There s A Long Road Ahead, But Local Infectious Disease Experts Are Hopeful for 2021
Early stage work on a coronavirus vaccine in Boston s Center for VIrology and Vaccine Research Lab
WGBH / WGBH
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To say this year has been challenging would be an understatement.
Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, the medical director of the special pathogens unit at Boston Medical Center, said the development and distribution of the coronavirus vaccines were a highlight of 2020.
But she said the biggest lesson learned from this pandemic is testing. By the time we got around to having enough testing for even hospitalized patients, we had lost sight of the fact that there was already community transmission in most states on the coast, Bhadelia said. We have now evidence that we had probably community transmission early in January in this country, and it was still in March that we were only testing people with travel history. If we were to face this again, one of the big things I hope we (would) improve
In Fall River Case, SJC Declares Panhandling Law Unconstitutional
A state law that prohibits certain people from asking motorists for money along the roadway was struck down Tuesday by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
The anti-panhandling law violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights because it is a content-based regulation of protected speech in a public forum that cannot withstand strict scrutiny, the SJC wrote in its decision.
The case got its start in Fall River with two homeless plaintiffs – John Correira and Joseph Treeful – who were issued dozens of criminal complaints in 2018 and 2019 after standing with signs and accepting money from motorists. Fall River Police in those two years issued around 150 complaints against roadway solicitors under the law known as Section 17A.
Supreme Judicial Court rules law banning panhandling violates First Amendment rights of homeless people
By John R. Ellement Globe Staff,Updated December 15, 2020, 4:14 p.m.
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A panhandler along a stretch of Massachusetts Avenue in Boston in 2016.Keith Bedford/Globe Staff
The First Amendment rights of homeless people were violated by a state law that made it a crime to flag down passing motorists to ask for cash, the stateâs highest court ruled unanimously Tuesday.
The Supreme Judicial Court said the law, enacted in 1930, singled out and banned panhandling homeless people from public streets, while it exempted people from criminal charges if they were flagging down motorists to sell newspapers or roses.