State

The sixth installment of RMV’s COvid Chronicles covers the week Colorado dropped the mask—just not in the way you’d hope. Restrictions vanished for rioters, but stayed in place for students and small businesses. It wasn’t science guiding policy. It was politics. No, it’s not short. Neither was the fallout.

Looking back five years later, it’s hard not to feel for everyday, taxpaying Coloradans. As May 2020 ended, COVID cases dropped, testing surged — and all people wanted was a little common sense.

Instead, they stayed home from work, logged into Zoom again and again, and watched their kids graduate by car window, ski-lift, or rope rappel — masked, of course.

Then they turned on the news. And who were the headlines about? Not employees. Not the sick or elderly. Kids? You kid! This is The Child Sacrifice State, after all — and Colorado’s leaders eagerly traded away children’s well-being for the comfort of able-bodied adults still lounging in lockdown.

No, the real VIPs were criminals, prisoners and protestors — the approved kind. They got the passes, the platforms, the pulpit. Ordinary Coloradans were told to stay silent and stay home.