This Week In Sanity: July 31, 2021
Just a friendly reminder to readers that COVID-19 is a real thing, the vaccine is widely available in Anchorage, mask-wearing helps prevent the spread of the virus, and that bigger isn't always better!
We're only a month into the reign of David Bronson, and let's be honest, Mayor Bronson is giving off big Trump energy. If you lean in closely, you may even be able to catch the subtle scent of campaign finance violations.
Some of Mayor Bronson's nominees/hirees are having an interesting week as various concerns and allegations have been raised by, well, mostly everyone.
We learned this week that Dr. Michael Savitt, a board-certified pediatrician, has "temporarily" replaced Epidemiologist Janet Johnston, who resigned from her role at the Anchorage Health Department on Monday. I always found Johnston's involvement in the COVID-19 briefings to be measured, non-alarmist, professional, and reassuring. She exhibited an even and measured tone during those briefings, and I find her resignation to be a loss for our city.
Johnston has 20 years of experience in public health and applied health research.
Dr. Savitt is the proud owner of this review left in 2016 by one parent who used quite a few capital letters and 18 exclamation points. For context, 18 of them together look like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's almost hard to believe Dr. Savitt may not have the world's best bedside manner, especially if you've read some of his alleged Must Read Alaska comments.
Alaska Public Media's Nat Hertz reached out to the Anchorage Health Department about comments posted under Anchorage's new Chief Medical Officer's name to a far-right blog. In an update to Nat's piece, Dr. Savitt acknowledges that he did write a mask-related comment which means it's possible he also wrote these, although we don't know for certain.
There are 7 pages of comments made to the blog in Savitt's name, so grab a glass of something and be sure to keep the lights on when you're reading. Scary.
David Bronson's nominee to run the Anchorage Health Department seems to be having a dreadful week. The Anchorage Assembly just expedited Morgan's confirmation process over comments he made about the COVID-19 pandemic this week. Morgan, stumbling over his words in an interview with Daniella Rivera, said he wasn't sure if we were in a pandemic. No, really, he said that.
An Anchorage resident raised concerns about Morgan's time as an employee of the non-profit organization, alleging, among other things, that Morgan nearly ran the company financially into the ground.
You can read more here about the situation and the response of Choices Inc's current CEO, Kimm Martinez, who told me that Dave Morgan left the organization in “complete financial disarray” and that the non-profit struggled financially for roughly two years after Morgan left.
Only the best people.
And because things come in three's...Bronson's nominee to the Health Commission, Jim Wojciehowski, is facing increased scrutiny in light of social media posts and comments related to COVID-19 mask-wearing and data. Wojciehowski also testified several times publicly at assembly meetings about mask-wearing in public places and panic porn.
In an update to my initial post, another social media account believed to belong to Wojciehowski was found on a non-secure, fascinating website called NotPolitical, an odd name to be certain since much of the content posted there is political in nature.
Wojciehowski saw his confirmation put off until August 24 after individuals raised concerns about a piece he wrote on the far-right blog Alaska Watchman—and really just a whole host of other stuff.
The anti-mask bit is getting old Alaska. Delta is a whole new beast.
Alaska Parents' Rights in Education (APRE) SuperStar and Save Anchorage member Annie Massey recorded a video that landed in the Save Anchorage group. I won't comment on the video too much, but seriously, watch it. I could barely get through the first 45 seconds without laughing. Is that mean? At some point, you really do have to laugh at some of this stuff.
APRE is just another in a long line of "concerned parents" who hate the LGBTQ community, masks, critical race theory, progressives, Jupiter, and kittens.
They're a local chapter of Parents' Rights in Education whose executive director is Suzanne Gallagher. Gallagher, the former Oregon Republican Party Chairwoman, resigned her position ahead of a recall vote to remove her from leadership after frustrated party members began circulating a recall petition in July 2019, charging that she had mismanaged the organization and misallocated party resources.
Massey's ragtag group is basically Save Anchorage lite. She now posts fairly regularly to the group in what appears to be an attempt to rally members of the group to her cause—battling the radical Progressive school board.
In the video, Massey shares a new hat and talks about masking and the next Anchorage School Board Meeting droning about public accommodations. She wants everyone to have a choice about masking, but it's not clear if she feels that "choice" applies to a woman's right to choose.
Incredibly, Massey says that they're holding a demonstration at the next school board meeting she described as:
"Driving children to school unmasked before the board meeting with our cars all decorated."
I'm glad she's not encouraging parents to drive them to the meeting on elephants. Anyway, Massey's Facebook live video is below...she said she wanted to see the video shared across Alaska, so—
