Somerville Board Of Health Shoots Down Vaccine Mandate
SOMERVILLE, MA — The third time was not the charm for a proposed vaccine mandate at indoor businesses in Somerville.
The Board of Health voted 2-1 against the proposal Thursday night, citing the city's already high vaccination rate and the greater impact of other health measures in fighting the omicron variant.
Brian Green, chair of the Board of Health, emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated to prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19, but said "masking and testing" should be the focus in ensuring omicron numbers continue to trend downward.
"This policy is a really good idea for what we were facing with delta, and I'm worried that it's less of a good policy for omicron," Green said. "I see people going into TD Garden, and they show their vax pass, and then they take their masks off and scream and yell."
Green and Board of Health member Paula Machado voted against the proposed mandate, with Robert Ciccia in favor. The mandate would have required people entering most indoor public spaces, including restaurants, event venues and gyms, to provide proof of vaccination.
Thursday's vote came after a contentious public meeting Friday night, during which a group of protesters led by former conservative radio host and gubernatorial candidate Dianna Ploss forced an early adjournment. That was after the Board of Health opted in December to delay voting on a mandate while it monitored the trajectory of COVID-19 cases over the holidays.
From the outset, the proposal was met with pushback from some business owners, residents and local officials. Stephen Mackey, president of the Somerville Chamber of Commerce, called for a public hearing on the matter and said there could be unintended consequences of implementing the mandate as it was written.
"We're just being handed it," he told Patch on Saturday. "We want everyone to be safe, but we have to think through some of these public health actions."
Green said a mandate for businesses may be useful to combat potential future variants of COVID-19, and stressed the importance of reaching residents who are unvaccinated. Somerville's rate of fully vaccinated residents is 80.2 percent, but Green said there is still a "discrepancy between who's vaccinated and who's not."
"We still need to get at that, and tactically I don't know that this is going to do it," he said.
This article originally appeared on the Somerville Patch
