Convention of States Action does not control and is not responsible for the content posted on this forum. The views expressed are those of the individuals making the post and do not necessarily represent the views of COSA or its staff.
Convention of States Action does not control and is not responsible for the content posted on this forum. The views expressed are those of the individuals making the post and do not necessarily represent the views of COSA or its staff.
I´ve done some research into the Recovery and Isolation from Covid 19 sites located throughout the Commonwealth. I first heard about them two days ago from Governor Baker’s daily State House address.
According to a mass.gov, these nine isolation sites are hotels which house MA residents with a positive Covid 19 test result.
These individuals are referred there by either a homeless shelter, a medical doctor, a Community Tracing Collaborative, or Local Board of Health. Individuals can also call a phone number available on mass.gov.
I’ll provide some simple facts from Jeremy C. Fox´s Boston Globe article from April 21 which you can find here:
Globe Isolation sites
This article in particular pertains to the Envision Hotel in Everett which is participating in the program.
Some highlights:
“Medical staff will screen each person admitted to the facility. Meals will be provided.”
That sounds cool so far. There’ll be someone there to help medically if need be for the two weeks of isolation that we’ve become accustomed to hearing about. Also, three meals may be more than some people can afford to eat in a typical day so that is another positive.
What scares me is the police presence; Fox continues, “patients are transported to the hotel by the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, and a security guard is stationed on each floor, officials said. There are also Everett police on site at all times.” That sounds like a lot of guns and badges to me. I imagine if I had a young child experiencing all this that it may leave a permanent mark. That would be a traumatic event to anyone, let alone a child who is still developing emotionally.
Or maybe we’re just getting used to a police state. Will this be a part of our “new normal” that the Governor and many talking heads are promoting all over the internet and mainstream media?
Let’s think about this for a second?...
--The sheriff’s officers: are they taking me, my spouse or my child from my home to an isolation site under free will, for our own good, and the good of our community? Was my name given to a member or the MA Contact Tracing team and they came to remove me from my home by force? I don’t know and I don’t want to find out; I’m just posing the question.
--The security guards and police officers in the halls and on site: what is their purpose? I was a soldier. I know that these officers have orders to follow. What exactly are their orders? If the use of force were not needed then a security guard would suffice, no? Are they keeping people from coming in, or people from going out?
Let’s just hope that none of us or our loved ones ever find out.