THEY ARE POPPING UP all over the country — stories of volunteer brigades or just concerned individuals operating on their own who work to get COVID vaccine appointments for elderly neighbors or others who might have trouble navigating frustrating sign-up systems to get inoculated. 

Somerville resident Diana Rastegayeva started a Boston area network of vaccine helpers that, as of the first of the month, claimed to have aided 450 people in securing appointments. The New Yorker recently featured the story of a 29-year-old Brooklyn resident, Carolyn Ruvkun — who said she thinks of herself as the “vaccine yenta” — who was doing the same on her own. 

I have an 80-something-year-old aunt in New York City who told me a kind resident of her Greenwich Village apartment building posted a notice in the lobby offering help with sign-ups, an offer my computerless kin gratefully accepted.  

In the latest tale of pandemic good will, a certain elderly Worcester resident apparently had the help of a very influential vaccine yenta, but no one is definitively naming the good-deed doer. 

Bob Cousy, the 92-year-old former Celtics great who divides time between Florida and Worcester, tells the Palm Beach Post he got a call from someone in the Worcester city manager’s office last month telling him a vaccine appointment had been secured for him. A couple of hours before the call, Cousy said, he spoke on the phone with Dr. Anthony Fauci, a fellow Holy Cross graduate (and fellow point guard, though Fauci’s career ended after high school) with whom he’s been friends for decades.

In the course of the call, Cousy said, the country’s top infectious disease official asked if he’d been vaccinated yet. Cousy told him he hadn’t, but that he wasn’t concerned and his daughter was working on getting him an appointment. (Massachusetts residents 75 and older became eligible for the vaccine on February 1.) 

Though circumstantial evidence points toward Fauci as his vaccine yenta, Cousy also happens to be friends with Sen. Joe Manchin. He said the West Virginia senator told him in a phone conversation several months ago, “Cooz, don’t worry about the vaccine, I’ll take care of you.” 

Cousy said he got his first dose of the Moderna vaccine on February 8, and is due to get his second shot today. 

Cousy told Palm Beach Post reporter Tom D’Angleo that the person from the Worcester city manager’s office told him “a little bird” alerted them he had not received his vaccine. When he asked who it was, Cousy said, he was told, “I can’t tell you who the little bird is because of who the little bird is.”

Despite all signs pointing to Fauci, Cousy tried to brush off the idea of his friend as the vaccine playmaker. “Tony is busy saving the freakin’ world every day,” he told the Florida paper. “I can’t imagine.”

MICHAEL JONAS

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Today marks the first anniversary of Gov. Charlie Baker’s declaration of a state of emergency. 

From the future of cities to the future of work, here are 12 takes from leading experts in the state on what the post-COVID world will look like. 

The Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a unit within the Boston Police Department, has 3,853 people listed in its gang database, but isn’t formally tracking how the enterprise helps to solve murders or violent crimes. 

The Legislature releases the unemployment insurance/sick leave bill a day after it was announced via press release. The sick leave portion will cost an estimated $75 million.

Rep. Patricia Farley-Bouvier takes a Zoom meeting live to Pittsfield, where she reports on the many state investments in the city.

Opinion: Amy Pitter, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, says the state shouldn’t tax grant money received under the Payment Protection Program.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says all public elementary schools will be required to open for full-time in-person learning by April 5 and middle schools will follow on April 28. (Berkshire Eagle)

Some lawmakers say it’s time to put limits on the emergency powers Gov. Charlie Baker first asserted a year ago. (Boston Herald) 

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

The Framingham City Council votes 10-1 to override Mayor Yvonne Spicer’s veto of an ordinance dealing with who appoints the board implementing the Community Preservation Act. (MetroWest Daily News)

A Holyoke police officer is suspended after a video he made alleging corruption within the police department goes viral. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Stickers and recruitment materials for a white supremacist group are showing up in North Shore communities. (Salem News)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Massachusetts has spent at least $10.4 million on privately run COVID vaccination sites, according to contracts reviewed by MassLive.

Essential workers say they’re being left behind in the vaccination rollout. (Boston Globe) Nearly three dozen lawmakers urge the state to prioritize grocery store workers for vaccines. (Boston Herald) 

Phil Cormier, the president of Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals, plans to retire after 40 years in health care. (Gloucester Daily Times)

The DCU Center COVID field hospital is set to close Sunday, and has just five patients left. (Telegram & Gazette)

Massachusetts General Hospital launches a Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics. (WBUR)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Millions of parents will get an expanded $300 a month child tax credit, beginning in July, under President Biden’s stimulus plan. (MassLive)

Both the Trump and Biden administrations deserve credit for their part in speeding the country’s vaccine rollout — but neither wants to say much good about the other. (New York Times) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Mike Kinneally and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders reflect on a year of COVID and look toward recovery, at a Cape Ann economic outlook forum. (Gloucester Daily Times)

Close to 200 businesses are still not fully open on the Cape, according to a new survey by the regional chamber of commerce. (Cape Cod Times)

EDUCATION

Overnight camps will be able to reopen this summer under Phase four of the state’s reopening plan, set to start on March 22. (GBH)

Boston school bus drivers are calling for comprehensive coronavirus mitigation measures, vaccination of drivers, and restoration of full-time pay that was cut amid the school shutdowns. (Boston Globe) 

An online petition accuses Becker College, which is on the verge of closing, of hiding financial information. (Telegram & Gazette)

ARTS/CULTURE

A new live performance theater is slated to open in Kendall Square in 2025. (WBUR)

TRANSPORTATION

Bradley International Airport in Connecticut saw air traffic drop by 64 percent last year — similar to drops seen at Logan Airport and Worcester airport. (MassLive)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

The Worcester City Council approves the use of controversial “crime forecasting” technology, with the aim of upping police patrols in areas likely to be high crime. (Telegram & Gazette)

An anonymous instagram account alleges mismanagement at the Worcester police department. (MassLive)

A Randolph spot used to hosting proms and weddings will soon be hosting jury trials. (Patriot Ledger)

MEDIA

Epoch Media, the publisher of the conservative Epoch Times, has figured out a way to expand its reach despite a crackdown on misinformation by Facebook and Twitter. (New York Times)

PASSINGS

Roger Mudd, the anchorman who stumped Ted Kennedy with a simple question, died at 93. (New York Times)

Carl Shapiro, a major Boston philanthropist who funded enormous projects at hospitals and universities, died at age 108. (Boston Globe)