BOSTON — Should residents in some of the Bay State’s hardest hit cities and towns be vaccinated first?

Some experts believe communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic should be moved to the front of the line.

Massachusetts has pledged to set aside 20 percent of its vaccine supply for vulnerable cities and towns with high infection rates.

The timeline on when that will be happening and exactly which communities will be getting extra doses remains unclear.

“Strategies that target areas where the virus has hit really hard will protect everyone in a fairly effective way,” said Jessica Leibler, an environmental epidemiologist with Boston University.

Leibler said targeting communities at high risk would come in the second phase of the vaccine.

She points out that it could cause in could mean other people at risk may not get the vaccine as quickly as they would otherwise. However, she believes the strategy will help protect others who live in lower-risk communities.

“The virus doesn’t limit itself to those specific neighborhoods or cities,” said Leibler. “This could help identify communities where there’s a large percentage of workers who are in these essential jobs who have not been able to socially distance.”

The strategy could potentially apply in certain neighborhoods of Boston and also in communities like Lawrence, Chelsea, Brockton, Revere and Lynn.

Phase two of the state's coronavirus vaccine rollout begins Monday morning, with patients 75 and older first in line to receive their shots at vaccination sites throughout the state.

One of those sites is the Lynn Community Health Center, which sits in a hot spot where almost one in six residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.

WBUR's Morning Edition host Bob Oakes was joined by CEO and family physician Dr. Kiame Mahaniah to discuss.

Lynn is a coronavirus hot spot. Roughly one in six residents has tested positive. So Dr. Elizabeth Quinn was fuming this week as she told frail patients, 75 years and older, that they might have to wait for shots even though hospitals nearby were vaccinating young, back office employees.

Knowing that there is vaccine in our community that could be helping to protect these extremely vulnerable patients but is being used not in that most strategic way is infuriating," says Quinn, who practices family medicine at the Lynn Community Health Center. "And it's demoralizing."