General Assembly:

Lawmakers, staff members, legislative journalists get vaccinations

State lawmakers, their staffers and the journalists who cover them at the Capitol received early access to COVID-19 vaccines this month

The state sent 240 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to UCHealth to vaccinate legislators and their staff members, although the governor’s office does not know how many actually received the shots, said Conor Cahill, spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis.

“The legislature is very much part of our COVID response, and the legislature’s ability to safely conduct the legislative session as soon as possible is necessary to our state’s successful COVID response and recovery,” Cahill said in an email.

“The United States Congress in Washington, D.C., was similarly offered the vaccine.”

The state health department again revised its phased rollout out of COVID-19 vaccines Friday, creating and expanding another subgroup within Phase 1. Educators were moved up in prioritization, as were people ages 65 to 69. They will begin getting vaccinated Feb. 8.

The state created a Phase 1B.2 that includes those people in their late 60s. teachers and some members of the executive and judicial branches of the state government, who are included in this subgroup as they are considered essential for “continuity of state government.”

But state legislators already received access to the vaccine, before resuming their session next month. State officials decided in December to inoculate lawmakers after guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “ensure continuity of state government in their vaccine planning,” Cahill said.

Across the U.S., other state lawmakers also have received early doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including in Missouri and Texas.

House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, said “the No. 1 priority is nonpartisan staff” when it comes to vaccinations at the state Capitol because they do work that puts them in contact with others.

The vaccine also was offered to 22 journalists covering the legislature, including two reporters from The Denver Post, the week of Jan. 11, Cahill said.

Tim Regan-Porter, chief executive officer of the Colorado Press Association, said those reporters work inside the Capitol and are around a large pool of people, which puts them at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.

“The work journalists do is essential,” he said. “A lot of that work requires journalists to be in close interaction with people in public spaces. That includes getting information out about the virus and the vaccine.”

However, other frontline journalists won’t receive the vaccine until Phase 1B.3, along with other essential workers, such as grocery store employees and manufacturing workers. That’s expected to happen in March.

“From our standpoint, the sooner we can get our journalists vaccinated the better,” Regan-Porter said.