Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, says the Baker administration’s policy of leaving many of the major COVID decisions to local boards of health helps explain why local officials are facing harassment and many are leaving public service.

The Baker administration has adopted a local-option approach in many cases. For example, the state issued guidance earlier this month that masks are no longer needed in schools as of today, but school systems are free to adopt their own timetables. The state eased restrictions on wearing masks indoors, but again communities were free to adopt their own policies.

Pavlos said the local-option approach leads to bad public policy and leaves many local officials vulnerable to harassment and abuse. There have been reports of incidents in Salem, Westford, Abington, Framingham, and East Longmeadow.

Speaking on the Health or Consequences version of the CommonWealth Codcast with Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute and John McDonough of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University, Pavlos indicated public health policy works best with more of a one-size-fits-all approach.

“Not only are we seeing a patchwork of different rules in different communities in this state, which is confusing for the public and also less effective for the public health protections, but it also means that the decisions are getting pushed on to the backs of local public health staff who are then the folks who are being harassed and threatened,” Pavlos said. “That’s really unacceptable.”