Although the COVID-19 vaccine is not yet widely available, WPI worked with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MassDPH) to obtain 200 doses of vaccine to protect its health staff who provide COVID-facing care, and campus first responders as well as the same types of workers at colleges and universities in the Worcester area.
At the same time, WPI staff worked with staff from three other universities, including Lasell University, and the American College Health Association to set up four vaccination sites across the state. The goal was to help inoculate health service staff and frontline workers from other colleges and universities across Massachusetts in order to help them protect their own communities from the infectious disease. As a result, approximately 1,000 frontline workers at 45 Massachusetts colleges and universities are being vaccinated.
Currently, restaurants and other social businesses are required to close by 10 p.m. during the week and 10:30 p.m. on the weekends. Small business owners have called the closing times arbitrary and devastating to their small businesses.
“While we all want to do our part to defeat COVID-19 and keep our communities safe, these mandated closure times have decimated our restaurants and bars that rely upon nightlife to keep their doors open and their employees working and paid. There has been no scientific evidence or rationale offered for these arbitrary closing times and it is time that we support our small businesses by repealing this order which was only supposed to be temporary in the first place,” Representative O’Brien said.
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Berkshire County activists and politicians are expressing dismay at Governor Charlie Baker’s veto of a climate bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature last week.
The Republican struck down the extensive climate policy measure from the Democrat-controlled House and Senate on Thursday, prompting criticism from environmentalists across the state.
“One of the things we were most pleased about was it really included environmental justice, and it set a net zero limit for 2050, with interim limits for our carbon emissions, so that we really had a solid roadmap that was in legislation, so, had regulatory authority if this bill had not been vetoed by Governor Baker, said Jane Wynn, co-founder and Executive Director of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team. “I m frustrated with him. He s all talk, no action. He talks as if he s doing great things for the climate. I do not believe we met our 2020 climate goals. And there s just not data available yet to prove one way or