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UPDATE: VACCINE ROLLOUT WITH GOVERNOR POLIS

by Ray Manzari

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.

Susan Boynton, Agent 9200 W Cross Dr Ste 122 Littleton, CO 80123 Bus: 303-948-2905 susan.boynton.lcfc@statefarm.com

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KAMALA HARRIS FIRST FEMALE, POC VP

by Ray Manzari

When the Associated Press called Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election, history was made. Kamala Harris now holds the distinction of being the first woman, first Black person, and first South Asian person elected vice president. The significance of this, after a year like the past one, was not lost on voters throughout the country. Jen Elis, the educator behind Senator Sanders’ nowfamous mittens, reflected on how Vice President Harris’ inauguration impacted her household. “It was so powerful to sit with my daughter, who I love so much, and be like, ‘This is where you enter politics, right? We have shielded you from Trump as much as possible, but this is what we want you to see: a wonderful, successful woman of color in such a powerful position.’ It was great to share that with [my daughter] and my partner, who’s also a woman, so we’re just a huge, feminist household celebrating this momentous occasion.” For many women and girls across the United States, Harris’ election represents progress, hope, and the final blow to the proverbial glass ceiling. Harris has long credited female civil rights legends like Shirley Chisholm, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Fannie Lou Hamer as sources of inspiration, as well as her mother, Shyamala Gopalan. Within the last few election cycles, more women have begun taking office. In fact, the 2020 election saw a total of 111 new, female members of the House of Representatives, 11 of which were republican, an important detail, as previous elections saw only female democrats win. Harris was born in Oakland to immigrant parents, her mother originally from India and her father from Jamaica. Before her election into the vice presidency, Harris was a deputy district attorney and served as the district attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. She was the first Black person and the first woman to become California’s attorney general, a position she held until 2016, when she ran to represent California in the U.S. Senate. She was also California’s first Black senator and the country’s first South Asian-American senator.

Vice President Harris has long been an advocate for women’s rights. She has been a pro-choice supporter for many years, and during the 2020 vice presidential debates, she let her outrage over the lack of conversation surrounding reproductive rights be known.

“This is the sixth debate we have had in this presidential cycle. And not nearly one word, with all of these discussions about healthcare, on women’s access to reproductive healthcare, which is under full-on attack in America today. And it’s outrageous.” However, the vice president is not without her skeptics. She has received backlash in the past for her record as a prosecutor, district attorney, and attorney general, a complicated history which was described in a Vox News article as follows: “She pushed for programs that helped people find jobs instead of putting them in prison, but also fought to keep people in prison even after they were proved innocent. She refused to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a police officer, but also defended California’s death penalty system in court. She implemented training programs to address police officers’ racial biases, but also resisted calls to get her office to investigate certain police shootings.” A history which seems full of contradictions; however, some supporters claim this was part of a delicate balancing act. Her race and gender only added to the complicated juggling of being California’s highest-ranked, law-enforcement official while also seeking to pass criminal justice reform. After her historic win as VP, Kamala Harris’ short bio and history within politics was added to the National Women’s History Museum website. And, on the evening of November 7, 2020, standing on an outdoor stage in Wilmington, DE, Harris—wearing a suit in suffrage white—spoke to a crowd of cheering Americans about the work women have done, and continue to do, in the United States. She said: “When [my mother] came here from India at the age of 19, maybe she didn’t quite imagine this moment. But, she believed so deeply in an America where a moment like this is possible. So, I’m thinking about her and about the generations of women—Black women, Asian, white, Latina, and Native-American women throughout our nation’s history who have paved the way for this moment tonight. Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality, liberty, and justice for all, including the Black women, who are too often overlooked, but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy ... But, while I may be the first woman in this office, I won’t be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.”

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