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Date: 1/18/2022
WESTERN MASS. – State legislature has made it clear to Gov. Charlie Baker that a universal mask mandate for the entire state of Massachusetts is the correct route to curb the burgeoning cases in the state after the holiday season.
On Jan. 11, the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management, chaired by state Sen. Jo Comerford met with Baker and state officials to ask questions and learn more about what the state is doing to expand equitable access to COVID-19 testing, vaccinations and boosters. This committee, plus the Joint Committee on Public Health – which Comerford also chairs – has conducted 14 oversight hearings throughout the course of the pandemic.
“I think the legislature made it very clear that we believe there should be a universal mask mandate by order of the governor for indoors,” said Comerford. “We believe that there are other targeted and temporary actions we can take to help with the burden of this time amid the Omicron spike.”
Despite these concerns, the administration is currently not considering implementing a universal mask mandate at this time. Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said that she does not know what a universal mask mandate would do other than “further frustrating people in the public.”
As of right now, masks are only required in the state in places like schools, hospitals and public transit. The state’s Department of Health advises people to wear masks indoors but does not require them in all spaces.
During the hearing, Baker said he planned to convene a group to help guide the state’s long-term approach to COVID-19 and emphasized the importance of vaccinations as major tools for curbing the virus. The group, he said, would include one person from the House and one from the Senate. The goal of the group would be to plan out response down the road.
Both Baker and Sudders took questions from the committee about topics that included mask policies, vaccination efforts, hospitals, testing in schools, and equity in the distribution of rapid tests.
In an interview with Reminder Publishing, Comerford said she would like the state to consider a targeted vaccine mandate for places where close contact is expected, like sports stadiums or gyms. “I think there are ways in which we can do surgical strike at places where we know spread happens, and help curtail the spread,” said Comerford. “We can also do a whole lot more to increase vaccine equity.”
According to Comerford, local health officials have been “heroes” when it comes to vaccine distribution, and the state has done some good work, but there always could be better distribution.
Discussions about equitable distribution of high-quality masks, such as N95/KN95 masks were also a point of discussion during the oversight hearing. According to Comerford, the state has refused to propagate the importance of using these specific masks in places like schools, where Omicron transmission is high. She said high-quality masks are the best tools to mitigate the highly-infectious spread.
“What this does is, it pushes the need for expertise and the decision to a local community,” said Comerford. “And I think that’s abdicating our responsibility. We know that KN95s and N95s of the highest quality are the best masks.”
Comerford believes the state should push a message to schools that encourages people to wear these types of masks until a certain date or until cases drop below a certain percentage. The state could also help distribute these masks to everywhere they are needed. “The governor could do that tomorrow if he wanted too,” said Comerford. “If we know this, why do we have to put the burden on making this determination on local boards of health, which are mostly volunteer and are already so overtaxed.”
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has extended their mask mandate to Feb. 28 for K-12 schools. The mandate was originally set to expire on Jan. 15.
While COVID-19 cases continue to surge, Comerford said the coming days will involve conversations between the state House and Senate to find ways in which the legislative and executive branch can work together on these matters. They will also be working on ways to support local boards of health and school districts to ease the burden off of them. “We have a lot to consider with the information we’ve gained,” added Comerford.
Over the period between Dec. 23 and Jan. 5, there were 38,887 new student cases of COVID-19, and 12,213 among school staff members were reported to the state.