MA Community Makes Progress on Goal to Vaccinate 70% of Adult Population
Lily Bohlke – Commonwealth News Service
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – A Massachusetts community has joined the Mayor’s Challenge to help meet the goal of getting 70% of the U.S. adult population vaccinated by July 4.
It’s a collaboration between the White House and U.S. Conference of Mayors, part of President Joe Biden’s National Month of Action.
Framingham is one of the state’s 20 equity communities, meaning one of the places in the Commonwealth that has been hit the hardest by COVID-19. Mayor Yvonne Spicer is one of 83 top city officials across the country who have signed on.
She said more than half of her city’s residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine and she’s confident they will meet the goal or at least come close to it.
“Giving people an opportunity to be educated about why the vaccine is important, and giving them information in their native language,” said Spicer. “And to make it convenient, you know, where people can come during their lunch hour or after work right in their neighborhood.”
She said some of the barriers have been transportation to get to a vaccine site, or lack of Internet access to sign up for an appointment. She said being flexible and allowing walk-up appointments has been another key component.
Spicer said the sooner more residents get the vaccine, the sooner the community can return to a greater sense of normalcy, while still being aware and compliant of public health and safety recommendations.
“Massachusetts has been doing well with vaccines,” said Spicer. “But there are certain targeted populations that have been underserved in terms of receiving the vaccine. So we need to get at that. And that’s particularly in the Latino and African American community.”
Among other measures, the Biden administration has committed $130 million to help underserved communities get the vaccine, by using educational materials and toolkits, identifying barriers to getting vaccinated and finding solutions, equipping trusted messengers of COVID information and increasing opportunities for mobile and community-based vaccination clinics.