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BY SOPHIE GARDNER , KELLY GARRITY AND LISA KASHINSKY | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EMERGENCIES EXIT — The public health emergencies are ending, but Covid-19 challenges persist. Another new pandemic normal has dawned with the end of the state and federal pandemic public health emergencies. And many of the rules and waivers intended to stop the virus’ spread sunset with them. Now Gov. Maura Healey is dealing with the demise of policies that predate her tenure, some of which she's choosing to end. Here’s how her administration is navigating a few of them: THE GREAT MASKING DEBATE — Healey’s decision to end mask mandates in hospitals and other health care settings has drawn plenty of headlines . Hundreds of local medical workers signed onto an open letter to the Department of Public Health last month saying that letting the policy lapse was not only “dangerous” but “unethical.” Public health and disabilities advocates continue to argue that ditching masks puts immunocompromised people at further risk. But the state’s new public health commissioner is defending Healey’s mask move. “We made the decision in collaboration and in conversation with many experts across the state,” DPH Commissioner Robbie Goldstein told Playbook, noting that hospitals are encouraged to create their own masking mandates and “use local factors to help decide when and where masks may be necessary.” AXING THE VAX MANDATE — Healey is also rolling back the Baker administration’s order requiring executive branch employees to get vaccinated or get out. Some 1,000 workers quit or were fired under the Republican governor’s rule, though he eventually brought some of them back. Now his successor is figuring out what to do about the rest. The Healey administration said it remains in negotiations with state employee unions about rehiring workers, but neither side seems to want to get into the details. MASS. MIGRATION — The state is also bracing for another surge in migrants that could hit its overwhelmed shelter system with the end of Title 42 , the pandemic-era policy used to block people at the southern border. And Republican governors could make it worse. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pledged to continue sending migrants to blue cities including Chicago, New York, D.C. and Philadelphia. And he's threatened that there could be “more [locations] to come.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is readying his state to resume the relocation program that made headlines last year when the potential presidential contender flew nearly 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard unannounced. “We would be extremely concerned” if governors were “repeating that kind of action,” Elizabeth Sweet, the executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Coalition, told Playbook. Healey is preparing for that possibility on top of the steps she’s already taken to expand the state’s overburdened shelter system. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas briefed Healey and other governors yesterday on the Biden administration’s preparations for Title 42’s expiration, with an emphasis on legal immigration pathways. “We have been in close contact with our local and federal partners to prepare for the end of Title 42, and we will need their help to ensure we can meet the already rising need in Massachusetts, as our Emergency Assistance shelter system is currently operating at capacity,” Healey spokesperson Karissa Hand said in a statement. GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS . Tips? Scoops? Lingering Covid concerns? Email us: sgardner@politico.com , kgarrity@politico.com and lkashinsky@politico.com . TODAY — Healey speaks at the EMPath EMPower Celebration at 6:30 p.m. at the Boston Children’s Museum. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll speaks at a NAIOP Massachusetts meeting at 8 a.m. in Boston and visits Cambridge Behavioral Health Center at 10 a.m. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu participates in a Disability Community Forum at 2:30 p.m. at Suffolk Law School and attends a STEM Lab unveiling at 4 p.m. AG Andrea Campbell is honored at the City Year Greater Boston Starry Night Gala at 6:45 p.m. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark hosts a press conference to “condemn MAGA GOP attacks on women and families” at 1:15 p.m. at the Capitol. Rep. Ayanna Pressley holds a press conference on over-the-counter birth control at 3:15 p.m. at the Capitol. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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— VIRTUAL REALITY: One other pandemic-era policy change your Playbook hosts are watching? Telehealth prescriptions. Doctors were set to lose the ability to prescribe controlled medications through telemedicine. And the renewed restrictions on accessing drugs like Adderall and oxycodone without a face-to-face visit with a doctor could have proved particularly challenging in Massachusetts, which is experiencing an increasing lack of primary care physicians . Barbra Rabson, the president of Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, a nonprofit which aims to improve the quality of patient care in the state, told Playbook that the prospect of losing the increased access to primary care through telehealth was “frightening.” But the feds offered a last-minute reprieve on Tuesday, pushing the telemedicine policy’s expiration date back until at least November. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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— “Protesters disrupt joint session of Mass. Legislature with demands for fossil fuel cuts,” by Adam Reilly, GBH News: “Just after 11 a.m., as the House and Senate wrapped up the first session of this legislative cycle’s Constitutional Convention without engaging in any deliberation, about a dozen protesters from the groups Extinction Rebellion Boston and Scientist Rebellion rushed to unfurl a banner with the message ‘No new fossil fuel infrastructure’ in the front row of the gallery overlooking the House floor. … At 5 p.m., when the State House officially closed, nine of them were arrested on trespassing charges.” — “ACLU sues state auditor for access to redacted information in prisoner health reports,” by Jeremy C. Fox, Boston Globe: “The ACLU of Massachusetts is demanding greater transparency from state Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s office, alleging in a lawsuit that her staff won’t release complete reports on deaths and health care access at two state prisons. But DiZoglio insists that the information that was withheld had nothing to do with prisoner health care and says she could have explained that if the ACLU had just asked.” — “Mass. Black and Latino Caucus proposes new spending,” by Peter Roby, Bay State Banner: “Members of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus last month proposed an additional $419.3 million in spending to the House budget for next year. They secured $40.6 million. A 9.7% success rate at work would worry most professionals, but in political calculus, it amounts to a surplus of talking points, at least for a while.” — "Senator plans to push voc school admission changes through budget amendment," by Michael Jonas, CommonWealth Magazine. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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— “As Boston works to keep elections on schedule after court ruling, council tensions could risk delay,” by Emma Platoff, Boston Globe: “[Boston Mayor Michelle] Wu wrote in a letter to the council Wednesday that she was moving to relax candidate filing deadlines, and told the body it had until May 30 to approve the new map for this fall’s contest. She will even present her own map proposal to the council, she said, a step that underscores the urgency of the process. … But if Wednesday’s council meeting was an early signal as to whether councilors will be able to meet that tight timeline, it was not a positive one. … Councilors could not agree even on which legislative committee should take up the agenda items related to redistricting, turning a typically noncontroversial procedural step into a drawn-out dispute that enflamed old tensions.” — ENDORSEMENT CORNER: Unite Here Local 26 is endorsing Sharon Durkan in the special election for Boston's District 8 city councilor. Durkan plans to join union members on the picket line outside the downtown Hyatt Centric Hotel this afternoon.
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