DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colorado) signed an executive order Thursday he said is aimed at bolstering the state’s comparatively low vaccination rates to the rest of the country while honoring the “rights of parents.”
This comes after Colorado lawmakers abandoned a proposal that would have made it harder for parents to voluntarily opt their children out of receiving vaccinations. Polis had said it was possible he would veto this bill even if it had passed through the state legislature, with concerns that it was overreaching.
During his news conference on Thursday, Polis said a “heavy-handed mandate” is not his style and his executive order is about education.
"As you know, I believe that a heavy-handed government mandate that forces parents to vaccinate their children or themselves against their will isn't the answer, and we're proposing a third way, expanding education, expanding access, which will help more kids get vaccinated while respecting the decisions of parents who choose otherwise for religious or personal reasons," said Polis.
He also threw in some shade, while still supporting a person's choice.
"When I was inaugurated, I pledged to build a Colorado for All, that means a Colorado for Christian Scientists, a Colorado for people who don't want to get vaccinations and a Colorado for parents who care about the health of their kids and don't want measles outbreaks in their school," said Polis.
This comes after Dr. Tista Ghosh, the interim chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said the state was poised for a measles outbreak similar to the one in Washington if action wasn’t taken.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer than 89% of kindergarten-aged children in Colorado received vaccines for diseases like measles, mumps and rubella. That’s below the national average, which the CDC said is at a little less than 95%.
The state also unveiled an interactive website that allows you to see the vaccination rates, by specific vaccine, and by county, school district and specific school.
"One of the things that I personally say, from my experience was, I had a daughter who was premature and spent a month in the NICU. She was too young and frail to get vaccinations, so we wanted to make sure that the community around her was adequately vaccinated, since she was not protected from these illnesses, so it's really the same concept, it's a public health concept of cocooning to protect those who can't protect themselves," said Dr. Tony Cappello, the Director of Disease Control at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The data is not provided to publicly shame an area or a school.
"It's just there because it's transparent. It's being open and honest with what our rates are," said Cappello. "They can look at vaccination rates by vaccine, by county, by school district and even by school, so they're properly educated and they understand where they might want to send their kids or not."
Polis’ executive order directs the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to study parents who choose not to vaccinate their children and implement a public education and outreach campaign.
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It would also target communities with low vaccination rates, and incentive providers to participate in the Vaccines for Children program. The order does not say what those incentives are.
New data provided by the governor’s office shows vaccination rates for Colorado kindergarteners dropped this school year, from 88.7% in 2017-2018 to 87.4% in 2018-2019.
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