Around New England

Massachusetts Prison Inmates To Receive Coronavirus Vaccine Soon

December 21, 2020

When will prisoners receive the coronavirus vaccine in Massachusetts?

Sooner than most of the general public, as CBS Boston reports.

Tens of thousands of Bay State inmates will receive the vaccine in the coming months. Meanwhile, Live Science reported last month that the vaccine will be available to the American general public by April 2021.

So why prisoners first? Dr. Simon Wildes, a member of the state’s coronavirus vaccine advisory group, explained the group’s thinking to CBS Boston.

“We used equity as a core principle in our recommendations,” she said “We have had a lot of cases of COVID in the prisons, and we wanted to make sure those at highest risk were getting the vaccine first.”