Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative Launches Website

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative has announced the launch of a new website containing comprehensive information on how to access the Berkshire area COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

The new site, www.getvaccinatedberkshires.org, was developed to provide a consolidated resource with information about the COVID-19 vaccines, to provide resources on the state's Vaccination Phases and vaccine availability, and to aid the public in making appointments at the three large mass vaccination clinic sites in the Berkshires.

The Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative has established vaccination sites in Pittsfield at the Berkshire Community College Field House, in Great Barrington at the WEB Du Bois Middle School and in North Adams at St. Elizabeth of Hungary's Parish Center. Vaccine clinics are now scheduled for early February to begin vaccinations for the first part of Phase 2, which includes anyone aged 75 and older.

The Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative estimates that there are approximately 18,000 Berkshire residents who are 75 and older, and based on the current distribution of vaccine by the State of Massachusetts, it is likely to take several weeks before completion of Phase 2-A. Clinics will be held weekly based on availability of the vaccine from the Commonwealth.

The website will be updated regularly as more clinics are scheduled throughout February and the coming months and as the state continues to move through Phase 2 and into Phase 3, which is estimated to run through the remainder of winter and into the spring.

The Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative is a partnership between Berkshire Health Systems, Community Health Programs, the Berkshire County Boards of Health Association and public health nurses.

The website is www.getvaccinatedberkshires.org.

 


Tags: BHS,   CHP,   COVID-19,   


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Kratom Products Pulled From Pittsfield, Statewide Shelves

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires.com Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The state has put an emergency yearlong order on kratom products, and Pittsfield is working with retailers to remove the product from shelves. 

Last week, Director of Public Health Andy Cambi delivered an update on the emergency order that went into effect on August 28.  Also known by its chemical name and marketed with the term "7-OH," Massachusetts temporarily designated kratom as a Schedule I drug, greatly restricting sales. 

The formerly unregulated product has resulted in emergency room visits, poison control calls, and deaths.  

"Dependency and the opioid-like withdrawal symptoms are the major key health concerns," Cambi explained. "Liver toxicity, seizures, just a greater overdose risk when combined with other substances, and then the main thing is that this is not regulated."

He said that throughout the years, retail shops have reached out to the Health Department looking for guidance on kratom products and were notified that it is unregulated. 

"And for the most part, when they hear that, they don't sell the product," he added. 

Kratom is a leafy plant native to Southeast Asia containing naturally occurring substances, including mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH).  It is marketed to relieve pain and can produce stimulating or sedating effects, depending on the amount taken and potency. Newer products contain highly concentrated or laboratory-modified compounds that can have significantly stronger opioid-like effects. 

Kratom products have been widely sold in smoke shops, convenience stores, and gas stations as powders, tablets, capsules, gummies, dissolvable strips, and in other forms.

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