WHAT WILL IT TAKE?

Wyoming Guv Admits COVID Policy Has Failed, Sticks With It

“We’ve relied on people to be responsible and they’re being irresponsible.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has for months resisted calls for a mask mandate, saying it was up to the citizenry to make that choice for themselves. But on Friday, Gordon publicly admitted that policy was a failure. “We’ve relied on people to be responsible and they’re being irresponsible,” he said at a briefing. You might expect that at that point, Gordon would have lowered the boom and imposed a statewide mask requirement like the ones that have helped slow the spread of COVID-19 elsewhere. But he did not. Instead, much as he had done a week earlier, the 63-year-old Republican threatened to tighten restrictions if his constituents didn’t start exercising some of that personal responsibility soon. The state has set new COVID-19 records day after day, and hospitals are warning they are running out of space.