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a Massachusetts that is more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.
I am here today to testify in support of S.1517 / H.2271 (An Act promoting community immunity, or the Community Immunity Act) and S.1515 / H.2370 (An Act effectuating equity in COVID-19 vaccination, or the Vaccine Equity Bill).
The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on the weaknesses of Massachusetts’s public health infrastructure, and these bills are essential to both our short-term recovery and long-term stability and public health.
Although Massachusetts has vaccinated a greater share of our population than most other states, we still see wide regional discrepancies. As of last week, the percentage of eligible residents with at least one dose of the vaccine varied from a low of 62% in Hampden County to more than 100% in Dukes and Nantucket Counties, with sometimes wide gaps by race and ethnicity. [1] We see such gaps most strikingly in Hampden County, where there was a 20% gap between white and Latinx residents (with both numbers below the state average).
The Commonwealth’s Vaccine Equity Initiative is clearly not doing enough to close these gaps. Although parts of the Vaccine Equity Bill (S.1515/H.2370)’s goals may have been incorporated in part by now, its ambition and comprehensiveness have not, and we urge swift passage of the bill in order to strengthen our commitment toward public health, especially as new COVID-19 variants are on the rise.
As we work on the recovery to the current pandemic, it is vital for us to ensure a stronger and more stable public health infrastructure for the challenges to come. The Community Immunity Act will help us to do that.
We currently lack full and accurate reporting on vaccination rates among young people, relying instead on voluntary surveys of schools, summer camps, colleges, and daycares. The limited data available show alarming rates of under- and unimmunized children in communities across the Commonwealth.
We cannot fix a problem without an accurate read of it, and the Community Immunity Act’s data reporting requirements are a key first step. But the bill, as necessary, goes further, with targeted education and outreach about vaccine safety and efficacy and standardization and centralization of vaccination protocols.
Please give a favorable report to S.1517 / H.2271 (An Act promoting community immunity, or the Community Immunity Act) and S.1515 / H.2370 (An Act effectuating equity in COVID-19 vaccination, or the Vaccine Equity Bill).
Sincerely,
Jonathan Cohn
Chair, Issues Committee
Progressive Massachusetts
[1] https://www.mass.gov/doc/weekly-covid-19-vaccination-report-july-8-2021/download