On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic and our world flipped upside down.
As a first-term Senator, I learned lifetimes-worth of lessons in the early days of COVID — lessons that remain true today. Here are five on this fifth anniversary:
#1 — Government must be nimble and move quickly, when needed.
In the spring of 2020, the Massachusetts government rose expeditiously to meet the pandemic head on:
- On March 4, seven days before the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Health, I led an oversight hearing to assess the state’s capacity to respond.
- On March 6, the Massachusetts Division of Insurance instructed insurers to not charge patients for COVID-19 testing or treatment. Days before, I wrote to then Governor Charlie Baker asking that his Administration break down all financial barriers associated with COVID testing and treatment.
- On March 10, Governor Baker declared a state of emergency, which I supported and talked with Monte Belmonte about here. From there — and in a matter of days — the Administration and Legislature moved rapidly to support the state’s public health response; set up a statewide task force (to which I was appointed) to foster greater all-of-government collaboration; passed legislation to address challenges to municipal governance, including delays in holding town meetings and adopting municipal budgets; passed legislation to break down barriers to accessing unemployment benefits; and much more.
The Senate President asked me to lead the Senate’s response. There was no playbook. We had to understand that while legislatures are designed to be deliberative, the virus was moving quickly. We had to be both flexible and thoughtful, thinking about short-term needs and long-term sustainability at the same time. Both pace and pacing mattered. We didn’t know this in March 2020, but the intensity of this work would last for years.
#2 — Investing in public health infrastructure pays off.
COVID-19 exposed gross injustices in local and regional public health infrastructure. Pre-pandemic, a person’s zip code determined the public health protections they were afforded and was a key determinant of their health outcomes. The pandemic’s ravages were felt disproportionately by poor communities, communities of color, immigrant communities, and rural communities that far too often bare the brunt of health inequities. Dr. Frank Robinson, then Vice President of Public Health at Baystate Health, spoke with me (at minute 33 here) about how COVID-19 preyed upon what he called “limited opportunity communities.”
That is why I filed An Act relative to accelerating improvements to the local and regional public health system to address disparities in the delivery of public health services, or SAPHE 2.0.
This bill, finally signed into law by current Governor Healey in December 2024, sets statewide practice and training standards, provides funds to ensure that everyone in the Commonwealth has access to a core set of public health protections, and builds a data-tracking protocol so that we maintain accountability.
I spoke with Harvard Public Health Magazine this winter about the impact of COVID-19 on the urgency of SAPHE 2.0. You can read the interview here.
#3 — The Legislature plays an important oversight role in times of emergency.
From 2020 to 2022, the bulk of the COVID-19 pandemic, I served as the Senate Chair for the Joint Committee on Public Health, as well as Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management.
Together, these Committees held 14 oversight hearings on pandemic response — everything from COVID testing, contact tracing, vaccinations, research, hospitals and emergency responders, and care for the most vulnerable.
Through these hearings, I came to appreciate the power of oversight to bring focus, hasten work, increase transparency, and surface much-needed information. We issued a report, which is available here.
#4 — Through digital and remote communication, we can continue to get the work done and scale our efforts.
The pandemic taught us all about the importance of supporting remote work and virtual participation. On the edge of a dime, my team and I pivoted from working in the State House and in the district to meeting on Zoom and relying on applications like Slack to keep us connected.
Constituents gained a more equitable opportunity to testify remotely at legislative hearings held in the State House — an innovation that’s still in place today.
My team and I also dug in to hold regular community calls throughout 2020 and 2021, as well as virtual town halls and constituent services meet ups. We leaned in to scale our work digitally (understanding the imperfections and challenges of various platforms) and bring us closer to constituents.
We continue to innovate along these lines, introducing a Cup o’ Jo podcast series in an attempt to get constituents the information they need and deserve.
#5 — Health care must be guaranteed as a human right.
Health care workers were critical to saving lives and slowing the spread of coronavirus. That’s why we made the vaccine free, removed co-pays for care, provided free testing and contact tracing, and expanded public economic supports — understanding that none of us would be safe unless all of our community members had access to prevention, testing, treatment, and care.
During COVID, health care workers, educators, food system and farm workers, first responders, and all essential workers — whose work cannot be performed remotely — became more visible and central to conversations around the economy and policies to support workers, families, and their needs.
The pandemic exposed already under-resourced sectors and labor forces. Much more work remains to find and implement transformative solutions.
