Last week, CU Regent Heidi Ganahl interviewed far-right radio host Dennis Prager at an invite-only event hosted by her gubernatorial campaign. Prager shared numerous eye-popping statements, including dangerous misinformation about COVID vaccines, an assortment of racial clichés, multiple diatribes attacking transgender people, concluding at one point, “the Left hates children’s innocence because they hate people.”
At a Teller County Republican “Big Tent Event” over the weekend, rumored gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl praised the success of fellow Republican women being elected to political offices, including Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert.
Despite the Pfizer COVID vaccination winning U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval last week, Colorado Rep. Rod Pelton (R-Cheyenne Wells) still considers all available COVID vaccines “experimental,” preferring to treat himself with Ivermectin — a well-known, mostly veterinary drug repurposed by some as an unproven treatment and preventative drug for COVID — while choosing to forgo getting vaccinated.
The reality of the situation is we have the power to make this school year happen for our children. But, for a host of reasons, we aren't taking those steps.
Colorado’s Catholic bishops are vocally opposing vaccine mandates, saying vaccination is not “morally obligatory” despite the high covid-19 death toll and citing their anti-abortion stance and their skepticism of government mandates related to “personal conscience.”
I’m not sure how we can be any clearer about this. We’ve said it a million times at this point, and yet so many of the Trumpublican Right seem utterly incapable of getting it — looking at you Gigi Gaskins, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and of course our own Lauren Boebert, to name a few.
Editor’s Note: This submission is in response to a letter to the editor published earlier this week at the Colorado Times Recorder titled “Attempting to Explain Vaccine Hesitancy”
President Joe Biden’s commitment to donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses (sufficient to fully vaccinate 250 million people) was great news, but with billions of people in desperate need and some countries not having any access to COVID-19 vaccines, America can and should do far more.
Speaking to a crowd of anti-vaccine activists and QAnon followers at Saturday’s Worldwide Rally for Freedom, Colorado state Rep. Tonya Van Beber (R-Eaton) told the conspiracy theorists, “I’m begging you! I’m imploring you! You must continue to broadcast the facts!”
Conservative groups opposed to public health restrictions and vaccines are promoting yet another QAnon-linked rally at the state Capitol this weekend. The event itself is being organized by an anonymous group, Colorado Rising Up, that launched only weeks ago.
