Lesser discusses public health equity, vaccine distribution

Date: 2/23/2021

GREATER SPRINGFIELD – On Feb. 5, state Sen. Eric Lesser hosted another episode of his Lunchtime Livestream series. The series has been ongoing throughout the pandemic and covers a wide range of topics pertaining to COVID-19, with expert guests featured weekly. For this episode, Lesser spoke with Dr. Kathleen Szegda, director of Community Research and Evaluation at the Public Health Institute of Western Mass (PHI). Topics of discussion included vaccine distribution in the region, public health equity, and insights from PHI’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard.

PHI is a Springfield-based organization that works on promoting healthier communities and health equity in Western Massachusetts. The organization supports local communities in making sure they have access to healthy foods, places to be active, quality healthcare access and resources to stay healthy.

“We’re really thinking about wanting to make sure people have what they need to be healthy and an important contributor to health is really thinking about what people have access to,” said Szegda.

Throughout the pandemic, PHI has been working to keep residents informed on COVID-19 cases and updates in the local region. Part of this process has included creating the COVID-19 Data Dashboard. Szegda said this dashboard was created to give data to Western Massachusetts communities that’s actually relevant to them and not just a broader area like Boston.

“It’s hard because we see a lot of state level data and it isn’t reflective of what we’re seeing here. So this was an attempt to try and take what the state was putting out, which is quite a bit of data, and really make it relevant to our communities,” she said.

The COVID-19 Data Dashboard features an overall dashboard of information and also has separate pages to break down cases, rates and vaccine data by county.

“What we’ve done is we’ve put in information that we think is helpful for people to understand based on the most up to date state data that they release, where their county stands,” said Szegda.

PHI works to update the dashboards as soon as new state data is released, usually every week by Friday, said Szegda.

According to Szegda, based on the COVID-19 Data Dashboard, there has been a decrease of cases across Western Massachusetts. This is due to the end of the holiday season peak, she said. However, Szegda said this does not mean residents should let their guards down when it comes to the virus.

“I think this is positive news, but I just want to say that I do think it’s very important that we continue with the prevention measures because it’s decreasing, but it’s still very high,” she said.

The COVID-19 Data Dashboard is now also keeping track of vaccine distribution as more and more people receive their shots in the state. Szegda recognized that it has been hard to keep a precise track on this based on the state’s overall data.

“It’s hard because we use data and the data has been limited so it’s hard to understand what is going on in our region,” she said.

Szegda also recognized the work Massachusetts needs to do in order to help more residents receive shots. She spoke on how elderly people are having difficulties making appointments online or even getting access to the internet. According to Szegda, it is important to work on ways to make sure everyone eligible can receive this vaccine.

Szegda spoke on the necessity of a phone line to create appointments, making sure people operating the phone line can speak in different languages and also having different language options available online to schedule an appointment.

Having distribution at the Eastfield Mall is also creating a barrier to black and brown communities in Springfield, according to Szegda.

“It is in Springfield, but by bus it would take them an hour and a half to get there,” she said. “How can we make it more accessible to those communities who have been hit by COVID and are at high risk?”

Lesser agreed on this topic.

“Right now I think the mindset has been we need to bring people to the vaccine, but we actually need to inverse that and bring the vaccine to the people. Bringing localized sites, having community partners, local doctors, community health centers do the vaccine administration is such an important part of this,” he said.

Many residents are also concerned that Massachusetts is falling behind in vaccine distribution in comparison to neighboring states. Szegda said rollout of the vaccine was challenging at first for Massachusetts and that some neighboring states, like Connecticut, had different types of residents eligible to receive it first.

Connecticut opened up vaccine appointments to older adults earlier than Massachusetts did, hence giving a larger general population the opportunity to get it and get ahead in comparison to Massachusetts.

“The intent was to get the vaccine to those people who are at risk, but it’s a balance with doing that while also just trying to get it out as quickly as possible to those in need,” said Szegda, in regard to Massachusetts vaccine rollout.

To end the livestream, Szegda spoke on how the past year working in public health and dealing with COVID-19 has been for her personally.

“It’s been challenging, just as it has been for all of us, and I’m hopeful,” she said. “I’m hopeful that with the vaccine and, it will take some time, but I am hopeful that soon we will come to a place where we feel that this is more under control and we can get back to our regular lives.”

Those interested in viewing the entirety of the livestream are encouraged to visit Lesser’s Facebook page. PHI’s COVID-19 Data Dashboard can be viewed at https://www.publichealthwm.org/covid-19/data.