Colorado should prepare for the worst and then be pleasantly surprised if the delta-variant wave of coronavirus doesn’t crash upon the Centennial State the way it has in other locations.
What does that look like?
Colorado school districts should require masks for all students and teachers starting the moment doors open later this month, and schools should require teachers and students to regularly test for COVID-19. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment must begin the process of amending the list of required vaccines to include one or all of the available COVID-19 vaccines, a requirement that under state law allows for a variety of exemptions, including for health reasons.
Hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities, especially residential facilities with at-risk clients, should require vaccines of employees and begin preparing for regular, mandatory testing.
Businesses should protect their employees by requiring vaccines and encouraging those with COVID-19 symptoms to stay home and get tested. Public buildings should require people to wear masks and to give each other space.
Taking these steps in Colorado now, even though the community spread of COVID-19 is low and hospitalization rates are stable, will help stave off the drastic measures we took last fall.
Our students need to be in school. Our businesses need to be open. Our residents need to be employed. Our lives must continue on.
We’ve already lost too many Coloradans to this virus, and the prospect of hospitalizations and deaths increasing this fall is not acceptable. Vaccines, masks and testing are simple steps we can all take to make sure Colorado stays open and Coloradans stay alive and healthy.
This renewed urgency is coming from data provided by the Centers for Disease Control that show the delta variant of COVID-19, known as B.1.617.2, is far more easily transmitted from person to person, including those who are vaccinated and who are likely to not have any symptoms but still have a significant viral load. Research has shown that some vaccinated individuals without symptoms have as much virus detectable as those who have been hospitalized with severe cases.
Scientists also suspect B.1.617.2 is more likely to make people severely ill. That is based on the observed death rate in India as the variant rapidly spread through a mostly unvaccinated population, and also upon lab observations that the virus grows more quickly in an infected individual than previous versions.
The vaccinated can still bring the virus home to their friends and family, and can still spread the virus to others, especially in crowded indoor settings.
And spread in our schools is inevitable, although last year we saw that reopening high schools in the spring didn’t cause the sharp uptick in cases that some feared. That was before the delta variant, however.
We agree with Gov. Jared Polis’ assessment at this time that no statewide emergency order is needed to mandate masks. However, it’s easy to see a time when that could become necessary if hospitals, nursing homes, cities, counties and school districts across the state don’t implement preventative measures now. A virus doesn’t care about geographic bounds, so it’s essential that Mesa County, Kit Carson County and every county in between takes steps now to prevent a delta wave this fall.
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