Some states are dropping their mask mandates, but Massachusetts residents must continue masking — and the latest COVID-19 numbers in the state are causing some concern.
There's an upswing in cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, as the test positivity rate is on the rise.
The health director in Yarmouth told The Boston Globe that he worried this could be the start of a third wave.
Governor Charlie Baker's noted many of these cases are in folks under age 40 who are better able to fight off the disease. Matt Murphy of the State House News Service joins us to talk about Baker's position and more in the week ahead.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Would the COVID-19 case numbers need to grow significantly for the governor to reimpose some restrictions?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: Yes, probably, though it is hard to say. We've never really gotten full insight into exact metrics that cause the governor to go up or down, relax or tighten restrictions.
What we know is that over a good stretch of time, he saw a number of new cases, number of hospitalizations coming down. The governor relaxed some of the gathering limits, some of the business restrictions. He has defended those moves.
The state has seen a plateauing of those numbers, and now we're seeing case counts and other metrics start to climb.
But I think what we've heard the governor talk about repeatedly is the capacity of the hospital system to save lives, and to care for people if it gets worse. And right now, the hospital numbers are way below peak numbers. So I think you'd have to see something dramatic change for the governor to act.
But the governor has also prided himself on being able to pivot quickly, even though some public health experts who would have liked him to have just stayed strict for another few weeks, another month or so, while the vaccination effort gets stronger and more people get the shot. The governor has been, and says he is willing, to continue to monitor these numbers and react if necessary.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Flipping over to the vaccine side of things, we've seen some conflicting words from the governor over his views of a post-virus world. Can you talk a little bit about where Baker is now on the so-called vaccine passport?
Yeah, it's not clear that he's quite ready to do this. We've gotten the impression from him that he would like to see the feds take the lead on more of a national effort, if this is going to come to pass.
What we do know about these vaccine passports is that there are a lot of private companies developing them. They're all different. There's different security measures and concerns that come with these passports.
When the governor relaxed travel restrictions, in terms of the travel order and an advisory, he did say that people who were vaccinated and could prove that could come into Massachusetts without having to quarantine, or show proof of the negative test. But right now, a lot of this is being done on the honor system. So there is some interest there. I think there's just still a lot of questions about how to do it, and do it well.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said last week he's not interested in a vaccine passport for now, at least, calling it "fundamentally unfair."
And late last week, Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka addressed a closed gathering of business executives and provided an outline of legislation that she wants to address in the coming months in the Senate. What are they? And do those align, or do they need to align, with the to-do list of Speaker of the House Ron Mariano?
Well, the two leaders certainly need to be on the same page if things are going to move. But I wouldn't necessarily look at both of the lists that they're articulating in public, and say that if they're not saying the same words, then it's not going to happen.
Senate President Spilka, talking to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, outlined things like an overhaul of child care, and how child care and day care services get funded in Massachusetts.
Days earlier, we heard the speaker of the House mention the same thing, saying it was getting higher on his radar after talking to Spilka and Governor Baker about this.
On taxes, as well, Spilka said she does not think now is the time to raise taxes. Mariano is in a similar position.
But if you look at last week, the speaker of the House also gave a major speech to a business group, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and talked about jobs, particularly jobs in the clean energy industry and the offshore wind and industry. Mariano is talking about using his budget to direct funds to job training, as well as a large-scale bonding effort.
We saw efforts last session for increased taxes to pay for climate mitigation and adaptation projects got stalled when it got to the Senate. Former Speaker Bob DeLeo wanted to do a major borrowing initiative that didn't go anywhere.
Of course, that was also the year of COVID, which sidetracked a lot of things. But this is one to watch, to see if the Senate president was not talking about creating a big borrowing program to support clean energy work, whether or not the Senate and President Spilka are able to collaborate with the House.
