SEE REXRUN

from Englewood Herald 082522

by Colorado Community Media

Attendees at the Aug. 6 “RexRun” event visit with Love Bug, a miniature therapy horse with McNicholas Miniatures. Love Bug is an

honorary deputy in Arapahoe County Sheri ’s O ce Mounted Patrol Unit. PHOTOS BY TAYLER SHAW

Greenwood Village K-9 Maverick on Aug. 6 at the “RexRun” event.

Theresa Ann Babcock smiles alongside Sheri Tyler Brown, left, Deputy Travis Jones, right, and Deputy John Gray, center.

REXRUN

County Sheriff’s Offi ce Mounted Patrol Unit. “I think it’s great.”

Back the Blue K-9 Force, created in 2016, helps fund school therapy dogs and law enforcement K-9 units throughout Colorado, including for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Offi ce.

“They’ve been working with Arapahoe County for years. And they not only provide all of our equipment to our canines — all of our canines — but they also provide our dogs,” said School Resource Offi cer Deputy John Gray. “The partnership is huge.”

Gray is the handler of Rex, Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Offi ce fi rst therapy dog, who was the inspiration for the “RexRun” event.

Rex, who lives with Gray and works with him in Littleton Public Schools, helps offer a two-part safety approach, Gray said. The fi rst is mental health support, connecting with kids in school who are less social or may be struggling. The second is being able to smell guns, since Rex is certifi ed in gun detection.

“I think the coolest thing is that there’s lots of therapy dogs in schools, but there’s not a lot that wear a badge,” Gray said, explaining that Rex helps him connect with students.

Gray said he thinks there are kids who probably wouldn’t have talked to him if he didn’t have Rex by his side, and there are times where he’ll have 20-minute conversations with students without them realizing it as they pet Rex.

“To bridge the gap from law enforcement and the community is huge, especially in a time where people are unsure, you know. People are a little bit leery,” Gray said. “The whole purpose of this event was to bring, kind of, awareness of what we were doing, and it’s obviously a charity event so that we can hopefully raise money to get more of these dogs.”

In April, Rex’s younger brother, Zeke, became the agency’s second therapy dog. Diane Lewis, one of the founders of Back the Blue K-9 Force, said the nonprofi t purchased Zeke for the agency.

“I would say Back the Blue has helped us add fi ve dogs and a training fi eld in the last year,” Gray said. “None of that would have been possible without them.”

The nonprofi t has also helped the agency purchase equipment for the dogs, including bulletproof vests as well as medical kits in case a dog is injured and needs immediate treatment, Gray said.

“They now have the proper medical equipment to be able to service any type of injury that they’ll have happen in the fi eld. They can almost do a full operating room procedure right there in the fi eld, so it’s life saving for these dogs,” said Brian Johnson, a volunteer for the nonprofi t who said he used to be an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s deputy and is a U.S. Army veteran.

“It’s about — not just about supplying the K-9, but also keeping the K-9 alive so they can actually have a long career,” Johnson said.

Lewis said the nonprofi t has purchased about 12 dogs for Colorado law enforcement agencies, and it aims to continue offering funding for K-9 units and raise awareness about the value of therapy dogs like Rex and Zeke.

To help raise funds, a live auction was held at the event. Rhonda Rooney, a Lone Tree resident, was the top bidder of the auction, offering to pay $3,000 for a private foursome at Sanctuary Golf Course, located in Sedalia. She said she plans to give it to her parents.

Rooney found out about the event while searching for 5K races to participate in, as she set a goal earlier this year to participate in fi ve races. Her favorite part of the day was seeing where the money goes towards by meeting the animals and offi cers at the event.

In total, $33,327 was raised at “RexRun,” said Ginger Delgado, a public information offi cer for Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Offi ce, in an email Aug. 16.

Back the Blue K-9 Force announced Aug. 18 on its Facebook account that “RexRun for PAWSitivity” will return next year on Aug. 5 at Centennial Center Park.

Overall, Gray said he hopes people who attended the event gained an understanding of the importance of the nonprofi t as well as Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Offi ce therapy dog program and what it aims to do.

“January of 2021, this was just a concept,” Gray said about the school therapy dog program. “And as of January 2023, there’s a likelihood that we’ll have three dogs, which is awesome.”

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State health o cials step up response as case numbers rise

BY JOHN DALEY COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

Cases of monkeypox, a rare but serious disease, are rising, and Colorado health offi cials told reporters in a briefi ng Aug. 18 they’re ramping up in response.

“I think there’s reason for concern for monkeypox because we’re seeing an increase in infections,” said Dr. Connie Price, the Chief Medical Offi cer with Denver Health. “We have an opportunity that I think was much greater than we had with COVID to actually control it.”

Price said monkeypox is not as transmissible as COVID-19 and that it’s unlikely to evolve that way.

More information about the monkeypox outbreak will now be published online. It clearly shows the group currently most at risk, based on the data: young adult men in or near Denver.

The state said it’s expanding the data on the monkeypox dashboard they rolled out earlier this month. It will now include county-level case counts and demographic data.

The health department created the dashboard with input from community leaders, LGBTQ advocacy organizations, and local public health agencies, to ensure data transparency while protecting patient privacy.

“We have been working closely with trusted community members to develop the data sharing practices,” on the website, said state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy. She said that included some “data suppression” to protect privacy, especially in less populated counties “when there’s case counts of one or two, there is the potential for individuals to be identifi ed.”

Dashboard tracks disease

The updated dashboard clearly spells out how monkeypox is now hitting Colorado. A bar near the top shows six people are hospitalized, no one in the state has died and cases have been identifi ed in 19 counties. The fi rst cases were found in Colorado in May. The numbers grew from there to six in June, 66 in July and 94 in August, for a total of 168 to date.

Denver has recorded 59 cases, followed by Adams, Arapahoe, Jefferson and El Paso counties also in double digits. Eighty-fi ve percent of cases are in men. The bulk of the cases are in younger adults: three in four are in those aged 18 to 44. Nearly 77% of cases are in people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual.

Following on the heels of twoplus years of grappling with COVID-19, and with other diseases like polio reemerging in the U.S., another health department offi cial sought to reassure Coloradans.

“Public health will always be monitoring the situation and always ready to scale our response and that we would communicate to the public,” no matter the threat, said Scott Bookman, who directs the Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response. “We are preparing to respond in any way that we need to, and we are committed to transparent, open communication with the public, so they understand their risk and understand the actions that they need to take.”

Based on the data the state health department is collecting both here in Colorado and nationally, “we are seeing that the greatest risk at this time is among, gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men,” said Herlihy. “That is primarily, here in Colorado, in the Denver metro area, but we have seen cases outside of the metro area as well.”

Questions arise

But as the state looks to ramp up response to the spread of another contagious disease, plenty of questions are popping up: about vaccines, tests, risks in schools and colleges.

As for schools, Herlihy said “I think it is important to note in the data that I shared today, that we have not seen any pediatric cases here in Colorado. But we are anxiously awaiting guidance from CDC.”

She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had let Colorado public health offi cials know they expect to release school and childcare guidance very soon. She said the state health department is talking to partners across the state and “encouraging the routine practices that we use now to prevent communicable diseases in schools, our practices that really should continue for monkeypox.”

State advises schools

Herlihy noted the state recently updated its school guidance around COVID-19 and said there’s guidance there about general infection prevention strategies in schools.

She said public health offi cials believe brief interactions without physical contact, so passing someone at a grocery store, would not be considered a risk for monkeypox transmission.

“Again, the major route of transmission really continues to be that close physical contact, including contact during sex,” she said.

Herlihy said the agency is having conversations with higher education institutions, which she said have learned a lot from the COVID-19 experience, including in resident halls, considered congregate, or higher risk, settings.

“Some of the strategies that they’ve been using, things like having places for students to isolate if they were to test positive, are going to be potentially important strategies again,” she said.

Monkeypox vaccines are available but in short supply, Bookman said, based on the federal allocation of it.

“Now we are hopeful that we will see more coming, in the coming weeks and coming months,” he said, adding that the state is prioritizing the vaccine to the places where we are seeing the largest amount of community spread and where the need is, which now is in the Denver metro area.

He said the state is expanding its distribution network; it now includes 59 providers, to which it’s distributed 3,500 doses. He said the state has administered more than 4,000 doses and that vaccine data also would appear on the state’s website.

Price said Denver Health has administered nearly 500 doses to people who meet criteria for close contact. Price added that there are non-research, experimental treatments available to those who have severe disease once they are diagnosed.

Herlihy said monkeypox testing is expanding and commercial labs nationwide have been coming online to test as well.

“Commercial lab testing is available and really recommended for patients who have insurance, that can be processed through primary care providers or other healthcare providers,” she said. “We know that most large systems in the state now are able to collect specimens and do this testing.”

She said it does not require preapproval from the state health department and specimens can be collected with materials that many providers have on hand.