This past week, Wyoming governor Mark Gordon’s office announced that the state has joined nine other states in pursuing legal action against the federal government concerning recent COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Opinions across UW campus on the subject are varied and wide, and only becoming more populous as this is the third lawsuit being pursued by the state.
“I agree with Governor Gordon for doing this,” freshman Agricultural Education and Psychology major, Taylor Reynolds said. “We need to quit conforming before we have no rights or freedoms that we fought so hard to have in the first place.”
The most recent lawsuit was filed against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule that seeks to require healthcare workers throughout the U.S. get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The official petition filed by all ten states cites the threat of both job loss and workforce shortages as major reasoning behind the lawsuit.
“This case illustrates why the police power over compulsory vaccination has always been the province of—and still properly belongs to—the States,” the official petition filed by the Plaintiff states. “Vaccination requirements are matters that depend on local factors and conditions.”
“I mean we could all protest, but I think a lawsuit would be more orderly for our state and country,” Reynolds said in support of the Plaintiff states. “I believe that Wyoming and the other states have a strong case against the federal government.”
Similar to reactions from across the country, UW students can see the situation from a different point of view.
“I think that hospital employees, while it should technically be a choice, should be feeling like they should be taking the vaccine, since it’s FDA approved,” Molecular Biology major Kesler Stutzman said. “I wouldn’t want to trust anyone who won’t protect themselves with my health.”
Stutzman sees the same issue of workforce shortages, but as an issue for different reasons than those cited by the petition.
“With the hospitalization crises and our inability to support the large number of people who are sick, I think it’s important for [healthcare employees] to set the example for other people to follow in their footsteps,” Stutzman said.
However, not all students feel qualified to comment on this subject.
“This is a super complicated topic that goes way beyond just the question of getting vaccinated or not,” said Architectural Engineering major Ryan Hennings. “It also involves matters such as states’ rights and individual liberties.”
“I think a lawsuit could be appropriate based on how serious the effects of the mandate turn out to be,” Hennings said. “It’s just hard to tell because the mandate is so new.”
To get a larger representative sample of student opinion, the Branding Iron sent out a Google Poll to students through email, and 65 responded to that poll.
41 out of 65 students (63%) said they did not agree with the lawsuit, while 12 out of 65 (18%) reported that they did agree, with the remaining 12 (18%) saying they did not want to or could not comment one way or the other.
Wyoming is joining a coalition of states including Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and New Hampshire. The lawsuit will be seen first in a Missouri federal court.
One of the other lawsuits is against a vaccine mandate for federally contracted employees. Wyoming is currently awaiting a ruling on a request for a temporary injunction in the case.
The other is against an Occupational Safety and Health Administration emergency temporary standard which mandates vaccines for employees of private Wyoming businesses with over 100 employees.
