The Massachusetts Medical Society commends Gov. Baker, Sec. Sudders and the administration for recognizing the important role community-based primary care physicians will play in augmenting the Commonwealth’s push to vaccinate residents as quickly and equitably as possible against COVID-19.
The declining numbers of hospitalizations and deaths affirm vaccination is effective, and we believe that physicians can deploy a personalized approach to reaching patients who have yet to be vaccinated – especially those who must overcome a lack of access due to gaps in equity and those who still may be vaccine hesitant.
While virus-related data is trending in a positive direction, we know that some of our most vulnerable patients still face grave danger if they contract the virus, so the governor’s decision today to include community-based primary care physicians will allow for urgent and personalized outreach to those patients, many of whom we believe will strongly consider receiving a vaccine from a provider with whom they have a trusting relationship in a health care setting in which they feel at home.
The Medical Society looks forward to working with the administration in the coming weeks to bolster and to build upon the Commonwealth’s efforts to further increase the percentage of vaccinated residents as a critical means of mitigating the pandemic and returning to a strong semblance of our pre-COVID-19 lives.
-David A. Rosman, MD, MBA, President, Massachusetts Medical Society
