Lawmakers and local officials on Cape Cod continue to air frustrations with the state’s vaccine rollout, renewing their criticisms as the Baker administration announced plans to press forward into the next stage of the campaign.
Rep. Timothy Whelan (R-Brewster) said in a Wednesday interview that he worries about the Cape’s ability to administer doses to newly eligible residents while it still has many adults 75 and older who have not yet received doses.
“Cape Cod is home to the most senior population in New England, and we are being drastically underserved when it comes to vaccination efforts,” he said, later adding, “The line keeps growing, and the line isn’t moving for people waiting to get vaccinated.”
A few hours later, Sen. Julian Cyr’s office published a letter that 92 Cape officials — including Whelan and other state lawmakers, town managers, select board members and county delegates — sent to Baker on Friday sounding the alarm about an “inadequate supply of COVID-19 vaccine allocated to municipalities within Barnstable County.”
Officials said Friday that the state had provided 22,000 vaccine doses to Barnstable County, Cape Cod Healthcare, community health centers and two municipalities, but that the region will need 55,000 total doses to vaccinate all its residents 75 and older.
They reiterated requests for the state to launch a mass vaccination site at Cape Cod Community College, writing to Baker that officials are “disappointed in your decision to forgo a state funded mass vaccination site,” and for greater vaccine allocation to Barnstable County as well as distribution to local boards of health.
During his Wednesday press conference, Baker again pointed to an insufficient supply of vaccines from the federal government but noted that Barnstable County has a regional collaborative for vaccines in place and that the county lags only Berkshire County in first doses administered.
“It might feel more like a competition to the people who are in it, but it is a collaborative, and between Cape Cod Hospital and the community health centers and local boards of health in Barnstable, they are currently sitting at 14.2 percent of their population vaccinated,” Baker said. “They’re performing well, and we’ll continue to work with them to expand capacity and to make sure they have access.”
(Copyright (c) 2026 State House News Service.