BOSTON (WHDH) - Gov. Charlie Baker is expected to testify Thursday during an oversight hearing on what some lawmakers have called a bumpy COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management are slated to hear from Baker and other administration officials at 11 a.m. following weeks of criticism about the vaccination plan.
“Now we’re in this vaccination period which hasn’t gone as well as it should have gone for a number of reasons,” State Rep. Jon Santiago said. “We in the oversight committee, we have a meeting later on today to get together and really ask the tough questions about transparency; why the rollout has been as bumpy as its been.”
Frustrations boiled over last week when the state’s vaccine site finder website couldn’t handle high demand and crashed. Documents showed that the state paid almost half a million dollars to the organization PrepMod to operate the site.
“I think the state’s website itself is hard to navigate. It’s not intuitive. The interfaces are not standardized,” said State Sen. Jo Comerford, co-chair of the joint committee. “Those all contribute to just a stack of walls between people and the vaccine they need.”
Along with asking questions about the state’s VaxFinder website, lawmakers also plan to address vaccine access for low-income communities and people of color.
“If we’re going to take one painful lesson from COVID, it’s that the health inequities in our commonwealth are grave, are critical, are oppressing,” Comerford said.
Santiago added, “It’s great that we have these mass vaccination sites. They serve a lot of people very quickly and efficiently but they’re also people easiest to vaccinate. I’m concerned about those most venerable, the elderly, the communities of color, the poor, and making sure they have just as much access.”
Lawmakers say they are looking for answers and are willing to work with the Baker administration to make improvements to the vaccine plan moving forward.
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