Advocacy

Just weeks out of the Wyoming Legislature’s 2021 Special Session focused on vaccine mandates, it is easy to forget the heavy lift ahead of lawmakers during the scheduled 2022 budget session, which starts on Valentine’s Day.

After three months of low numbers of nursing home resident COVID-19 cases and deaths in Wyoming, things have taken a turn for the worse through the end of September and most of October, according to the latest AARP COVID-19 Nursing Home Dashboard.

Wyoming's nursing home staff are being vaccinated at low rates, according to AARP's Nursing Home Dashboard

COVID-19 Death Rates Low; As Are Vaccination Rates Among Staff

A news release discussing the latest nursing home dashboard statistics on COVID's impacts on nursing home residents.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected communities across the country, hit older adults incredibly hard, and put a spotlight on a host of disparities. As Wyomingites and people across the nation look to recovery from the pandemic, local leaders are making decisions about how to invest federal funding authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that passed Congress in March 2021 in response to the pandemic.

With the onset of COVID-19 quarantine came a realization of just how much citizens of Wyoming have come to rely on the internet for everything from social contact to buying groceries. This Legislative session, AARP supported three bills to aid in the development of cheaper, faster internet across the Cowboy State.

Wyoming ranks below the national average in the numbers of nursing home staff who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That is according to the AARP COVID-19 Nursing Home Dashboard, developed by The AARP Public Policy Institute, in collaboration with the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio.

Wyoming’s lone representative in the US House of Representatives, Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) will join AARP Wyoming for a Teletown Hall to speak to and answer questions from AARP Wyoming members at 5 p.m. on July 21.

Wyoming’s lone representative in the US House of Representatives, Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) will join AARP Wyoming for a Teletown Hall to speak to and answer questions from AARP Wyoming members at 5 p.m. on June. 24.