Weekly Roundup – Evasive Maneuvers

Recap and analysis of the week in state government

From a messaging standpoint, there’s something fitting about the new COVID-19 variant sounding like a villain from Transformers. Because omicron is changing the game.

The state hit the one-year mark this week from the day the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine went into an arm, and since then more than 5 million people have been fully vaccinated, and another 1.7 million have been boosted. And yet, cases are surging.

Top doctors warned that omicron has the potential to fuel a major spike in new cases as December turns into January, including breakthroughs, but expressed optimism that vaccines will still be effective in preventing serious illness.

“We should probably separate the concept of case rates and hospitalization and death rates because we might be in a situation where there’s discordance between those,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s Center for Virology & Vaccine Research.

Not exactly the “new normal” people might have had in mind.

Those same doctors, including Massachusetts Medical Society President Dr. Carole Allen and Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, founding director of Boston University’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research, said adding layers of protection at this point makes sense, even for the vaccinated. And that includes a return to universal indoor masking in public spaces.

Gov. Charlie Baker said people should be wearing masks, but he’s not at the point where he wants to mandate it statewide, to the frustration of mask advocates and some lawmakers like Sen. Jo Comerford who called the governor’s position “irresponsible.”

Comerford helped lead a Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management oversight hearing where no one from the Baker administration made themselves available for questions. In addition to the threat of omicron, Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association CEO Steve Walsh said increased COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages are stretching hospital capacities thinner than ever.

Education Commissioner Jeff Riley pointed at omicron as the reason he wants to wait before deciding whether to extend the school mask mandate beyond Jan. 15, and the National Association of Government Employees wrote to Baker asking him to let state employees return to remote work in all possible cases.

Baker may be resisting a return to mask mandates so far, but the governor announced on Monday that the state had spent $10 million to purchase 2.1 million at-home rapid tests, and would be distributing those to 102 of the lowest-income communities in the state. His team is also negotiating a bulk purchasing agreement with rapid test manufacturers to allow all cities and towns to purchase tests for residents to acquire at prices “as cheap as possible.”

Thursday’s oversight hearing wasn’t all glum news, though. Walsh said the hundreds of millions of dollars in ARPA funding set aside for distressed hospitals would make a “tremendous difference” for providers looking to staff up on nurses and rebound from two long years of the pandemic.

That funding became finalized on Monday when Gov. Baker signed the bulk of the ARPA and fiscal 2021 surplus spending bill that contained $4 billion for health care, housing, infrastructure, economic development and local public health.

The governor, however, vetoed some sections of the bill that he said would delay his ability to move the money out the door to its intended targets. This “red tape,” as he called it, included the 28-member advisory panel that was supposed to help his administration craft a plan for $500 million in bonus pay for low-income essential workers who were on the job during the state of emergency.

Given how the Legislature wrested control over the allocation of the ARPA funding from the governor at the start of the process, there’s almost something karmic about Baker seizing control of the bonus-pay fund now. If the Legislature doesn’t override the veto in January, Baker said he’s confident checks will be in the mail before the March 31 deadline.

Speaking of deadlines, the Dec. 15 expiration date of COVID-19 voting reforms such as voting-by-mail came and went this week without action in the Legislature. That was pretty much expected given how House Speaker Ron Mariano has stated that no elections on the calendar will be affected in the coming months by the lapse, though Secretary of State William Galvin pointed to a few local races that will.

Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards’ big primary win in the First Suffolk and Middlesex District sets her up to be the first person elected in 2022 without voting-by mail, but she also faces no opposition on the ballot. The East Boston Democrat bested Revere’s Anthony D’Ambrosio in Tuesday’s special primary, putting her in position to become the first Black woman to serve in the Senate since Linda Forry resigned in 2018.

The more pressing issue as lawmakers enter Christmas week is striking a deal to reform the 2016 animal cruelty ballot law that sets cage standards for egg-laying hens and pigs. Without adjustments to the law, eggs and pork products could become scarce in the new year as producers fall out of compliance with Massachusetts laws, which have become an outlier nationwide.

The House and Senate are in agreement on adjustments for hen confinement, but haven’t been able to agree on whether to delay the rules for pigs. And the egg timer is winding down.

“Everyone is already paying too much at the grocery store and not addressing this egg supply issue will further drive up costs. I urge lawmakers to reach consensus soon before these rules go into effect in January,” Baker tweeted.

Enforcement of the new farm animal confinement law would fall to Attorney General Maura Healey, though she’s looking to unload that responsibility on the Department of Agriculture Resources. Maybe she has other things on her mind?

Healey kept quiet for another week about her political ambitions, but her office did appeal a Superior Court judge’s dismissal of the criminal charges she brought against two former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home officials for their role in the COVID-19 outbreak at the veterans’ facility at the start of the pandemic.