Low vaccine rate highlights Wyoming conservative streak

Reserving doubts whenever others claim to know what’s best is part of life in Wyoming

GILLETTE, Wyo. -- As her beloved grandmother’s health declined, Lauren Pfenning's family insisted that she get a COVID-19 vaccine before paying her a final visit.

She spent over a week researching vaccines on the internet and anguished over the decision during and after 12-hour shifts at her job hauling coal in an open-pit mine near Gillette, Wyoming. Her grandmother died earlier this month before she made a decision, but Pfenning stands by her choice to not get vaccinated.

Pfenning embodies the fiercely independent, deeply conservative Wyoming way of life that has defined the state’s response to the pandemic and made it the second-least vaccinated state as of Tuesday, behind only West Virginia. Only 23% of residents in her county have been vaccinated, putting it among the bottom handful of places in America that have not cracked 25% with their COVID-19 immunization rates.

The situation in Gillette is emblematic of the live-free, mind-your-own-business mentality toward the pandemic that is dominant across conservative America at a time when the delta variant is tearing through unvaccinated communities.