Gov. Baker Expands Vaccine Rollout In Massachusetts, Blames Federal Government For Slowing Down The Process

Joe Mathieu, host of WGBH's Morning Edition

Joe Mathieu is the anchor and executive editor of WGBH's Morning Edition. Before joining WGBH Radio, Joe worked for six years as morning anchor on WBZ NewsRadio in Boston, where he was part of the team that received a Peabody Award for coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. Joe also received the Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast in a major market.

January 26, 2021

Updated August 07, 2023

Governor Charlie Baker has received criticism over the past few weeks over how COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out across Massachusetts. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with GBH News State House reporter Mike Deehan about updates to Baker's vaccination rollout plan, and what the governor has to say about the federal government's role in the process. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Joe Mathieu: So the governor announced the broad strokes here of the vaccine distribution plan back in December. Phase One: medical workers, nursing home residents, first responders. But now we are expanding things, it appears, widely for Phase Two. This gets complicated, so we want to be as specific as we can here. We're going to be seeing more people and younger people than first thought here, Mike. What can you tell us?

Mike Deehan: Yeah, you kind of have to approach this the way that the economic shutdowns and rollbacks have been happening. There are phases and there are steps within those phases. So right now, we're in Phase One of the COVID vaccine plan, and at first that was nursing homes and medical people, and then it went to first responders. There are multiple steps there. That's the same as in Phase Two. First of all, 75-year-olds are going to be at the beginning of Phase Two starting on Monday. And then we're going to have subsequent steps with people slightly lower priority. But as far as how Phase One went, it was bumpy, but Baker said he expected it to be bumpy. This is a man who likes a pilot program, so you can really see Phase One as his vaccination plan pilot program. But if you look at what he said in December versus now, near the end of January and going into February, everything has been on target for the limited promises that Baker made back in December when he rolled out that plan. The criticism back then and throughout has been that that plan just wasn't wide enough. So he's been on target — mission accomplished. However, the plan itself has some flaws, according to some people. So now there are a lot of Beacon Hill Democrats and people in the medical community, including Senate President Spilka as far as Democrats, who really have criticized the lack of information — when do I get vaccinated? How wide is it going, and just the speed of it overall?

Watch: Who is to blame if the expanded vaccine rollout is delayed?

Mathieu: As we've been reporting, people 65 and older will be in the pool by the end of February. We're looking at 160-something [vaccination] sites. We only have a couple of seconds left, Mike. Does that address the criticism the governor's received so far?

Deehan: It should. If the criticism was it's not wide enough, it's not big enough, it's not fast enough, Phase Two is going to be so much bigger and wider that if it is as successful as Phase One, it should at least alleviate some of the concerns people have had.