LAST WEEK, Marylou Sudders sounded like she wanted to stay on as the state’s secretary of health and human services. This week, she put in her retirement papers. What happened between last week and this week is unclear, but rumors are swirling. Sudders has served eight years as the secretary of the biggest executive branch […]
Marylou Sudders
Posted inHealth Care
Holyoke Soldiers’ Home report details ‘crisis of leadership’
A REPORT BY a legislative committee formed to investigate the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home that left 77 veterans dead faulted a “crisis of leadership” for substantially contributing to what it called a “perfect storm” and a “preventable tragedy.” “As we outline in this report, the causes were both immediate, including inexplicable decisions […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
DCF head admits agency failed David Almond
THE TOP MASSACHUSETTS officials charged with protecting vulnerable children admitted Wednesday that the system failed badly in not preventing the death of Fall River teenager David Almond. “It is clear to me and the leadership of this organization that the safety net we’ve been putting in place in this agency failed this child and failed this […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker offers vaccines to ‘companions’ of those over 75
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Wednesday said anyone bringing someone 75 and over to one of the state’s mass vaccination sites can also get inoculated even if it’s not their appointed time in the vaccine pecking order. Baker said he believed the new policy, which takes effect Thursday, will encourage more people 75 and over to […]
Posted inEducation, Health Care
A shopping bag held the key to safe school opening
A LITTLE BEFORE 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Liz Ruark started out from the small Worcester County town of Harvard on the 30-mile drive to Kendall Square in Cambridge. Nestled on the floor of the backseat of her Subaru Forester was a Home Goods tote bag whose contents were key to the community’s goal of keeping […]
Posted inThe Download
Sudders finally feeling hopeful
Marylou Sudders, the Baker administration’s point person on COVID-19, says she is finally feeling hopeful. Vaccines are being rolled out, Joe Biden is preparing to move into the White House, and after nine months of fighting COVID-19 she has learned a lot of lessons that make her job easier. “I have hope, truly, for the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Sudders finally feeling hopeful
MARYLOU SUDDERS, the Baker administration’s point person on COVID-19, says she is finally feeling hopeful. Vaccines are being rolled out, Joe Biden is preparing to move into the White House, and after nine months of fighting COVID-19 she has learned a lot of lessons that make her job easier. “I have hope, truly, for the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
The box score on Baker’s COVID-19 response
AS WE REACH what may be fairly termed the “end of the beginning” phase of the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts, with initial efforts now to reopen the state, it’s fair to take a moment to review how effective Gov. Charlie Baker and his administration have been to date in confronting the challenges of COVID-19. It […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Time to rise up for healing
WE HAVE FAITH but have lost our patience. As faith leaders with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, we call on state leadership to rise up for healing by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, especially lifesaving drugs such as insulin, epipens, and asthma inhalers; eliminating out-of-network surprise billing; and increasing access to affordable mental health […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers: Baker’s health care bill a good start
LAST SESSION, Beacon Hill’s big three – the governor, the House speaker, and the Senate president — each had fundamentally different ideas about how to reform the state’s health care system, and attempts at compromise sputtered and failed. Now, Gov. Charlie Baker is taking another go at changing the health care marketplace, and he’s getting […]