Massachusetts Gets Failing Grades On Vaccine Report Card From Harvard Researchers
BOSTON (CBS) - A Harvard report gave Massachusetts failing grades on its COVID-19 vaccine report card.
The authors, Graham Allison and Hugo Yen at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School, compared how Massachusetts stacks up against the rest of the country.
They determined the state is "currently earning an F" in three of the four key performance measures.
For deaths per capita, Massachusetts ranks 48th and gets an F.
For vaccinations per capita, Massachusetts ranks 42nd for another F and for vaccinations as a percent of doses available, the state is 44th, getting a third F.
In the fourth and final category, "months to finish vaccinating eligible," Massachusetts ranks 33rd, which earns a D.
In comparison, West Virginia received three A's and a C.
"In the first race to protect the lives of its citizens and thus have the fewest deaths per capita, at this point Massachusetts has fallen so far behind that it is almost impossible for it to catch up," the authors wrote.
The report compared Massachusetts to Singapore, which has essentially the same size population.
Singapore has had 29 coronavirus deaths while Massachusetts has had more than 14,800.
"For those who live here in Massachusetts, that means that if our fellow Bay Staters who died in the past year from COVID-19 had relocated to Taiwan or Singapore or Seoul this time last year, they would be alive on this earth today," Allison and Yen wrote.
The authors said the best way for Massachusetts to improve is if Governor Charlie Baker and his team can speed up the rate of the vaccinations.
