COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Updates

Find the most up-to-date information on Massachusetts’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan!

State Resources

Massachusetts COVID-19 Vaccine Information
COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Timeline: Phase Overview
COVID-19 Vaccine Locations for Individuals in Eligible Groups and Phases
COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions

New! March 3, 2021 Update

There were two big vaccine updates this week: (1) teachers, staff, and childcare workers can begin signing up for vaccinations on March 11th; and (2) the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has arrived Massachusetts.

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Teachers, Staff, and Childcare Workers Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccine 

This news comes one week after Governor Baker and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Riley announced that public schools would be required to return to in-person learning by April 1st. Clearly, the Governor heeded your concerns and mine – that it makes no sense to mandate in-person learning without a clear plan to vaccinate our teachers and school staff before in-person learning begins.

Like many of you, I immediately voiced my concerns to the Baker Administration and echoed the sentiments of Senate President Karen Spilka, who acknowledged that if Massachusetts is going to mandate in-person learning, the Baker Administration must have a coherent and equitable plan in place that gives communities the necessary support and resources to do so. Among those resources is a vaccination plan for teachers and staff that is aggressive and is implemented soon. A similar message came from President Biden yesterday, encouraging states to prioritize teachers for vaccines.

Our collective advocacy to the Baker Administration paid off.

This will add about 400,000 more people into Massachusetts’s vaccine eligibility pool on March 11th. Governor Baker said the Administration is working to designate specific days at the seven mass vaccination sites for educators to get their shots, with more information to come. We are actively pushing vaccines to be available locally so that teachers do not have to travel to mass vaccination sites. Clearly it would be much more efficient to vaccinate them in or near the communities where they teach.

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Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Arrives in Massachusetts

President Biden announced this week that the U.S. expects enough coronavirus vaccines for all adults by the end of May, two months earlier than anticipated. A large portion of those vaccines will include Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) vaccine, which received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization on February 27. The J&J vaccine has already started to arrive in Massachusetts, with 58,000 doses anticipated for the month of March. These doses will primarily be allocated to hospitals and health systems, and the hope is that more doses will arrive in the coming months and that distribution will be more widespread.

A few important facts about the J&J vaccine:

• In US and global studies, the vaccine was 85% effective against severe disease and provided 100% protection against hospitalization and death from COVID-19;
• The vaccine requires only a single shot;
• The vaccine is easier to transport and store because it does not need to be frozen — this means more vaccine sites in more settings (like community clinics and mobile vans) can use this vaccine as supplies become available; and
• The vaccine is shown to be effective against the new COVID-19 variants.

Adding the J&J vaccine to our toolbox means more people can get vaccinated at a faster rate, which increases the number of people protected from severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19.

I would like to emphasize that all three approved COVID-19 vaccines are effective, and the “best vaccine” is the one that is available to you.

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The vaccine distribution process has been difficult to navigate, to say the least. I am really pleased and heartened to see things progressing in a positive direction, especially at the federal level. That said, there is still a lot of work to be done to streamline the appointment operation in Massachusetts, and I look forward to getting more answers during additional oversight hearings held by the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management, similar to the hearing held last week. I encourage you to reach out to me with your experiences so we can continue to push the Baker Administration to improve its processes.

I will continue to update you all as more information on the state’s COVID vaccine distribution plan becomes available. I hope this information is helpful and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

For past COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Updates from me, click the dates below:

February 25, 2021
February 24, 2021
February 17, 2021
February 5, 2021
January 27, 2021
January 22, 2021
January 16, 2021

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