“You don’t make any money doing any of that stuff,” Peter Bayer said with a laugh.

His heart and hope lie inside a grey warehouse a few miles from Highway 34 in Weld County, his heaven a canvas of black netting and neon-green paint. A symphony of popping balls and pinging bats alternate solos while a low, angry chorus of whirring fans wage a losing battle against a 94-degree afternoon.

“These bigger names, they all focus on the college-and-above market,” Bayer, a former Regis Jesuit baseball standout, explained. “What I want to bring is this amazing big space as an oasis to take 13- and 14-year-old kids and build them up, to just have an awesome space to have access to all these things.”

Head 7 miles east of the Scheels in Johnstown, turn right in the middle of nowhere, and you’ll eventually run into the , a 22,000-square-foot indoor training facility that opened Saturday to more than 200 curious kids, parents, coaches, and patrons in its first 90 minutes.

The place puts the “art” in state-of-the-art. It’s wired with Trackman technology, the same kind used at Major League stadiums across North America, including Coors Field. Two new HitTrax machines are on the way. The bulk of the complex is taken up by six long batting cages, at least four extendable pitching mounds and a 100-feet-by-30-feet practice field.

“If I was 12 years old, what would I want to do?” “And that’s what I’m trying to do here.”

“Do the parents of those 12-year-olds know?” I wondered, “that it’s run by a guy on Major League Baseball’s ineligible list?”

“I get it every so often,” Bayer said. “It’s obviously less now than it was before … it’s not like I’m out there lying to kids about what I did. At least this way, I can be a positive role model.”

***

Bayer turned 31 in March. The way he sees it, the baseball gods put him on the scenic route to his life’s calling: Teaching. Kids. Paying it forward.

He grew up in Parker, under the shadow of Ponderosa High School. He grew into a 6-foot-4 fireballer, a righty who helped anchor Regis Jesuit’s state title winners in 2011. Atlanta Braves manager Walt Weiss was a family friend and mentor.

His college chapter started at Richmond and ended at Cal Poly Pomona. He discovered Driveline, one of the country’s cutting-edge baseball labs. His fastball velo max went from 88 mph before Driveline to 95 mph after. Tampa Bay selected him in the ninth round of the 2016 MLB amateur draft.

“‘OG,’ that’s what the kids call me,” Bayer chuckled. “‘You’re like a Driveline OG.'”

The Rays traded him to the Athletics in 2018. Two years later, COVID-19 shut down the minor-league season entirely. A $400 stipend wasn’t cutting it. Bayer delivered for DoorDash. He wasn’t just looking for a quick buck. He was looking for any buck. He took up online betting. He went to online forums. He found betting experts. It became a short-term, competitive fix.

“You get your sport taken away from you, so you resort to something else to fulfill a competitive thing in your mind,” Bayer says. “This was something I could do. I was sitting at home and going crazy because I couldn’t play my sport.”

MLB’s investigation found he had conducted 100 baseball-related wagers from May-August 2020. It accused him of placing at least 25 wagers worth $1,000 or more, and at least a dozen involving the A’s, his organization at the time.

Bayer doesn’t deny the action. He denies the volume and specifics of MLB’s report.

“I think I had a stupid mindset,” he said. “(It was), ‘I have nothing left to lose. I can’t play.'”

In February 2021, Major League Baseball launched an investigation into the pitcher and placed him on administrative leave. In April 2022, he was moved to the ineligible list.

A spokesperson for Major League Baseball emailed the following statement to The Post: “After a thorough investigation, it was determined that Mr. Bayer repeatedly bet on baseball in violation of Major League Rule 21 and MLB’s Policy on Sports Betting and engaged in other misconduct that was not in the best interests of baseball. Therefore, he was placed on the ineligible list, where he remains.”

Rule 21 (d) (1) says that any “player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.”

Bayer applies for reinstatement every November. Kids he’s worked with shot video testimonials pleading on his behalf. Former teammates did, too. , now with the University of St. Thomas, has worked with Bayer since 2019 and was so moved that he emailed MLB commissioner Rob Manfred directly last fall to ask for clemency.

“He’d be great as a college coach,” Phillips says. “The decision (MLB) made to not even let him be a coach, it was tragic. He could still be a player, even. He’s really special.”

Initially, he was told it would be a one-year suspension. Only that one year keeps marching into perpetuity.

“The thing that was unfortunate, to be honest with you, was that my mental health got really (expletived),” Bayer said.

“Anybody in my shoes, it’s like, ‘Oh, man.’ You’re just holding onto hope. It was a lot. So ultimately, it was like, I don’t know. I had to move on.”

He played independent ball. Mexico. The Rocky Mountain Vibes in Colorado Springs. Dancing around the periphery, staying sharp in case a window opened up. It never did.

“The insane thing is, if I try to go to Coors Field and say, ‘Hey, I want to work for the Rockies as a sales rep,’ and sell tickets, I can’t do that,” he says. “I literally can’t be involved.”

Friends and former confidants on college baseball staffs still went out of their way to recommend him. He’d inquired about becoming a coach at a collegiate program at least three times since 2022.

“The (athletic department) would say, ‘With his background, we don’t want to risk it,'” Bayer said.

“And I’m not saying that this isn’t justified. Or isn’t fair. But there are so many MLB players out there that did horrible things and they’re just, ‘Oh, whatever, that’s fine.’ As bad as the thing is, there are still a lot of people in my corner, a lot of friends who know the type of person I am.  And that I am a good person. I just get to now build this (facility) out, so now that’s where my focus is.”

***
Bayer can still bring the heat. Quietly. He was at Coors Field a couple weeks ago and took a turn at the speed-pitch booth, just for giggles.

BAMI

Ninety-six. No warm-up.

“I know, 100%, I could still play professional baseball,” Bayer says. “That’s the crazy part of it.

“It’s been a whirlwind of life. A whirlwind of a 10 years. A lot of people would’ve lost their mind or would go off the deep end. I obviously did that in 2020 for a little bit. But I think (I’m) slowly but surely picking up the pieces. I’m doing the right things.”

With the right people. Pete got the coaching bug early. He worked with 40-45 players last year as an independent contractor. His clientele included two players from greater Loveland who were driving all the way to Centennial for workouts. One of them was the son of Endless Garage owner and entrepreneur Justin Summers, who knew of a warehouse in southwest Greeley already set up for softball training.

“(Summers said), ‘There’s this amazing facility up here, we think you’d be the perfect guy to run this,'” Bayer recalled.

“It’s kind of how it was supposed to happen. In a crazy, weird, stupid way, maybe this was all kind of happened for a … I don’t know.”

“For a reason?” I asked. “For a purpose?”

“I can’t obviously change the past. But I can make the best out of every day and build the future. That’s what this is about.”

With that, a staffer in glasses closes in, just behind Bayer’s right shoulder, and hovers. Question for the boss.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “But do you know where the microphones are?”

Bayer points to a far wall. Then he cocks his head back wearily and smiles, the grin of a man who bet on himself. And won.

More than three-quarters of American adults didn’t get a COVID shot last season, a figure that health care experts warn could rise this year amid new U.S. government recommendations.

The COVID vaccine was initially popular. About 75% of Americans had received of the first versions of the vaccine by early 2022, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. But only about 23% of American adults got a COVID shot during the 2024-25 virus season, well below the 47% of American adults who got a flu shot. The vaccination rates for , and tetanus are also going down.

Yet COVID remains a serious, potentially deadly health risk, listed as the primary cause of death on roughly 31,400 death certificates last year. By comparison, flu killed people and pneumonia, a common complication of the flu, killed , .

As millions of Americans decide whether to get a COVID shot this season, public health researchers worry vaccination rates will slide further, especially because Hispanic and Black Americans and those under 30 have lower rates, exposing them to serious complications such as long COVID. Under the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the federal government has narrowed its recommendations on the COVID vaccine, leading to a hodgepodge of rules on pharmacy access, with Americans living in Republican states often facing more barriers to getting a shot.

“A lot of misinformation is going around regarding COVID,” said , an assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California-Irvine. “Vaccine hesitancy is going to increase.”

In August, the FDA for COVID vaccines to those 65 or older and to adults and children with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for serious complications from COVID.

A month later, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “shared clinical decision-making” on the vaccine, pulling back from advising all adults to get vaccinated. The committee advised doctors to emphasize to adults under 65 and children that the benefits of the vaccine are greatest for those with underlying health conditions.

The guidance is rebutted by infectious disease experts who say most adults and children should get both the flu and COVID vaccines, which are safe, effective, and prevent serious illness. Several independent medical organizations like the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics have reiterated their support for broad adoption of COVID vaccines.

More than two dozen states have taken steps to ensure most people can get a COVID shot at the pharmacy without a prescription, with many states tying their policies to the advice given by medical organizations. And many of those states require insurers to cover vaccines at no cost, according to . In several other states, predominantly Republican-led, pharmacy access to vaccines may require a prescription.

Among the most commonly cited reasons for COVID vaccine hesitation are fears about side effects, long-term health consequences, and the effectiveness of the vaccine, and mistrust of pharmaceutical corporations and government officials, according to of multiple studies, published in the journal Vaccines.

COVID vaccine hesitancy in the 2024-25 virus season was higher among Latinos, African Americans, men, uninsured people, and people living in Republican-leaning states, CDC data shows.

Latino adults were significantly less likely than adults from most other racial and ethnic groups to get a COVID shot last season, with a vaccination rate around 15%.

Some of that may be due to age: A of Latinos are young. But public policy actions may also be a factor. The first Trump administration, for example, tied Medicaid to “public charge,” a rule allowing the federal government to deny an immigrant a green card or visa based on their dependence on taxpayer-funded programs. Some Latinos may be afraid to sign up for social services even after the Biden administration reversed those first-term Trump actions.

Haro-Ramos co-authored published in 2024 that found many Latinos were hesitant to get vaccinated because of fears about their immigration status, and that experiencing health discrimination, like care denials or delays, increased their vaccine hesitancy.

“Do you trust the health care system, broadly speaking? Do you want to provide your information — your name, your address?” Haro-Ramos said. “Trust is critical.”

Haro-Ramos said the problem has likely worsened since her study was published. The Trump administration that it would give the personal information of Medicaid enrollees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Many Latinos are to head off possible confrontation with immigration enforcement officials.

“People are avoiding leaving their homes at all costs,” Haro-Ramos said.

, an associate professor at the University of Georgia College of Public Health, recently of COVID vaccination among nearly 1,500 African Americans living in south Georgia. The study found that participants were more likely to listen to their health care providers than faith leaders or co-workers when seeking advice on getting vaccinated.

More than 90% of those studied had received at least one dose of the vaccine, but those who were unvaccinated were more likely to agree with false statements that tied vaccines to miscarriages, to components’ remaining in the body for a long time, or even to the conspiracy that they implant a computer chip in the body.

“It����ap the clinicians who can take the messages about vaccination — that these are myths,” Rajbhandari-Thapa said.

Even though COVID hospitalization and death rates have fallen dramatically since the worst days of the pandemic, fatal complications related to COVID remain most common among older people. of U.S. COVID deaths last year were among people 65 and older, compared with of flu and pneumonia deaths.

As the pandemic falls into the rearview, young people have developed a sense of invincibility. Only 11% of Americans ages 18 to 29 received a vaccine during the 2024-25 virus season, the lowest vaccination rate among adult age groups. That����ap far below the who got at least one dose of the initial COVID vaccines by November 2023.

While many people get COVID after receiving a COVID shot, because the vaccine’s ability to prevent infection wears off pretty fast, some misunderstand the purpose of the shot, said , an infectious disease specialist at UCLA Health.

“They think, ‘Well, the vaccine didn’t prevent me from getting COVID, so the vaccine didn’t work,’” Yang said. “And what they’re not seeing is that the vaccine prevented them from getting severely ill, which is ultimately the most important thing.”

And the vaccine can help prevent long COVID, which is a problem for all ages, Yang said. A recent Northwestern University study younger adults suffer worse symptoms of long COVID than older adults.

Ultimately, Yang said, it is not a consistent choice to get a flu vaccine but forgo a COVID vaccine, since both are safe, effective, and prevent serious illness. It is clear, he added, that people with compromised immune systems and those at higher risk should get a COVID shot. The decision is “a little bit less clear” for others, but “probably most adults should be getting vaccinated, just like it����ap recommended for the flu vaccine, as well as most children.”

Phillip Reese is a data reporting specialist and an associate professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The didn’t publicly announce the departure of Scott Bookman, one of the agency’s top-ranking officials.

An from July 17 listed him as senior director for public health readiness and response, one of nine core officials working under Executive Director Jill Hunsaker Ryan. The page in that role.

A letter that the state health department provided to The Denver Post under a request showed Ryan informed Bookman that he had been placed on paid administrative leave July 23 pending completion of an investigation.

The health department redacted a portion of the letter that placed Bookman on leave, obscuring any explanation of what officials were investigating.

Bookman resigned July 25, with a four-sentence email to Ryan saying he needed to focus on unspecified challenges facing his family.

“It has been an absolute honor to work for the Polis administration and I’m incredibly proud of the work that we did throughout the pandemic,” he wrote.

When asked on what grounds they redacted that information, the health department officials cited an exemption in the state’s open records law that allows agencies to withhold complaints and investigations related to sexual harassment.

The public records staff confirmed they intended to use that exemption, which doesn’t apply to situations that don’t include an allegation of sexual misconduct.

The department’s records unit also confirmed that the state had completed the investigation, but declined to release any information about the allegations or whether the probe found any wrongdoing. Officials haven’t commented on Bookman’s departure, describing it as a personnel matter.

“We are committed to a safe, respectful workplace, and we take all concerns seriously, reviewing them and then acting under our policies and applicable state law,” Department of Public Health and Environment spokeswoman Gabi Johnston said in a statement.

Bookman, who had worked at the health department for six years, didn’t respond to a message left on a phone number listed as his or a note left at his residence. No one answered a message to his former state email address, which didn’t yield a bounceback or information about other ways to contact him.

In a in May 2023, Bookman said he had worked as a paramedic in Denver before earning a master’s degree in emergency management from  and briefly running a federally qualified health center in the southwest corner of the state.

He joined the state government in mid-2019 as director of the public health lab and became COVID-19 incident commander in January 2020, he told the ethics forum. The state government’s first online mention of him in that role was in .

The incident commander was one of the public faces of the state’s COVID-19 response, with responsibilities that included setting up testing early in the pandemic and monitoring hospital capacity during surges. Bookman regularly appeared at media briefings alongside Gov. Jared Polis and other top public health officials.

NEW YORK (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory committee meets this week, with votes expected on whether to change recommendations on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox.

The exact questions to be voted on Thursday and Friday in Atlanta are unclear. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to questions seeking details to a newly posted .

But some public health experts are worried that the votes will — at a minimum — raise unwarranted new questions about vaccines in the minds of parents.

Perhaps even more consequential would be a vote that restricts a government program from paying for vaccines for low-income families.

“I’m tightening my seat belt,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccines expert.

The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, makes recommendations to the director of the on how already-approved vaccines should be used. CDC directors have almost always accepted those recommendations, which are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs.

Kennedy, a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices.

Here’s a look at the three vaccines being discussed:

COVID-19

Before Kennedy was health secretary, ACIP would typically vote in June to reaffirm recommendations for shots against respiratory viruses that sicken millions of Americans each fall and winter.

This past June, Kennedy’s ACIP voted to for Americans but was silent on COVID-19 shots.

Before that meeting, Kennedy he was removing COVID-19 shots from the CDC’s recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women. The move was heavily criticized by doctors’ groups and public health organizations, and prompted a by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups.

Days after Kennedy’s announcement, families could still get the 2024-2025 version of COVID-19 shots for their kids in consultation with their doctors. That clarification meant shots would still be covered by the federal government����ap Vaccines For Children program, which pays for shots for families who lack money or adequate health insurance coverage. It����ap now responsible for roughly half of childhood vaccinations in the U.S. each year.

As with flu shots, however, there are new COVID-19 formulations each fall, to account for changes in which strains are circulating. The committee has not yet voted on whether to recommend this season’s COVID-19 shots or whether those shots should be covered by the VFC program.

Further complicating the picture: When the FDA last month this fall’s COVID-19 shots, the agency took the unusual step of narrowing their use for healthy younger adults and .

If the ACIP simply follows that, and if there is no additional clarifying language from the CDC, then “that would take away access for roughly half of America’s kids,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The pediatricians group urges that vaccinations continue for all children ages 6 months to 2 years.

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B can cause serious liver infections. In adults, the virus is spread through sex or through sharing needles during use injection-drug use.

But the virus also can be passed to a baby from an infected mother, and as many as 90% of infected infants go on to have chronic infections.

A hepatitis B vaccine was first licensed in the U.S. in 1981. In 1991, the ACIP recommended a dose within 24 hours of birth for all medically stable infants who weigh at least 4.4 pounds.

Infant vaccinations are stressed for women who have hepatitis B or, crucially, who have not been tested for it. The infant shots are 85% to 95% effective in preventing chronic hepatitis B infections, studies have shown.

Newborn hepatitis B vaccinations are considered a success, and no recent peer-reviewed research shows any safety problem with giving kids the shots on their first day of life, Schaffner said.

But Kennedy’s ACIP members suggested in June they wanted to revisit the guidance.

Schaffner noted that health officials used to rely on screening mothers before birth but that many cases were missed.

“There were lots of failures,” he said. “And so there were continuing transmissions from mother to child.”

MMRV

Chickenpox was once a common childhood annoyance, causing an itchy skin rash and fever.

But the highly contagious virus can also lead to complications such as skin infections, swelling of the brain and pneumonia. Severe cases are more common among teens and adults who get it for the first time. The virus — called varicella — also can reactivate later in life and cause the painful illness called shingles.

The government first recommended that all children get a chickenpox vaccine in 1995, leading to a dramatic drop in cases and deaths.

In 2006, a combination MMRV shot — measles, mumps, rubella and varicella — was licensed. The CDC initially recommended that doctors and parents use the combo shot over separate MMR and varicella injections.

But within a few years, studies showed children who got the combo shot more often developed a rash, fever and — in rare instances — seizures after vaccination compared with children who got separate shots.

In 2009, the ACIP , removing the preferential language and saying either the combination shot or separate shots were acceptable for the first dose.

Today, most pediatricians suggest separate doses for the first shot, but give the combined shot for the second dose, pediatrics experts say.

Again, there’s no new evidence about harms from MMRV shots, said O’Leary, of AAP.

Why revisit it now?

“This version of the ACIP is an orchestrated effort to sow distrust in vaccines,” O’Leary said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Initially, pharmacies couldn’t administer the updated shots in Colorado unless a patient had a prescription. The state allows pharmacists to administer vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee, but not other shots.

Dr. Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the state health department, responded by issuing a standing order — essentially, a prescription for every resident – allowing them to get vaccinated at retail pharmacies.

But that order doesn’t guarantee insurance will cover the shots or that pharmacies will choose to stock them. Last year, fewer than half of people over 65 nationwide received an updated COVID-19 shot, with uptake dropping further in younger age groups, raising questions about whether health care providers will believe demand is high enough to justify buying the vaccine.

“The standing order provides accessibility. It doesn’t necessarily provide availability,” Calonge said Tuesday.

The last week that would require state-regulated plans to cover COVID-19 vaccines without out-of-pocket costs for people of any age, assuming the division passes it as written. Insurance cards from state-regulated plans typically have CO-DOI printed in the lower left corner.

The state’s rule doesn’t apply to federally regulated plans, which account for about 30% of employer-sponsored insurance plans in Colorado, Calonge said. Typically, however, those plans try to offer competitive benefits, since they mostly serve large employers, he said.

“My hope would be they would want to keep up with other insurers,” he said.

This isn’t the first time that people on state-regulated plans have had benefits not guaranteed for people with federally regulated insurance.

Colorado capped the cost of insulin and epinephrine shots to treat severe allergic reactions in state plans, but couldn’t require the same for plans the state doesn’t oversee. In those cases, it offered an “affordability program” requiring manufacturers to supply the medication at a lower cost for people who aren’t covered by the state caps, Medicare or Medicaid.

At least two Colorado insurers surveyed by The Denver Post said all of their plans will cover COVID-19 vaccines, while others hedged.

Select Health, which sells Medicare and individual marketplace plans in Colorado, said its plans currently cover COVID-19 vaccines without out-of-pocket costs for everyone. Kaiser Permanente Colorado said in a message to members that it will pay for the shot for anyone 6 months or older.

Donna Lynne, CEO of Denver Health, said the health system’s insurance arm is waiting on clarification about when it should cover the vaccines. Denver Health Medical Plan offers multiple plan types, some state-regulated and some under federal rules, she said.

“It’s less of a decision on our part than understanding what the health department and the insurance department are saying,” she said. “You can’t have one insurance company saying they are doing it and one saying they aren’t doing it.”

Anthem said it considers immunizations “medically necessary” if the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians or the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee has recommended them, but didn’t specify whether it would charge out-of-pocket costs for medically necessary vaccines.

If those bodies stated that certain people could get a particular vaccine — but not that they should — Anthem would decide about coverage “on an individual basis,” . The other groups have recommended the shots for people over 18 or under 2, with the option for healthy children in between to get a booster if their parents wish.

The state’s Medicaid program is still waiting for guidance from federal authorities about whose vaccines it can cover, according to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, and .

For most of the COVID-19 vaccines’ relatively brief existence, they were free and recommended for everyone 6 months and older. In 2024, the federal government stopped paying for them, which meant uninsured people no longer could be sure they could get the shot without paying.

Almost all insurance plans still were required to pay for the shots, though, because the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended them.

In previous years, the committee recommended updated shots within days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving them. In late August, the increasing their risk of severe disease, including asthma, obesity and diabetes.

Doctors still could prescribe the vaccine “off-label” to healthy people, in the same way that they prescribe adult medications for children when an alternative specifically approved for kids isn’t available.

This year, however, , and may not recommend the shots when it does. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all of the committee’s members earlier this year and replaced them with new appointees, most of whom oppose COVID-19 vaccines.

The committee’s decision also will determine whether the Vaccines for Children program can supply the shots for children who are uninsured, covered by Medicaid or are members of American Indian tribes, Calonge said. If the committee decides not to recommend the vaccines, those children likely won’t have another option to get the shots, he said.

When states and the federal government passed laws linking coverage to the committee’s recommendations, they did so expecting that it would also remain an apolitical arbiter of the evidence for vaccinating the population or specific subgroups, said Cathy Bradley, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health.

Now, that premise is in doubt, and states are looking for other ways to ensure access, she said.

Allowing anyone who wants a COVID-19 vaccine to get one from the provider of their choice is an important first step for Colorado, because the vaccines remain effective in preventing severe illness, Bradley said. As the situation develops, the state will likely need to come up with other partial solutions to preserve access, she said.

“It’s a different path for everyone, depending on what your coverage is,” she said.

Dr. Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, issued a allowing anyone 6 months or older to receive the updated COVID-19 vaccines at a pharmacy starting Friday.

A standing order essentially is a prescription to the entire area under a public health department����ap jurisdiction; cities and counties used them to before it became available over the counter.

The Colorado State Board of Pharmacy will meet Friday for an emergency rulemaking session to ensure pharmacies and their employees are protected as they administer shots under the standing order. The order doesn’t require pharmacies to offer the vaccines.

CVS and Walgreens announced last week that their Colorado locations would only provide COVID-19 vaccines to people who presented a prescription. The state allows pharmacists to give vaccines only when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee recommends them. Fifteen other states .

In previous years, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended the updated COVID-19 shots within days of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approving them.

The FDA approved updated vaccines last week, but the committee hasn’t taken action and isn’t scheduled to meet until mid-September — and even then, may not vote to recommend them, since multiple new members have publicly stated their opposition to COVID-19 vaccines or, in some cases, to all vaccines.

“Colorado is committed to empowering individuals to make choices to protect their own health and safety, and I will not allow ridiculous and costly red tape or decisions made far away in Washington to keep Coloradans from accessing vaccines,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement.

This year, the FDA approved the COVID-19 vaccines for anyone 65 or older, and for younger people with . Before, anyone who was 6 months or older could get the shot annually, assuming they hadn’t had the virus in the previous two months.

Doctors can prescribe the vaccine “off-label” to healthy people who want extra protection before the fall respiratory season, though . Off-label prescribing is relatively common; for example, women undergoing fertility treatment sometimes take a repurposed breast cancer drug.

Most health insurance companies in Colorado didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to questions about whether they would cover the updated shot without out-of-pocket costs for all their members.

Kaiser Permanente said it would review the CDC’s guidance when it arrives, but is “committed to making the 2025-26 COVID vaccine available at no cost to children and adults for protection from severe illness.”

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the state health department, directing it to work with the state agencies overseeing Medicaid, private insurance plans and the regulation of pharmacies to remove barriers to vaccines for anyone who wants one.

“Since October 1, 2024, more than 4,500 Coloradans have been hospitalized due to COVID-19,” she said in a news release. “This order ensures that Colorado takes every step possible to prevent hospitalizations, protect frontline health care workers and preserve critical health care resources. Equitable vaccine access is a cornerstone of protecting the public’s health.”

State law allows pharmacists to administer vaccines recommended by the , a group that counsels the director of the about who will benefit from which shots.

In previous years, the committee recommended updated COVID-19 vaccines within days of the approving them. This year, the committee doesn’t have any meetings scheduled until late September, and may not recommend the shot when it does meet, since Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed multiple members with anti-vaccine views after removing all prior appointees in June.

The lack of a recommendation also means that insurance companies aren’t legally required to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine without out-of-pocket costs. Most private insurers will cover the updated shots this year, though that could change in 2026, .

Initially, CVS said it couldn’t give the COVID-19 vaccine to anyone in Colorado or 15 other states, because of their ACIP-approval requirement. As of Friday morning, its pharmacies can offer the shots to eligible people who have a prescription, spokeswoman Amy Thibault said.

As of about 10 a.m. Friday, CVS’s website wouldn’t allow visitors to schedule COVID-19 shots in Colorado.

Walgreens didn’t respond to questions about its COVID-19 vaccine policy, but its website said patients need a prescription in Colorado. A New York Times reporter .

The FDA this week recommended the updated shots that puts them at risk for severe disease.

The listed conditions include:

• Asthma and other lung diseases
• Cancer
• History of stroke or disease in the brain’s blood vessels
• Chronic kidney disease
• Liver disease
• Cystic fibrosis
• Diabetes (all types)
• Developmental disabilities, such as Down syndrome
• Heart problems
• Mental health conditions, including depression and schizophrenia
• Dementia
• Parkinson’s disease
• Obesity
• Physical inactivity
• Current or recent pregnancy
• Diseases or medications that impair the immune system
• Smoking

Healthy people technically still can get the vaccine, but would have to ask a health care provider to prescribe it off-label. An off-label prescription refers to one given for a condition the drug isn’t approved to treat, such as a blood-pressure drug prescribed to prevent migraines.

Not everyone has a regular health care provider or the inclination to take time out of their day for an office visit, though. Insurers also vary in their willingness to cover off-label prescriptions.

Customers of West Side Books in Denver’s Highland neighborhood know that feeling. Longtime visitors to the store at 3434 W. 32nd Ave. talk about owner Lois Harvey and the staff as friends who are ready to recommend new titles and guide them through the overflowing shelves of new and old books that one person likened to a treasure hunt. The store also sells rare books.

The yellow arrows on the floor pointing the way to the exit are handy.

“I look around and I go, ‘Oh, there’s a book I didn’t realize that I needed,’ ” said Michael Hester, who lives one block west of the store.

“It’s been my home bookstore for years,” said Jody Georgeson, who lives farther north. “Lois is always more than happy to talk about what we’ve been reading and what we like and what we didn’t. It feels like home.”

But the future is uncertain for the bookstore that has been a mainstay in a neighborhood that has changed significantly in recent years. Harvey, 72, plans to retire on Jan. 1. She started working in bookstores in Denver in the late 1970s and opened Capitol Hill Books on Colfax Avenue in January 1980. She sold it in 1995.

Matt Aragon-Shafi, the manager, wants to carry on Harvey’s work. The 36-year-old has been a fan of West Side Books since browsing its shelves when he attended nearby North High School. He has worked at the store for eight years.

“He’s the heir. He gets to take it and run,” Harvey said as she and Aragon-Shafi sat in a little nook at the front of the store. “Matt showed interest, enthusiasm, ability, intelligence and the ability to work hard. He’s very strong. He has a supportive husband.”

Harvey and her staff built up the online services to keep going during the height of the coronavirus pandemic when people stayed out of most stores. Customers can now roam through the narrow aisles to look for books or order them online. Aragon-Shafi has helped boost the store’s social media presence.

Harvey, however, acknowledged that keeping the doors open will likely mean downsizing and might require selling off parts of the business, such as the used-book collection. West Side Books’ rent recently more than doubled.

“Landlords can get Cherry Creek rents now, or property taxes are such that landlords have to push those limits because of what their costs are,” Harvey said. “If it weren’t for an anonymous donor, we wouldn’t even be able to say we could be here through the end of the year. That����ap big. If you’re in retail and you don’t have those last four months of the year, you’ve just lost a lot of money.”

The building’s owners have said they want West Side Books to stay, but also have plans to develop the property, Harvey said. What portion of the current 3,200-square-foot space would be available for the store is unclear. A restaurant sits on part of the property.

Harvey said Aragon-Shafi faces the challenge of figuring out “how to keep it together.”

“He’s smart, he’s good. He will figure it out,” she added.

Is Aragon-Shafi ready for the challenge? “I’m as ready as I can be,” he said.

A neighborhood mainstay

Aragon-Shafi, who started in retail when he was 18, said he’s learned a lot about the book business from Harvey. He has learned to be more reflective, to think before acting and to reach out when he needs something.

And he’s learned about relating to customers in what is often a more close relationship than in other retail businesses. He’s optimistic about being able to stay in the store’s longtime home.

“We may have to downsize, curtail our inventory, see what the neighborhood wants of us,” Aragon-Shafi said.

West Side Books first opened in 1997 in a different spot on West 32nd Avenue. Harvey and her brother, Jim Harvey, ran West Side Books & Curios together until moving to the current location in 1999. Her brother, who became a silent partner, owned the building, once a vehicle transmission shop, until 2022.

The store, with its purple, salmon and yellow exterior, has been an anchor “for our little commercial area here,” Hester said. “Lois brings in authors to speak about their books. She has occasional meetings of community groups there. She hosts various events that really bring people in.”

Hester has volunteered to help with the sound system for some of the events. He also contributes to the inside decor that includes posters, pictures and sculptures. He donated an acoustic guitar that was hung in the music section.

The area has changed dramatically since Hester moved to Highland in 1989. He recalled hearing gunfire at times. There was a meth lab operating in the neighborhood.

“Now, of course, it����ap totally gentrified. The house next door to me sold two years ago for $1.2 million,” Hester said.

Losing West Side Books is one change that Georgeson doesn’t want to see in the area. “Of course that����ap always a concern. I think that they have enough support that maybe the neighborhood won’t let that happen.”

Georgeson said that having independent book stores is a key to maintaining an educated public.

“When you get the big monopolies, all you get are the best sellers. You don’t get a well-rounded body of things to browse through and consider,” Georgeson said. “I think it’s also important as a gathering place for a neighborhood, a place people go to feel that sense of a community.”

When she retires, Harvey said she’ll still try to help Aragon-Shafi with whatever he needs. She also plans to spend time with her husband’s grandchildren and her daughter and her daughter’s cats.

Harvey, who grew up in New Mexico, figured she would pursue a medical career. Her mother was a nurse and her best friend was going to medical school. Then she got the bug for the book business. She started dating a man who had a small book and comics store on Colfax Avenue.

“I loved the books. I loved the variety. I loved having a chance to exercise my curiosity and to help people find things to exercise their curiosity,” Harvey said. “I think curiosity is really one of our best features as human beings.”

Salima Jandali, a former JBS worker who is Muslim and from Morocco, says in her complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, that JBS engages in “systematic workplace discrimination” based on her religion and retaliated against her after she refused to engage in the company’s “illegal, dangerous and exploitative practices.”

JBS did not respond to requests for comment. In court filings, the company denied engaging in any unlawful conduct and denied demanding Jandali falsify safety records.

From August 2019 until September, Jandali worked as a safety instructor at the Greeley plant, tasked with conducting mandatory safety training for new hires and production employees working with equipment on the meat-processing floor.

The courses — seven hours for current workers and a week for new employees — are meant to teach workers about health and safety protocols, including instruction on blood-borne pathogens, hand washing, knife sharpening and meat-related diseases.

But JBS only holds safety courses in a handful of languages — ignoring the fact that more than 30 dialects are spoken at the plant, Jandali said in an interview and in her lawsuit, filed June 24. As a result, many workers don’t learn anything from these trainings, she said.

Yet employees are required to complete multiple-choice tests on the subject matter. Jandali alleges that supervisors gave her a laptop and told her to take the tests instead of having the workers do them. Sometimes, the workers weren’t even in the room.

In other cases, Jandali said instructors were told to give new hires a fake device so it looked like they were engaging with the tests. In reality, the instructors had the real devices, she said, which allowed them to select the correct answers.

Management puts immense pressure on the safety instructors to get their laborers to complete the courses as quickly as possible so they can get to work, Jandali said. She said she has seen examples of workers suffering serious injuries, including losing fingers and limbs, due to inadequate safety training.

Emails and text messages shared with The Denver Post show supervisors pushing Jandali and other instructors to get in line.

“What is going on here?” one supervisor wrote in a May 2024 email. “Why aren’t we getting them complete?”

In another email, a manager told Jandali to “fix this.”

In other messages, leadership sent Jandali lists of workers who hadn’t completed the courses, with the implication, she said, that she should finish for them.

Jandali, in May 2024, repeatedly told management that she didn’t feel comfortable falsifying these safety records, emails show.

“Simply taking the classes for them is not acceptable and unethical,” she wrote.

In response, supervisors took Jandali to Human Resources.

“They just said, ‘We need to work together to get these people to 100% (completed),'” Jandali told The Post. “‘If this is not something you’re willing to do, this is not a job for you.'”

In addition to the safety course allegations, Jandali alleges in the lawsuit that her manager belittled her and used slurs such as “stupid Muslim” or “stupid Arab.”

She would speak to Jandali condescendingly and disrespectfully, the lawsuit states, telling her to “do her damn job” when she asked questions. On at least 25 occasions, Jandali alleges she showed up to work to find her safety equipment missing or in the trash.

In September 2024, after enduring months of “unaddressed harassment, retaliation and pressure to engage in illegal conduct,” the lawsuit states, Jandali resigned.

The Greeley-based company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brazil-based , the world’s largest processor of beef and pork, with more than $50 billion in annual sales.

JBS USA operates nine U.S. facilities, selling beef products to more than 44 countries on six continents. The company employs more than 37,000 people at these facilities.

The company has also been in the crosshairs of U.S. regulators for years, along with myriad allegations from its employees over poor or unsafe working conditions.

The U.S. Department of Labor, in January, found JBS to work in their slaughterhouses.

Children as young as 13 were hired through an outside sanitation company and worked overnight cleaning shifts at slaughterhouses in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, federal investigators found. Their jobs included cleaning dangerous powered equipment, labor officials said.

The company to assist individuals and communities affected by unlawful child labor practices.

Last year, a union representing workers at the Greeley plant called for federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory bodies to hold the company accountable for a collection of poor labor practices. The union, , accused the company of human trafficking via TikTok; charging workers to live in squalid conditions; threatening and intimidating workers and their families; operating with dangerously high production line speeds; and withholding mail from workers.

In October, an employee filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging JBS intentionally discriminates against Haitian workers by subjecting them to poor working conditions.

In 2021,  after the EEOC found the JBS plant in Greeley  in the evening during the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan.

That same year, the U.S. Department of Labor  at its Greeley facilities, following the death of a worker. The fatality occurred after several other incidents at the same facility, including a worker who suffered an arm amputation, another worker who suffered laceration injuries and a worker who was exposed to a thermal burn hazard.

An in Australia found JBS “has an appalling track record in the workplace, repeatedly failing to protect its workers from death or serious injuries — including hand amputations and third-degree burns.”

���Ի���at least seven workers at the JBS plant in Greeley died during the COVID-19 pandemic, part of a wave of worker deaths at meatpacking facilities around the country. The deaths prompted a congressional investigation into the largest meatpacking companies.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued JBS a $15,615 fine for those COVID-19 deaths.

While both student attendance and chronic absenteeism remained largely flat last year, the state saw 3,500 more students miss significant amounts of school when compared to the 2023-24 academic year, according to data released Wednesday by the .

“Our overall statewide rates, unfortunately, are moving in the wrong direction of what we hoped to see,” Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said.

A student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the school days in an academic year for any reason.

Statewide, average daily attendance in school dropped by less than a percentage point to 91.4% last year. Chronic absenteeism also increased by less than a percentage point to 28.4% during the 2024-25 academic year, the data showed.

Attendance rates for most students of color lagged behind the statewide average, with Asian pupils the only demographic not to see a slight drop last year.

“These are more than data points,” Córdova said in a statement. “These are young people who are disengaged, disconnected and missing out on the critical learning experiences that they need to be successful.”

She said during a media briefing that it����ap not exactly clear why more students missed school last year, but that the state’s largest districts didn’t see as much improvement as they had during the 2023-24 academic year.

“It is not because of a lack of emphasis, focus or energy around the importance of daily attendance,” Córdova said.

Nationwide, chronic absenteeism in schools has increased since the pandemic — one of the many ways the health crisis upended education in the U.S.

Societal values and attitudes toward education shifted during the pandemic, even after schools resumed in-person learning, said Cori Canty, the school improvement and attendance manager at .

Parents are more likely to keep children home if they have a cough than they were before COVID-19, or for a mental health day if a student is struggling with stress or anxiety, she said.

Families are also more likely to take vacations during the academic year rather than waiting for summer or winter breaks compared to before the pandemic. Other students miss school because they are required to work to help financially support their families, Canty said.

DPS, the state’s largest school district, saw attendance rates improve last fall, but the progress was hindered after the presidential election and inauguration, she said.

The district has welcomed thousands of immigrant students in recent years, and many families and educators have feared that federal immigration enforcement officers will appear on school campuses under President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation efforts. The fear has led families to keep their children home from school, including in the wake of high-profile immigration raids across the Denver metro earlier this year.

DPS’s attendance rate was largely flat at 89.2% during the 2024-25 academic year, compared to the previous year. The percentage of students who chronically missed school increased 1 percentage point from 37.1% during the 2023-24 academic year to 38.1% last year, state data showed.

Attendance matters because students need to be in school to learn. Elementary-aged students who attend school regularly are more likely to read at grade level by the time they are in the third grade. Older students who are chronically absent are more likely to drop out and not graduate high school, according to the education department.

During the pandemic, Colorado’s average daily school attendance was 90.2% during the 2021-22 academic year, down from 91.9% the previous year. The statewide chronic absenteeism rate rose from 26% to 34.5% during that same period.

While more students are back in school compared to four years ago, Colorado adolescents are still missing more class time than they did before the pandemic.

In 2019, the statewide school attendance rate was 92.8% and chronic absenteeism was 22.6%, data showed.

Brandi Stott, the principal of , said the Loveland-based school has worked to combat chronic absenteeism by focusing on family engagement and supporting students instead of punishing them if they miss class.

The school hired a family engagement specialist and created an attendance team to support families as part of its efforts to keep kids in class.

Lincoln Elementary’s chronic absenteeism rate dropped by 5.7% between 2023 and 2025 and now sits at 20.38%, Stott said.

Educators said getting kids back into classrooms has involved strengthening relationships between staff and families and helping students feel like they belong at school.

“It����ap a lot of increased communication,” Canty said. “It����ap a lot of positive emphasizing the social and emotional support that schools play in a child’s emotional development.”