Worcester State University is set to open up Tuesday as another mass vaccination site in Massachusetts, but morning appointments have already been canceled because of the weather and rescheduled for Saturday.
Afternoon appointments Tuesday are still on beginning at 1:30 pm.
Dr. Nada Sanders, Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at Northeastern University, says mega sites should be part of a wider system that brings back hospitals to vaccine distribution.
And supply chain experts should be included in decision making.
“I see constantly questions being asked of physicians about supply chain,” she said. “They don’t understand how supply chains work.”
Sanders says there also needs to be better tracking of doses, so re-distribution can be quick and efficient.
“You could at that last minute do these very quick runs if you were able to map everything out,” she said. “We haven’t done it, it’s kind of frustrating because we have the technology.”
Coronavirus Coverage in Massachusetts
She’s particularly concerned about the COVID variants impacting the rollout down the road.
There are 29 cases of the so-called United Kingdom variant in Massachusetts, most of them in Worcester County.
“We could be in real trouble if we end up with some variants and we’re back to square one,” she said.
