COFAR blog

Data received last week from the state show that as of early March, more than 80% of residents and a little over 50% of staff in residential facilities directly run by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) had been fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

One would assume that by now, all residents in the DDS system and most of the staff have been vaccinated. But the numbers are almost a month old, and DDS said it does not have vaccination data on residents or staff in provider-run homes.

DDS provided the vaccination numbers for the sate-run facilities on March 29 in response to a Public Records Request we had sent on February 18.

Vaccination data also provided on March 29 by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) in response to the same Public Records Request does include numbers on vaccinations of residents and staff in provider-run homes. But the EOHHS data is even more out of date than the DDS data.

A spreadsheet provided by EOHHS is dated February 23. The EOHHS data showed that as of February 23, 24% of staff and 38% of residents in the DDS provider-run group home system had been fully vaccinated. EOHHS is the state’s umbrella human services agency, and DDS is located under it.

The chart below, based on the DDS data, therefore shows the most up-to-date information we have from the administration on vaccinations in the DDS system:

On April 1, I submitted a new Public Records Request to EOHHS, this time asking for current data on vaccinations in both provider-run group homes and state-run residential programs.

In addition to the lack of up-to-date vaccination data, both EOHHS and DDS said they did not have any records on numbers of staff or residents refusing vaccinations. We think the difficulty involved in getting this information on vaccinations in the system is troubling.

Since last May, the Baker administration has been posting at least some information in its online weekly state facilities reports on COVID test results of residents and at least some staff in the DDS system. But getting information on vaccinations is another story.  

COVID test results continue to be promising

Those COVID test results continue to be encouraging, apparently reflecting the large numbers of residents and staff that have been vaccinated.

As of the March 30 state facilities report, residents testing positive in both state and provider-run group homes declined to some of their lowest levels since the COVID crisis began. There have been no residents or staff testing positive at either the Hogan Regional Center or the Wrentham Developmental Center since late February. There have been no deaths of any residents in either facility due to COVID since last November.

The numbers of infected residents and staff in DDS state-operated group homes and in the two developmental centers have also declined to all-time lows since the crisis began.

As of March 30, 9 residents and 12 staff in state-operated group homes tested positive, compared to highs of 43 residents testing positive in January, and 111 staff testing positive in December.

In the provider-run group home system, 32 residents tested positive as of March 30, compared to a high of 305 in January. As we have previously noted, no information is made available by the administration, for unknown reasons, on the number of staff testing positive in DDS provider-operated homes.

Administration won’t comment on the vaccinations or test results

In February, I emailed both EOHHS Secretary Mary Lou Sudders and DDS Commissioner Jane Ryder, asking for comment on whether the vaccines were responsible for the declining numbers of infected persons in the DDS system even at that early period in the vaccination effort. Neither Sudders nor Ryder ever responded. Why the administration won’t comment on this is perplexing.

Month-long delay in providing records

On February 18, I filed an initial Public Records Request with both EOHHS and DDS, asking for:

 1. Records and internal emails that discuss projected timeframes for vaccinating residents and staff in DDS residential facilities; and

2. Records indicating the number of residents and staff who have been vaccinated in DDS residential facilities, broken down by type of facility.

On February 23, I additionally asked for:

3. Records indicating the number of staff and residents in the residential facilities who have refused vaccinations.

As noted, neither DDS nor EOHHS responded with any records until March 29. In its response, DDS stated that it had no internal emails discussing vaccination time frames. While EOHHS did indicate that it had such emails, the agency said it would only provide them if we were willing to pay $1,150 for search and redaction fees.

Also, as noted, both agencies said they had no records on numbers of individuals refusing vaccines.

While DDS had no internal emails on vaccine timelines, the Department stated that the administration had placed residents and staff in congregate care settings under Phase 1 of its vaccine distribution plan. Phase 1 ran from December 2020 through February 2021.

What we know now

At this point, all we can say with any degree of certainty is that most of the residents in state-run congregate care facilities in the DDS system have probably been vaccinated by now. The rest is pretty much conjecture despite our repeated efforts to get more concrete information out of the administration. Those efforts have now included filing two Public Records Requests.

In a letter, dated March 24, to the “DDS community,” Ryder maintained that the administration had heard the “voice” of that community in responding over the past year to the pandemic. “Your voice was instrumental in driving and shaping these developments. You let us know when our policies and protocols went too far – or not far enough,” she wrote.

Ryder added that, “DDS remains committed to hearing your voice, and keeping you informed and engaged as we go.”

If Commissioner Ryder is truly committed to hearing our voice and keeping the DDS community informed, she can start by providing up-to-date information on vaccine distribution in the system, and by responding to our repeated requests for her comment on these matters.