Massachusetts Public Health Alliance
Coalition fears administration will not fulfill budget mandate to establish vaccine benchmarks that consider hospitalization rates
BOSTON – The Vaccine Equity Now! Coalition today sent a letter to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health requesting that the administration take immediate action to address a lapse in reporting of demographic data on COVID-19 hospitalization rates in Massachusetts. The coalition of racial justice, immigrant justice, civil rights and public health organizations is calling for a comprehensive, public explanation for why the State stopped reporting this data and information about their strategy to provide accurate, quality data and quickly reinstate this reporting. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, State Senators Sonia Chang-Diaz and Becca Rausch, State Representative Mindy Domb and Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone are also supporting the Coalition’s call.
“Demographic data on COVID-19 hospitalization rates is essential for measuring the disparate impact the pandemic has had on BIPOC and immigrant communities and for crafting a targeted vaccination strategy that centers equity. We know that Black and Latinx residents in Massachusetts have continued to be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 while also having lower vaccination rates than white residents,” said Vaccine Equity Now! Coalition Co-Chairs Dr. Atyia Martin of the Resilient 21 Coalition and Next Leadership Development, Myran Parker-Brass of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and Carlene Pavlos of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. “Especially as the more contagious Delta variant is rising in prominence and pushing case numbers up again, it is alarming that the Baker administration has suddenly stopped reporting this data and not provided a thorough, public explanation for the decision or outlined a strategy to begin reporting the data again. In order to adequately address inequities, we need to be able to measure them.”