-- 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. 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. The vaccine hesitancy 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. Down the street, a black shirt displayed in a storefront warned, “ATTENTION SNOWFLAKES: THIS IS NOT A SAFE PLACE.”People bristle at the workplace vaccine mandate being pushed by President Joe Biden. Wyoming officials are promising a vigorous fight against Biden’s vaccine mandate, with talk about using the president’s coronavirus relief funds to compensate businesses for fines levied against them for defying the mandate.

Source: ABC News September 28, 2021 19:07 UTC