Vaccines won’t end this pandemic. Vaccination will.

Scrambling five letters at the end of a word is far more than semantics, say experts like Immunize Colorado’s Stephanie Wasserman. The seemingly magical public health power of a highly effective vaccine dissipates immediately if too many people refuse to actually take the vaccine.

Colorado needs to get to a 70% COVID-19 vaccination rate to achieve the herd immunity that protects those who are unable or refuse to get it, and should shoot for closer to 80%, medical experts said. That goal is up against poll responses where the idea of taking the vaccine is so far rejected by 44% of Colorado Hispanics, 48% of Blacks, 50% of those without a college degree and 58% who self-identify as Republican, far lower than Democrats, according to Healthier Colorado.

The state’s other beginning benchmarks are equally ominous: Colorado has the worst rates of school-age vaccinations for measles in the entire country, and has slipped far down the list of other age-appropriate childhood vaccinations.

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