MA Needs a Decisive, Equity-Centered Response to the Winter COVID Surge

COVID graphic

With the onset of a new COVID-19 variant, we are seeing a frightening rise in Covid-19 cases, including growing hospitalizations and deaths. We need decisive action and communication at the State level to prevent much more avoidable illness and death.

Thankfully, nearly two years into the pandemic, we have a range of public health tools, including vaccines, that can reduce the spread of COVID-19 and enable us to have a safer New Year. Stopping the spread of COVID is essential to the safe and consistent functioning of our schools and businesses.

Can you write to Governor Baker and your legislators in support of bold, equity-focused action?


Please use your voice to support a comprehensive public health approach — along the lines of the Massachusetts Covid19 Action Plan. Last month, Senator Becca Rausch (D-Needham) and a dozen state legislative colleagues delivered a letter to Governor Baker urging the administration to adopt a slate of data-driven public health policies set forth in a Massachusetts COVID-19 Action Plan, crafted and endorsed by a coalition of over 100 public health and medical professionals and 36 community organizations, to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the Commonwealth.

Can you write to Governor Baker and your legislators in support of bold, equity-focused action?

What this includes:

  • Funding and staffing daily mobile vaccination clinics in frontline communities and school-based vaccine clinics
  • Making testing widely available and distributing free rapid tests
  • Implementing a county-based mask mandate according to CDC recommendations
  • Providing free high-quality masks, like KF94, KN95, and N95, to frontline communities
  • Applying safety standards in the workplace that mitigate aerosol transmission through ventilation
    and/or air filtration, appropriate distancing, and masking
  • Applying and enforcing federal and state occupational safety standards and guidelines.
  • Protecting against foreclosures, evictions, and rent increases to decrease home crowding using the
    measures in H.1434 and S.89
  • Adhering to CDC guidance for universal masking in schools regardless of vaccination status
  • Making remote learning options available so infected or ill children do not get left behind.

What You Can Do Next

  • Give Governor Baker a call at (617) 725-4005.
  • And then tweet at him at @MassGovernor and the State House Leadership: MA needs decisive action to address the winter surge. @MassGovernor, @KarenSpilka, and @RonMariano, please listen to & follow public health leaders’ recommendations at https://tinyurl.com/MACOVIDResponse. #mapoli

Letter: “Wu is right to stay the course amid anti-vax misinformation”

“Wu is right to stay the course amid anti-vax misinformation,” Boston Globe, December 31, 2021

During Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s campaign, she promised that she would center public health and equity, listen to experts both in the ivory tower and on the ground, and learn from best practices. And that’s exactly what she has done with her vaccine mandate for restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues.

It’s disappointing to hear that she and City Hall have been barraged with negative, misogynistic attacks since announcing the order (“Wu facing continued hateful attacks,” Page A1, Dec. 24). But having testified earlier this year at the State House in support of pro-vaccination policies like Senator Becca Rausch’s Community Immunity Act, I find it disappointingly unsurprising. Public health professionals were clear and insistent on the need for stronger state policy, but those seeking to spread misinformation about vaccines dominated the 13-hour virtual hearing, often resorting to outright hostility toward the legislators present.

Wu has shown no sign of backing down, and we are all better for it. But those of us who believe in science, public health, and solidarity as the way forward on the pandemic and other issues need to be more vocal in our support so that we can relegate the misinformation and invective to the mere noise that it is.

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director, Progressive Massachusetts

Boston

Treating Housing as a Right with the COVID Housing Equity Bill

eviction notice

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Chairman Keenan, Chairman Arciero, and Members of the Joint Committee on Housing:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for shared prosperity and racial and social justice.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1434/S.891: An act to prevent COVID-19 evictions and foreclosures and promote an equitable housing recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored how important affordable housing is to public health. It’s simple: when we asked people to stay home to avoid the spread of the virus, that could only be possible if they had a home to stay in.

The Legislature recognized this and passed a strong moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, and we are appreciative of all the work that went into that.

Although that moratorium has lapsed, housing instability, economic instability, and the pandemic all remain. Massachusetts has hundreds of millions of dollars of federal rental assistance, but that money often doesn’t reach tenants due to a cumbersome application process. And evictions have been rising.

These bills, known as the COVID Housing Equity Bill, offer a solution. The COVID Housing Equity Bill pensures an equitable distribution of rental assistance funds, pauses no-fault evictions during the COVID recovery period, and requires that landlords pursue and cooperate with rental assistance programs before evicting.

Tenants are not the only ones at risk, and the bill recognizes this. It would pause residential foreclosures and require mortgage forbearance based on federal policies. Owning a home is one of the only paths toward building wealth for communities of color, and we cannot allow the pandemic to make already existing racial and economic inequalities worse.

Every day without this bill, more families in the Commonwealth are put at risk of housing insecurity, and we urge swift passage.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts

TAKE ACTION: MA Should Prioritize Public Health

Public health image

In 2020, Massachusetts passed a police reform bill that created a standards and accreditation commission, put limits on the use of force, and took other steps to address systemic racism in law enforcement. But left out of the police reform bill was a simple realization: the best way to reduce the incidence of police brutality is to limit the scope of policing.

Too often, armed police officers are called in to respond to situations that they are not equipped to handle, situations that are better handled by someone with an expertise in social work or mental health or someone from the community itself. Shifting such calls away from police and towards alternative response programs ensures that situations do not escalate and that people can best be connected to the services that they need.

The ACES bill — An Act to Create Alternatives for Community Emergency Services (S.1552 / H.2519), filed by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz and Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa — would direct the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to establish and oversee the Alternatives for Community Emergency Services Grant Program (A.C.E.S.) to increase the availability of non-law-enforcement, unarmed community-based response options for calls to 911.

Can you email your state legislators in support of the ACES bill? 

Want to learn (or do) more? Check out our guide at https://progressivemass.com/aces2021.

Suppor the Community Immunity Act!

Yesterday, the Joint Committee on Public Health held a hearing on legislation to improve vaccination rates. 

Over 15+ hours, the Committee heard from literally hundreds of individuals, including licensed medical professionals at Mass General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center, who espoused toxic disinformation about the safety and efficacy of vaccines, grossly distorted and flatly misstated the content of the Community Immunity Act, and personally attacked the character of any legislators and public health professionals who care about strong immunization policy and infectious disease prevention. 

We need to make sure that the Legislature hears the voices of people who support science and public health. Here’s what you can do. 

Copy the list of members of the Joint Committee on Public Health and send them an email like the one below — Or send a pre-filled email here.

Jo.Comerford@masenate.gov 

Marjorie.Decker@mahouse.gov 

Becca.Rausch@masenate.gov 

Julian.Cyr@masenate.gov 

Patrick.OConnor@masenate.gov 

Susan.Moran@masenate.gov 

Harriette.Chandler@masenate.gov 

Brian.Murray@mahouse.gov 

Brian.Ashe@mahouse.gov 

Paul.Schmid@mahouse.gov 

Kay.Khan@mahouse.gov 

Jack.Lewis@mahouse.gov 

Andy.Vargas@mahouse.gov 

Vanna.Howard@mahouse.gov 

Hannah.Kane@mahouse.gov 

Shawn.Dooley@mahouse.gov 

Jon.Santiago@mahouse.gov 

Dear Chair Comerford, Chair Decker, and Distinguished Members of the Joint Committee on Public Health:  

I write to express my strong support for S.1517/H.2271, the Community Immunity Act, filed by Senator Rausch and Representatives Donato and Vargas. You heard testimony on this critical legislation on Monday, July 12.As we endeavor to emerge from a global pandemic, I urge you to expediently advance the Community Immunity Act with a favorable report.  

We need only look around to see the importance of widespread herd immunity (both localized and statewide) and the need to improve our public health infrastructure. Unfortunately, our current infectious disease prevention provisions leave gaping holes in our public health protections. Every corner of our Commonwealth faces a concerningly high rate of under- or unimmunized youth, threatening our communities’ health and safety. (Please consider these maps: https://www.beccarauschma.com/communityimmunitymap.) 

The Community Immunity Act fixes the holes by creating the statutory immunization infrastructure our Commonwealth needs, without mandating vaccines or striking the religious exemption. I support this comprehensive bill because [insert your reasons here].  

As our elected leaders, please embrace this once-in-a-generation moment to protect generations to come. I ask that you swiftly advance the Community Immunity Act out of the Public Health Committee with a favorable report. Please help to keep all of us safe and healthy, particularly people who are immunocompromised and rely on community immunity. 

Thank you for your consideration and your service to the people of the Commonwealth. 

Sincerely, 

[your full name] 

[your phone number (optional)] 

[complete address – street, city, state, zip] 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shined a light on the weaknesses of Massachusetts’s public health infrastructure.”

Vaccination

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