Here is the
Radio Boston rundown for Feb. 23. Tiziana Dearing is our host.
This morning, Massachusetts State Rep. Jon Santiago officially entered the race to be the next mayor of Boston. He joins us to talk about why he decided to run and what he sees as the most important issues facing the city.
The Massachusetts vaccine appointment website is back up and running, but many are still bitter about it crashing last week when about a million more people became eligible for vaccination. State lawmakers on a new legislative oversight committee are preparing to ask Gov. Charlie Baker and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders about the website crash, and other issues with the state s vaccine rollout, at a public hearing on Thursday. We discuss with Northampton Democratic State Sen. Jo Comerford, who co-chairs the oversight committee.
Here s where we stand right now on the coronavirus pandemic in Massachusetts:
A seven-day average positive test rate above 7%, with just 4% of hospital beds are free in Boston. Some 140,000 people have gotten their first vaccine dose, and 1,200 have already gotten the second, as the state s slow rollout continues.
We take listener questions with Dr. Helen Boucher, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, and a professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine; and Dr. Joshua Barocas, an infectious diseases physician at Boston Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine.
As U.S. Surpasses 300,000 COVID Deaths, Boston Hospital Workers Begin Receiving Vaccinations
Dr. Gabriela Andujar-Vazquez of Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston receives the very first COVID-19 vaccine given to the hospital s frontline workers on December 15, 2020.
Meredith Nierman / GBH News
Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez was the first person at Tufts Medical Center to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The associate hospital epidemiologist, who regularly sees COVID-19 patients, didnât flinch at all as she was injected with the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday afternoon.
âIt s definitely a relief,â she said, adding that her concern wasnât about infection within the hospital. âBecause I firmly believe that PPE works and that it protects our health care workers. But more so to protect everyone outside the hospital, like my nieces, my nephews. And [I m] doing this for the community. Not only for us, but for everyone else.â