On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker set a goal of having roughly 160 vaccination sites open statewide by mid-February. This includes mass vaccination sites at places like Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park, but also smaller ones in grocery stores and pharmacies.
For many its welcomed news. For others, like state Sen. Eric Lesser, a Democrat who represents the First Hampden and Hampshire District, it falls short.
According to the state's vaccination website, as of Jan. 26 there were 13 locations in the western half of the state. This includes just four locations in Hampden County, which Lesser represents, all in the Springfield area.
Baker did announce plans for a mass vaccination site in Springfield, to open on Friday, but Lesser said that's not enough.
"It's going to be at an abandoned Macy's at a mall in Springfield that can at max accomodate about 500 doses a day," Lesser said. "It would take about a year to vaccinate the whole city of Springfield at that rate. Where we are and where we need to be to really get a handle on the pandemic are very, very far apart."
Lesser added that for people who depend on public transit and live far away from current sites, access to vaccination is a huge issue.
We also heard from Jennings Heussner, a business development aociate with the Cambridge company Biobot Analytics, about the science of tracking COVID-19 in wastewater.
Click on the audio player above to listen to the full episode.
Segments:
State Sen. Eric Lesser - 1:56
Jennings Heussner - 17:55
Clarification: This piece has been updated to clarify that the number of vaccination sites is changing and there were 13 locations as of the time this piece was published.
