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When concerns about the pandemic began to spread across the United States in early March, the state issued state-by-state calls for residents to stay home and avoid crowds.
On the other hand, in the small Jackson Hole mountain range in Wyoming, one of the richest cities in the United States, the opposite happened. Instead, private jets from Texas, California, and New York began arriving.
Restrictions on social mobility now encompass more than 300 million Americans, but many of the wealthiest families in the United States saw the pandemic warnings as a good excuse to flee large cities.
“The airport has been full of people,” Christie Watts, one of Jackson Hole’s more than 10,000 permanent residents, told the New York Times.
Jackson Hole in Wyoming It has long been a meeting point for the richest in America, a kind of Davos in the Rocky Mountains. It organizes annual conferences that attract tycoons from the financial sector and from Silicon Valley.
Formerly head of the US central bank. Janet Yellen at the 2016 Jackson Hole Annual Meeting.
Photo: Brennan Linsley / AP
It is an elegant complex, known for its picturesque mountain areas, two national parks, and world-famous luxury hotels. Jackson Hole can also be considered a small tax haven in the United States, since Wyoming has no income tax.
The average income is $ 251,000 a year, two and a half million. Among the city’s wealthiest percentages, the median income in 2015 was just over $ 22 million a year, according to the Institute for Economic Policy.
In early April Wyoming became the last state in the United States to issue recommendations for staying home after the outbreak of the pandemic. The state confirmed 309 infected and two deaths on Sunday, with a population of just over 300,000 in an area larger than the United Kingdom.
According to Unacast, a technology company that maps geographic movements of Americans based on mobile data, Wyoming was the only state in the United States where mobility increased after the pandemic. In general, the population began to leave their homes more frequently and moved further from home than before the pandemic warnings were issued.
Entrance to the George Washington Memorial Park in Jackson Hole
Photo: Ringo Chiu
In all other states, mobility declined sharply in March, but in Wyoming it increased by 6 percent. According to Unacast, it was the only state that received the worst rating, F, for its actions against mobility during the pandemic.
Among the locals In Jackson Hole, the influx of wealthy travelers has reinforced the image that wealthier Americans don’t respect restrictions. In recent weeks, the number of infections in the small mountain range has increased considerably. They now have 57 confirmed cases, which is by far the highest per capita in the state.
Jackson Hole is also famous for its skiing.
Photo: Peter Cairns
According to the New York Times, some well-to-do have flown with their own medical personnel and, in one case, even with a private respirator in their luggage. However, their cleaners, kitchen staff, and drivers don’t have the same benefits. Among service employees, concerns about the infection are now mounting.
– It is shameful to see how many people do not understand the gravity of the situation. Providing services to these people feels awkward. I live off what I earn every month and don’t have much savings if something happens, says a New York Times airport employee.
13 percent of Wyoming’s population lacks health insurance, which is higher than the national average. The state’s Republican government halted the expansion of Medicaid, the state’s low-income health insurance, under Barack Obama’s 2010 health reform.
