Around New England

Charlie Baker Won’t Line Cut To Get Vaccine

December 31, 2020

Should politicians be a top priority for the coronavirus vaccine?

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker does not think so.

Baker, a Repblican, recently told reporters that he wants vulnerable populations to have access to the vaccine first. Baker noted that since he’s only 64, he doesn’t qualify for the priority that people 65 and older get.

Bakers said politicians taking it first — as some members of Congress have — sends a bad message to the public.

“I don’t understand why a lot of the people who cut the line cut it,” Baker said, according to State House News Service. “I just don’t. It doesn’t make any sense to me, and I think it’s inconsistent with the message that we have all tried to send on this, which is while we recognize and understand that everybody would like to be vaccinated today, there are some people who are at far greater risk from a health point of view than others and they really ought to be prioritized.”