The number of Colorado kindergartners getting vaccinated for diseases such as measles and chickenpox dropped again this year, keeping the state at the bottom of the national rankings for childhood immunizations.
Gov. Jared Polis said it’s a sign Colorado is headed in the wrong direction, but he thinks the solution is to increase education and access rather than eliminate nonmedical exemptions as other Democratic governors have done.
“I’m pro-choice,” Polis said at a news conference Thursday to reveal an administrative plan to increase the state’s vaccinations rate. “I think it’s your body and it’s your decision.”
The governor’s recommitment to increasing education about and access to immunizations came the same day the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released data from the 2018-19 school year. It showed immunization rates dropping for four of the five vaccinations required to attend public school:
- Measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) dropped from 88.7 percent to 87.4 percent
- Hepatitis B dropped from 92.1 percent to 90.8 percent
- Polio dropped from 88.6 percent to 87.2 percent
- Chickenpox dropped from 87.7 percent to 86.5 percent
- DTaP rose from 88.7 percent to 90.3 percent
The CDC already ranked Colorado’s MMR vaccination rate the lowest in the country and put the state’s overall rate near the bottom of the list.
The measles rates is of particular interest because of outbreaks across the country the past six months. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 1,000 reported measles cases across 28 states — the highest number since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000.
“I think it really hits home that keeping the status quo isn’t working and is putting our kids at great risk,” said Rep. Kyle Mullica, D-Northglenn.
The freshman Democrat tried to follow in the footsteps of lawmakers in California, Washington and New York this year who have pushed more aggressive legislation to combat outbreaks in their states, including eliminating personal and religious vaccination exemptions altogether.
But Mullica ran into opposition from Polis, who said he wouldn’t support a bill that eliminated exemptions. The governor also didn’t like the rewritten version that would have required parents to go to a local health department office to fill out a standardized exemption form.
Ultimately, Mullica’s bill failed in the Senate, but several of the ideas in it found their way into the governor’s executive order.
“We really view this as the third way between the government forcing people to get shots, which is counterproductive, and simply allowing these rates to go down, which is counterproductive to public health and will result in people dying,” Polis said.
The order directs the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to incentivize doctors to participate in the Vaccines for Children program, which helps cover the costs of shots. It also says the state will study the effectiveness of local immunization drives — particularly those in rural communities — and encourage parents and schools to use a standardized form for vaccine exemptions.
“It’s a good first step,” Mullica said. “What I am encouraged about is to see more resources going to the issue. Do I think that’s going to solve the problem? I don’t know.”
The executive order directs CDPHE to use existing dollars because it’s the legislature’s job to allocate money, and the governor isn’t requiring parents to use a standardized exemption form as Mullica’s bill would have. The Democrat, who also is an ER nurse, said the experts he worked with in drafting his bill believe making it more burdensome to get an exemption would increase the state’s vaccination rate.
“If we want to focus on different areas, I’m all about it. There are some really good points, and to see some resources go to the issue is great,” Mullica said Thursday. “But I think we also need to make sure we’re bringing those experts into this conversation and listening to them.”
The Denver Post compiled a database of the vaccination rates at Colorado schools. You can check your child’s school by clicking below.
