Mass, state-run vaccination sites have returned to Colorado, that includes in El Paso and Pueblo County. This time, the sites will distribute COVID-19 vaccines specific to the omicron sub-variant.

On opening day for two vaccine sites in Southern Colorado, 13 Investigates asked the state why these sites are necessary after they closed on March 31 and Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced his “Roadmap to Moving Forward” campaign on February 25.

“Our goal here is to increase access to the new Pfizer and Moderna omicron vaccine,” Heather Roth, CDPHE Immunization Branch Chief, explained.

Read more at KRDO.

The U.S. monkeypox outbreak is slowing as vaccines have become more available and there’s broader public awareness about what actions individuals can take to lower their risk of infection, according to White House health officials.

Demetre Daskalakis, deputy head of the White House monkeypox response team, said it took 25 days for cases to double in August, down from eight days in July. California, New York, Illinois and Texas have all seen significant declines in new cases over the past month, Daskalakis said.

“The positive trends that we’re seeing in this data also speak to the actions of individuals taken across the country to protect themselves against the virus that includes changing their behaviors and seeking out testing and vaccines,” Daskalakis said.

Read more at CNBC.

With the arrival of new bivalent booster shots that target omicron subvariants of COVID-19, Colorado is reviving nearly a dozen community vaccination sites from the Front Range to the Western Slope.

The governor announced the sites Wednesday afternoon as Gov. Jared Polis rolled up his sleeve to get the shot himself. According to a release from the governor’s office, community sites will be opening up starting next week. The Ball Arena site is already up and running with 207 appointments filled up out of the 400 doses available.

Read more at KDVR.

During the long months of COVID-19 restriction, work and school patterns were upended, routine healthcare visits were delayed and many children fell behind on recommended immunizations. 

Those desperate early days of the pandemic have passed, but another threat is now emerging — too many children, especially those who are uninsured or underinsured, have not caught up on missed vaccinations and are falling further behind, giving preventable diseases the chance for a dangerous comeback. 

In July, the New York State Department of Health reported the first case of polio in the United States in almost a decade. Weeks later, health officials found polio virus in wastewater samples, prompting a warning that hundreds of people may be infected. 

Read more at Healthcare Dive.

Ahead of what may be an intense flu season, the American Academy of Pediatrics urged parents on Tuesday to make sure their children are vaccinated against the flu this fall, adding that some kids may need more than one flu shot.

The recommendation that some children need two flu shots is not new, but experts say it’s particularly important after two years of the Covid pandemic.

Children ages 6 months through 8 years old who’ve either never received a flu shot or who’ve only ever had a single flu shot should get two this year, a month apart, for maximum protection.

Read more at NBC.

A new shot designed to protect against the newest variants of COVID-19 is now available across Colorado.

They were authorized by the FDA and approved by the CDC at the end of August. As of Aug. 31, the previous boosters for Moderna and Pfizer are no longer authorized for use for anyone age 12 or older.

Now, experts recommend getting this new shot at least two months after your previous dose. This can be taken after your original two shots or your most recent booster.

Unlike previous shots, which only have one component designed to fight the original strain of the coronavirus that started the pandemic, these new shots are bivalent. That means they include two components: one to fight the original strain and another to fight the newest BA-4 and BA-5 variants of Omicron. These are the dominant variants across the U.S.

Read more at KKTV.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed updated COIVD-19 boosters, opening the way for a fall vaccination campaign that could blunt a winter surge if enough Americans roll up their sleeves.

The new boosters targeting today’s most common omicron strains should begin arriving in pharmacies and clinics within days.

The decision by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky came shortly after the agency’s advisers voted in favor of the recommendation.

The shots “can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection,” she said in a statement.

Read more at AP News.

Polio cases that arose as a result of the oral vaccine have given the anti-vaccination movement a huge boost, with high-profile figures using it to push their agenda.

A string of polio cases have emerged in recent months. In particular, cases detected in New York city, Jerusalem, and London have made international headlines.

Analysis of these cases has confirmed that they are caused by a rare, vaccine-derived strain of poliovirus. There were 1,081 cases of vaccine-derived polio recorded worldwide in 2020, triple the number in 2019.

The vaccine-derived strain is linked to the oral polio vaccine. It was introduced to the U.S. by Albert Sabin in the 1960s and was instrumental in eradicating the deadly virus.

Read more at Newsweek.

 The Biden administration announced a new plan on Tuesday to send extra doses of monkeypox vaccine to states for use at events or sites that can reach more people of color and others who have lacked access to shots.

The program, called an “equity intervention pilot,” will offer 10,000 vials of vaccine, or as many as 50,000 doses, that can be distributed by local officials to five different venues. Officials said the doses were meant for people who might struggle to find appointments or worry about the stigma of attending public vaccination events.

The announcement served as a reminder that even as cases have decreased in some large cities, the nation’s inoculation campaign has lagged in getting vaccines to people who might be especially vulnerable to infection. The disease has spread primarily among men who have sex with men. A majority of confirmed monkeypox infections in recent weeks have been in Black and Hispanic people, but they have received disproportionately fewer vaccine doses. Black Americans have received roughly 10 percent of doses but have made up about a third of cases in recent weeks.

Read more at The New York Times.

More parents are forgoing required vaccines for their school-aged children — a situation that is raising concern among state public health officials.

Driving the news: 91.8% of Colorado students received all mandatory vaccines in the 2020-21 school year, according to data released Monday by the state’s public health department.

• That represents a 2.2% decline from the prior year when immunizations plummeted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Immunization rates among kindergartners are the worst at just 86.7%, a 5.2 percentage point year-over-year decline.
• One bright spot is vaccines for childcare and preschool ages, up about 1% across the board.

Why it matters: Colorado typically ranks toward the bottom nationally when it comes to school-age vaccination rates, and a controversial 2020 law signed by Gov. Jared Polis to make it harder to seek exemptions is not doing enough to boost inoculation numbers.

Read more at Axios Denver.