Polis says Coloradans may need booster to be ‘fully vaccinated’ against COVID-19
The Denver Post
Coloradans may need to receive COVID-19 booster shots in order to be considered “fully vaccinated” against the virus, Gov. Jared Polis said Sunday during an interview with NBC News’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.”
Polis said the third shot of a COVID-19 vaccine shouldn’t be considered a booster, but rather a necessary dose. Todd on Sunday asked whether Polis would “change the definition of fully vaccinated” in Colorado.
“That’s certainly where it’s headed, Chuck,” Polis said. “It looks like from everything that we know that to significantly reduce the risk of the omicron variant, three doses of the vaccine are needed… It’s three doses of that vaccine to be effective. So I wish they’d stop talking about it as a booster, Chuck. It really is a three-dose vaccine. And every piece of data that we’re seeing… shows that that’s the case.”
It was not clear how changing the definition of “fully vaccinated” would apply to Colorado’s current mandate that health care workers be fully vaccinated and most state employees be either fully vaccinated or submit to twice-weekly testing.
Nearly 69% of eligible Coloradans are fully vaccinated with one shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and 43.5% of the vaccinated population also has received a booster shot, according to state data.
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