Massachusetts Gov. Baker pushes flu shots; courts plan for jury trials

Getting a flu shot is one of the best ways to help Massachusetts guard against a spike in demand for health care services caused by any potential new surge in covid cases. Public health officials have warned that an increase in both diseases could put pressure on Massachusetts’s hospitals and health care system. As Massachusetts continues to fight covid, it is critical that the state does everything it can to minimize the impact of the flu and other respiratory diseases.

Having the flu and covid surge in the commonwealth at exactly the same time would be an incredibly difficult situation for them to manage their way through. Massachusetts must also push harder to make sure all students receive a flu shot. The current vaccination rate for elementary students is 81%, but Massachusetts can do better. Massachusetts announced in August 2020 flu shots will be required for all students and children six months and older attending childcare, preschool, K-12, colleges, and universities in the state.

Massachusetts is also stockpiling additional flu shots. Typically, Massachusetts acquires 900,000 doses from a flu season. In 2020, Massachusetts is upping that to 1.15 million doses or about a 28% increase. In the Massachusetts 2019-2020 flu season, there were 40,000 cases of the flu reported, about 6,600 people died. 11 freshman students at Northeastern University who were dismissed for violating campus social distancing guidelines after they were discovered in the same hotel room will have most of this semester’s costs refunded.

Northeastern University had originally said the students would not be refunded.

But Northeastern University recognizes that the incident at issue occurred prior to the beginning of the semester, before classes began, and the sanctions result in a loss of access to university resources and tuition. The students were notified by letter that their semester-long dismissals will stand, but the students no longer have to cover the entire $36,500 cost of their program. Northeastern University will keep $8,740.

Governor Charlie Baker defended Northeastern University’s decision to dismiss the 11 students for the fall semester. The rules were the rules, they were established upfront. Everybody attested to them and the students broke them. Baker feels terrible for the students and their families, but added that the college experience has changed. It is really important, especially during this time when kids are coming back to school, that everybody appreciate and accept the fact that college is just not going to be the way it was last year or the year before.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is planning for the gradual resumption of jury trials on or after October 23rd 2020. Phase 1 of the plan will consist of a limited number of six-person jury trials conducted in person in a select number of locations, with no more than one trial at a time conducted in each location, and with specified limitations on the number of peremptory challenges available to each party. Court officials are anticipating that Phase 2 will begin in February 2021, although plans regarding the resumption of jury trials may be adjusted in response to changes in the rate of covid transmission in Massachusetts.

Courts will continue to conduct most business virtually and courthouses will continue to be physically open to the public for limited purposes, including certain in-person proceedings.

Judges will continue to conduct bench trials, either virtually or in-person. Massachusetts health officials reported 419 new confirmed cases of covid and 15 additional virus-related fatalities. There have now been more 124,000 confirmed cases in Massachusetts and 9,051 fatalities. The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Massachusetts has risen over the past two weeks from more than 355 new cases per day on September 2nd 2020 to more than 365 on Wednesday.

The 7-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Massachusetts has risen slightly over the past two weeks, yet remains well below 1%. The number of people in Massachusetts’ hospitals with covid was up to 377 from 352 the previous day. In August 2020, Alex Morse, mayor of Holyoke and the Democratic primary candidate for the state’s 1st Congressional District, has had a busy few weeks when a local college newspaper published an article titled “College Democrats allege inappropriate behavior between Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and college students”.

The allegations that Morse had used his position of power to sexually proposition vulnerable college students spread quickly through his western Massachusetts district, leading one member of Holyoke’s city council to call for his resignation. Soon, explosive reports emerged alleging that members of the College Democrats at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Morse once worked, had schemed for months to create a sex scandal to derail his progressive challenge to incumbent Representative Richard Neal, with whom the students reportedly wanted to secure an internship. Two debates later, and a week before the Massachusetts Democratic primary, Morse says he has been vindicated, and that he is raising more money through donations than at any point so far in his campaign.

A number of folks are seeing it for what it is, in terms of the the language and response to the accusations being rooted in age-old homophobic tropes and the constant overpolicing of the personal lives, the sex lives, of gay men and members of the queer community.

The school’s College Democrats chapter had sent a letter to Morse saying he was disinvited from their future events because he used apps such as Grindr, Tinder, and Instagram to meet college students who were as young as 18 years old, reportedly making them feel uncomfortable. The next day, Masslive.com reported on allegations that Morse had relationships with teenagers, and UMass Amherst posted a statement saying it was launching an immediate review of the matter and had no plans to hire Morse back as a lecturer in the political science department, where he worked from 2014 to 2019. The College Democrats of Massachusetts published a letter on Twitter on August 9th 2020, saying Morse abused his power for sexual relationships and confirmed they sent a similar emailed statement to him.

That same day, Holyoke council member Mike Sullivan called for Morse to resign for interactions with naive and innocent teenage college students. The LGBTQ Victory Fund condemned Sullivan, saying it believes the use of the word “teenagers” is meant to purposely evoke homophobic stereotypes of gay men as pedophiles. The architects of these efforts knew this is where the conversation would lead, with no regard for the homophobia it would unleash.

Sullivan is seeking a Holyoke City Council vote on an investigation into the allegations against Morse. Two days after the first story broke, Morse posted a statement on Twitter saying accusations that he abused his position were false. Morse decided to stay in the race, saying he trusts the voters of Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District to make up their own minds as to whether homophobia influenced the alleged scheme.

If voters are not seeing the homophobia, they are certainly seeing the establishment.

But just as quickly as the scandal had appeared, it seemed to disappear. A new report cast strong doubts on the original College Democrats letter five days after it made news. The Intercept reported on leaked chat logs showing these students conspiring in 2019 to gin up a sex scandal in order to harm Morse’s candidacy and help his opponent, incumbent Democratic Representative Richard Neal.

These young Democrats hoped that by sabotaging Morse’s campaign they would endear themselves to Neal, first elected in 1988 and, as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the most powerful incumbent Democrats in Congress. Two days later, UMass Amherst announced it had hired an independent attorney to investigate the scandal. While Morse was not accused of having a relationship with a student he taught, one of the students accused of scheming to harm Morse’s campaign was reportedly in a journalism class taught by Neal, who is currently listed on the university’s website as part-time faculty lecturer.

The College Democrats of Massachusetts denied any wrongdoing and said the letter to Morse was not politically motivated and had nothing to do with any of its members’ professional ambitions or personal politics. The student group said suggestions that its decision to break ties with Morse had anything to do with his sexual orientation are untrue, disingenuous, and harmful. In a statement, Neal said any implications that he or anyone from his campaign are involved are flat wrong and an attempt to distract from the issue at hand. Morse, however, maintains this was a coordinated political attack with the intention of harming his campaign at a pivotal moment.

There were students that Neal involved that were trying to curry favor with a powerful incumbent to secure a job, and this goes to the height of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

The Intercept reports revitalized Morse’s campaign by changing the narrative and fueling a surge of campaign donations. Morse appeared to acknowledge this by sharing a picture of himself on Twitter carrying a bag emblazoned with The Intercept’s logo, “New tote.” Since declaring his candidacy in 2019, Morse has taken an anti-incumbent progressive message to voters in the Bay State’s first district, which covers part of the central Connecticut River Valley and the hilly western Berkshires area.

From criminal justice, climate change, to the influence of money in politics. A poll conducted this month put Morse within five points of Neal, with 13 percent of voters undecided, well within the striking distance that other Democratic challengers from the left had before winning in their primaries. Morse is among the first of a generation of LGBTQ politicians who came of age using common dating apps such as OkCupid, Tinder, and Grindr, and said he will never apologize for being young and gay and single and using gay dating apps and having consensual relations with other adult men.

Morse’s decision to stay in this race and fight and be open and honest about his personal life will make it more likely that other young people, other queer people, and other single people feel like they can run for office, too.