Polis: Not Getting ‘Into These Things Like Mask Mandates’ That Weren’t Needed Was Key to Credibility, Helped Us Promote Vaccines

During an interview with “The NPR Politics Podcast” recorded on Monday and released on Wednesday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) stated that there’s a “very high” burden on elected officials to tell people what to do, and “We’re not just going to wear masks for the heck of it.” Polis also said that in order to have credibility in promoting vaccines, “it was important that we didn’t get into these things like mask mandates and other things.”

Polis stated, [relevant remarks begin around 2:55] “I mean, we have some neighboring states that required masks and they had as much COVID, if not more, than we did, in deaths and hospitalizations. Obviously, there were some people that wanted everybody to continue to wear masks and so forth. But the burden on an elected leader to tell people kind of what to wear or do is very high. I mean, you need to convince me as governor that this will do something. We’re not just going to wear masks for the heck of it. So, unless we’re convinced that this requirement is necessary to save our hospital capacity, which it obviously was before the vaccine existed, then why would we do it?”

Polis also discussed the state’s vaccination rate and said that “to have that credibility as a messenger of that in Colorado, it was important that we didn’t get into these things like mask mandates and other things. Because we want to be trusted purveyors of real scientific information. And that’s why — one of the reasons, I think, we were so effective in getting people vaccinated.”

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