Bars over schools? It’s time for a statewide mask mandate.

What does it say about our community that we continue to prioritize bars staying open over schools?

Let me be clear: This is not a push for Anchorage schools to be open right now. Our COVID-19 numbers are too high, and it isn’t safe — not for the teachers and staff, and certainly not for the grandparents of children in multigenerational homes. Children can and do contract this virus and spread it easily, even though they get sick less often. This is, however, a push to listen to Anchorage School District superintendent Deena Bishop’s plea to Anchorage to do the kind thing, the considerate thing, and work hard to get virus numbers down so that schools can reopen with relative safety.

In the postmortem analysis of COVID-19, we’ll reflect back to the early news of the pandemic in Alaska and realize that the person who saved the most Alaskan lives early on was ASD Superintendent Bishop. She accomplished this by refusing to allow school to restart after spring break due to the risk of importing and spreading the virus after traveling out of state. Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s “hunker down” order followed soon after that. As Anchorage is the hub for the rest of the state, these combined actions meant that overall Alaska numbers of COVID-19 stayed much lower than the rest of the country, for a very long time. Dr. Anne Zink’s early, calming, evening reviews of fact-based information, delivered with heart and soul, helped significantly as well. The shutdown of Anchorage schools and businesses were early, effective means of slowing spread of COVID-19 during the period in which we as a nation and a state, were sorting through the best way to reduce infection rates, before official recommendations to wear masks, and before paper surgical masks were widely available.

We know now, however, that universal mask wearing is extremely effective at reducing infection and mortality rates with COVID-19, and many countries that have done this effectively, have reopened with much lower infection rates than America and Alaska now have. This is according to information posted on the state of Alaska’s own website. One of the most effective ways we could reduce the infection rate in Alaska would be through instituting a universal mask mandate. White House COVID-19 Task Force Policy Recommendations for Alaska recommended this back in July. However, the president and Alaska’s governor continue to emphasize individual choice to wear a mask. Neither are complying with their official recommendation to do so, and while our president openly flouts the recommendation, our governor’s public stance and private behavior is particularly hypocritical.

In this vacuum of state and national leadership, Alaskans have squandered the lead time given to us by Superintendent Bishop, Mayor Berkowitz, and Dr. Zink. Alaskans' rebellion against the oft-repeated recommendations to “wear a mask, wash your hands, watch your distance” is particularly insistent on the “individual” right to remain mask-free, coupled with insistence that opportunities remain available to spread the virus via socializing at bars and sporting events. All this, while our children cannot attend school. There is a stark contrast of priorities painted by rising rates of COVID-19 while bars and sporting events are open, but schools are not.

I remember a similar resistance to seat belts while I was growing up. Use was voluntary. My stepmother hated them. She wasn’t wearing one when she was in a car accident that gave her a disabling head injury, which ended her career and landed her on permanent disability. My father, who was wearing one, had no injuries. Times have changed, and failure to wear a seat belt is a ticketable offense in 49 of 50 states. While some people still grumble, seat belt laws have clearly saved many lives. Unlike seat belts, wearing a mask protects other people as much as, or more than, the individual wearing it. And our failure to comply voluntarily with the universal masking recommendation suggests a fundamental American selfishness. This makes me sad. It’s not the legacy I want to leave my children.

We’ve had ample opportunity to mask up voluntarily and it hasn’t worked. Winter and the second wave are coming, with rapidly rising case rates and the risks that entails. Hospitalizations and death rates lag behind infection by 3-5 weeks, and when our hospitals reach their staffing limits, death rates from this virus will spike up, no matter how many beds are available. We must make a universal mandate the default statewide, to protect both Anchorage and rural Alaska, so that there is a chance of being able to reopen schools and keep them open before another year has gone by. Local communities can opt out if they choose, but the statewide default needs to be that a face mask is worn anytime you leave the house.

Let’s listen to the true leaders in Alaska. Let’s prioritize our children over the bars. Let’s show our ability to be kind and considerate of others, and do what is necessary to reduce COVID-19 rates. Universal masking reduces infection and mortality rates due to COVID-19. It’s time for a universal mask mandate.

Lisa Alexia, PA-C, is a Physician Assistant and former village Community Health Practitioner who lives in Anchorage.

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