UMass Medical School working with community to address vaccine hesitancy in Worcester
Diverse organizations bringing citizens together for public listening and learning events By Sandra Gray January 27, 2021
Many Worcester area residents have questions about the COVID-19 vaccines and some have reservations about getting them. They are eager for information from sources they trust. UMass Medical School is responding to concerns through an ongoing series of public listening and learning events to acknowledge the concerns of local community members and address vaccine hesitancy with understanding, honesty and transparency.
UMass Medical School is organizing public listening and learning events like this one to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Worcester communities.
To start, it may all depend on how things go in Worcester.
UMass Medical School students – both nursing students and the School of Medicine students they’ve trained to give shots – began administering the first vaccines on Jan. 11 to the first few hundred police officers, firefighters and other first responders in Worcester and six adjacent towns.
Before too long, leaders of the effort will review what worked best and what didn’t in order to gauge how such an effort could be replicated elsewhere in the state.
The program may be tapping into a broad eagerness in the medical community to play a role in helping to bring an eventual end to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 Americans.
Coronavirus cases have taken an encouraging downward dip in the past week, including in Worcester County and the city of Worcester, but that relatively promising sign was tempered by a more contagious variant found this week in a person who was tested at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
The new strain, which originated in England, was first reported in Massachusetts in a Boston woman on Sunday. The person who tested positive at UMass Memorial was identified by city officials Thursday only as a Worcester County resident who had recently traveled overseas.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified the new strain as one of three worldwide believed to spread more easily yet aren t known to be more deadly. Vaccinations that began in December are believed to be effective against the new strains.
Worcester City Hall and other city municipal buildings will reopen on Monday by appointment only, following their closure due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, the City of Worcester announced Friday.
Buildings reopening aside from City Hall include Worcester Public Library, the Department of Public Works and Parks offices, as well as 25 Meade St., which houses Inspectional Services, Worcester Division of Public Health and Fire Prevention.
The Worcester Senior Center will remain closed to the public as it is being used as an emergency dispensing site for vaccines.
City Hall and other buildings closed on Dec. 24 due to an increase in coronavirus cases. Cases, which spiked around the holidays, appear to be experiencing a slight downturn, according to public health data.
Worcester City Hall, other municipal buildings to reopen to the public by appointment only
Updated Jan 22, 2021;
Next week, Worcester City Hall and other municipal buildings are slated to reopen to the public after being closed while the city saw high numbers of COVID-19 cases.
City Hall, the Worcester Public Library, Department of Public Works and Parks offices, and 25 Meade St., which houses Inspectional Services, Worcester Division of Public Health and Fire Prevention, are set to reopen on Jan. 25, the city said in a statement.
The buildings will be open to the public by appointment only.
The Worcester Senior Center, however, remains closed because it is being used as a site to administer coronavirus vaccines.