Dr. Michael Hirsh gave us a health update for Worcester & Central Mass this morning, including how we’re doing with COVID in the early going of 2023.

Dr. Michael Hirsh told Talk of the Commonwealth he feels the vaccinations for 6 month to 4 year olds, which will be available Tuesday in MA, will be an important part of the fight against Covid going forward*. As Covid becomes more seasonal, like the flu, he feels this will begin to grow immunity and stave off serious illness.

Dr. Hirsh is realistic that vaccination for those so young may take some time to be embraced by the public. Worcester has been stuck at 63% total vaccination rate for the past 3 months.

*The FDA has authorized Pfizer’s three-dose vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years old, and Moderna’s two-dose vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old.

Worcester’s Dr. Michael Hirsh has long been an advocate to reduce gun violence.  He is the founder of Goods for Guns, a successful gun buyback program in the city and across the state.

Speaking on the “Talk of the Commonwealth” morning show Dr. Hirsh made the case that gun violence, now the #1 cause of death in children, is a health crisis and should be treated as such. 

He says pediatricians belong in the conversation and asking questions of young patients such as, is there a gun in the house, are entirely appropriate. “Empower the family to say, hey think about whose in your home, do you have an inquisitive toddler, do you have a depressed teen, do you have a spouse that has anger management problems, a demented elderly person whose in your home, do you have someone with a substance abuse disorder in your home who knows you can trade in a gun for opiods…any of those things raises expotenially the risk of a gun causing harm to the people in your home and it is a much higher risk of that kind of destructive thing then you defending your homestead against an invader or anything like that.”