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After surviving the 1918 influenza pandemic that decimated the Doogh Hit‘an population in Dishkaket, Alaska, a 14-year-old man named Charlie Cikal Dementi walked and paddled a canoe down the Innoko river more than 300 river miles to a family that took him in. That is Alaska resolve.
Even though the Doogh Hit’an and Deg Hit’an people of the Innoko River were some of the last groups of Alaska Natives to make contact with non-Natives, major disease outbreaks still occurred, even in these very isolated villages. Like American miners and Russian traders, Doogh Hit’an were also great travelers and traders with other tribal peoples. Today, as in earlier times, all Alaskans are more interconnected than we think.
We Alaskans like to think that we are independent and have the steadfast resolve and ability to unite as Alaskans to accomplish any challenge that lies before us. It’s been more than 70 years since Alaskans were forced to unite as Americans to defeat an enemy that wanted to kill us and displace our democracy with an authoritarian dictatorship. Indeed, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote of this resolve and unity in our fourth year of World War II. In his last message to the American people, he eloquently wrote,
“Let me assure you that my hand is the steadier for the work that is to be done, that I move more firmly into the task, knowing that you — millions and millions of you — are joined with me in the resolve to make this work endure.”
Most Americans agree that a President’s greatest responsibility is to protect and unite them. On Jan. 22, President Donald Trump said, “We have it under control, it’s ah, going to be just fine.” On Feb. 10, he said, “Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” On Feb. 28, he said “Within a couple of days it’s going to be down close to zero.” On a March 16 conference call with governors, he said, “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves.”
If he wants to be a wartime President, as he indicated, then he must act like a wartime President. He must lead a coordinated national response to kill today’s enemy, the coronavirus. He must use the Defense Production Act to the fullest extent to force not only GM and 3M, but an entire garment industry that no longer needs to produce yesterday’s fashions, to instead produce today’s fashions — personal protective equipment. PPE like N95 masks, gowns, shields and gloves for health care workers who have become our soldiers on the front lines.
We are thankful for Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s nonessential travel ban, activation of the National Guard and numerous isolation and mitigation tactics his team has implemented to protect all Alaskans. As a national discussion begins about reopening society, let there be no mistake that we will need to continue and substantially strengthen our existing strategies and develop new ones as we learn more about this novel virus.
Most medical experts agree, reopening is dependent upon the coronavirus itself. Implementing pervasive and aggressive public health strategies are crucial, as seen by the successes of Hong Kong and Singapore. Widespread, rapid testing will need to become available for Alaskans and for all travelers to Alaska. As we cannot test everyone, scaled health screenings of all moderate- and high-risk individuals will also be needed. Additionally, we must continue aggressive contact tracing and isolation for symptomatic/positive patients and all known contacts; continue social distancing; and continue good personal hygiene, including universal masking. Asian countries have been using widespread, rapid testing and cell phone tracing with success, both of which are not available here.
We are thankful for our Congressional delegations’ swift response with the Cares Act to aid small businesses; keep people in their homes and apartments; disbursement of money to purchase food; and future legislation to stabilize what is left of our economy. However, we need more. “We the People” must demand more from our leaders in a time of crisis. We need our governor, senators and our U.S. representative to unite their Republican colleagues to pressure the President to coordinate a national plan for both PPE and widespread, rapid testing.
During the influenza pandemic 102 years ago and during WWII more than 70 years ago, Alaskans and all other Americans resolved to unite in order to defeat the enemy. It will take Republicans, Democrats and independents to call upon our governor and Congressional delegation to demand leadership and action from President Trump. Let our governor and Congressional delegation know that we support them to pressure the President to lead a national effort to coordinate the production of PPE for our heroes on the front lines, our healthcare workers. We also must unite to support the governor and Congressional delegation to pressure the President to coordinate a plan for large medical laboratories. Any large laboratory that is currently not developing a coronavirus vaccine, must immediately join with others to develop wide spread, rapid tests to detect the virus and its antibodies on a scale never seen before.
Instead of a coordinated national approach with defined strategies and goal oriented tactics that are clearly communicated to the American people, we have a piecemeal approach amongst the 50 States. Four months after coronavirus first arrived in the US, there is still no wide spread, rapid testing. The Bethel hospital, in a region of 50 villages with 30,000 people, recently obtained four rapid testers, with four more being shipped from the national stockpile. Each rapid tester comes with only 24 to 48 testing cartridges. Public and private vendors cannot tell us when more testing cartridges will become available.
No one at the White House has been able to communicate when widespread, rapid testing will become available for millions of Americans, nor when it will start, who will conduct it or pay for it. A nationally coordinated effort could shave months off of nonessential travel bans, reduce the size of second and possibly third waves that medical experts agree accompanied all known past pandemics and therefore, save lives without overwhelming our medical capacity. That would allow us to get back to work sooner rather than later.
Lastly, we the people must lead.
Our Alaska resolve and interconnectedness existed long before any of us here today. It was evident during WWII, when my Grandpa Aden Winkelman and others united, regardless of party, and defeated the enemy. It was evident in early 1919, when influenza circled the globe and wiped out my relatives in Dishkaket, and forced my other Grandpa Charlie to walk and paddle a canoe alone from his decimated village to a new home. Crisis demands leadership, crisis demands unity and crisis demands resolve — now.
For the first time since WWII, we Alaskans must unite, regardless of party affiliation, with a steadfast resolve to demand our President to lead a coordinated national response using every power available and to the fullest extent possible. To my Republican, Democrat and independent friends who privately complain to me about whether the travel bans are necessary, how it is destroying our economy, infringing on our liberties and ending our jobs. Act now. All of us Alaskans should email or call our elected leaders to let them know that we wholeheartedly support them to pressure the President to lead. Most importantly, the President must coordinate a national response to produce hundreds of millions of PPE; and implement hundreds of millions of widespread, rapid tests for the virus and its antibodies by using the full powers of the Defense Production Act.
Dan Winkelman is Deg Hit’an and President and CEO of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. YKHC has 1,500 employees, operates a hospital, five sub-regional clinics, 50 village clinics and numerous region-wide health services for the 30,000 residents of the Y-K Delta.
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