Governor lectures Wyoming during angry press conference

Gordon noncommittal on issue of mask mandate, even as state's medical community calls for statewide order

Gov. Mark Gordon addresses Wyoming

On the morning of the pandemic’s deadliest day in Wyoming so far, Gov. Mark Gordon addressed the public in a televised address, chastising the populace for allowing the disease to spread. Carelessness is endangering both the state’s inhabitants and its economy, he said.

But the governor offered no new orders and was noncommittal when asked about the possibility of a mask mandate or other responses, insisting — as he has since the beginning of the pandemic — that residents must take it upon themselves to slow the spread.

Gordon himself seemed aware that his pleas for personal responsibility have failed to contain the virus, but said only that “all options are on the table” in response to calls for more stringent action.

“We’ve relied on people to be responsible and they’re being irresponsible,” Gordon said. “They think somehow that this is all nonsense. Well ask yourself. Look around. Everybody knows somebody now who’s been sick with it; some of them have permanent disabilities because of it. So let’s get serious.”

Gordon warned the state might have to step in if the situation continues to worsen. He remained vague on specific details, even as he appeared to grapple with the recent failure of his “light as possible” approach.

“We’ve relied on personal responsibility throughout this pandemic,” he said. “So ask yourself, has that really been working? Have people been taking the responsibility we’ve asked them to? Deaths and hospitalizations are increasing. So my problem is: if I can’t rely on you, we’re going to have to do something else.”

Wyoming’s medical community is united in its call for a statewide mask mandate. A letter to the governor requesting as much was co-signed by the state’s county health officers, the Wyoming Medical Society and the Wyoming Hospital Association.

“Our numbers have continued to increase as many have disregarded our recommendations,” the letter reads. “Education and encouragement alone have not achieved desired outcomes. Our health care resources are becoming critically strained with hospitalizations and deaths increasing.”

While three counties (Albany, Laramie and Teton) and the Wind River Indian Reservation have passed masks mandates for their jurisdictions, the letter states this piecemeal approach is too slow and inconsistent for the crisis at hand.

“We feel that a statewide mandate sends a more powerful and effective message in a more timely manner,” the letter reads. “With the recent dramatic increase in cases and hospitalizations, expedited implementation is paramount. In addition, if we can slow the spread of COVID-19 we can hopefully also prevent another lockdown and speed our economic recovery.”

While he would not commit to recommendations made by the state’s medical community, Gordon did echo the letter’s concerns about the rapidly increasing case count, hospitalizations and death toll.

“I am very concerned and angry about what’s happening with conditions in our state,” he said at the outset of his address. “Health, business and our civic wellbeing are all being tested in ways we have not seen before. Our state is at its most strained since it began and it is not letting up.”

Gordon detailed the crisis facing the Mountain West, as Wyoming and surrounding states lead the nation in per capita metrics, including hospitalizations, new cases and deaths.

Then the governor raised his voice.

“So I’m going to ask you to go to yourself and ask yourself: Do you feel better today about what’s going on in this state than you felt maybe in June or July or August when we were one of the lowest states for infection rates?” he shouted. “We were one of three states that could have a state fair — we had a carnival going. Ask yourself: you think we can do that now without running a risk on everything? Our capacities are overwhelmed. It’s time that Wyoming woke up and got serious about what it’s doing.”

But if “getting serious” implies more than individual responsibility, the governor would not elaborate.

Fielding a question about the medical community’s letter, Gordon said the county health officers have his full support when they decide to implement county-wide mask mandates or other orders they see as necessary in their communities.

“All things are on the table,” he said. “We want to make sure we address this issue before we lose all ability to respond to health crises. So yes, we are thinking about every aspect of what we can do.”

Another reporter asked if Gordon was considering restrictions similar to those implemented in the spring, when K-12 schools went virtual and businesses were made to alter their operations. Gordon said once again that there were a multitude of options on the table, but declined to be more specific.

“What we’re looking at is to calibrate a response that is proportionate to the challenge we see,” he said. “We know that there are some counties, Albany for example, that are seeing a real run. We may have to consider some very specific types of things on a county-by-county basis or a community-by-community basis.”

Gordon has previously disregarded public suggestions by a medical authority, repeatedly refusing to issue a statewide shelter-in-place order, even after the Wyoming Medical Society called for one in March. The decision meant Gordon remained one of just seven governors nationwide — all Republicans — who did not implement a shelter-in-place order.

Since the beginning, government action and orders have been heavily politicized. The actions Gordon did take early in the pandemic drew fire from the more extreme members of his own party. That fire included a protest on the steps of the state capitol as well as a letter from Rep. Scott Clem (HD-31) criticizing the governor’s shutdowns.

“We’re citizens in this country, not subjects,” Clem told Cowboy State Daily, the outlet that published his letter. “To see China respond to this in a very authoritarian and draconian way was not surprising. But when we had governors here in America, like sheep, follow the China model, I was not expecting that.”

The late Rep. Roy Edwards, Clem’s friend and mentor, was also skeptical of the state’s response to COVID-19, even regurgitating a conspiracy theory during a committee meeting in September that the pandemic was politically motivated and would end right after the general election.

Edwards died earlier this month after a two-week battle with COVID-19, one of the state’s now 144 deaths.

Edwards was far from the only Wyoming politician to espouse COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

During an interview with WyoFile — and despite living in the state’s hottest hotspot — Albany County Commission Chair Terri Jones also called the pandemic “politically motivated,” adding that the left “wants the pandemic because they want to socially divide everyone.”

Nor are these conspiracies the only belligerent responses to recommendations and pleas of public officials and medical authorities.

Wyoming Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital, is currently overrun with COVID-19 cases. Both ICU and medical-surgical capacity are daily concerns for the overwhelmed staff and administration, but during a press conference earlier this month, Natrona County officials were hardly able to speak as angry attendees heckled and booed the stage.

Though not by name, Gordon decried people spreading misinformation, describing them as “knuckleheads” during the press conference Friday.

“Our state is at a fever pitch,” he said. “For every piece of information that’s being conveyed, somebody comes up with some other bogus piece of information to try to disprove it.”

Amid widespread misinformation and an exponentially accelerating public health disaster, the state could be looking at a mask mandate, or even more extreme measures. But Friday morning, despite Gordon’s clear anger and disappointment, the governor concluded his address without any firm commitment.