COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group Created For MA

The Baker-Polito Administration Wednesday announced a COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group to advance its efforts to prepare to distribute a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available.

From a story from Mass.gov and reported on by WWLP/22 News, the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group, comprised of medical professionals, public health experts, elected officials, community leaders and infectious disease specialists, will advise the Administration, including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and the COVID-19 Command Center, on communication, distribution, and equity issues relating to a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Commonwealth has actively been working on preparedness and planning for a COVID-19 vaccine since early August. This work builds on and enhances the state’s experience in distributing approximately 3 million vaccine doses each year.

The group will help inform the planning and preparedness work already underway and further strengthen efforts to successfully and equitably allocate, distribute and administer a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.

Over the past decade, the Commonwealth has invested in the state-of-the-art Massachusetts Immunization Information System, which serves as the state’s vaccine registry, ordering system and inventory mechanism.

More than 3,000 provider sites currently report their data to this system, and DPH is actively onboarding an additional 1,000 clinical sites to further enhance the distribution and tracking of a COVID-19 vaccine.

For more on the story, including a list of some of the medical professionals involved, check out the full story at WWLP's website here.