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Stories, Stats, Impacts: Wyoming Public Media is here to keep you current on the news surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Concerns Over COVID-19, Declining In Wyoming

WYSAC

A survey of Wyoming residents finds that concerns about COVID-19 are declining.

The survey, conducted on September 8, was the eighth in a series by the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center (WYSAC). Senior Research Scientist Brian Harnisch said they selected about 500 people that represent the state's age, gender, and county distribution.

He said many are less concerned about coronavirus than in previous surveys.

"At this point we had, I believe, a little over half of our population that said that it was not a major threat or that the worst was behind us," said Harnisch. "Of course, this is a week before last week, which is when we started to see our biggest increases in active positive cases."

The survey asked about support for various government policies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Harnisch said support for those policies decreased.

"We asked [about] support for limiting public gatherings," he said. "In March… 89 percent of respondents said that they supported that. And what we see is a very strong downward linear trend since then, all the way to where we are at now which is only 51 percent."

The survey also found that mask use has decreased in the last month, but only slightly.

Harnisch said they will continue to conduct similar surveys in the future.

Have a question about this story? Please contact the reporter, Ashley Piccone, at apiccone@uwyo.edu

Ashley is a PhD student in Astronomy and Physics at UW. She loves to communicate science and does so with WPM, on the Astrobites blog, and through outreach events. She was born in Colorado and got her BS in Engineering Physics at Colorado School of Mines. Ashley loves hiking and backpacking during Wyoming days and the clear starry skies at night!
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