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Baker grilled by lawmakers on handling of COVID-19 vaccine rollout msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker speaks at a mega vaccination site for coronavirus at the Natick Mall on Feb. 24. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald, pool via AP)
Members of the state Legislature held a public hearing to discuss failures and delays in Massachusetts vaccine rollout. For six hours, a joint committee of state representatives and senators grilled Gov. Charlie Baker and members of his administration, listening to them testify on issues related to vaccine distribution and equity.
The technical problems people experienced trying to sign up for vaccine appointments loomed large at the hearing. Last week, state websites crashed under the weight of a million more vaccine seekers hustling to get one of a mere 60,000 slots. This week, people posted screenshots showing wait times in the tens or hundreds of thousands of minutes to social media.
Massachusetts oversight hearing on COVID vaccine rollout starts Thursday morning with Gov. Charlie Baker
Updated Feb 24, 2021;
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker will be the first to testify Thursday morning in a hearing examining the state’s rocky COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management begins its hearing at 11 a.m. Thursday with the Republican governor testifying first. The hearing will be the first time Baker will publicly answer questions from lawmakers on vaccine distribution.
Legislators have lodged a series of questions in recent weeks about the rollout, from why the state didn’t initially launch a call center to why long lines formed at mass vaccination sites to why the website crashed after promises to improve the clunky online process.