MA: under 75 can be vaccinated if they accompany over 75. sets off rush for older companions

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/us/covid-vaccine-caregivers-massachusetts.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Will Massachusetts’s Vaccine Buddy System Work? Well, It’s Worth a Shot
This week, the state began allowing caregivers to be vaccinated if they accompany residents over the age of 75. This has sent many state residents on a hunt for older companions.

BOSTON — Gloria Clark of Malden, Mass., woke up on Thursday with one goal and one goal only: to find herself an unvaccinated person over the age of 75.

She started with an ad on Craigslist, but responses were sluggish, so she started knocking on doors. The 89-year-old two doors down was not interested. An 80-year-old neighbor was not home, and typically napped in the afternoon, but Ms. Clark was undaunted.

“I’ll catch her tomorrow morning,” said Ms. Clark, 72, a retired high school math teacher. “I’ll find someone. I know I will.”

This week, Massachusetts began a first-in-the-nation experiment, offering vaccinations to those who accompany people who are 75 and older to mass vaccination sites.

----------

“I have a great driving record and a very clean Toyota Camry,” said one person in an advertisement on Craigslist. “I can pay $100 cash as well. I am a friendly conversationalist and will allow you to choose the music and show me all the pictures of your grandkids!”


A Boston-area graduate student offered “$200+ for the privilege of transporting a Massachusetts resident to his or her first or second vaccine appointment.” Another advertisement mentioned that the journey to the vaccination would be taken in a Lexus.

[safeinOhio]

1. Who ever came up with the idea

deserves a raise.

[frazzled]

4. I don't think so

When so many people over 65 are still unable to get a vaccine appointment, it pushes them even further down the line when a 24-year-old gets one first—and not just one but the scheduled second, which makes it all the harder for seniors or people with serious comorbidities or essential workers to get one. And people aged 20-49 have been shown to account for 73% of spreading.

The death rate for people over 65 is massively higher when they contract the virus—nearly five times higher than for all the other age groups combined. I say this is bad policy, and so do many health experts.

[getagrip_already]

5. not true...

MA is exhibiting a trump level of incompetence from the governor in vaccine distribution efforts. They have lots of available doses, but no efficient way to get them into arms.

Nobody is being pushed further back by anything except bakers lazyness and arrogance.

[frazzled]

6. And he's making the exact wrong move now

I’ll stick with the health experts. You must vaccinate the most at risk people first, seniors and front-line essential workers, and then younger people with serious conditions (heart and cancer). This is just promoting scams.

If there were some huge influx of vaccine right now into clinics, it would be one thing, but there is not.

Ribble says local health departments are not expecting to receive additional doses of the vaccine for companions.

Clinics run by some of the state's largest hospitals, including the Mass General Brigham network, do not plan to vaccinate people who accompany patients to their appointments.

https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2021/02/10/coronavirus-vaccine-massachusetts-accompanying-seniors

[KT2000]

2. We have always had that policy

In our county people over 70 were offered the vaccine (after front line and health workers) and if a younger relative was in the car they could get the vaccine too. I took a 90 year old woman and she suggested I just say I was a relative so I could get the vaccine too. Being a law follower, I declined but I got my own appointment in 3 weeks.

Our local tribe is organizing it with the help of disaster preparedness and police/fire dept. volunteers. The medical personnel were everywhere too. It was all drive-through and organized to a T! It has been a long time since the community came together like this - if ever.

[seaglass]

3. This is exactly what Baker warned seniors about. It's one thing for a family member, caregiver

or helpful neighbor to bring a 75+ person to get a vaccine and another to pay money to jump the line.

MA has the worst vaccine roll out. We are not even at 65+ with 2 comorbidities yet. DESE is pushing school systems to open ft in person with 3ft of distancing (not the CDC recommended 6ft) without giving teachers and staff the vaccine.

Baker sucks.