I just read Theresa Gruenberg’s letter, “Not supporting LaFrance,” in the ADN on April 9, and it angered me to the point I felt I had to respond. Gruenberg stated, “LaFrance backed draconian COVID-19 restrictions, mask mandates, and school and business closures that were devastating to Anchorage.” Then she rhetorically shot herself in the foot in her next line, “They were ineffective in hindsight.”
Everybody acknowledges hindsight is 20-20. Beyond that, her premise is 100% false. To start with, put yourself back in the moment. We were facing a worldwide pandemic the likes of which none of us had ever faced. Hospitalizations were spiking beyond the capacity of many hospitals and people were dying left and right. No one knew where this was headed.
No one knew if this was going to wipe out half the human race, or if it was just going to fizzle out and going to become another “flu.” But at the time, people were dying.
Right here in Anchorage, in the state, in the country, and around the world. It made complete sense — to anyone who had any sense — to implement all of the measures LaFrance advocated for. Here locally, as well as globally, our hospitals were swamped.
Our human race was facing a new unknown and taking maximum precautions until things were sorted out was absolutely the right thing to do.
In hindsight, things could have been tweaked a bit. But only in hindsight.
What if things had gone differently? What if COVID-19 did turn out to be a truly lethal unstoppable bug? What if the rampage did continue and half of our children died in schools left open, people died from going out to restaurants allowed to stay open, and people died from being on an airplane flying without restrictions, as long as there were pilots able to fly?
My point is that in the moment no one knew what was coming, what we were facing. The things LaFrance advocated for were absolutely the right and sensible thing to do.
The others, including Gruenberg, were making a dangerous gamble. They are fortunate things turned out the way they have, and they should thank people like LaFrance for looking out for them.
— John Lapkass
Anchorage
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