Wyoming will experience a “shocking” death rate if citizens don’t stay in their homes except in emergency situations, according to Wyoming Medical Society President Dr. David Wheeler.
Wheeler, appearing on KTWO-TV on Wednesday, added to the comments he made while appearing with Gov. Mark Gordon in a news conference earlier this week. At that time, Wheeler stressed it is crucial that officials take action to restrict the movements of the state’s residents.
“We recommend and encourage him and our local leaders to take even more drastic actions than what we’ve seen so far,” he said Thursday. “We continue to see what we consider are a number of non-essential businesses with their doors open and their lobbies open and people venturing out to take care of normal every day business.”
Wheeler said Gordon’s mandates closing schools and some businesses aren’t enough and implored the governor take further steps to encourage people to stay in their homes.
“It is critically important that folks take seriously this message that you need to stay away from people and stay safely in (your) homes,” Dr. Wheeler said. “If we don’t do this now … the number of people who are going to die in Wyoming is going to be shocking to all of our souls.”
Wheeler said he understood that implementing a stay-at-home mandate would be challenging as Gordon is “operating from a political reality” that would make it difficult.
“We do have a common message,” Wheeler said. “He and I both absolutely 100% encourage every person in Wyoming to stay in their home unless they have some critical and urgent need for them to be out and about.”
