RASKIN, TRONE URGE HOGAN TO OPEN MASS VACCINATION SITE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md. 8) and David Trone (D-Md. 6) have written a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan and Maryland’s Acting Secretary of Health Dennis Schrader urging that the state open a mass vaccination site in Montgomery County.
“[D]espite Montgomery suffering the worst casualty rate in Maryland and despite having the second-highest number of cases in the state, it still has no mass vaccination site for its population of more than one million people,” Raskin and Trone write.
Raskin and Trone make the case in the letter that as six statewide mass vaccination sites are operating across Maryland, Hogan’s administration is not fully promoting their “goal of ensuring equitable vaccine distribution to vulnerable communities” by not having a mass vaccination site in Montgomery County. The two representatives note that Montgomery County is “the most populous county” in Maryland, which has “a majority-minority population and is the most diverse County in Our state.”
The representatives write that Montgomery County’s diverse “demographics present complex challenges for the local health department in vaccine distribution which could be successfully addressed with a local mass vaccination site.” They say that it’s “wishful thinking” to believe Montgomery County’s “lower-income, working-class, immigrant, and senior residents” can take time out of work or make travel arrangements to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the “distant sites.”
Raskin and Trone wrote, “If the Maryland Department of Health is unable to support another state-run mass vaccination site, we urge you yo sufficiently increase the number of vaccines provided to the County to enable the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services to operate its own mass vaccination site.”
Some members of the Montgomery County Council have expressed gratitude on Twitter to Raskin and Trone for their support:'>>>
https://www.mymcmedia.org/raskin-trone-urge-hogan-to-open-mass-vaccination-site-in-montgomery-county/
(((Interesting, my 'official' residence is in MoCo, but I live most of the time in Calvert, signed with Calvert a while ago, received confirmation of a date for first vaccine a few days ago, and will receive it tomorrow.)))