The state party said in a press release that Colorado is one of the healthiest states and believes in evidence-based health policies.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been credibly accused of sexual assault and has consistently undermined trust in science by using his personal beliefs and conspiracy theories as evidence,” Murib said in a statement.

Susan Lontine is the executive director of Immunize Colorado and a former Democratic state legislator. She chaired the Health and Human Services Committee from 2019-2022.

“We are disappointed and concerned about Governor Polis’ support of RFK Jr.’s nomination,” she told CPR News.

Lontine said that while her organization hopes to work with Polis in the next legislative session to advance good public policy, she strongly opposes Kennedy’s nomination to lead Health and Human Services.

A Morgan County

“We should follow the science and the science is clear,” she said. “Vaccines save lives, and creating mistrust is bad for public health, and when you spread false information, misinformation, and disinformation, it undermines public trust, and that’s bad for public health.”

HHS operates 13 divisions and 10 agencies and administer a wide variety of Health and Human Services. The list includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Polis doubles down and tackles rejection as well

In his supporting post on X, Polis outlined why he thought Kennedy was the right choice. He said he was optimistic Kennedy could take on big pharma and the “corporate ag (sic) oligopoly to improve the health care system.”

“I hope they move towards personal choice of vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, as are mandates),” Polis wrote on X.

Polis said he supports some of Kennedy’s goals, such as capping drug costs and leveling the playing field for drug costs internationally. Polis supports the import of drugs at a reduced price.

“Colorado currently has an application with the FDA for us to import low-cost drugs from Canada, and we just need their approval.”

The governor also said he agrees with Kennedy that the FDA’s nutrition department needs to go and is not protecting children.

“The whole nutrition regime is dominated by big ag (sic) companies rather than human health and they are doing more harm than good,” Polis said.

A spokesman for the governor reiterated in a statement to CPR that despite his support, Polis still opposes Kennedy’s positions on a number of issues such as “unscientific propaganda that undermines confidence in the life-saving impact of vaccines” and prohibition of fluoridation.

“For the avoidance of doubt, I am vaccinated and so is my family. I will hold any HHS Secretary to the same high standard of protecting and improving public health,” Polis he wrote in an additional post explaining his advocacy.

Polis’ history with Kennedy dates back to at least 2019, when they discussed a proposal to tighten Colorado’s vaccine opt-out provisions. The Colorado Health Choice Alliance, a group that opposes government vaccination requirements, lobbied heavily against the measure and brought large crowds to testify in opposition at public hearings. The group facilitated the meeting.

The bill failed when Polis said he would not sign it. That summer, however, he signed an executive order to outline policies he hoped would increase Colorado’s kindergarten vaccination rate while hoping that, as he described it, “honors the rights of parents “.

In the following year Polis signed a different version of the 2019 bill. Polis has long supported increasing immunization rates, but not necessarily the approach taken by many other Democrats and public health experts.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

“The moment you try to get the government to force anybody to do something with their kids, you’re going to create mistrust of vaccinations, which is already a problem,” he told CPR’s Colorado Matters in an interview at the time. “We want to go another way.”

Dr. David Higgins is a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and serves on the board of Immunize Colorado. While he agrees with Polis that health care leaders should work hard to build public trust, he said that doesn’t include promoting false claims.

“We know that vaccination requirements in places like schools or hospitals are really important to prevent the spread of disease and to protect vulnerable people and children,” he said.

Higgins said he found Polis’ endorsement surprising, disappointing and troubling given Kennedy’s history of spreading misinformation and conspiracies about vaccine safety and effectiveness.