Colorado -- Proof That the COVID Vaccine Works

 

“State data indicates vaccinated people are nearly four times less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than unvaccinated populations in Colorado.”

– Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (September 8, 2021)

Vaccine naysayers should be informed. The risk they pose to themselves and to the general population is great. If you don't believe this, look to Colorado for the truth. In the Centennial State, vaccinated people are not only far less likely to be hospitalized with COVID, but also significantly less likely to die from the disease.

Colorado vaccine breakthrough data shows vaccinated people are almost six times less likely to die from COVID-19 than people who aren’t vaccinated in the state. The hospitalization data is delayed by two weeks, with data related to deaths delayed by three weeks.

(“Vaccine Breakthrough.” Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. September 08, 2021.)

The figures – raw data – were takeaways of a briefing from officials with Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said …

“We, of course, continue to see that most of the transmission, most of the hospitalization is really occurring among our unvaccinated population.”

In Colorado, most of those who are eligible to get vaccinated against Covid-19 have received at least one dose so far, Gov. Jared Polis said Friday, highlighting the milestone.

With 75% of Colorado's eligible adult residents having initiated vaccination, the governor pointed out it's "an important accomplishment, but it also means that there's 25%, one in four Coloradans, who are eligible, who still need to go out and get protected so that we can end this pandemic."

When factoring in teens, about 73% of all eligible Coloradans have received their first shot – and about 66% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, ranking Colorado behind 13 states and the District of Columbia.

(Note: Colorado has one of the nation's lowest COVID-19 case rates, with 163.6 new cases per 100,000 people over the past week, according to data published September 11 by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,)

Polis pleaded with the unvaccinated to get their shots, reasoning that they hold the key to the availability of critical health care.

"We actually have the lowest ICU available rate that we've had since the start of this crisis, in part due to the unvaccinated with Covid and just other types of trauma that goes up seasonally this time of year," Polis explained. "Some hospitals are reaching very close to their capacity limits. And that wouldn't be happening if people were vaccinated."

(Aya Elamroussi. “26 states have now fully vaccinated at least half of all residents. But a surge of unvaccinated Covid-19 patients is straining hospitals.” CNN. September 12, 2021.)

The low COVID case rates in Colorado are bolstered by measures like Denver's public health order issued the first week of August 2021 that requires city employees, teachers, high-risk workers, and first responders to be vaccinated by the end of September.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said the order extends beyond people who work directly for the city or for government in general and will cover employees at hospitals and nursing homes.

(Seth Klamann. “Denver requiring vaccines for city employees, teachers, high-risk workers, first responders. The Denver Gazette. August 02, 2021.)

In September 2021, Colorado began giving out gift cards to students who participate in regular COVID testing at school. Gov. Jared Polis announced that students who get tested through the state’s free school COVID testing program will be eligible for a $25 gift card for the first test and $10 for each subsequent test. In addition, participating schools will get $2.50 for each test administered and reported to the state public health department.

Colorado has set aside $173 million for a school-based testing program using rapid antigen tests. About 450 schools have signed up for the program, roughly 20% of Colorado’s 2,300 public and private K-12 schools.

“They’re contributing to a public good in getting tested,” Polis said. “It’s good for their parents to know, but there is a public benefit in being able to isolate the virus early and prevent spread.”

(Erica Meltzer. “Colorado offers gift cards to students who sign up for COVID testing.” Chalkbeat Colorado. September 02, 2021.)

In addition, this September Colorado began using federal Covid-19 relief funding to establish a grant program for primary care doctors to either boost existing efforts to vaccinate hesitant patients or begin offering the shots.

Eligible applicants include private practices, pediciatrian groups and family doctors, Polis said—any office licensed by the state as a primary care facility that has either enrolled as Covid-19 vaccine providers or begun the process to do so.

The Covid-19 Primary Care Vaccination Program will distribute up to $60 million on a first-come, first-served basis, with applications accepted now through Feb. 28, according to information from the state Department of Public Health and Environment, which will oversee the initiative with help from the Colorado Health Institute.

Health care facilities can receive between $60,000 and $120,000 depending on the number of primary care providers working on-site. The money can be used to shore up vaccine distribution in a number of ways, including hiring additional staff to help with scheduling, establishing outreach programs or purchasing supplies or technology, including IT upgrades to help with reporting or marketing materials.

(Kate Elizabeth Queram. “Hoping to Boost Vaccine Rates, One State Announces Grants for Primary Care Doctors.” Route Fifty. September 03, 2021.)

Unvaccinated individuals can look to Colorado for proof that vaccines and health mandates work to stop the spread of COVID-19. Faced with the stagnation of vaccination rates, the delta variant’s surge, and fears of a coming wave of deaths and hospitalizations, state leaders added new muscle to the fight against the virus.

The new buzz phrase among the state’s leaders is that this has become “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” As Colorado took into account the delta variant’s infectiousness, the state set new deadlines for its vaccine mandate by the end of September.

Projections from the modeling group show that a new surge will likely get worse; however, if transmission control stays at its current level, the modeling team estimates that Colorado will see a small peak in hospitalizations in October or November. And, if vaccination rates improve, the peak won’t materialize at all.

(John Ingold. “These 10 charts show why Colorado leaders decided to get tough on coronavirus vaccine mandates.” The Colorado Sun. August 04, 2021.)

So, dear readers, the question remains: “Why would anyone not take the vaccine?”

There are no definite medical exemptions to vaccination with Covid-19 vaccines and the people for which this is a murky gray area – those who suffer from PEG (polyethylene glycol) allergies – likely number only in the thousands in the U.S., a tiny fraction of a percent of the population

Doesn't everything point toward the advantages of vaccinating outweighing any personal risks?

Here is the sad answer for reluctant non-vaxxers:

Social networks are awash with misinformation about the vaccine. Recent nationwide polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds unvaccinated adults give a variety of explanations: the vaccine is too new (53 percent), worried about side effects (53 percent), just don’t want to get the vaccine (43 percent), don’t trust the government (38 percent) or don’t think they need the COVID-19 vaccine (38 percent).

In an analysis, the group found unvaccinated adults tend to be younger, people of color, Republican-leaning and less-educated than the vaccinated population. But the deep dive look found key differences in terms of intention.

Partisanship also plays a major role with more than half (58%) of the “definitely not” group identifying as Republican or Republican-leaning. In addition, religious identity also plays a role as White Evangelical Christians make up nearly twice the share of the “definitely not” group (32%) as the “wait and see” group.

(“KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor.” KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2021.)

Dear Vaccine

by Naomi Shihab Nye (https://www.globalvaccinepoem.com/)

Save us, dear vaccine.
Take us seriously.
We had plans.
We were going places.
Children in kindergarten.
So many voices, in chorus.
Give us our world again!
Tiny gleaming vials,
enter our cities and towns
shining your light.

Restore us to each other.

We liked our lives.
Maybe we didn’t thank them enough.
Being able to cross streets
with people we didn’t know,
pressing elevator buttons,
smiling at strangers,
standing in line to pay.
We liked standing in line
more than we pretended.

It’s a quick prick in the arm
you’ll barely notice it
It’s the gas in the car
getting us going again
It’s the turn in the road
Face-to-face conversation
someday soon?
It’s the hug. Forever,
it’s the hug!

Vaccine, please make the air clean!
We went to yoga classes,
deep collective breathing,
in small rooms in cities
where we didn’t even
live! How brave we were.
Vaccine, please.
Restore our lives.
Believe they were beautiful.

Naomi Shihab Nye's poem became the model for the Global Vaccine Poem project, which asks people to add to a collective poem. In five weeks, 8,000 people have visited the website, adding 1,200 stanzas. Their responses range from nostalgia for what life was like before to hope for what could come. At vaccination sites at UA, Kent, the University of Texas and in Bisbee, people receive cards about the project while they wait the 15 minutes afterward.