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Author: TriSec    Date: 03/06/2021 13:11:07




My 86-year-old father has it.

My 86-year-old mother-in-law has it.

Javier, who works in a nursing home while he's not at school, has it.

Mrs. Trisec, with two co-morbidities has it.

But Your Loyal Trisec, remains an unwashed heathen here on the second tier, despite working in an "essential industry" as a transit worker.

But this isn't personal...yet.

Massachusetts is recognized as among the leading places in global healthcare. People from around the world come to Boston to receive medical treatment; most of the technology you take for granted in your hospital was likely developed or tested around here.

Hell, even TWO of the leading vaccines of the day were developed right here - Moderna's in Cambridge, and Johnson & Johnson across the river at Beth Israel Hospital.

So why do we suck at distributing it?

According to WCVB today, we have received 2.4 million doses of the vaccine, but only 650,000 people are "fully vaccinated". On a population of 6.8 million, that's a pitiful 9% of the population.

But - we're not actually the worst state out there. I bet you could guess where.

Of course it's Mississippi, followed closely by Alabama and Georgia at the bottom of the list. At the top? Surprisingly enough, it's West Virginia. But if you're curious why, it's because they had help from - wait for it - Massachusetts.


BURLINGTON, Mass. —
A Burlington, Massachusetts, based company is providing the technology to a state that is leading the nation in coronavirus vaccine administration.

The state of West Virginia has been a national leader in its vaccine rollout, using technology from Massachusetts-based Everbridge.

The company's technology allows West Virginia officials to communicate with people instantly, alerting them to potential leftover COVID-19 doses, helping speed up the vaccine administration process.

"Technology is going to help speed that process along especially as we get more doses available," Brian Toolan, Everbridge Senior Director of Government Strategy said.

Toolan helped set up the registration system being used in West Virginia last month.

"What we saw was a dramatic shift, from a massive amount of people calling into the call center to now people being able to register," Toolan said. "Additionally, on top of that, what we were able to help with is identify where people are, who needs to be vaccinated, so they can strategically put their vaccination centers up."

By doing that, their system automatically contacts people to set up appointments, making sure the vaccine doses are not going unused.

"The registration system geo-codes people so that if we find that we have extra doses, we do not waste them," Andy Malinoski, the Director of Communications and Marketing for the West Virginia Department of Commerce said. "That is one of the key reasons why we have been successful."


This is all fine and good. We are "United States" after all, and this is what we're supposed to do - states helping each other to reach common goals.

But in doing so, it's possible that we've neglected ourselves. Of course, there are also likely more sinister forces at work. We've got a pretty popular governor in these parts; the inestimable Charlie Baker (R-Swampscott). And yes, you read that right. Blue Massachusetts has a curious tradition recently of electing opposition-party governors as a way to balance the 99% blue legislature.

In any case - Charlie is a pure policy wonk. He's got a long healthcare background, and I knew him reasonably well in business when he was "Mr Fix-It". At the time, I was working in the tech department at Harvard Community Health Care, and he was hired to fix the mess after the merger with Pilgrim Health Care. I was on the team that was working to integrate the plans, and we made many presentations to the leadership team that Charlie chaired.

In any case - decades later now, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is recognized among the best insurance plans in the entire United States - and that's because of the groundwork my old "Pioneer Team" did to integrate it all. Charlie was no slouch in those days. You may also be vaguely aware that he was once the Health and Human Services Secretary for this Commonwealth - a while ago now, under Republican governor Bill Weld.

Right up until about a month ago, he was untouchable. Like all states, there were bumps in the road, but it felt that Massachusetts was being guided through the crisis with competent leadership, and a cool head. Being a lone Red governor in a Blue region, Charlie went so far as to join the Northeast Coalition led by Governor Cuomo.

It came out in the Globe yesterday that Massachusetts actually DID have a vaccination plan. It was established two decades ago, after the Antrax scare in the wake of 9/11. It's been refined, reworked, and placed on the shelf....just in case.

So when the crisis finally came, what did Governor Baker do? Like all republicans, he ignored the plan and called in somebody else.


Massachusetts spent nearly two decades and millions of dollars planning how it would mobilize its vast network of local public health departments to respond in an emergency situation.

But just days after federal drug regulators authorized the first COVID-19 vaccine in mid-December, the state abandoned its blueprint and instead entrusted a handful of private companies with running its mass vaccination sites.

One company — Curative, a barely year-old California startup that’s scaling testing across the country — was introduced to the state’s pandemic response team on Dec. 15 in an informal, three-sentence e-mail from a senior adviser at Partners in Health. Days later, CIC Health, a newly formed company working with the state on testing, expressed interest in quarterbacking a Massachusetts vaccination effort.

And within weeks, those two private entities, along with a third, were awarded no-bid contracts to undertake perhaps one of the state’s most pressing, ambitious initiatives in modern times.

In issuing the contracts, the state sidestepped the planning infrastructure it built in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax-letter scare in 2001. The goal then: Prepare for an unseen, major health catastrophe, which could require mass vaccinations.

“We have been talking about this for 20 years . . . the state has invested in this,” Dartmouth public health director Christopher Michaud said. “They took the playbook, threw it in the dumpster, and privatized the whole thing.”

The blueprint laid out a regional approach for corralling the state’s 351 local health departments in an emergency, and a recent, updated status report on the playbook shows the groups were equipped with detailed plans for how to open and operate vaccination sites.

Massachusetts is hardly alone in using private contractors for some aspects of its COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Virginia, for example, is one of more than 20 states using PrepMod, the same software vendor tapped by Massachusetts to help residents schedule vaccine appointments. But unlike Massachusetts, Virginia and a number of other states have kept outside contractors from operating vaccine clinics, relying instead on local health departments and public workers.


He's no Trumper, that's for damn sure - but when the rubber hit the road, the long-established plan was completely trashed in favour of somebody else.

Private Contractors.

We all used to think Charlie Baker was different. But this just proves how insidious republicanism really is. Maybe he's a deep-mole of some kind. Maybe there's secret back-channel deals keeping liberal Massachusetts from getting properly vaccinated. Maybe the state GOP is getting enormous kickbacks from the new vendors for their PACs.

In the end - FOLLOW THE MONEY - while we sit at wait 125,000 hours on the kindergarten-operated website for an appointment.

**UPDATE** Bonus Click! Vaccines bought by donations, Check!



















 
 
 

2 comments (Latest Comment: 03/07/2021 19:36:28 by TriSec)
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