The entrance to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, which has been used as a mass vaccination center since February 27. In Boston, the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury and Hyde Park were reporting some of the highest case numbers, but that’s not where the first testing centers were opened. The lag in accessibility reflected depressed vaccination rates among Black communities of Boston, often attributed to vaccine hesitancy.Īt the beginning of the pandemic, even before healthcare professionals understood exactly how the SARS-COV2 virus affected the body, the medical community expressed their fears about how the existing inequities in the healthcare system would lead to worse outcomes for Black patients. The designation of the Reggie Lewis Center as a mass vaccination site, a major success for advocacy groups like the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition (BBCC) - who formed at the beginning of the pandemic to bring the interests of Black and minority communities in Boston to the forefront - didn’t come until the end of February.
The same pattern with testing center accessibility also emerged with vaccination centers. The issue of accessibility to services like testing arose immediately as government-run testing sites were set up far from majority-Black communities, where case numbers were highest. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, government bodies have acknowledged the disproportionate economic and medical affect the pandemic has had on people of color, but Black community leaders say it’s been a struggle to get the City of Boston to adequately address those disparities. Just like with testing centers, the communities hit the hardest weren’t near the first, or the second vaccination center established. The vaccine was ready much faster than most people expected. In one way, the establishment of mass vaccination centers across Boston took Black organizers by surprise. By Claire Yates, Northeastern University - The Scope Boston
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