CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon pushed back on the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates in a release on Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday, the Biden administration issued proposed mandates to help fight the COVID-19 surge by mandating that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly. In addition, the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.
In response, Gordon said the mandates were “an egregious example of big government overreach.”
“Our Constitution was written and fought for to protect our liberties as American citizens,” the release said. “I have asked the Attorney General to stand prepared to take all actions to oppose this administration’s unconstitutional overreach of executive power. It has no place in America. Not now, and not ever.”
Biden announced the new requirements in a Thursday afternoon address from the White House as part of a new “action plan” to address the latest rise in coronavirus cases and the stagnating pace of COVID-19 shots that has raised doubts among the public over his handling of the pandemic, said the Associated Press.
The actions come as the Delta variant of COVID-19 spreads, specifically through states such as Wyoming with persistently low vaccination rates. Idaho hospitals are so full of COVID patients that healthcare is now being rationed.
Wyoming hospitals are also nearing capacity, health experts are warning.
Wyoming is now fewer than 15 COVID-19 patients away from reaching a new all-time high during the pandemic, according to numbers from the Wyoming Department of Health. There have been at least 189 COVID-19 patients in Wyoming hospitals every day so far in September. In September 2020, there were never more than 25.
Just under 36 percent of Wyoming’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the WDH.
The governor’s statement follows:
“The Biden Administration’s announcement to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing for private businesses is an egregious example of big government overreach.
Our Constitution was written and fought for to protect our liberties as American citizens. This administration’s latest pronouncement demonstrates its complete disregard for the rule of law and the freedoms individuals and private companies enjoy under our Constitution. In Wyoming, we believe that government must be held in check.
I have asked the Attorney General to stand prepared to take all actions to oppose this administration’s unconstitutional overreach of executive power. It has no place in America. Not now, and not ever.”
