Towns Frustrated By Lack Of COVID Vaccines Directed Toward Small Sites
SCITUATE (CBS) -- Last spring and summer, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health notified towns to be prepared to administer COVID vaccines because they'd be at the front of the vaccination effort. Many towns created their own programs, only to find out recently the state has shifted its focus to mass-vaccination sites like Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park.
These days, towns are seeing little of the vaccine.
In Scituate, the town ran a clinic with 100 doses on Tuesday.
Those who got the shot were happy about it. "Everything ran really smooth in there. You just went one right after another, you waited 15 minutes afterward and everything was fine," one woman said.
Town Manager Jim Boudreau said they'd be able to give out more vaccines if they had them.
"People get a little frustrated because they call and our response is we just don't have the vaccine to give out," Boudreau said. "If we had it, we would give it."
In nearby Marshfield, there is a similar story. The town opened a drive-up vaccination clinic for Plymouth Country residents last week. It gave out 2,400 shots in eight days and now they are waiting for more.
"What I see on the news from the Governor's press conference is there is a limitation of vaccine coming from the feds into the Commonwealth," said Town Manager Michael Maresco. "The only way we get beyond COVID-19 is to get people vaccinated."
State Senator Diana D DiZoglio sent an angry letter to the governor, demanding Methuen be given the doses they were promised. "In the city of Methuen, we've seen the administration effectively the city and its efforts to administer the vaccine, unfortunately," she told WBZ-TV.
