As doctors the choice is easy. We’ll vaccinate our children, and you should too.

As both doctors and fathers, we’re encouraging parents to get their children ages 12 to 15 vaccinated as soon as possible. In clinical trials that involved thousands of children, the Pfizer vaccine had 100% efficacy and proved safe, with side effects in line with those in younger adults.

In Colorado, recent data show that children between the ages of 0 and 19 now account for 26.4% of current COVID-19 cases. While it is true that your child’s risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19 is very low, it’s not zero. And parents should be aware of a condition related to COVID-19 called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a shock-like condition associated with COVID-19. The risk to kids of getting hospitalized with COVID-19 or with MIS-C is far greater than the risk of a significant reaction to the vaccine.

Children are 20% of our population. If we are going to ensure that all members of our community, particularly our elderly and vulnerable populations, are safe from COVID-19, we must vaccinate as many healthy individuals as possible if we have any hope of achieving herd immunity and returning to a normal lifestyle.

We respect that every parent and guardian has a choice in the care they provide to their children. We hope you will consider the many benefits to their health and well-being, as well as the positive impact vaccinating as many people as possible can have on our community.

You can register online to get yourself or your child vaccinated—search for “Vaccine Sign Up Children’s Hospital Colorado” or “Choose Your Vaccine Denver Health.” Find additional information at https://covid19.colorado.gov/vaccine

David Brumbaugh is a board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist and the chief medical officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Steven Federico is a board-certified general pediatrician and the director of general pediatrics at Denver Health.

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District Attorney Beth McCann: Study on “Racial Disparities in Prosecutorial Outcomes” is moving DAs to find ways to improve our system.

The guilty verdict in George Floyd’s death moves our country forward, however, there is still more work to do. Our office is committed to being part of the solutions that create a fair and equitable society.

Long before George Floyd, I was concerned with the over representation of people of color in the criminal justice system. I commissioned an independent research study to explore whether any racial and ethnic disparities appeared in how our office prosecutes cases. My two goals were to ensure fair and equal justice and treatment for all and to gain your trust by being transparent. A link to the study, “Racial Disparities in Prosecutorial Outcomes; An analysis of felony cases accepted for prosecution in the City and County of Denver” is posted with this article at FrontPorchNE.com.

The report did not find racial or ethnic disparities in our overall plea bargaining and resolution of felony cases. It did show that we need to dive deeper into some limited areas of discrepancy, specifically in dismissals, deferred judgments, and referrals to drug court. However, there was no overall indication that those issues were based on racial bias.

The report makes recommendations that I am committed to pursuing and some that were already underway prior to the report’s release. The real gift of this research is that it is sparking conversations internally and externally. Colorado’s elected district attorneys from small, medium and large jurisdictions, Republicans and Democrats are now discussing the prosecutors’ role in correcting racial disparities in our work. It is encouraging to hear commitment, determination and innovation as DAs consider how to improve many facets of a cumbersome system.

Here is a link to the study, “Racial Disparities in Prosecutorial Outcomes; An analysis of felony cases accepted for prosecution in the City and County of Denver” https://www.denverda.org/news-release/study-identifies-additional-opportunities-for-denver-das-office-to-ensure-fair-justice-for-all/