With Seattle hospitals not taking COVID transfers, Alaska needs a statewide mask mandate today
Fairbanksan Jeff Cook, a longtime community and state leader, is the latest prominent Alaskan trying to get Gov. Mike Dunleavy to do the right thing—enact a statewide mask mandate.
The governor needs to abandon his fallback talking point that local governments are in the position to solve this problem. They are not.
Statewide leadership is needed now to deal with a rapidly worsening crisis.
Cook is a retired businessman who has for many years been a leader of the foundation that owns Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. This gives him a unique and informed perspective on the health care emergency facing our state.
He said he is taking this step not as foundation president, but as an Alaskan who is alarmed at the situation and the danger that things will spin out of control. His short statement conveys the urgency of the moment and the need for the governor to use the powers of his office, powers that no one else in Alaska has.
Cook sent this message to the governor’s office in Fairbanks early Tuesday and asked that it be forwarded to Juneau. He said Thursday night that he has yet to hear back from Dunleavy.
In the last 2 weeks we have taken in 3 Covid-19 patient transfers from Bethel.
Bethel hospital is full. Anchorage and valley hospitals are full and Seattle won’t take Alaska COVID patients.
A 55-year-old woman from Bethel was transferred to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital last night, she coded and passed away.
No one should die far away from home and loved ones. This has to stop or be slowed down.
It is time TODAY for the governor to show some compassionate and wise leadership.
TODAY he needs to issue a statewide masking mandate at least through the end of the year.
The vaccine will not be here quickly enough. He needs to put aside politics or whatever is holding him back.
Follow the science and clearcut evidence. Please be sure Gov. Dunleavy and his chief of staff see this message word-for-word ASAP. And please have one of them call me.
I am and will resist other ways of sharing this message more broadly until the end of the day.
That Chief of Staff Ben Stevens and Dunleavy didn’t contact Cook in response to that message is worrisome and inexcusable.
Alaska is one of only 13 states without a mask mandate.
“Much of Alaska, including Bethel, is much like an island where there is limited and distant connectivity to other cities,” Cook said. “Hospital beds and other care sources are limited. I do not understand why our governor has not issued a statewide masking mandate. He is wasting everyone’s time and money arguing with boroughs and cities about who has what power.”
“He has the power and should exercise it. The vaccines are several months away in providing significant relief. We need to take actions now to reduce the positivity rate for COVID-19. If we don’t, we will outrun our capacity to care for COVID-19 and other patients in Alaska. We are already there at many Alaskan hospitals and Seattle hospitals and likely others in the Lower 48 will not accept our COVID-19 transfers.”
Dunleavy should announce a statewide mask mandate today. That is the only way to get the attention of the thousands of Alaskans who interpret his failure to lead as a sign that the pandemic isn’t a clear and present danger.