Colorado
Colorado’s long COVID clinics can’t meet demand, so health leaders look to expand treatment
Colorado doesn’t have enough capacity to treat everyone suffering with long COVID at the three specialized clinics in the state, so public health leaders are trying to figure out ways for more people to get the care they need closer to home.
Three multidisciplinary clinics in the state see long COVID patients, at National Jewish Health in Denver, UCHealth in Aurora and Family Health West in Fruita. Together, they’ve treated about 10,000 people since mid-2020 — a significant number, but nowhere near everyone in need, said Dr. Sarah Jolley, medical director of the UCHealth Post-COVID Clinic.
Researchers estimated in November 2022 that between 228,000 and 651,000 Coloradans had symptoms that lingered after a COVID-19 infection, what has become known as long COVID.
Some people have relatively mild symptoms, such as loss of smell, while others are unable to work or care for themselves because of extreme fatigue or “brain fog.” Some report their conditions improve over time, while others see no change or get worse.
One idea to bring care to more people with long COVID is building on Project Extension for Community Health Outcomes, or ECHO, which connects primary care providers with specialists to learn how to manage certain conditions locally and to discuss complex patients. It started in New Mexico and initially focused on teaching rural providers to treat patients with hepatitis C, but has expanded over time.
Dr. Kyle Leggott, primary care liaison for Project ECHO in Colorado, said the group put together seven online courses to cover the basics of long COVID care, which are free to providers who want them. They’re still working on setting up groups for more in-depth training and consultation, he said.
“We really need every provider who meets patients in the ambulatory care setting to know what long COVID is,” he said.
Even if care is available in someone’s community, it doesn’t do much good if they can’t afford it, said Chelsey Baker-Hauck, a long COVID patient who spoke at a roundtable hosted by Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera on Wednesday. She said one drug seems to be preventing more damage from her immune system attacking multiple body tissues, but it was a tough fight to get her insurance to cover it, and she expects to have to go through the same battle again soon.
The state also needs to make other supports more accessible, like disability payments, Baker-Hauck said. A friend of hers who also has long COVID recently lost her home because she was unable to work and spent much of her savings trying to repair her immune system, which is no longer protecting her from routine infections, she said.
“She’s not going to live to see her first disability payment,” she said.
Research suggests people newly infected with COVID-19 now are at a lower risk for lingering symptoms than they were earlier in the pandemic, due to immunity from vaccination and prior infections, as well as changes in the virus itself. That said, some still become seriously ill, placing them at a higher risk for long COVID.
As of Tuesday, 267 people in Colorado were hospitalized for COVID-19, and the number of people admitted on an average day was rising both in the state and nationwide.
Alison Sbrana, a disability activist from Fort Collins who spoke at the roundtable in Aurora, said the state’s infrastructure for treating post-viral syndromes has improved since the pandemic started.
She developed myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, in 2014 after an infection with the virus that causes mononucleosis. She bounced from specialist to specialist for years with no help, and it was extremely difficult to find someone who could treat her health as a whole and coordinate her care, she said.
While having three multidisciplinary clinics is an improvement over the landscape when she got sick, patients with post-viral conditions still face significant barriers to care, Sbrana said. For example, some people with cognitive symptoms of long COVID can’t drive, and not everyone has a relative or friend who can take them to Denver for appointments, she said.
“It would be an enormous lift for me to come down here and get care,” Sbrana said.
Project ECHO could be a partial solution, especially since the organizers seem interested in hearing from patients about what isn’t working in the current system, Sbrana said. Primary care doctors are accustomed to managing their patients’ health needs, so involving them would take the burden of scheduling and coordination off people struggling with daily life, she said.
“If you can keep it in primary care and teach them what they need to know… you’re going to prevent these patients falling through the cracks,” she said.
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Heavy rains in southern Colorado earlier this week have led to flooding that destroyed part of a road in the foothills just west of Colorado Springs.
City of Colorado Springs
Video posted by the city online shows high runoff in North Cheyenne Creek and heavy damage to the adjacent North Cheyenne Cañon Road. Pavement can be seen broken off from one of the lanes of the road, and the creekwaters are rushing under a collapsed section of roadway.
The washout was first discovered on Wednesday morning. It is located approximately 1.5 miles up the canyon.
Both gates into North Cheyenne Cañon Park are closed due to the damage assessment that is now taking place. The city says Gold Camp Road is also closed to everyone except for local residents.
“We are working on a plan to repair the road, and prevent further roadway damage,” the city wrote in a post on social media.
Colorado
Colorado terror attack suspect Mohamed Soliman formally slapped with 118 charges for antisemitic firebombing attack: court docs
Accused Colorado terrorist Mohamed Sabry Soliman was formally slapped with a whopping 118 criminal counts by state prosecutors Thursday for the horrific firebombing attack on people participating in a march to honor Israeli hostages days earlier.
Soliman, 45 — an Egyptian national who was living in the US illegally after his visa expired on March 28 — is now facing 28 counts of attempted murder for allegedly spraying a homemade flamethrower and hurling Molotov cocktails at the peaceful marchers in Boulder Sunday, according to court documents.
The hate-filled madman allegedly injured 15 people, ranging in age from 25 to 88, and one dog on Sunday when he attacked Run for Their Lives, an organization advocating for the release of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Three burn victims remain in the hospital, according to reports.
Soliman, who lived in Colorado Springs, reportedly said “he wanted them to all die and that was [his] plan. He said he would go back and do it again and had no regret doing what he did,” Boulder Detective John Sailer wrote in an affidavit for his arrest warrant.
Soliman – who shouted “Free Palestine” after the attack – stood behind a transparent partition in court Thursday as the charges were announced.
In addition to attempted murder, the alleged terrorist was also charged with several counts of use of an explosive or incendiary device and assault on a person over the age of 70, and one count of cruelty towards animals, according to court docs.
If convicted, Soliman could be looking at nearly 700 years behind bars, according to Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty.
“The charges reflect the evidence we have regarding this horrific attack that took place and the seriousness of it,” Dougherty told reporters outside the courthouse. “I encourage all of us to continue to lift up the victims, and support them and their loved ones and the Jewish community in response to this crime.”
Additional charges could be brought by prosecutors as new evidence is unearthed in the ongoing investigation into the antisemitic Boulder attack, authorities have said.
Soliman, who overstayed his visa, is also facing charges from federal prosecutors — including federal hate crime charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Since the attack ICE detained Soliman’s wife and five children who now face expedited deportation.
His next court date is on July 15.
US President Donald Trump participates in a Summer Soiree on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 4, 2025. Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban Wednesday targeting 12 countries, saying it was spurred by an attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that authorities blamed on a man they said was in the country illegally.
The ban, which strongly resembles a similar measure taken in his first presidency, targets nationals of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
It will go into effect on June 9, the White House said.
READ: ‘Antipathy’ to US: Tourists turning away from Trump’s America
Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, the White House said.
“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” Trump said in a video message from the Oval Office posted on X.
“We don’t want them.”
Trump compared the new measures to the “powerful” ban he imposed on a number of mainly Muslim countries in his first term, which he said had stopped the United States suffering attacks that happened in Europe.
READ: What we know about the suspect and victims in Boulder, Colorado, attack
“We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America,” Trump said.
“We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen. That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others.”
Rumors of a new Trump travel ban had circulated following the attack in Colorado, with his administration vowing to pursue “terrorists” living in the US on visas.
Suspect Mohammed Sabry Soliman is alleged to have thrown fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at a group of people who had gathered on Sunday in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally, having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.
“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said on X.
“These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information.”
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