Legislators get new committee assignments; Comerford to co-chair joint panel on pandemic response The Massachusetts State House in Boston Published: 2/16/2021 5:08:58 PM The state Legislature is creating a new joint committee expected to oversee the state’s pandemic response, and one of its leaders is from Western Massachusetts. Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, will be the Senate chair of the new committee, the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management, Senate President Karen Spilka announced last week as part of her assignments for the legislative session. “I can imagine the charge of the committee is twofold,” Comerford said Monday. “The first charge is what are we doing now that works and doesn’t work and what must the state do better? The other is what must we do immediately to ensure that we are ready, and much more ready than we were previously, the next time a disaster of this kind strikes? And there will be a next time.”