Polis Speaks Out About Colorado’s COVID Approach

As COVID numbers in Colorado wane to a roughly 1,000 daily case average, Governor Jared Polis is speaking out about his decision to lift the state’s mask mandate last July and his later decision not to reinstate it following the delta and omicron variants.

Some considered it a surprising move from a democratic governor, though local jurisdictions were allowed to make their own decisions on mandating masks, while many republican governors banned all mandates. Denver and Boulder kept their indoor mask requirements in place until recently.

Many have praised Polis for his approach and cite his decision to press forward as one reason the state’s cases are now as low as they are, while others have questioned if the decision was irresponsible, threatening to immunocompromised people, and potentially catering to the right as he prepares to run for reelection.

In a recent interview with The NPR Politics Podcast, Polis discusses COVID in Colorado and his pandemic management.

As a blue state with multiple republican pockets, Polis says the decision was pragmatic. While he consulted with the state epidemiologist and took in CDC guidance, he concluded mask requirements “didn’t seem to accomplish much.”

“I never doubted that it was the right thing,” he says. “We have some neighboring states that required masks, and they had as much COVID, if not more than we did, and deaths and hospitalizations. Obviously, there are some people that wanted everybody to continue to wear masks and so forth. But the burden on an elected leader to tell people kind of what to wear or do is very high.”

Polis continues, “You need to convince me as governor that this will do something. We’re not just going to just wear masks for the heck of it. So unless we’re convinced that this requirement is necessary to save our hospital capacity, which it obviously was before the vaccine existed, then why would we do it?”

Polis says that the CDC mask recommendations were for individuals, and that indeed, for a single person, wearing a mask can reduce risk. As governor, Polis says he’s telling Coloradans what they “had to do,” not what they “should do,” which he says holds a higher standard.

Though, he references that the decision was also due to Colorado’s high vaccination rates.

“We’re the, I think, 10th- or 11th-highest percentage vaccinated,” Polis says. “We’re also ninth- or 10th-lowest death rates. I mean, the two are linked, right? The reason we’re having one of the lowest death rates is because we have highest vaccine rates. It reduces your risk 96 percent.”

Others have similarly discussed Polis’ COVID plan, including a February article from NY Mag, “Is This the One Democrat Who’s Figured Out COVID?”

The conversation largely focuses on the road ahead, where Polis believes that governors must press forward to adapt endemic circumstances and that there’s only so much that leaders can do for those persistently unvaccinated. In a widely circulated comment from December, he told an interviewer, “I have no qualms if they have a death wish, but they’re clogging our hospitals … At this point, if you haven’t been vaccinated, it’s really your own darn fault.”

In late February, Polis and his administration released “Colorado’s Next Chapter: Our Roadmap to Moving Forward,” a plan to move into an endemic phase while staying alert for new variants.

He’s also been careful to note that Colorado’s approach so far can’t necessarily be replicated in any state, given the state-by-state differences in geography, health, population, etc.

Despite his December comment, Polis repeatedly cautions that many anti-vaxxers are “victims of misinformation” and deserve “compassion and love,” with his office running a bilingual campaign to combat YouTube conspiracy theories. Though, he says the rest of society can’t wait for folks who refuse vaccinations.

“Once (the vaccine) was available, it became a matter of personal responsibility to get protected,” Polis says in the NPR interview. “After they take that step, we need to get on with our lives.”