An event being billed by its organizers as a “March for Medical Freedom” will parade into Aspen’s Paepcke Park on Saturday.
“I’m not anti-vax, I’m pro choice,” Janelle Routhier, one of the event’s organizers, said Thursday. “I’m in support of freedom. It all goes back to freedom and it goes back to respect.”
Routhier declined to say whether she was vaccinated against COVID-19.
“That’s nobody’s business,” she said.
A Carbondale resident, Routhier said she and other members of a group called Roaring Fork Concerned Citizens are organizing Saturday’s march.
Routhier and other event organizers have criticized Pitkin County’s Fully Vaccinated Facility Program, which grants businesses exemption from the county’s indoor mask mandate if they require all of their employees and customers to show proof of being fully vaccinated.
The voluntary program does not allow employees or customers to show a negative COVID-19 test result as an acceptable alternative to being fully vaccinated.
March for Medical Freedom’s event organizers filed a Colorado Open Records Request with Pitkin County to determine which businesses had signed up for the program.
“There is a list of 32 businesses now that are … vaccine verified,” Routhier said. “These businesses are unjustly and unconstitutionally … not giving people the choice of medical freedom.”
According to Routhier, Saturday’s event begins at noon and will include a march through Aspen with stops outside of businesses participating in the county’s fully vaccinated program.
“We just want to give people an opportunity to make their voices heard in a peaceful way, and a lawful way,” Routhier said. “We’re going to open with a prayer. …We have someone to sing the national anthem and then as far as the speaker lineup we’re still working on confirming everybody.”
Nancy Lesley, the city’s events director, said one of the organizers completed an initial first-page application to use Paepcke Park but withdrew it when the city requested liability insurance and other necessary documents.
“He withdrew his request but then upon further conversation he also didn’t believe he was going to have 50 people [attend],” Lesley said of the event organizer. “In our code, if it is 50 persons or less they do not need a permit.”
Lesley did not have the organizer’s name readily available late Thursday afternoon.
As of Thursday, Pitkin County’s seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate was 124 cases per 100,000 people — a 34-case decrease from the previous day.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers more than 100 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people “high” transmission and less than 10 cases per 100,000 people “low” transmission.
“We have incentives out and are encouraging [county] employees to be vaccinated but we have not issued a mandate. We’re waiting to see if, and what, federal requirements come down,” Pitkin County Manager Jon Peacock said.
Peacock added that the intent of the county’s Fully Vaccinated Facility
Program was to encourage vaccination among employees and customers.
“We respect the rights of private businesses to make decisions that protect their employees and their customers,” Peacock said.
To date, more than 13,000 Pitkin County residents — approximately 74% of the county’s total population — have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to county data.
“Vaccines are the most effective strategy we have against COVID-19,” Jordana Sabella, Pitkin County Public Health director, said. “Currently, across Colorado, 78% of those hospitalized [with COVID-19] are unvaccinated and hospital capacity across Colorado continues to be concerning.”
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October 29, 2021 at 03:45PM
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‘March for Medical Freedom’ heads to Aspen on Saturday - Aspen Daily News
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