Colorado governor Jared Polis: “We’re going to do better than the Rockies…” in COVID vaccine distribution

On Tuesday, Colorado governor Jared Polis took a swipe at both the Colorado Rockies and Denver Broncos in a comparison of the state of Colorado’s distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to residents of the state.

“There are some states ahead of us,” Polis said in his press conference on Tuesday. “I won’t rest until we’re number one. We continue that every day. There are 50 governors in 50 states who all want to be number one. We all can’t be, but we’re going to do better than the Rockies, and better than the Broncos. We are going to remain in that top tier.”

That’s not a particularly high bar as the Broncos haven’t had a winning record in four seasons and haven’t made the playoffs since they won the Super Bowl in the 2015-2016 season when Peyton Manning, who was just inducted into the Football Hall of Fame last week, led the Broncos to the Super Bowl win in his final season.

And the Rockies, yesterday, were projected to be the worst team in baseball in 2021 by PECOTA on the heels of trading third baseman Nolan Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Currently, though, Polis and the state of Colorado is faring better than the Rockies and Broncos in most COVID vaccines metrics, according to The New York Times as of Tuesday evening.

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Here are three metrics, with all three being in relation to the 50 states (meaning not including the Outlying Islands).

• Tied for 27th in percentage of the population that has received their first dose: 9.4 percent
• Tied for 9th in percentage of the population that has received their second dose: 3.7 percent
• Tied for 16th in percentage of doses received that have been used: 72 percent

Polis said this after he said that the state will receive roughly 27,000 more vaccines in the next three weeks. Polis also said last week that he is “optimistic” that Rockies fans will be able to attend Opening Day at Coors Field against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 1, which is seven weeks from this coming Thursday.

As of this publication, the Rockies are planning on having fans in attendance (albeit, limited attendance) for Opening Day. MLB announced their health and safety protocols on Tuesday and they are not barring fans from attending games. In many ways, the protocols are a bit more relaxed than last year. The main changes include:

• Personnel can be part of indoor gatherings of less than 10 people during the season
• Personnel can leave the hotel when on the road for outdoor dining, takeout meals, outdoor exercise, essential activities (hospital, grocery store, etc.), and other low-risk outdoor activities
• Family of personnel can also be tested for COVID
• Contact tracing devices must be worn by personnel at all times

You can read more about the regulations here.

With the protocols, hopefully, the 2021 season can go on for the full 162-game season with as (relatively) few issues as there were in the 2020 season.