Zaletel & Petersen to Introduce Second Mask Resolution
Assemblymembers Meg Zaletel and Pete Petersen will introduce a resolution at next week's Tuesday assembly meeting—once again asking Mayor Bronson to direct that masks or face coverings be required in public indoor areas of Municipal buildings and to promote COVID mitigation measures when the Municipality of Anchorage is at substantial or high alert levels for community transmission of COVID-19.
The resolution cites CDC guidance, which recommends that all people, including those who are vaccinated, wear masks in public indoor settings.
Earlier this month, Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, told the Anchorage Daily News clearly and on the record that Alaska hospitals were "in crisis." Alaska has seen record numbers of COVID patients streaming into Alaska hospitals in recent days. In Anchorage, data from the Alaska DHSS COVID-19 dashboard shows only 1 ICU bed available in the Municipality, while neighboring Mat-Su reported no available ICU beds were available today.
During testimony at last week's hearing of the State Legislature's House Health and Social Services Committee, describing the current healthcare crisis to state legislatures, Dr. Robert Onders of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium said, “We are not doing well at all,” Dave Wallace, CEO of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center said, “We are in disaster mode here.” Preston Simmons, CEO of Providence Alaska, said, “We are being tested like never before."
Assembly Person and "Save Anchorage" member Jamie Allard — Eagle River's very own defender of Nazi-themed vanity license plates and who once deemed all transgender people as "mentally ill," will also be introducing a resolution that's so off the rails I'm not even posting it here. You can check it out for yourself if you feel so inclined. You've been warned.
Allard's proposed resolution, which says that Anchorage is an inclusive community where residents and businesses are treated with equity regardless of vaccination status or mask usage, gives off big Lqrq Reinbqld energy.
It's not clear if the "Save Anchorage" backed Mayor will be moved by science and the words of alarm given by health professionals such as Infectious Disease Doctor Megan Clancy, who have warned that unless action was taken to slow the volume of patients frequenting Anchorage hospitals, the city could see a collapse of its healthcare system.
In Idaho, public health leaders announced earlier this week that they had activated "crisis standards of care," allowing healthcare rationing for the state's northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than hospitals can handle. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare warned residents that they might not get the care they would normally expect if they needed to be hospitalized.
Interested individuals who wish to provide written or phone testimony on the resolution can sign up here.
