Governor Polis issued a new vaccine passport mandate to be enforced on indoor events over 500 people after coordinating with several more-than-willing elected officials at the city and county level across Colorado. This exclusionary mandate has been enacted in the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Jefferson, the city/county of Denver, and the city/county of Broomfield. This mandate was handed down without any input from residents of these counties, stakeholders, business owners, venue owners, and it completely circumvented the legislative process.
While this mandate harms every man, woman and child in the state of Colorado, it disproportionately harms people of color. We have elected officials who continuously spout their concerns for people of color on one hand, while destroying their freedoms and livelihoods with the other– forcing them to leave the state. The mandate prevents over 40% of Coloradan African Americans and 63% of Coloradan Hispanics who do not want the vaccine from entering the premises of any Colorado venue under this mandate– including costing the jobs of those in the service industry. In comparison, the mandate excludes 30% of Caucasians and 27% of Asians.
This mandate is not about stopping the spread of coronavirus, it will not save lives, and it will have zero impact on current hospital capacities. Only 14% of people in Colorado hospitals have a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, many of them asymptomatic and admitted for unrelated reasons. How will excluding Hispanics from a nightclub save our hospitals?
Coronavirus does not know the difference between 5,000 people in theater seats or 500 people standing at a concert. It does not know the difference between a 500-person party at a nightclub and a 500-person family reunion in a hotel ballroom. It does not care if everyone is from the same town or if they came from all over the state, or all over the country. The argument that large public indoor gatherings are more dangerous than large private indoor gatherings– because people come from all over the state for public gatherings– is nonsensical. People come from all over the state for any type of gathering, why is it preferential to localize infection and overwhelm one particular hospital system by avoiding people from out of town? If we were concerned about people from out of town the order would apply to the airport. Costcos are up to 230,000 square feet and hold thousands of people. Why does the mandate apply to nightclubs and not Costco?
Why are we mandating a vaccine that CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walkensky publicly and repeatedly has explained **cannot stop transmission?** What good is accomplished here? We have become a state of double vaccinated contagious people, and doses three and four are right around the corner.
The sole purpose of this mandate is to secure a foothold in establishing tyranny over the people of Colorado so that the state can gradually expand the use of vaccine passports to smaller and smaller businesses, as we have witnessed throughout the last three months in California, our great “Western States Pact” partner.
Thanks to healthcare workers quitting and being fired over vaccine mandates and exhaustion, Colorado now has 8% fewer hospital beds than it did in September 2021. We lost 600 acute care beds at the 9/30/2021 deadline for vaccination. We would be at 89% hospital capacity but for losing healthcare workers to mandates. This is a manufactured emergency, thanks to Governor Polis and the people who have misled him for the entire duration of the pandemic. How can any government leader allow healthcare workers– many of whom have naturally acquired immunity– to be terminated in a pandemic, and then turn around and force vaccine passports on nightclubs in an alleged attempt to care for the people of Colorado? The obvious answer is that nobody fires healthcare workers in a pandemic if they care about the people who put them in office.
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The governor’s order begins on page 4, Section I(E), “Additional county restrictions.” Read it here:Â https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dqVki8aKsMFyoNvYAXkAjddd1emGjS2x/view
“Indoor events” is defined as “controlled access, unseated, indoor venues where gatherings of 500 or more people are likely to occur in one area or one room.” This includes concert halls, receptions, bars, nightclubs, and auctions.
Beginning November 19, 2021, all unseated, open-to-the-public, indoor events of 500 or more people require vaccine passports in the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Jefferson, city/county Denver, city/county Broomfield.
Even venues that allowed a negative covid test instead of vaccine cannot accept the test after 12/1 and must enforce vaccine passports.
In addition, Governor Polis called–without mandating– for all private, unseated events of 500 people to enforce vaccine passports, and he also called on all counties and municipalities that did not cooperate with this order to require vaccine passports for all indoor events.
You, dear reader, MUST begin attending every commissioner meeting in your county, or the city council meetings in Denver and Broomfield. Your silence will not save you.
THIS IS THE CALL TO ACTION:
#1 Call and/or email the Colorado Senate Finance Committee.
Send an email bringing the finance committee up to speed on the Governor’s new mandate in partnership with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (simply copy/paste the introductory 7 paragraphs of this email), and tell them you want their committee to bring CDPHE in line under the threat of cutting their funding. We the people will not tolerate our state health department promoting and enforcing segregation, discrimination, and exclusion of fellow Coloradans– especially doing so on our taxes. CDPHE’s support of vaccine passports of any kind, for any event, for any venue must come to an end in the state of Colorado. We are DONE with the politicization of vaccination.
Senate Finance Committee: phone for all 303-866-4862
Sen. Julie Gonzales
Sen. Pete Lee
Sen. Chris Hansen
Sen. Paul Lundeen
Sen. Jack Tate
Sen. Nancy Todd
Sen. Rob Woodward
Senate Finance Committee email block:
#2 Repeat the same message for the House Finance Committee.
Phone for all: 303-866-4735
Shannon Bird
Mary Bradfield
Matt Gray
Janice Rich
Marc Snyder
Lindsey Daugherty
Cathy Kipp
Shane Sandridge
Adrienne Benavidez
Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez
Stephanie Luck
House Finance Committee email block:
#3 Call and/or email the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
and voice your opinion of their consistent mishandling of the pandemic for the last 20 months and their predatory behavior in using fear to consistently engage in government overreach and racist, discriminatory behavior. Jill Hunsaker Ryan, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 303-692-2012 [email protected]
The next CDPHE meeting is on Wednesday 11/17/21. Register to attend this meeting online TODAY, and signal with a “raised hand” that you want to speak when the board asks who would like to do so.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsce-trD8jHdLfU9scrz_eoSjt9VO0HE3n
https://cdphe.colorado.gov/board-health-meetings
#4 Call and/or email Governor Jared Polis’ Chief of StaffÂ
Lisa Kauffmann 303-866-6290
email block:
Express the depths of your disappointment in our governor, who represents not one, but two historically oppressed minority groups, yet sees fit to put his boot on the necks of other minority groups to coerce compliance with his every wish. This is not how policy, much less laws, should be made.
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For the following city and county councils members, demand that they rescind their support for this mandate and hold in-person public meetings seeking community and stakeholder input on the subject matter. No one elected these people to their positions so that they could engage in authoritarian mandates out of sight from their constituents. Our democracy will die in darkness.
#5 call and/or email Adams County Commissioners:
Phone number for all 720-523-6100
Eva Henry
Charles “Chaz” Tedesco
Emma Pinter
Steve O’Dorisio
Lynn Baca
Adams County Email block:
#6 Call and/or email Arapahoe County Commissioners
Carrie Warren-Gully 303-795-4285
Nancy N. Sharpe   303-795-4630
Jeff Baker         303-795-4630
Nancy Jackson     303-795-4630
Bill Holen         303-795-4630
Arapahoe County Commissioner email block:
#7 Call and/or email City and County of Denver Council
Amanda Sandoval D-1Â Â Â 720-337-7701
Kevin Flynn D-2Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-2222
Jamie Torres D-3Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-3333
Kendra Black D-4Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-4444
Amanda Sawyer D-5Â Â Â Â 720-337-5555
Paul Kashmann D-6Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-6666
Jolon Clark D-7Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-7777
Christopher Herndon D-8 720-337-8888
Candi CdeBaca D-9Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-7709
Chris Hinds D-10Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-7710
Stacie Gilmore D-11Â Â Â Â Â 720-337-7711
Robin Kniech          720-337-7712
Deborah Ortega        720-337-7713
Denver Council email block:
#8 Call and/or email Broomfield Mayor and City Council
Mayor Guyleen Castriotta     720-607-1527
Mayor-Pro Tem Stan Jezierski 720-272-2158
Elizabeth Law-Evans        303-460-1295
William Lindstedt            720-635-7820
Sharon Tessier             303-641-5433
Jean Lim                  303-349-2745
Deven Shaff               970-344-8032
Laurie Anderson            920-378-9654
Kimberly Groom            303-374-4074
Heidi Henkel              (none provided)
Todd Cohen               720-900-5452
Broomfield City Council email block:
#9 Call and/or email Boulder County Commissioners:
Phone for all 303-441-3500
Matt Jones
Claire Levy
Marta Loachamin
Boulder County Commissioners email block:
#10 Call and/or email Jefferson County Commissioners
Phone for all 303-271-8525
Tracy Kraft-Tharp
Andy Kerr
Lesley Dahlkemper
Jefferson County Commissioner email block:
