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Mass. Public Health officials call on residents to get vaccinated ahead of COVID, flu, RSV season

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health's COVID-19 dashboard as of October 22nd, 2025.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health
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Screenshot
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health's COVID-19 dashboard as of October 22nd, 2025.

Public health officials in Massachusetts are encouraging commonwealth residents to get their flu and COVID shots as respiratory disease season gets underway.

As the days grow colder and darker, the school year continues, and get-togethers shift indoors to close quarters, state officials say it’s once again time to get vaccinated.

“We have a safe and effective way to protect yourself against respiratory viruses, and that's to go out and get vaccinated," Massachusetts Commissioner of the Department of Public Health Robbie Goldstein told WAMC. "There's vaccines for flu, there's vaccines for COVID- Those vaccines are available all across Massachusetts. For those who are 18 and younger, they're free at the pediatrician's office or community health center, and for everyone else, they're covered by insurance or they're free through local public health or at any of the community health centers across Massachusetts. So people should take advantage of this really effective, really safe way to protect themselves and to protect their community.”  

He says that despite concerns about vaccine fatigue expressed in the years since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, numbers show Bay Staters are still getting shots willingly.

“Dating back to Labor Day, the first weeks of September, we've seen a lot of interest here in Massachusetts with people who want to go get vaccinated, people who want to take that opportunity to protect themselves, protect their families with something that they know is safe and effective," said the commissioner. "And so we see people for driving some vaccinations out in the community, at pharmacies, at community health centers, at physicians’ offices. Typically, in a typical year, we see the most amount of vaccines happening the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November, and that's what I would expect to see this year as well.”

Public health officials in Berkshire County are also monitoring the arrival of respiratory disease season.

“We're still seeing fairly low levels of flu and RSV, those seasons haven't really picked up yet. They'll probably pick up in the next month or so. We did have a late summer wave of COVID, which is now- Also, we're seeing reduced rates. So right now is a really good time to get a vaccine, because we're not seeing high rates, and it gives it time to work before we start seeing higher rates of any of those three illnesses," said Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Public Health Program Manager Laura Kittross. “We've been doing public clinics for the last couple of weeks, and we're seeing similar rates to uptake, at least, compared to last year. I think people who want vaccinations still want them. I think there are people who feel like, you know, they've had four or five, eight COVID shots, they've had COVID once or twice, they're healthy, and they're not seeing the same need to have it as often. We're still seeing high uptake rates in those over 65 and those who are at highest risk of serious illness, which is what we really want to see."

Berkshire residents can visit www.getvaccinatedberkshires.org to find out where they can get vaccinated in their community.

Massachusetts’ efforts to promote and facilitate vaccination comes in the face of the Trump administration’s efforts to limit access.

“It's important for us all to remember what's true and what's false," Goldstein told WAMC. "Here in Massachusetts, we're trying to be really explicit about what is true, what is known, what science do we have to back these recommendations, what's the evidence to put out this guidance? And all of us should trust that process and should really be proud of what we're doing here in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, that's not what we're seeing coming out of the federal government.”

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018 after working at stations including WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Berkshire County, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. You can reach him at jlandes@wamc.org with questions, tips, and/or feedback.
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