State Senator says Baker vaccine rollout leaves Cape Cod behind

Barnstable County on Cape Cod has the oldest population in Massachusetts; However, as the state prioritizes at-risk seniors in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Senator Julian Cyr says Cape Town is “being left behind.

Cyr, who represents most of Cape Town and the Islands, said in a conference call Thursday that the disproportionately old and geographically isolated region was underserved with vaccination sites and doses, even as Governor Charlie Baker stepped up its efforts to attract the very vulnerable. Age group 75 years and over vaccinated.

“I’m frustrated, I’m disappointed and frankly pretty enraged,” the Truro Democrat said during the Cape Cod COVID-19 response task force call.

Cyr pointed to the lack of a mass vaccination site on Cape Cod, as well as what he said was an insufficient distribution of vaccine doses to Barnstable County by the Baker administration. As the Republican governor announced this week that more than 100,000 new appointments at mass vaccination sites and state pharmacies would be available, Cyr said only 1,300 of them were in Cape Town.

“These filled up in 29 minutes,” he said.

“I continue to hear reports that there are thousands upon thousands of appointments available each week at Gillette,” Cyr said, referring to one of the state’s five mass vaccination sites. . “To me, this indicates that the place where vaccines are made available is actually not accessible to people who need them.”

According to Cyr, Barnstable County has about double the rate of residents over the age of 75 – 12.7% of the population, compared to 6.7% statewide. According to census figures, 31.4% of the population is over the age of 65, a group that is next in line as part of the state’s vaccine rollout. Statewide, 17 percent of the population is over 65.

Yet, in raw numbers, Barnstable County has tens of thousands of people over 65 years younger than significantly more populous counties like Middlesex, Suffollk and Worcester. The county currently sits in the middle of the pack in terms of infections per capita, compared to other Massachusetts counties.

Thursday’s call came after Baker on Wednesday announced plans to create two more additional mass vaccination sites in Natick and Dartmouth, as well as a policy allowing young people accompanying people over 75 to a date. you at a mass vaccination site to also get the vaccine. .

While Cape Town has at least 10 small vaccination sites in pharmacies and other locations, the Baker administration has promoted the efficiency and scale of mass vaccination centers, each of which will scale up to administer thousands of doses per day. Cyr said there had been private discussions between the Baker administration and local stakeholders about expanding access to vaccines in Cape Town, including a potential site for mass vaccination at Cape Cod Community College.

“It didn’t happen,” he said.

Baker initially said the state plans to establish a total of seven mass vaccination sites, but more recently suggested the state could open more as the rollout progresses.

If the region does not have a mass vaccination site, Cyr urged the Baker administration to distribute doses to local health boards, which were already required to have the infrastructure to set up vaccination sites. . So far, he said only two of the county’s 15 health boards have received doses.

“Logistically, we are ready to vaccinate people,” Wendy Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, said on the call. “We just need more vaccine. We understand that there is a supply constraint. But we are ready.

Cyr said he was convinced that local health boards could ‘fill the void’ in the absence of the mass vaccination site, but that there was currently palpable ‘exasperation’ among local officials and residents. .

“We are actually the third oldest county in the country,” he said. “So right now, in this phase of the vaccination, that’s when we meet our needs.”