Vaccine Rollout with Governor Polis

There’s been no shortage of confusion surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan, on both a state and federal level. While some missteps are to be expected, given the unprecedented scale and speed at which the vaccine is being distributed, we sought to clear up some of that confusion. We reached out to Governor Jared Polis and were able to ask some of the reoccurring questions we’ve seen regarding Colorado’s vaccination plan. The following is a transcript of the recorded interview.

Unfortunately, responses to the pandemic have become highly politicized. You’re up for reelection next year; is that affecting your response to COVID at all?
The short answer is no; reelection has nothing to do with the science-based decision-making that we use to balance our approach in Colorado. We take into account the need to save lives, prevent our hospitals from overflowing, the need for economic opportunity and jobs, and the need of social and emotional fulfillment. Colorado has done a good job with being more open than most states, and keeping a lower COVID rate, and we try to navigate that in real time using the data. 

Were the recent changes to the vaccine rollout plan made to reflect new, federal guidelines or in response to statistics coming from within Colorado?
Both. The new, federal guidelines prioritize age 75 and up, in Colorado; we went with age 70 and up because it turns out more than three quarters of our [COVID] deaths in Colorado have been people aged 70 and up. This virus can be deadly for people of all ages, and tragically, we’ve lost people in their 20s and 30s, but it is even more deadly for people over 70, which also represent over 40 percent of hospitalizations. So, our goal is that more than 70 percent of people aged 70 and up are vaccinated by the end of February.

Are you confident that enough Coloradans will be willing to receive vaccinations in order to achieve herd immunity?
Yeah, at this point, the demand far exceeds the supply of vaccines. And there’s many people over 70, and certainly many more over 65, who simply can’t wait to get it. People of all ages are asking when they can get it. As long as we as a society can achieve a good immunization rate in the 70-to-80-percent range, while COVID will continue to exist, it won’t be at the epidemic level that we have today, and the pandemic will be over. 

9News recently covered a story regarding confusion among educators about when they’ll be able to receive vaccines. Can you speak on that?
Yeah, educators and other essential workers, including bus drivers and others, are among the very first essential workers who will be vaccinated. And, at this point, we’re expecting to complete the people aged 70 and up by the end of February. We’re hopeful that teachers and others can begin in early March. It’s all subject to the amount of vaccines we get from the federal government; if we get less, it will take longer; if we get more, it can come much sooner. 

What measures is the state taking to ensure groups who have been affected disproportionately by the pandemic will have access to the vaccine?
We’ve really centered equity in our efforts to distribute the vaccine. So, in addition to working through the conventional hospital system and pharmacies, we’ve done stand-up clinics in Costilla County, one of the lowest-income counties in Colorado, and in Center, Colorado, in San Luis, Colorado. We’ve also done stand-up vaccination clinics for people aged 70 and up in Black churches in Denver and community centers in Aurora, and there’s many more to come.  

Does Colorado have plans to vet people prior to vaccination? For example, do people need to show proof of age or employment before being vaccinated?
So yeah, people are certainly being asked for any form of I.D.; it doesn’t need to be a state I.D. or driver’s license, which obviously covers most people, but for people who don’t have that, it could be a consular I.D., a birth certificate, a passport, any kind of document like that. And, you know, if there’s a few Coloradans over 70 without those kinds of documentation, we still want to get them vaccinated. 

Now is that just for Coloradans over 70, or will you be implementing similar measures when it comes to vaccinating essential workers? Will people have to show proof of employment?

Essentials workers will mostly be [vaccinated] through their employers. Meaning, if you work for Jefferson County School District, the school district will contract with a certain provider over a certain couple of days where you can get vaccinated if you work for the district. Same goes for RTD drivers. So, most of the essential workers will be vaccinated through clinics that are set up in conjunction with their employers and a hospital or pharmacy partner. There will be a few that might be in very small industries or that don’t have very large employers, and we’ll work on specific ways that they can also get the vaccine. 

I wanted to give you the opportunity to comment on the recent attacks on the U.S. capitol and/or the House’s effort to move forward with impeachment?
Well, it was particularly painful and shocking to me because I worked as a member of Congress for 10 years in the United States Capitol, and to see the floor boarded up, the sofas that I’ve sat on used as blockades to keep doors from being entered. It’s really—in many ways, it shows the end result of when you have a President like Donald Trump, who doesn’t value the rule of law and uses words to incite his followers into these kinds of actions. I hope it’s a wake-up call to the country, that we can’t take our republic for granted, and we need to continually, with each generation, renew our commitment to our constitution and to uphold the law.

Polis stated that the decision to prioritize older Coloradans came from statistics showing that individuals 70 years and older accounted for more than 78 percent of the state’s coronavirus deaths. The changes also reflect new, federal guidelines for the vaccine, released late last year.  

Though teachers and essential workers have been moved up to Phase 1b, there has been increasing confusion regarding when educators can expect to be vaccinated. Cherry Creek schools backtracked on its announcement to begin vaccinating its teachers “right away.” The new plan has teachers starting vaccinations in March.

“It just doesn’t seem to fall in line with the push to reopen schools,” Brooke Williams, president of the Jefferson County Education Association, told 9News. “It’s important for all frontline workers to get the vaccine.”

Denver Public Schools has issued a letter echoing the March timeline for teachers to begin vaccinations, while Douglas County Schools says some of its staff has already received invitations from Centura Health to be vaccinated. 

OFM will continue to monitor updates from both local and state officials to provide you with the most up-to-date information.