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TGIF! It’s the last weekend of summer, and we’ve got hot air balloons, lasers and lots of Fluff on the agenda. Make it count.
immediately, to the news:
Skip the line: Stressing about the security line at Logan Airport? Massport leaders are planning to experiment with a workaround they’re calling a “remote terminal.” Beginning next summer, the airport will let people who use the Logan Express bus from Framingham check their bags and go through security right there in the parking lot — and then get dropped off on the other side of security at the airport.
- Why? Massport CEO Rich Davey (who just got a nice raise for a good performance breakdown) said yesterday the aim of the pilot program is to reduce traffic congestion around Logan by encouraging more people to take the bus. He hopes it also eases passenger stress about getting to the airport and through security.
- How does it work? The plan is to set up a checkpoint in a modular building in a lot near the Logan Express parking garage in Framingham. People with departing flights will check their bags, go through security with their carry-on luggage and then load onto a coach bus for the 25 to 45 minute trip to Logan. (Checked bags will be stored in the bus’s bottom compartment.) At the end of the ride, passengers will get dropped off at an existing post-security entrance at Logan to go directly to their gate.
- How often will it run? There will be one bus every hour, over a four-to-five-hour window each morning, with a max of 30 people per bus.
- How much will it cost? Davey says they won’t immediately change the $9 cost of a bus ticket, “but that could be something we do in the future.”
- Questions and concerns? Massport’s Peter Howe said they’re “replicating an identical TSA checkpoint” for Framingham and working with TSA to “make sure that everything follows the correct standards and regulations.” Still, some Massport board members had questions about ensuring buses or bags aren’t tampered with before or during the ride. (There are similar examples in the U.S. of airport-to-airport bus connections that bypass security, but none from a remote facility.) ”This is a big step,” Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis said. “I mean, having a remote TSA clearance, it has a lot of responsibilities.”
- What’s next? Davey wants to start small, with a single temporary location. But if the pilot proves popular, he said they could invest in a permanent facility and expand to other Logan Express lots, like Braintree and Woburn.
All eyes on the CDC: Massachusetts doctors are closely watching for a vote today by the CDC’s panel of vaccine advisors. As NPR reported earlier this week, the panel is expected to recommend delaying hepatitis B vaccine for children until the age of 4. It comes after the panel suggested a similar delay yesterday for the MMRV vaccine, a combination shot for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
- For more than 30 years, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has advised the first of three hepatitis B shots to be given at birth. Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, who studies infectious diseases at Boston University, told WBUR’s Priyanka Dayal McCluskey the vaccine has been a great success story. “Since we put it into place, a 99% decrease in hepatitis B, it’s unbelievable the success of it,” Bhadelia said. “So then to do away and potentially delay that, you put pediatric lives at risk for a pretty severe disease.”
- The votes come after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, replaced everyone on the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, whose recommendations largely decide what vaccines get covered by insurance. Some new panel members have argued the shot is unnecessary for infants unless the mother has the disease, which primarily spreads via blood or bodily fluids.
- Meanwhile: Massachusetts officials have signaled they may issue their own recommendations for childhood vaccinations, including hepatitis B. That would determine local insurance coverage, regardless of federal guidelines.
The up-to-date: Mayor Michelle Wu’s new zoning rules for downtown are moving forward. WBUR’s Eve Zuckoff reports the Boston Planning and Development Agency board unanimously approved the plan to allow taller buildings in parts of downtown to encourage more housing. “This is something that can revitalize the downtown area, which is the engine for the city of Boston,” said BPDA board member Raheem Shepard. It immediately goes to the Boston Zoning Commission for a final vote next month.
P.S.— What local sports team just fired its head coach? Take our Boston News Quiz and test your knowledge of this week’s stories.
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