Bench Monday morning QBs

Ever since a suddenly engaged Legislature decided to play a more active role in the oversight of the state’s COVID-19 vaccination delivery system, many lawmakers have been more than eager to find fault with the Baker administration’s execution of that undertaking.

It’s obvious the governor’s team made some serious missteps along the way, especially at the outset of this process, in particular for its failure to thoroughly beta test the reliability of its registration website, which was immediately overwhelmed by the vast number of people seeking appointments for a limited number of doses.

Some also have criticized Baker’s choice to allocate the majority of the state’s scare vaccine supply to expensive mass vaccination sites like Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium, run by private companies with limited medical experience.

A recent Boston Herald report found sites run by CIC Health at Fenway and Gillette alone cost taxpayers a minimum of $1.1 million per week.

Baker indicated that his quest to get as many Massachusetts residents vaccinated in the shortest period of time drove his decision to establish these facilities, strategically located across the state.

While we’ve extolled the regional vaccination site in Lowell run by Lowell General Hospital as an inexpensive, efficient model for the state to follow, the combination of an accommodating developer who donated the facility, combined with public transportation access supplied by the Lowell Regional Transit Authority might not be easily replicated elsewhere.

And despite these organizational hiccups, it would be difficult to disagree with the governor’s assertion that the state “has made real progress” in getting those limited number of shots into the arms of his neediest constituents.

At least that’s the perception of those charged with seeing this vital mission through.

But some Democrat lawmakers and other stakeholders on the outside don’t see it that way. “One thing that is abundantly clear here is that we have conflicting testimony in terms of how much, how little, how prepared or underprepared was our public health and regional emergency preparedness for dispensing COVID-19 vaccines,” state Rep. William Driscoll Jr., DMilton, House chairman of the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness, told the Herald after more than five hours of virtual testimony on Tuesday.

Dawn Carmen Sibor, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Officers Association, claimed Baker funneled “hundreds of millions” of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of private companies while local public health officials remain largely sidelined.

“This could be an opportunity to build our local publichealth infrastructure and prepare for the next pandemic,” Sibor said.

We can’t imagine a worse time for trial-and-error tinkering with our communities’ divergent public-health systems than in the midst of a pandemic. As Health Secretary Marylou Sudders correctly pointed out, “many local health departments … lack capacity to meet national public health standards.”

Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, asserted the fact Baker “threw that playbook out and went with something different is deeply concerning.”

“I’m hearing a tale of two public healths,” Cyr said.

Baker has taken heat — and seen his popularity at least temporarily tumble — ever since his executive branch took ownership for the stateof-emergency response to this once-in-a-century virus outbreak. If you’re hearing tales “of two public healths,” Sen. Cyr, it’s probably because you and your colleagues have sat on the sidelines for the past year, seemingly content with letting the governor make decisions not previously contemplated in our lifetimes. These critiques all come down to supply and demand. Limited supplies demand tough, sometimes unpopular calls.

Bottom line, here’s some food for thought that Baker’s detractors should digest.

As of Tuesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data reported by the New York Times ranks Massachusetts tied for seventh among the 50 states in the percentage of people fully vaccinated (16%), while only one state, Minnesota (89%), has used more of its allotted doses than the 88% total registered by the commonwealth.

Instead of second-guessers, we need collaborative legislative first responders. That’s how we’ll reach the COVID-19 immunization goal we all seek.