Colorado filed a lawsuit Wednesday to prevent the Trump administration from canceling more than $20 million in grants for public health.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified Congress it wouldn’t pay $600 million worth of grants already awarded in Colorado, California, Illinois and Minnesota — all states led by Democratic governors.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office said the existing grants totaled about $22 million, and the cuts would reduce Colorado’s public health funding in the future by an estimated $4 million.
The funding comes through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and goes toward developing the public health infrastructure and workforce, as well as finding and preventing sexually transmitted infections.
The grants go to all states, and the federal government hasn’t explained why it only cut them for four state. An HHS spokesperson said the grants targeted for cuts don’t align with the administration’s priorities.
The suing states argued that the cuts are illegal because they are “arbitrary and capricious,” and meant to punish states with leadership opposed to President Donald Trump.
“The president has repeatedly threatened to cut off federal funds to Colorado for purely political reasons,” Weiser said in a news release. “The abrupt termination of CDC funds would have immediate and irreversible impacts on Colorado’s public health system and critical services for communities across the state.”
DENVER — Nearly 2,500 people have been hospitalized with influenza in Colorado since October, and recent holiday celebrations are now causing an even bigger increase.
This surge is particularly evident during Christmas week, which saw 791 flu-related hospitalizations—a record since the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) began tracking flu hospitalizations in 2004.
Dr. Chris Post, AdventHealth Parker ER physician and medical director, explains that this spike is not unusual.
“It’s always worse around the holidays, just because people are traveling, getting on planes, and seeing families,” he said.
Adding to the challenge, flu season started four weeks earlier than normal this year, a shift that many Coloradans have noticed, especially after recent holidays.
“I think because more people are gathering, but I do see an increase typically,” said Sarah Sweer, a Louisville resident.
As more people come in with the flu, Dr. Post said that’s also affecting hospital staff.
“We’ve had a lot of staff who have been out in the last couple of weeks,” said Dr. Post.
Dr. Post said in addition, this year’s flu strain is different.
“What they’re seeing is that the symptoms are probably just a little bit longer than previous flu years,” he said.
Which means this year’s flu vaccine may be less effective than usual.
“It’s somewhere around that 40% range. However, even with that, it still prevents you from getting sick 40% of the time,” explained Dr. Post.
Despite concerns about effectiveness, experts emphasize that the vaccine still provides important protection.
“It helps sort of mitigate the symptoms, so it’s not as severe, and the duration is not as long,” said Dr. Post.
And while it’s not something every Coloradan gets.
“I personally don’t get the flu shot because I get sick normally regardless,” said Briana Reilly, a Denver resident.
Nevertheless, receiving the flu shot remains part of many people’s yearly routine.
“I do get the flu shot, and I do make my kids get the flu shot too,” said Sweer.
According to CDPHE, there has already been one pediatric flu death this season. With three months left, Dr. Post emphasizes it’s especially important for the most vulnerable communities to stay alert and take precautions.
“But there is a subgroup of folks that are immune suppressed or have bad diabetes or whatnot, that are actually very susceptible to bad things happening,” said Dr. Post.
CDPHE said the vaccine is still helping where it matters most, stopping about three-quarters of hospital visits in kids and about one-third in adults.
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DENVER — ‘Tis the season — the flu season, that is.
“It’s a great time to get together, and I’m sure people like to share joy, share peace. You don’t want to share germs, but we know that when there are gatherings, you know, there’s an uptick of cases,” said AdventHealth Southlands attending pediatrician Dr. Olukemi Akinrinola.
Dr. Akinrinola has been busy with the recent increase in patients seeking treatment for influenza.
“Influenza A, for sure, is more compared to last year,” she said.
The latest data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) shows that 728 people in Colorado have been hospitalized with the flu since October 1, marking an earlier arrival to this year’s flu season. Nearly a quarter of those hospitalized so far have been children.
CDPHE
Dr. Ned Calonge, the chief medical officer of the CDPHE, put that data into context.
“We know, for example, the overall rate of hospitalizations is about twice that as it was last year,” said Dr. Calonge.
This year, a new variant — subclade K — is making the rounds, and seems to be particularly good at evading immunity conferred by this year’s flu vaccine.
“This year’s vaccine was based on last year’s H3N2 [variant] and so there has been some evidence of a decreased activity against this year’s predominant strain,” he said.
Dr. Calonge wants to make it clear though — you should still get your flu shot.
“For kids, it’s keeping up to 75% of them from needing emergency care or hospitalization, and almost 40% of adults. So it demonstrates that the flu vaccine still is a very effective tool against the flu viruses this year,” he said.
Twenty-five percent of Coloradans have gotten their flu shot, according to the latest state data.
Wearing a high-quality mask like a N95 or KN95 in public settings, ventilating your home, handwashing, covering your cough, and seeking treatment early can all help stop the spread — and most importantly:
“When you’re sick, stay away from people, because the next person may not be able to handle the condition as easily as you are handling them,” said Dr. Akinrinola.
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DENVER — The Colorado General Assembly’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) approved two emergency funding requests Thursday morning for low-income food and nutrition support amid federal government shutdown disruptions.
“We are getting $10 million out the door, as the federal shutdown continues, to help food banks meet record demand and continuing to fund WIC so that no parent or child goes hungry in Colorado,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release. “It’s also important for families with school-aged children to know that students can still receive two free meals a day at school.”
Denver
DPS preparing for increase in school meal participation amid SNAP benefit pause
The JBC approved $10 million in one-time emergency funding to expand grants for food banks and pantries statewide. It also continued the $7.5 million previously approved for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition access program.
Only $775,000 of the $7.5 million allocated for WIC was used in October, according to the governor’s office. The JBC’s approval of continued funding will ensure coverage for November benefits and Colorado WIC operations for the month. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will repay the funds once the shutdown ends and normal operations resume, according to the governor’s office.
Under the plan that the JBC approved, the $10 million in emergency funding will be distributed through the Community Food Assistance Grant Program in three installments. The Trailhead Institute administers the Community Food Assistance Grant Program, making it possible to get resources directly to food banks and pantries more quickly.
Given the possibility that the federal government shutdown continues for a while, the funding distribution will be spaced out over Saturday, November 1, Saturday, November 15 and Monday, December 1.
State
Polis requests $10M to support food banks after lapse in November SNAP benefits
Gov. Polis previously said the $10 million is “certainly not enough” to fill the $120 million gap left by the federal government support for SNAP. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps low-income families purchase food.
To view a heat map of how many Coloradans depend on SNAP benefits, click here.
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“Half of the 600,000 Coloradans who benefit from SNAP are children; this emergency budget request pushes past the dysfunction in Washington to help families access food pantries and food banks,” JBC Vice Chair Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had been warning for weeks that SNAP funding would dry up if the federal shutdown stretched into the November. Gov. Polis called on Coloradans to help support those in need by donating to Feeding Colorado.
Denver7 Gives has also created a campaign where you can donate to help Coloradans struggling with food insecurity. Click on the form below and select “Help Fight Food Insecurity“ to donate.
Mesa County’s late-summer measles outbreak started with three children who brought the virus back from an out-of-state trip, ultimately passing it on to eight other people.
On Wednesday, the agency announced four additional cases from August, including the three who traveled and one person they infected directly. Those four previously unidentified people then spread the virus to the seven known cases.
All four of the new cases were unvaccinated children between 5 and 17, according to the health department. It didn’t release any other information, such as which state the children traveled to or whether any of them were related.
The department found their cases after the state they traveled to identified them as contacts of people who had tested positive there, spokeswoman Hope Shuler said.
Measles is most dangerous for people under 5 or over 20.
The newly identified people got sick in August, meaning they’re well past the contagious period. Most people who have measles are contagious for about four days before the rash appears and four days after.
The vaccine schedule calls for kids to receive their first dose at about 1 and their second around 5. Some children with compromised immune systems can’t receive the vaccine and rely on the rest of the community to protect them through herd immunity, where so many people have been vaccinated that the virus can’t easily reach new hosts.
The known cases included two unvaccinated adults who got sick in mid-August, three people who shared a household with one of them and two strangers who crossed paths with them and later tested positive. None of them needed hospital care.
This has been an unusually severe year for measles nationwide.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,596 cases as of Tuesday, including 197 hospitalizations and three deaths. The last time the country had more cases was 1992.
While a massive outbreak in Texas has ended, new ones have started in South Carolina, Utah, Arizona and Minnesota. More than 100 children in South Carolina are missing school because they have to quarantine for 21 days following exposure.
Two doses of the measles vaccine are about 97% effective in preventing infection.
A Virginia family is suing the Eating Recovery Center over what they allege was a failure to prevent patients from harming themselves during their daughter’s treatment at a facility in Denver.
Jerry and Rebecca Music and their now-adult daughter, Allison Music, sued the Eating Recovery Center and 29 executives, physicians and other staff members in Denver District Court on Sunday.
They alleged the providers didn’t respond appropriately when Allison voiced thoughts of suicide or nonfatal self-harm, and forced her to witness other patients hurting themselves or attempting suicide.
Eating Recovery Center representatives didn’t immediately respond to questions about the lawsuit on Monday afternoon.
Allison, then 16, entered the partial hospitalization program at the center’s Spruce Street location in April 2023, according to the lawsuit. That location has stopped treating patients with eating disorders and now takes children and teens with anxiety and mood disorders.
ERC owns one other location in the Denver area that treat minors and two that treat adults, which have helped make Colorado a destination for eating disorder care.
About a month after she started treatment, Allison voiced a desire to die by suicide, leading her mother to conclude Allison wouldn’t be safe in the rented home where they were staying. She transitioned into the full residential program, but ERC didn’t include any enhanced monitoring in her care plan, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit alleged Allison received only seven individual therapy sessions over five months, because the facility treated therapy as a privilege, and received no treatment for traumatic events in her history. The family also alleged other practices they considered degrading, including requiring Allison to eat food off the floor, denying bathroom visits and making patients get weighed while naked.
Other ex-patients reported similar practices to The Denver Post that they said worsened their trauma. Representatives for ERC previously told The Post that patients with eating disorders face a high risk of death, making unpleasant practices like force-feeding or monitoring in the bathroom necessary in some cases.
Allison repeatedly reported thoughts about dying or harming herself in a nonfatal way in the weeks after starting residential treatment. According to the lawsuit, her suicidal thoughts escalated in June 2023 after another patient attempted to strangle herself and staff failed to intervene, even as the unnamed patient turned blue. Staff also allegedly told patients not to intervene when others were harming themselves on the unit.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment conducted an inspection of the Spruce Street facility in mid-August 2023, investigating allegations that staff hadn’t responded appropriately to suicide attempts.
The agency found two patients repeatedly tried to die by suicide in June 2023 and that facility leadership opted not to send them elsewhere for mental health treatment, despite staff concerns that they couldn’t keep the patients safe. Leadership said they thought the patients were trying to get out of eating disorder treatment and recommended staff “therapeutically ignore” patients’ self-harming behavior, even if they lost consciousness after wrapping something around their necks.
In an interview in 2023, Dr. Anne Marie O’Melia, ERC’s chief medical officer, told The Post that ignoring the patients violated the facility’s policies, and ERC made changes after the state brought the matter to leaders’ attention.
While ignoring mild misconduct, such as tantrums, can eventually be effective in children’s behavior, experts don’t recommend it for self-harm, because kids will escalate their behavior to try to get the reaction they want before giving up.
Allison continued to express suicidal ideation out loud and in her journal in August and September 2023. Her parents became concerned when they found out later that she had stockpiled socks and underwear, which she could have wrapped around her neck.
ERC discharged her in late September 2023 because she had “disengaged” from treatment. She later attempted suicide, but survived, and has post-traumatic stress disorder from her time in treatment, the lawsuit said.
“Rather than receiving the specialized, compassionate care that was promised, Allison was subjected to punitive treatment approaches, denied appropriate therapy and placed in danger through ERC’s dangerous ‘therapeutic ignoring’ protocol that instructed staff to ignore suicide attempts,” the complaint said.
State officials expect a rise in ozone and fine particulate levels that will be unhealthy for older adults, children and people with heart or lung disease, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The agency issued an action day alert at 4 p.m. Thursday that is set to last until at least 4 p.m. Friday. Communities covered by the alert span urban corridor from Douglas County to the south and Larimer and Weld counties to the north, including Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.
People who are sensitive to air pollution should not spend long periods of time outside or participate in heavy exercise outdoors, state officials said.
Colorado’s fifth-largest wildfire on record is 90% contained as rain showers and thunderstorms continue across the Western Slope, fire officials said.
As of Monday morning, the Lee fire had consumed 137,758 acres, equal to roughly 215 square miles. The burn area is just two acres short of Colorado’s fourth-largest wildfire on record — the 137,760-acre Hayman fire that sparked in 2002.
Other wildfires burning on Colorado’s Western Slope have scorched thousands of additional acres. Fire officials across the state have said hot, dry and windy conditions fueled the flames’ rapid growth.
Storms over the next several days will bring much-needed rain to the drought-stricken Western Slope, according to the National Weather Service. But those storms also increase the risk of lightning and strong winds — weather that can start fires and fan the flames of those already burning.
A wildland firefighting truck heads down a road through a hillside burned from the Lee fire near Colorado 64 in Rio Blanco County, west of Meeker, on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Lee and Elk fires, near Meeker
Growth on the largest wildfire burning in Colorado — the fifth-largest ever recorded in the state — has slowed over the past week as firefighters increase containment around the flames.
As of Monday morning, the 137,758-acre Lee fire burning between Meeker and Rifle was 90% contained, fire officials said.
“Minimal work” remains to fully contain the wildfire, Incident Commander Brent Olson said in a Sunday afternoon briefing.
All mandatory evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, but multiple areas around the fire remain on pre-evacuation status. An updated evacuation map for Rio Blanco and Garfield counties is available online.
The Lee fire and nearby Elk fire, which consumed more than 14,500 acres before reaching full containment last week, have together destroyed at least five homes and 14 outbuildings, fire officials said.
Extreme drought, high temperatures and strong winds fueled rapid growth on both fires, which were sparked by lightning west and east of Meeker on Aug. 2.
Rain showers and cooler temperatures helped mitigate the flames last week, which allowed firefighters to steadily increase containment. More showers and thunderstorms are expected in the days ahead as Colorado braces for a monsoonal weather system.
Rain showers and thunderstorms are most likely near Meeker and Rifle between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service. Chances of precipitation range from 30% to 50%, forecasters said.
Chances of rain greatly increase later this week in both areas, jumping to 90% Tuesday afternoon and remaining there until 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to hourly forecasts from the weather service.
While the rain is helpful, afternoon thunderstorms also increase the risk of gusty winds, frequent lightning and flash flooding along burn scars, fire officials said.
Heavy rains caused flash flooding in the Lee fire burn area on Sunday afternoon. The water caused a debris flow, which was blocking Piceance Creek Road, officials said in a Sunday afternoon update. It’s unclear if rain caused flooding in the Elk fire burn scar.
A plane drops fire retardant on the Derby fire burning in Eagle County on Aug. 22, 2025. (Photo provided by Derby Fire Information)
Derby fire, in Eagle County
A wildfire burning on the edge of Eagle and Garfield counties has scorched more than 5,300 acres, fire officials said Monday.
The Derby fire is burning on 5,346 acres with no containment, up roughly 100 acres from Sunday and 1,200 acres from Saturday, fire officials said.
Thunderstorm activity and gusty winds have driven the fire south in recent days, meteorologist Ryan Fliehman said in a Sunday afternoon briefing.
Rain showers and thunderstorms started Sunday afternoon and are expected to continue through Wednesday as a “strong monsoonal push of moisture” hits the Western Slope, Fliehman said.
The storms will help dampen the quickly spreading wildfire but may create other problems on the newly charred landscape, like flash flooding, fire officials said.
The Derby fire was discovered on “remote, rugged terrain” in the White River National Forest, about 15 miles from Dotsero in Eagle County, on Aug. 17, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Mandatory evacuations and pre-evacuations are in place for the northwest corner of Eagle County, including the town of Gypsum, and an eastern section of Garfield County.
Evacuations will be lifted for Sweetwater Valley and Sheep Creek at 10 a.m. Monday, allowing limited access for residents to return home, according to fire officials. Residents will be required to present proof of address at checkpoints along Colorado River Road.
That area will remain on pre-evacuation status and people may be required to re-evacuate if conditions change, fire officials said. Livestock will not be allowed to return yet. The wildfire’s activity remains unpredictable.
“This is not a full repopulation, as the risks are still very high and residents should remain prepared to vacate at any time,” Eagle County Sheriff James Van Beek said in a statement on social media.
Travel within the restricted area must remain extremely limited to protect both residents and fire crews, sheriff’s officials said. The best window for essential travel is between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when conditions are safest and least disruptive to emergency operations.
The Eagle County Sheriff’s Office is working on a plan to allow some evacuated residents to access their homes, specifically “those who own property or depend on it for their livelihood,” sheriff’s officials said Sunday. Exact details of that plan were not available, and the evacuation orders remain in place.
At least one building has been destroyed by the wildfire, but it’s unclear what type of building it was.
The U.S. Forest Service also expanded closures in the White River National Forest in Eagle and Garfield counties, including southwest of Sweetwater Lake to the west rim of Deep Creek Canyon. Some BLM lands are also closed, including north and west of Gypsum, north of Coffee Pot Road, west of the Colorado River, east of the White River National Forest boundary and south of Derby Creek.
The Stoner Mesa fire burns in southwestern Colorado’s San Juan National Forest on Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025. (Photo provided by Stoner Mesa Fire Information)
Stoner Mesa fire, near Dolores
The Stoner Mesa fire is burning on 10,233 acres in a remote section of the San Juan National Forest, fire officials said Sunday.
Multiple areas around the fire — including Mavreeso, Gobble Creek, Fish Creek, Johnny Bull Creek, Dunton, Lizard Head, Horse Creek, Rico and Sulfer Creek — remain on “monitor” status, the step before pre-evacuation orders, according to the wildfire’s evacuation map.
All pre-evacuation orders were lifted Saturday, but sections of the San Juan National Forest remain closed for the wildfire.
As of Sunday, the lightning-sparked Stoner Mesa fire was 41% contained.
A Meeker fire department truck stations itself at an out building across from W. Highway 64 as smoke billows on a ridge above it from the Lee fire in Rio Blanco County just outside of Meeker on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Air-quality impacts
Air quality alerts for wildfire smoke near the Derby and Stoner Mesa fires were issued Sunday morning by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The warnings, which include southeastern Dolores County, northeastern Montezuma County, western Eagle County and eastern Garfield County, will remain active through at least 9 a.m. Monday.
Smoke will be heaviest in the areas near the fires, especially during the overnight and early morning hours, state health officials said. Incoming storm systems should help improve air quality near the fires.
Smoky conditions are most hazardous for young children, older adults and people with heart disease or respiratory illnesses, according to state health officials.
All residents should limit outdoor activity when heavy smoke is present. If visibility drops to 5 miles or less, the smoke has reached unhealthy levels.
For the first time, Coloradans have a clear picture of where they can go for sometimes-controversial health services such as abortion, gender-affirming care or medical aid-in-dying.
In much of the state, though, the answer is “nowhere close.”
Hospitals are required to disclose data about restrictions on 66 services related to reproductive, gender-affirming and end-of-life care to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment under a law passed in 2023. Starting this month, they also must provide copies of their disclosure forms to patients ahead of their appointments.
Only three Colorado counties — Denver, Douglas and Weld — have unrestricted access in at least one hospital to three services from the list that The Denver Post sampled.
Access to gender-affirming surgery was especially limited; only 13 of Colorado’s 64 counties have a hospital without non-medical restrictions on a double mastectomy, also known as “top surgery,” for gender affirmation. (Eighteen counties have no hospital within their borders, and the rest either don’t offer mastectomies to anyone or restricted who could receive one.)
Nor was access to the other sampled services much broader.
Thirteen Colorado counties have a hospital that would assist with a request for medical aid-in-dying without religious or other non-medical limitations, and 15 have one that would provide comprehensive treatment for a miscarriage, which can include drugs and procedures used in induced abortions.
Click to enlarge
Facilities that restrict the services they offer aren’t likely to make changes because of the law — particularly since many of the restrictions stem from religious beliefs — but at least patients will know what to expect when they go for care, said Dr. Patricia Gabow, a former CEO of Denver Health who has written about the intersection of religion and health care.
Of course, transparency only does so much for people who live in a county where the only hospitals are Catholic-owned, Gabow said. Catholic hospitals, which include those owned by CommonSpirit Health and some belonging to Intermountain Health, generally don’t offer contraception, sterilization, gender-affirming care, medical aid-in-dying or abortion.
“People who live in Durango, I don’t know what they’re supposed to do,” she said.
Mercy Hospital in that city follows Catholic ethical and religious directives for health care, and the closest hospital that offers comprehensive reproductive services or assistance with medical aid-in-dying is in Del Norte, about two and a half hours away.
Catholic doctrine requires health care providers to “respect all stages of life,” and not participate in procedures such as medical aid-in-dying or sterilization without a medical reason, said Lindsay Radford, spokeswoman for CommonSpirit Health, which owns Mercy.
The system’s hospitals work with patients and their families to provide appropriate pain and symptom relief as they near death, she said.
“We respect and honor the physician-patient relationship, and medical decisions are made by a patient and their doctor. Patients who seek care at a CommonSpirit Health hospital or clinic are fully informed of all treatment options, including those we do not perform,” she said in a statement.
Geographic and political differences
Generally, access to potentially controversial services was greater in more areas with larger populations, though with significant exceptions.
Both of Jefferson County’s hospitals, St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood and Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, won’t allow measures to end a pregnancy if a fetus still has a heartbeat.
The state’s form conflates “threatened” and “completed” miscarriages, said Sara Quale, spokeswoman for Intermountain Health, which owns Lutheran Hospital. The hospital doesn’t restrict care once a fetus has died, but if it still has a heartbeat, doctors attempt to treat whatever is causing the miscarriage, she said. The most common cause of miscarriages is a problem with a fetus’s chromosomes, which doesn’t allow it to survive and has no treatment.
In contrast, people in rural Prowers County on the Eastern Plains can get comprehensive miscarriage treatment without driving elsewhere. So can residents of Rio Grande County.
Local politics also don’t necessarily match up with access.
The three counties that had at least one hospital offering unrestricted access to the three sampled services were deep-blue Denver and thoroughly red Weld and Douglas.
While their residents might differ on many issues, Weld and Douglas counties shared one common characteristic with Denver: They’re home to at least one hospital owned by a secular system, such as UCHealth, Denver Health or HCA HealthOne.
At least 22 hospitals in Colorado have religious restrictions on care options: 17 owned or formerly owned by Catholic organizations, and five affiliated with the Adventist faith. In some cases, when a hospital changes hands, provisions of the deal require the new owner to honor the seller’s religious and ethical rules, even if the buyer is secular.
Some secular organizations also listed certain services as restricted.
UCHealth generally doesn’t serve patients under 15, while Denver Health doesn’t provide abortions under certain circumstances because of concerns about losing federal funding, spokesman Dane Roper said.
The seven HealthOne hospitals also had non-religious restrictions, but didn’t specify their nature. Banner Health didn’t respond to inquiries about service limitations at its five Colorado hospitals.
Informed decision-making
So far, Colorado is the only state that requires hospitals to directly tell patients when they don’t offer services for religious or other non-medical reasons, said Alison Gill, vice president of legal and policy with American Atheists, which supported the law as it went through the legislature.
That provision will be important not only for Coloradans seeking care, but for people traveling to the state because of its welcoming policies around reproductive and gender-affirming care, she said.
“We are encouraging other states to enact similar provisions because it is essential to provide patients with information about service availability so that they can make informed decisions about their health care,” she said.
The law has some limitations, said Gabow, formerly of Denver Health. For example, an outpatient gynecology office owned by a religious health system doesn’t have to give patients the disclosure form, and insurers don’t have to include hospitals offering care without limitations in their networks, she said.
Colorado’s law won’t inherently increase access to health care, but it may prevent surprises for patients who don’t know to look up the closest hospital’s religious affiliation or don’t realize it could affect them, said Dr. Sam Doernberg, a physician researcher at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Doernberg wrote a study that found 132 counties nationwide had “religious monopolies” in their hospital markets as of 2020. The vast majority involved Catholic hospitals, and 11 involved Adventist hospitals. The study didn’t include counties that don’t have a hospital and are adjacent to a monopoly county, so the actual number where people don’t have the full range of choices may be higher, he said.
While no states have tried them yet, researchers do have a few ideas to more directly increase access to care while still respecting the religious rights of organizations that own hospitals, Doernberg said.
For example, they could directly fund public health departments so they can provide more reproductive services in areas where the dominant health system limits options, or they could require that insurance companies don’t charge patients an out-of-network rate if none of the in-network hospitals offer gender-affirming care, for example, he said.
“There are other possible solutions that are not currently being pursued,” he said.
Denver is heating back up, with city temperatures nearing 100 degrees Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
If Denver hits the forecasted 98-degree high, Saturday will tie for the hottest Aug. 17 of all time in the metro area, according to NWS records. Just one degree higher and Saturday’s heat will break the record.
The current 98-degree record was set in 2020.
The heat is expected to peak at 98 degrees around 4 p.m. Saturday before dropping down to 67 degrees overnight, NWS forecasters said.
Chances of afternoon thunderstorms in the metro area are small — close to 10% — and any rain showers that hit Denver are expected to wrap up by 9 p.m., according to NWS forecasters.
“Most will stay dry, but the mountains should see some scattered high-based showers in the evening,” forecasters said. “These will decay as they try to push into the urban corridor given the dry conditions, although they may produce gusty winds at times.”
With the increased heat, an Ozone Action Day Alert has been issued for Colorado’s Front Range — including Douglas, Jefferson, Denver, western Arapahoe, western Adams, Broomfield, Boulder, Larimer, and Weld counties — through at least 4 p.m. Saturday.
Short-term exposure to unhealthy ozone levels can cause coughing; eye, nose and throat irritation; chest pain; difficulty breathing and asthma attacks, according to state officials. Long-term exposure has been linked to a variety of health issues, including lung and cardiovascular disease and premature death.
People in the affected counties should stay inside during the heat of the day, avoid driving gas- or diesel-powered cars until the alert is lifted and conserve energy by setting air conditioners to a higher temperature, air quality officials said.
Denver will cool off a bit Sunday — with temperature highs around 93 degrees — but 90-degree heat is expected to last throughout the week, according to NWS forecasters.
Stormy weather will return Sunday and Monday, but the rest of the week will be relatively dry with scattered afternoon showers, forecasters said.
A Denver resident has West Nile virus, and the local health department urged the public to drain standing water and take other precautions.
The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment didn’t share any information about the person, who was the first in the city with a confirmed West Nile case this year.
Typically, only people with more severe illnesses get tested for West Nile, because most infected people either don’t get sick or have general flu-like symptoms. In the worst cases, the virus invades the nervous system, sometimes causing coma or death.
Colorado air pollution regulators made the rare move this month to extend the public comment period on a permit that would allow a pipeline company to expand its gasoline storage facility across the street from an elementary school in a neighborhood north of Denver.
The extension comes amid criticism that regulators at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and executives at Magellan Pipeline Company did not communicate with people about plans to expand gasoline storage at the Dupont Terminal at 8160 Krameria St. in unincorporated Adams County.
The expansion would increase the amount of toxins released into the air in a community that already suffers a disproportional amount of pollution compared to the rest of the state.
Colorado has three years to lower ground-level ozone pollution to meet federal standards, and this summer’s hazy skies — caused by oil and gas drilling, heavy vehicle traffic and wildfire smoke — are putting the state in a hole as it’s already logged more dirty air days than in all of 2023.
“Our state has taken a lot of steps to improve air quality, but you can see it in the skies, you can see it in the air, that we still have work to do,” said Kirsten Schatz, clean air advocate for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.
Two months into the 2024 summer ozone season, the Front Range already has recorded more high ozone days than the entire summer of 2023. As of Monday, which is the most recent data available, ozone levels had exceeded federal air quality standards on 28 days. At the same point in 2023, there had been 27 high-ozone days.
The summer ozone season runs from June 1 to Aug. 31. However, the region encompassing metro Denver and the northern Front Range this year recorded its first high ozone day in May, and in some years ozone pollution exceeds federal standards into mid-September.
The first benchmark is to lower average ozone pollution to a 2008 standard of 75 parts per billion. The northern Front Range is in what’s called “severe non-attainment” for that number, meaning motorists must use a more expensive blend of gasoline during the summer and more businesses must apply for federal permits that regulate how much pollution they spill into the air.
The second benchmark requires the region to lower its average ozone pollution to a 2015 standard of 70 parts per billion, considered the most acceptable level of air pollution for human health. In July, the EPA downgraded the northern Front Range to be in serious violation of that standard as the region’s ozone level now sits at 81 parts per billion. The state must now submit to the EPA a new plan for lowering emissions.
Colorado needs to meet both EPA benchmarks by 2027, or it will be downgraded again and face more federal regulation.
Of the 28 days the state has recorded high ozone pollution levels, 17 exceeded the 2008 standard of 70 parts per billion, according to data compiled by the Regional Air Quality Council, an organization that advises the state on how to reduce air pollution.
That’s bad news for the region after state air regulators predicted Colorado would be able to meet that standard by the 2027 deadline. The EPA calculates average ozone pollution levels on a three-year average, so this summer’s bad numbers will drag down the final grade.
“It’s not a good first year to have,” said Mike Silverstein, the air quality council’s executive director.
Smoke from wildfires near and far
Ground-level ozone pollution forms on hot summer days when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides react in the sunlight. Those compounds and gases are released by oil and gas wells and refineries, automobiles on the road, fumes from paint and other industrial chemicals, and gas-powered lawn and garden equipment.
It forms a smog that can cause the skies to become brown or hazy, and it is harmful to people, especially those with lung and heart disease, the elderly and children. Ground-level ozone is different than the ozone in the atmosphere that protects Earth from the sun’s powerful rays.
Wildfire smoke blowing from Canada and the Pacific Northwest did not help Colorado’s pollution levels in July, and then multiple fires erupted along the Front Range over the past week, creating homegrown pollution from fine particulate matter such as smoke, soot and ash. Ultimately, though, the heavy smoke days could be wiped from the calculations from 2024, but that decision will be made at a later date.
Still, June also saw multiple high ozone days, and air quality experts say much of the pollution originates at home in Colorado and cannot be blamed on outside influences.
The out-of-state wildfire smoke sent ozone levels skyrocketing the week of July 21 to 27, Silverstein said, but it’s not the reason the numbers are high. The week prior saw ozone levels above federal standards, too, and wildfire smoke had not drifted into the region.
“Pull the wildfires out and we would probably still have had high ozone,” he said.
Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, also warned that wildfires should not be used as an excuse for the region’s air pollution.
“While the wildfires are out of our control, there is a whole bunch of air pollution we can control,” he said. “I don’t want to let that cover up the ugliness that existed here in the first place.”
Nichols blames oil and gas drilling for the region’s smog. The state is not doing enough to regulate the industry, he said.
“We actually need to recognize we are at a point where oil and gas needs to stop drilling on high ozone days,” Nichols said. “Just like we’re told to stay home on high ozone days, business as usual needs to stop. I don’t think we’ve clamped down on them and in many respects they are getting a free pass to pollute.”
One proposal would require drilling companies to eliminate emissions from pneumatic actuating devices, equipment driven by pressurized gas to open and close valves in pipelines, Silverstein said. Oil companies already are required to make 50% of those devices emission-free, and the federal government also is requiring them to be 100% emission-free by 2035. But Colorado’s proposal would accelerate the timeline, he said.
The second proposal would tell companies to stop performing blowdowns, which is when workers vent fumes from pipelines before beginning maintenance to clear explosive gases, when an ozone alert is issued, Silverstein said.
“There are thousands of these very small events, but these small events add up to significant activity,” he said.
Gabby Richmond, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry supports the new regulations. She said operators also were electrifying operations where possible and voluntarily delaying operational activities on high ozone days.
“Our industry values clean air, and we are committed to pioneering innovative solutions that protect our environment and make Colorado a great place to live,” Richmond said in a statement. “As a part of this commitment, we have significantly reduced ozone-causing emissions by over 50% through technology, regulatory initiatives and voluntary measures — all in the spirit of being good neighbors in the communities where we live and work.”
“Knock down emissions where we can”
Meanwhile, people who live in metro Denver and the northern Front Range are asked to do their part, too.
When the state health department issues an ozone action alert — which is a forecast for high pollution levels — people are asked to limit driving as much as possible. They also are asked to avoid using gas-powered lawn and garden equipment until later in the day when the sun starts dropping behind the mountains and temperatures fall.
It would be easy to blame Colorado’s ozone pollution on its geography, global climate change that is raising temperatures, and pollution blowing from other countries and states, Silverstein said. But Colorado has a responsibility to do its part.
“We have 4 million people and a big oil and gas field and lots of industrial activity and all of the things related to human activity all in one concentrated location with a great mountain backdrop, but it comes with a bit of a price,” he said. “So it’s up to us to find the strategies to knock down emissions where we can.”
Mosquitoes seen through a microscope in the Broomfield office of entomologist Michael “Doc” Weissmann, Ph.D. June 25, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Mosquitoes collected in Denver have tested positive for West Nile Virus, according to the city’s health and environment agency and the state health department.
So far this year, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has confirmed seven cases in the state. Four required hospitalization, but none have died.
No human cases have yet been reported in the city and county of Denver, according to the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment. The state reported two cases this year in Arapahoe County, with one each in Delta, Jefferson, La Plata, Mesa and Weld counties, according to the state’s website.
Colorado recorded the year’s first human case of West Nile virus in an Arapahoe County resident last month — earlier than usual.
The city routinely tests adult mosquitoes for the virus from mid-June through mid-September by checking traps at five locations weekly across the city, according to the city’s health department.
Health providers can give supportive care to alleviate symptoms and aid recovery.
Anyone can contract it, but those older than 50 or with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of developing serious illness.
Symptoms may also include skin rashes and swollen lymph nodes, generally appearing three to 14 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Most infections are mild, but some cases are severe and it can be fatal. Those can lead to inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or inflammation of the brain’s lining (meningitis), which can cause problems ranging from vision loss to paralysis, coma, tremors, and convulsions.
If you experience symptoms, health agencies say to consult a doctor.
Prevention, and avoiding mosquito bites, are key:
The bugs turn out from dusk to dawn, when it’s a bit cooler, often in the woods and in gardens.
Health officials suggest wearing long sleeves and pants and also applying insect repellent. More information can be found on the EPA’s website.
Also, be sure to drain standing water outside your home.
Haze blanketed Colorado on Monday as wildfire smoke drifted from Canada, and the gray skies are expected to hover overhead for at least another 24 hours.
The wildfire smoke led the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Regional Air Quality Council on Monday to issue public health advisories, recommending people limit outdoor activity. The smoke is increasing the amount of ozone and fine particulate matter in the air.
Air monitors across northern Colorado and the Front Range were showing high concentrations of particulate matter, which can be smoke, soot, ash or liquid particles that people can inhale.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announces the city’s priorities for 2024, during a press conference Monday, Feb. 26, 2024 at the City and County Building.
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Ten months into his first term, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has nominated someone to fill his final open appointment.
If approved by City Council, Karin McGowan will take over as head of the Department of Public Health and Environment, the agency that handles everything from air quality and noise pollution to overdose prevention, immunization and the animal shelter.
“Throughout her career, Karin has stewarded equitable public health and environmental outcomes across Colorado and knows how to deliver strong and healthy communities,” Johnston said in a statement Thursday.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has nominated Karin McGowan to lead the city’s Department of Public Health and Environment.Courtesy of the mayor’s office
Johnston’s nominee has longstanding ties to state politics.
McGowan worked for a decade at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, including a stint as deputy director. At CDPHE, she led communications, legislative affairs, the Office of Health Equity, the Office of Emergency Planning and Response, and the Office of Planning and Partnership.
CDPHE navigated cannabis legalization, the 2015 Gold King Mine Spill and the COVID-19 pandemic under her leadership.
McGowan also served as assistant director for external affairs for Great Outdoors Colorado and worked in Governor Roy Romer’s administration.
Gov. Jared Polis later appointed McGowan to the Energy and Carbon Management Conservation Commission. She has also worked at the Denver Regional Council of Governments, heading up both policy development and communication efforts.
Unlike many of Johnston’s political appointments, McGowan is not a holdover from the Hancock years.
If confirmed, McGowan will follow Interim Director Alice Nightengale, who has served in the role since March, when Hancock appointee Bob McDonald retired.
“We conducted a thorough and meticulous search for this position because we knew we wanted a candidate with world-class talent, and we found exactly what we were looking for with Karin,” Johnston explained.
Correction: This story originally stated Bob McDonald was the current head of DDPHE. It has been updated to note that he retired in March and had been replaced, in the interim, by Alice Nightengale.
Children living near small airports in Colorado had slightly higher levels of lead in their blood than the statewide average, according to a new study — though experts had diverging opinions on how significant that difference was.
The study, by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, found levels to be within the range the federal government considers normal, and didn’t prove that living near an airport caused the increase in blood lead levels, though levels declined consistently as the distance from an airport increased, reaching the state average at about two miles out.
The researchers also didn’t have enough blood samples to show whether lead levels were particularly high near any of the airports, though the data didn’t suggest any difference, said Dr. Ned Calonge, the department’s chief medical officer.
While lead can affect anyone, young children are most vulnerable. In most cases, lead doesn’t cause any immediately noticeable symptoms, though over time it lowers intelligence scores and increases the risk of hyperactivity and behavior problems. Children experiencing acute lead poisoning, which is rare, may have headaches, stomach pain and weakness.
Aircraft fuel is the largest source of new lead pollution in the country, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Certain industries, like battery recycling, also generate lead pollution, while contamination from lead paint and leaded gas still lingers.
Click here to read the full story from our partners at The Denver Post.
Denver 7+ Colorado News Latest Headlines | May 13, 8am
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Colorado is experiencing an alarming spike in syphilis among newborns, leading the state to issue a public health order Thursday aimed at curbing the disease’s spread through wider testing.
In 2023, 50 infants in Colorado were born with syphilis, up from only seven in 2018. So far this year, the state is halfway to last year’s total, with five infected babies who were stillborn and two who died in their first months of life, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said.
“We’ve already had 25 cases so far this year, putting us on track to have maybe 100 cases,” she said at a news conference, addressing what Gov. Jared Polis’s office called a “growing epidemic.”
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that sometimes causes no symptoms in adults, though the bacteria can eventually damage the heart and brain if a person doesn’t receive treatment. But roughly two out of five babies born to infected mothers will be stillborn or die in infancy, and those who survive are at risk of intellectual disability, bone deformities and other lifelong health problems, Herlihy said.
The new public health order from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment requires all health care providers to offer syphilis testing at least three times to pregnant patients: in the first trimester, in the third trimester and at birth.
Nearly all insurance plans cover the testing, and people without insurance can receive it for free at public health clinics or by ordering a home test kit.
“We hope to save many babies from death and suffering,” Polis said at the news conference.
On Thursday, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a recommendation that all pregnant patients receive testing three times. Previously, it only recommended more than one test if a patient had certain risk factors for getting infected while pregnant.
“The cases of congenital syphilis are definitely climbing, and they’ve been climbing over the last 10 years. And it’s completely preventable… It’s unacceptable,” said Dr. Laura Riley, who chairs the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine and helped with the guidance. “We need to be able to do better diagnostics and treatment.”
The Colorado order also requires offering tests to prisoners who are pregnant, and to people who have experienced a stillbirth after 20 weeks of pregnancy, when spontaneous miscarriages are rare. While it would be too late for that particular fetus after a stillbirth, antibiotic treatment would protect the mother, her sex partners and any future pregnancies.
Patients and prisoners aren’t required to undergo testing if they don’t want to, but their providers have to give them the option, said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the state health department. State law already required that providers offer everyone syphilis testing in the first trimester.
Last year, 3,266 people in Colorado received a syphilis diagnosis, which was a 5% increase over the previous year and more than three times the number diagnosed in 2018. Most of the diagnoses are still in men, because the bacteria became entrenched in the community of gay and bisexual men. About one-third are in women, though, and diagnoses have risen faster among women than among men.
Nationwide, syphilis diagnoses reached their highest rate since at least 1950 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases peaked in the 1940s, before antibiotics became widely available, and fell throughout the 20th century.
People of color and those who lack access to reliable health care, such as the homeless population, have been hit disproportionately hard in the resurgence over the last few years.
Earlier this year, the state health department asked for $8 million over four years to fund an opt-out syphilis screening program at two hospital emergency departments in Denver and Pueblo County, which both have a significant share of new infections.
The department also proposed to distribute rapid tests to organizations that work with at-risk people; to fund delivering treatment to some people in their homes; and to build up a stockpile of the antibiotics used to treat syphilis. Most antibiotics are cheap, but the best option for syphilis, Bicillin, is relatively expensive and in short supply, so providers don’t always opt to stock it.
The state and the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment already run a small pilot program to bring treatment to people in their homes. Jails in Pueblo, El Paso and Jefferson counties also have started screening female prisoners and offering treatment to anyone who tests positive.
Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero said about one-quarter of the 634 people his department has screened so far tested positive, and seven were pregnant at the time of their positive test. The Pueblo County jail has a partnership with the local health department to follow up if someone returns to the community before completing treatment, he said.
“Without a doubt, this program saves lives,” Lucero said.
The biggest driver of the increase in congenital syphilis seems to be that mothers aren’t getting early prenatal care, which could identify and cure the infection, Herlihy said. The mothers of babies born affected this year have higher rates of previous incarceration, untreated addiction and homelessness than the general population, she said.
“The risk factors we’re seeing are really driving the actions we’re taking,” she said.
The world’s first legal sale of recreational marijuana happened in Denver on Jan. 1, 2014. In fact, it happened twice.
Mason Tvert was managing the onslaught of media that descended on the Mile High City to witness the historic moment, set in motion by the successful legalization campaign he’d led. So many camera crews and reporters showed up that morning that Tvert decided to rotate two groups through the dispensary’s sales floor — with each transaction billed as the first time anyone 21 or older could legally buy weed simply by walking into a store, showing ID and paying for it, no doctor’s note necessary.
Cannabis enthusiasts also flocked to downtown Denver that day. Lines outside the new rec stores stretched down city blocks. Buyers exited with purchases in hand, holding them overhead like victory trophies. Rumors even swirled that some stores had sold out, only adding to the fervor.
