Posted inEquity, Health, News

Grassroots groups lead the way on closing Colorado’s infant mortality gap

As Britney Taylor toured the Mama Bird Maternity Wellness Spa during its grand opening this spring, she reflected on the birth of her first child: a confusing and lonely experience that resulted in an unplanned cesarean section and an extended period of postpartum depression. But here in Aurora, local families and smiling doulas wandered amid […]

Posted inEducation, Health, News

School or “Russian Roulette”? Amid delta variant and lax mask rules, some Colorado parents see no difference

This story was written by Kaiser Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. The child had just started kindergarten. Or, as her mother called it, “Russian roulette.” That’s because her school district in Grand Junction, experienced one of the nation’s first delta-variant outbreaks last spring, and now school officials have […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News

Behind Wyoming and Colorado’s anomalous twin COVID-19 spikes despite their political differences

By Rae Ellen Bichelle, Kaiser Health News WHEATLAND, Wyo. — Brandon Graves said covid-19 arrived in Wheatland the way new movies do in this High Plains farming town: months after hitting the big cities and without much fanfare. “It kind of trickled in and it never really exploded here,” said Graves, a lifelong resident and […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News

People fly to Cortez for coronavirus vaccines, but some who live in southwest Colorado can’t reach a clinic

The airport says a lot about Cortez: The single-engine planes that fly into its one-room airport seat nine passengers at most. The city of about 9,000 is known largely as a gateway to beautiful places like Mesa Verde National Park and the Four Corners Monument. But COVID-19 vaccines have made Cortez a destination in its own right. “We had […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News

At Colorado’s rural edges, vaccines help assisted-living facilities reopen their doors

Bingo is back in the dining room. In-person visits have returned, too, though with masks and plexiglass. The Haven Assisted Living Facility’s residents are even planning a field trip for a private movie screening once they’ve all gotten their second round of COVID-19 vaccines. Such changes are small but meaningful to residents in the Hayden, […]

Posted inCOVID, Health, News

County Line Road in Erie is a coronavirus response fault line

ERIE — Whenever Larry Kelderman looks up from the car he’s fixing and peers across the street, he’s looking across a border. His town of 28,000 straddles two counties, separated by County Line Road. Kelderman’s auto repair business is in Boulder County, whose officials are sticklers for public health and have topped the county website with instructions […]