Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Lynn, Framingham, Revere: phone service, windshield, insurance)

[yesmaybe]

Almost to 2k hospitalized and down to 9% vacancy in Boston.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Are you seriously trying to claim that I can't go to the CVS in Pittsfield and get a flu shot from the pharmacy tech? That's the same person who is going to jab me with the COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA has approved pharmacy techs for COVID-19 vaccinations weeks ago. Pittsfield also has a community nurse on staff. Google says it's Kayla Winters. There are two school nurses. Angelique Chaffee and Nadine Fox. You're insane if you think all of Western Massachusetts is going to have to drive to the Big freakin' E. Town Halls, schools, pharmacies, medical walk-ins, etc will all be administering the vaccine.



Even the Pfizer vaccine has a five day shelf life at 'normal' refrigeration temperatures of 2C to 8C. Anything that comes in the door at a pharmacy is going to get used long before the vaccine expires.



The United States vaccinated over half the country with flu vaccine last year. How is this any different? The hardest thing is going to be preventing queue jumping. It's not like a pharmacy tech is going to check if I announce I have 3 or 4 co-morbities or exceptions that run me to the top of the queue. I can tell them I'm a front line cashier at a grocery store and I have diabetes where I get my Rx filled through the mail by my insurance company. Once they get all the licensed health care workers and the nursing homes, it's likely to be a free-for-all.

There are no drug store clinics in the Berkshires. Check cvs, Rite aid and Walgreens. I don't know about supermarkets and independent pharmacies. Right the city can have its own staff and I get that but what about the rest of the area? Pittsfield is nearly 1/3rd of the whole county.

You can't stage 120,000 people to go into a city of 40,000 without logistical issues. The roads are not that hood and there's no north south interstate. 91 is much faster.

The big e has the space, parking and highway access. It's also close to Baystate, mercy and shriners.a million people in the course of a month is easy given that's what they attracted to begin with.

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/...89cb78e0a.html

If they don't have the fridge they can't store it. Healthcare has been declining there for years

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by mdovell

There are no drug store clinics in the Berkshires. Check cvs, Rite aid and Walgreens. I don't know about supermarkets and independent pharmacies. Right the city can have its own staff and I get that but what about the rest of the area? Pittsfield is nearly 1/3rd of the whole county.

Just looking pretty quickly, I see a Walgreens in North Adams and a CVS in Pittsfield and Greenfield. Sure some might have to drive a bit but it's not that far.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Just looking pretty quickly, I see a Walgreens in North Adams and a CVS in Pittsfield and Greenfield. Sure some might have to drive a bit but it's not that far.

Greenfield is in Franklin County and an hour from north Adam's going east.

There's very little public transit in the area, distance is part of it but not all. The hills are quite different. You can't really compare driving 128 to say the hairpin in north adams. Then the lack of sidewalks, public lighting, lack of phone data coverage, even radio. Unless it's a stare route it's pretty bad for roads, especially in hill towns

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Greenfield is in Franklin County and an hour from north Adam's going east.

There's very little public transit in the area, distance is part of it but not all. The hills are quite different. You can't really compare driving 128 to say the hairpin in north adams. Then the lack of sidewalks, public lighting, lack of phone data coverage, even radio. Unless it's a stare route it's pretty bad for roads, especially in hill towns

I'm sure anyone living there has a car and is comfortable with that. If they have to drive 30-40 minutes to get a shot at CVS/Walgreens, that's not a big deal.

[skeddy]

let Amazon handle it.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

I'm sure anyone living there has a car and is comfortable with that. If they have to drive 30-40 minutes to get a shot at CVS/Walgreens, that's not a big deal.

And anyone in western mass is much closer than that to a town or a school with an RN who will be administering COVID-19 jabs. This is Massachusetts, not logging truck northern Maine.

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

And anyone in western mass is much closer than that to a town or a school with an RN who will be administering COVID-19 jabs. This is Massachusetts, not logging truck northern Maine.

I think it will be done in the towns. No one from, say Easthampton, is going to risk driving way out to the Berkshires on those hilly narrow roads for anything. I would never, ever drive way out to Pittsfield in winter anyway. It's dangerous. What about elderly people who have a hard enough time driving twenty miles? They're going to go all the way from WMass out to the Pittsfield in the Berkshires? I would go to the Berkshires in summer but no way in the winter. Not too happy about driving way out there in summer either, for that matter even when the hills aren't covered with snow.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

And anyone in western mass is much closer than that to a town or a school with an RN who will be administering COVID-19 jabs. This is Massachusetts, not logging truck northern Maine.

Right and I can understand that but you do have to understand that the population hasn't grown in decades and frankly the schools are regionalizing to one massive District. Small towns don't mean adequate funding. For example the town of Washington might have eight hundred people I don't think they have a local nurse. Mount Washington has even less than that there's no way they have any health care there.

Consider the layoffs six years ago.

https://www.beckershospitalreview.co...y-off-530.html

All that I'm getting at is that it would be simpler to just do a mass vaccination in a place like the Big E and get it done with rather than something piecemeal that takes months and months to draw out on a regional basis.

Yes it isn't northern Maine I've been up to northern Maine all the way up to Presque Isle and caribou it isn't that bad but the fact of the matter remains is the way how it's structured means that you really don't have that much wiggle room. Route 2 is much slower than the pike so going to Greenfield might be practical for people that are younger but you're not going to see Caravans of elderly people. Further south below the pipe is not much connected to Connecticut so there's just not much in development. The only develop parts of the Berkshires are along Route 8 to a point and of course the Mass Pike.

[massnative71]

Good grief do they not have snow plows out there in Western Mass??? People in those areas are already accustomed to driving a ways for doctors appointments or even groceries, yes even in the winter and life does go on. Driving 15 miles to the nearest Walgreens or CVS on a sunny day, is not going to faze them from what I can imagine.