As doctors and clinical scientists, we were concerned that the Anchorage Daily News published a commentary on Aug. 5 by a disgruntled member of the Anchorage School Board, berating all of the other members for courageously and overwhelmingly passing a reasonable masking policy for students and staff of the Anchorage School District.
While everyone is entitled to their opinions, the ADN should not publish misinformation as if it were fact. Most of the “primary oppositions to mandatory masking” the author listed were contrary to the facts, speculation or completely irrelevant.
For anyone who wants to know the facts, Google Scholar is an excellent tool to access the peer-reviewed medical literature. It is free and available to the public. We encourage any citizen who is in doubt about the efficacy of masking to dampen the spread of the delta variant throughout our community to type “effect of masking for COVID-19 control in schools” into Google Scholar’s search box.
Vaccinations do a good job of protecting against serious illness, but they are only available for people over 12 years old. The author of the commentary seems to be on the side of the coronavirus. We need to fight against COVID-19 to prevent more sickness and death. This will require some small sacrifices like wearing masks. We are fortunate that an overwhelming majority of Anchorage’s School Board chose to trust the science.
— Ken Zafren, MD, FAAEM, FACEP, FAWM
Staff Emergency Physician, Alaska Native Medical Center
Stephen Tower, MD, FAAOS, DABOS
Staff Surgeon, Providence Alaska Medical Center and Alaska Regional Hospital
Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.