A statewide union for Massachusetts firefighters is voicing concern over the ability of local boards of health to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine to first responders during the early phase of inoculations for front-line workers.þþIn a letter to members Tuesday, Richard MacKinnon Jr., president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts — which represents more than 12,000 firefighters and EMTs — said the state Department of Public Health recently tasked local health boards with administering and distributing the vaccine to first responders.þþWith COVID-19 infections of firefighters continuing to rise, MacKinnon wrote, the union’s issuing an “urgent call” to members to take action.þþ“We strongly encourage our members to contact their local Boards of Health and ask what their distribution vaccination plan is for first responders wishing to be vaccinated,” MacKinnon wrote. “Make it clear that you’re inquiring on behalf of your respective municipality on when, how and where we will be receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.”þþMacKinnon wrote that members should respectfully identify themselves as firefighters or EMTs and contact each board of health member in their community if the panel’s elected.þþ“This plan needs to be ready and sustainable, and there needs to be an alternative for the local Boards that are unequipped to facilitate this plan to its full extent,” MacKinnon wrote.þþHe elaborated Tuesday in an e-mail message, writing that the “plan has structural holes when left up [to] the local Boards of Health. There should have been a plan in place long before this. They knew the vaccine was coming and now it seems they are scrambling.”þþMacKinnon said the thousands of licensed EMTs in his union can pick up the slack for overburdened health boards and administer the vaccine to fellow members in-house.þþ“We have over 7,000 out of our 12,000 that are EMT’s and Paramedics that can do it!,” MacKinnon wrote.þþThrough a spokesperson, the state COVID-19 Command Center, which oversees all aspects of the state’s pandemic response including vaccine distribution, issued a statement affirming that first responders are being prioritized during the rollout of initial doses.þþ“First responders are prioritized in Phase One of the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine distribution plan, and based on current estimates, the state is planning to start vaccinations for police, fire and EMS in mid-January,” the statement said. “The Command Center and the Executive Office of Public Safety look forward to this week’s meeting with first responders to review the planning that is underway to set up sites for vaccinations. More information will be made available as this process progresses.”þþAccording to state officials, the vaccine’s currently being allocated to COVID-facing health care workers, and vaccine administration at long-term care facilities began Monday.þþIn addition, the state says the Command Center’s working with local health departments, hospitals, and other medical providers to determine their capacity to vaccinate and to identify sites where first responders can get the shot. The state will publish an initial list of sites on Mass.gov by the end of the month, officials say, and more providers will be added once they identify capacity.þþState officials maintain the Command Center’s also seeking locations and identifying clinical partners to set up mass vaccination sites in early 2021. Once launched, officials say, the sites will be available to first responders and other prioritized groups.þþBut as the vaccine plan takes shape, firefighters continue to battle rising infection rates.þþ“Over 12,000 Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts are sounding the alarm,” the union tweeted Tuesday. “Nearly 350 firefighters have tested positive for COVID-19 in December, and the State has no viable plan to vaccinate your local firefighters.”þþThe union said most local health boards “are structurally not prepared to execute this plan. Most states across the country have already offered the first dose of the vaccine to firefighters, but Massachusetts still has not provided any dates, times, or vaccination locations. Most of our members are EMT’s and Paramedics, which would allow us to give the vaccines to each other. All we are missing is a viable plan by the State.”þþIn the meantime, the union tweeted, firefighters and their families “continue to be infected by this awful virus. The 12,000 Professional FF’s of Massachusetts continue to do our job and meet the challenges of COVID-19; it’s time for state leaders to do their job and offer your local FF’s this vaccine.”þþ
Source: Boston Globe
