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BMC Prepares for COVID-19 Vaccine Arrival

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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Workers move the ultra-low temperature freezer at the Berkshire Innovation Center for deliver to BMC on Wednesday. The freezer is need for storing the vaccine.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Medical Center is one of 21 hospitals selected to begin receiving the novel coronavirus vaccine this month. 
 
Director of Media Relations Michael Leary on Wednesday said the hospital is scheduling potential vaccine distribution for frontline workers, which will be dependent on the number of doses that arrive. BMC is expecting to get at least one of the batches, which yields 975 doses.
 
With Berkshire Health Systems having about 4,000 employees, those who have the most contact with direct patient care would be prioritized for distribution. This includes employees from Berkshire Medical Center, Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington, and physician practices.
 
This could also include workers who don't work with COVID-19 patients hands-on but have contact with them, such as case managers who prepare discharge plans.
 
"We might not just be talking about the doctors and nurses who are providing direct care," Leary said. "There could be any number of other employees who would be eligible to receive the vaccine in the initial phase."
 
Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday had announced that Massachusetts, in Partnership with the Vaccine Advisory Group and health care providers, had developed a COVID-19 vaccine distribution timeline that has been accepted by the federal government.
 
The state is expected to receive 300,000 doses by the end of December of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
 
The first shipment of 59,475 doses of the Pfizer vaccine was ordered Friday and will be delivered directly to 21 hospitals across eight counties beginning Dec. 15. Once the vaccine supplies begin to arrive, the distribution chain will expand to another 74 hospitals and then the Federal Pharmacy Program.
 
The hospitals selected at first to accept the Pfizer vaccine had to be able to store it at minus-70 degrees Celsius, by procuring dry ice or having an ultra-cold storage system. They also had to have capacity to move quickly to administer 975 doses. 
 
The Berkshire Innovation Center had an American BioTech U-86 ultra-low temperature freezer that was packed up Wednesday morning and delivered to BMC. 
 
"We are grateful to be able to help this in a small way," BIC Executive Director Benjamin Sosne wrote to iBerkshires. "As you know, minus-80 C freezers needed to store the vaccine are in short supply these days. This morning ours was packed up and sent to our friends at Berkshire Medical Center. Great to know the first vaccines will be stored in our freezer."
 
Leary said BMC recognizes that this is a limited response and the vaccine will need to be used as quickly as possible because of its five-day shelf life under regular cold conditions.
 
Because the vaccine comes in batches of 975 doses, Leary said they will need to be used quickly. BMC would plan on vaccinating up to 975 employees who have the most contact with COVID-19 during the first dose and then would move down the list in health-care workers depending on the numbers of vaccinations they are seeing.
 
Baker and state Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders had stated at Wednesday's press conference that "health-care workers" included clinical and non-clinical (so case managers, dietary employees, housekeeping as wells nurses and doctors) with the priority on those in most contact with COVID-19 first. 
 
Leary said, that according to the governor's release, the first vaccines are planned to be distributed to a majority of the state's hospitals by early next week. At the state level, the first batch is aimed to arrive Thursday.
 
If BMC receives 975 doses by Monday, it would do its best to vaccinate 975 employees as quickly as possible, he said, and would repeat that process if it received another batch later in the week.  
 
BMC was able to efficiently able to vaccinate all employees for influenza, which was made mandatory by the state, within a short period of time over about a four- to six-week period,  he said. Because of this, the hospital is hopeful that it will be able to quickly vaccinate willing employees with the Pfizer vaccine, as it is not mandatory.
 
Through an employee survey, BMC is trying to get a sense of who would be willing to take the vaccine and who would be reluctant. Because this survey was distributed Tuesday, Leary said it is too soon to know what the general consensus, but BMC hopes that a majority of employees will favor the vaccine.
 
Editor's note: information on the freezer added at 9:11 p.m.

Tags: BHS,   BMC,   COVID-19,   


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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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