Gov. Polis Says Vaccinating Homeless Would Cost Lives

By Robert Davis

As Denver’s COVID-19 task force pushed to get vaccines for people experiencing homelessness, Governor Jared Polis offered several reasons why it won’t happen.   

During his February 9 COVID-19 briefing, Polis said prioritizing vaccinating people experiencing homelessness would “cost lives to divert vaccines from people who are in their seventies to younger, healthier people just because they happen to be homeless.”

Polis also pointed to the logistical challenges of vaccinating the homeless because communication tends to breakdown “if they don’t have a regular address.” This complicates the process of ensuring people receive the appropriate vaccine, especially since Colorado’s supply is primarily from Pfizer and Moderna.

Logistically, it would be easier to vaccinate the homeless once the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is released, Polis argued. However, this vaccine still hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Current estimates say the company could have as many as 100 million doses ready to ship by the spring.

Waiting for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would put people experiencing homelessness in Phase 2 of Colorado’s vaccination plan, or later. This phase includes people aged 60-64 or younger individuals with pre-existing conditions.

For their part, Denver officials that are part of the city’s Joint Task Force are still pushing for their unhoused neighbors to be inoculated.

The Denver Joint Task Force includes representatives from the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment, the Denver Department of Housing Stability, Denver Public Health at Denver Health and Hospital Authority, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, and other Homeless Leadership Council providers.

Last week, the group sent Polis a memo outlining its plan to vaccinate people experiencing homelessness. Through a location-based strategy, the task force plans to vaccinate residents in shelters, motels, or campsites. Doing so would get more than 6,100 people vaccinated including staff in those shelters, according to the memo.

The memo also lays out the need to accelerate vaccinations for Denver’s most vulnerable residents. People experiencing homelessness are contracting COVID-19 at three-times the rate of other Denverites. 

“Our unhoused neighbors have been among our most vulnerable residents throughout the pandemic,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement.

“It is critical that we accelerate immunizations not just for people experiencing homelessness, but also for the service providers, case managers, and others who work closest with them, which will support the health of the general public as well,” he added.