Mayor Walsh Concerned About 'Limited Amount Of Doses' In First COVID Vaccine Shipment
BOSTON (CBS) - After a federal advisory panel on Thursday recommended the emergency use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. Food and and Drug Administration said Friday it will work quickly to authorize Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
But as the country prepares for the shipment of the vaccine, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spoke with CNN on Friday about his worries that the city won't get enough doses of it at the onset.
"We're going to have a limited amount of doses, 300,000 doses in Massachusetts, which is almost seven million people. In the city of Boston alone, we have 700,000 that live in the city that doesn't include college students," said Walsh. "So certainly, what I am hopeful is that as we see first doses come to the state, we get the second and third doses right behind it."
Boston logged more than 4,400 new COVID cases over the last two weeks and has a 2.8 percent positivity rate in that span.
With specific neighborhoods in Boston struggling worse than others, Walsh said there may be discussions on which areas need the vaccine more quickly.
"I think in the first round of doses, we're going to work with the state very closely. As we get more doses here, we can talk about who should get it, what neighborhood should get it," he said. "Dorchester is 12%. We have three or four neighborhoods in the city that are in double digits as far as the virus increases in our neighborhoods."
Walsh was also asked about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's decision to suspend indoor dining in New York City, to which the Mayor responded by saying Boston's coronavirus situation is not as dire.
"I actually had a call on Monday with hospital presidents in Boston. Right now, we're not a place it is a serious situation, emergency situation," Walsh said. But I will take any precautions, any decisions that needs to be made, such as shutting down indoor dining, shutting down everything we have to shut down when the time is needed and beforehand."
