Colorado Vaccine Policy: State Defies CDC Under RFK Jr.
Denver, Colorado – In a move signaling growing defiance of federal vaccine policy, Colorado is poised to enact legislation that prioritizes the scientific recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) over those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The action comes after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Initiated a sweeping overhaul of the CDC’s vaccine guidance, prompting a backlash from Democratic-led states.
The catalyst for Colorado’s independent course was a series of changes implemented by Kennedy Jr.’s appointees, who removed childhood vaccines for hepatitis B, flu, and RSV from the federal recommendation list. Kennedy Jr. Has maintained that individuals will still have access to these vaccines if they choose, and that insurance will continue to cover them, but his comments suggesting that a decrease in flu shot uptake “may be a better thing” ignited concerns among medical professionals.
“We are insulating our state from the dysfunction coming out of Washington,” stated State Senator Kyle Mullica, a co-sponsor of the bill, during legislative debate. “In this state, we’re going to rely on science.”
The legislation, which has already passed both chambers of the Colorado legislature, would not only allow the state to defer to the AAP’s recommendations but similarly grant pharmacists the authority to independently prescribe and administer vaccines. This expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice has drawn opposition from some Republican lawmakers, including State Senator John Carson, who expressed concern about creating a political divide between federal and state guidance.
The push for independent vaccine policy in Colorado was spearheaded by a grassroots organization called Colorado Chooses Vaccines, formed last year in response to the changes at the federal level. The group includes individuals directly impacted by vaccine-preventable diseases. Carol Boigon, a former Denver City Council member and polio survivor, has become a prominent voice for the coalition, sharing her personal story of paralysis resulting from a 1953 polio outbreak in Detroit.
“It’s like we’re going backwards,” Boigon said, reflecting on the current debate. “It’s like we have decided we don’t want a modern life. We want to be back in the 1950s, where children are sick and dying.”
Dr. Sean O’Leary, chairman of an infectious disease panel for the AAP and a founder of the Colorado coalition, emphasized the need to broaden public support for vaccination. “The folks who don’t really think about immunizations all that often,” he explained, “I think what we’re doing here with this coalition is really creating a broader tent.”
Colorado’s legal challenge to the CDC’s changes is ongoing, and Governor Jared Polis is expected to sign the new legislation into law. The outcome of the federal judge’s pause on Kennedy Jr.’s changes remains to be seen, but Colorado’s move signals a growing willingness among states to assert control over public health policy in the face of federal shifts.