A stark reminder of what happens when major media outlets and elected officials downplay the seriousness of a pandemic may be playing out in Casper, Wyoming. A worker at a psychiatric facility that has become one of the state’s hot zones went out and partied after getting tested for coronavirus. Now she’s tested positive.
He had just watched a Facebook video of a party that took place over the weekend showing partygoers “flat-out thumbing their noses” at public health guidelines, he said. And what’s worse: The party was attended by a health-care worker with a pending coronavirus test, as the Casper Star-Tribune earlier reported.
The health-care worker’s roommate, an employee at the Wyoming Behavioral Institute — home to one of the largest clusters of cases in Wyoming — had tested positive for the virus last Friday. So, because of evident exposure, the unidentified health-care worker then sought a covid-19 test on that same day.
But despite a self-quarantine recommendation, the worker decided to go to a party on Friday night, Freel said. On Saturday, the worker went to another party.
The test results came back on Monday—and the worker who partied so hard has tested positive for coronavirus. It sent public health officials scrambling to track down all the partygoers and get them in isolation. By Wednesday night, per the Star-Tribune, they had all been tracked down and quarantined.
Wyoming only has 300 confirmed cases, easily the fewest in the nation. It only had its first death earlier this week. It is one of the few states that hasn’t issued a stay-at-home order, though the parties almost certainly violated the statewide ban on gatherings of 10 or more people.
But it’s not a coincidence that people aren’t taking this seriously. After all, Wyoming is one of the reddest states in the nation. It’s not hard to conclude that people there are more willing to believe the Fox News talking heads and Republican electeds all the way up to Trump who claim this is just the flu.
There is going to be something seriously wrong if this worker still has a job when all is said and done. But Fox News and Trump bear a measure of responsibility for this.