September 03, 2025 03:44 PM UTC

Polis Takes Action To Counter RFK Jr.'s COVID-19 Vaccine Restrictions

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s Seth Klamann reports–after taking heat last week for his continuing defense of federal Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. while Kennedy plunges the nation’s public health services into chaos and Kennedy’s demonstrably lying about his intentions regarding vaccine policy during his confirmation hearing, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis took steps today to locally negate the effect of Kennedy’s controversial new recommendation that most adults without secondary medical conditions not receive the updated vaccine against COVID-19:

Dr. Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, issued a “standing order” allowing anyone six months or older to receive the updated COVID-19 vaccines at a pharmacy starting Friday.

A standing order essentially is a prescription to the entire area under a public health department’s jurisdiction; cities and counties used them to allow anyone to buy the overdose-reversal drug naloxone before it became available over the counter.

The Colorado State Board of Pharmacy will meet Friday for an emergency rulemaking session to ensure pharmacies and their employees are protected as they administer shots under the standing order. The order doesn’t require pharmacies to offer the vaccines.

In a press release today, the governor’s office criticized the new federal vaccine recommendations, and promised that despite recent news reports to the contrary, this action would allow local pharmacies to dispense COVID-19 vaccines without a prescription:

The actions come after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration limited its recent approval of updated 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines to those aged 65 and older or at higher risk of severe disease. This narrow federal authorization gets in the way of Coloradans making our own healthcare decisions and would have inconvenienced Coloradans who want increased COVID-19 protection by requiring a doctor’s prescription. The FDA’s limited approval has created confusion and uncertainty because it appears to conflict with recommendations previously issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the guidance issued by several professional organizations.

“I’m taking action to ensure that Coloradans who want to can easily and conveniently get the safe and effective updated COVID vaccine, along with the flu vaccine, this Fall without having to go to a doctor first. These effective vaccines are available at many local pharmacies and supermarkets, and I encourage my fellow Coloradans to join me in getting protected,” said Governor Polis. “Colorado is committed to empowering individuals to make choices to protect their own health and safety, and I will not allow ridiculous and costly red tape or decisions made far away in Washington to keep Coloradans from accessing vaccines. [Pols emphasis] Starting this Friday, the COVID-19 vaccine should be available to those who choose at many local pharmacies.”

Further, the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which typically publishes recommendations guiding CDC policy, availability of federally-funded vaccines, and insurance coverage, has not issued updated guidance this year. As a result of this failure, without action by the state, many Coloradans would need to get a doctor’s prescription in order to get a COVID vaccine at a pharmacy. The public health order and standing order will allow Coloradans to access the vaccine without seeking an individual prescription from their doctors.

Assuming the pharmacy chains where many Coloradans get their annual vaccinations agree, this order should make it as easy to get your recommended annual COVID-19 booster as it has been in previous years–a very big deal for public health with cases once again on the rise. Politically, it would have been better for Polis for this acknowledgement of the administration’s mistake and Colorado’s actions to counter it to have been his first response to the news last week of turmoil at the CDC over the new vaccine recommendations. There is some irony that both Kennedy and Polis cite “personal freedoms” in their conflicting decisions, but it’s the federal vaccine policy that has the effect of making it harder for people to exercise their choice to get vaccinated. So by ensuring the easy availability of the still very much optional vaccine in Colorado, Polis is the one who’s really defending personal freedom.

Even if it took the governor a little longer to get on script, give him credit for eventually doing the right thing where it counts.