Rae Ellen Bichell

Author's posts

Live Free or Die if You Must, Say Colorado Urbanites — But Not in My Hospital

In a fracas between a largely rural county and neighboring cities, class and politics are just as relevant as the coronavirus. People are getting “stupid and mean,” as one mayor put it.

This Health Care Magnate Wants to Fix Democracy, Starting in Colorado

Kent Thiry, the former CEO of dialysis giant DaVita, has clear ideas about how democracy should work. By backing ballot measures in Colorado, he’s shaping the power of voters in that state.

People Proving to Be Weakest Link for Apps Tracking COVID Exposure

Contact tracers in many states are stretched thin. Colorado is among the latest states to launch an app that aims to help, based on the COVID contact-tracing tool built by Apple and Google. But there’s a chicken-and-egg problem: More people will use them if they prove to work, but the apps become effective only if more people use them.

The Best COVID Warning System? Poop and Pooled Spit, Says One Colorado School

About 6% of large universities with in-person classes are routinely testing all students. For many institutions, that strategy is out of reach. To get ahead of the virus, Colorado State University is experimenting with a combination of sewage monitoring and a lesser-known approach to pool testing.