Gov. Charlie Baker is resisting calls from undertakers and dozens of lawmakers, including many in Central Massachusetts, to follow the lead of 33 other states and bump funeral directors to the first phase of COVID-19 vaccinations.
“I’m dumbfounded,” C.R. Lyons, a Danvers funeral director who serves as president of the Massachusetts Funeral Directors Association (MFDA), said Thursday after reviewing the Baker administration’s response to the calls.
The funeral association has, for weeks, been lobbying Baker to bump a subset of funeral workers about 1,900 people into phase one of vaccinations.
The funeral workers, as more than 120 lawmakers noted in a Jan. 14 letter to Baker, are the only “COVID-facing workers,” in the state not currently in the first phase.