We are a national COVID hot spot due to weak, misinformed “leadership” — our governor seeks to hire Lower 48 state cops fired for vaccine mandate non-compliance, public servants in a position to be COVID super-spreaders. His news ads offer free vaccines to tourists coming to Alaska — tourists who are unvaccinated and potentially bringing us more virus.
Our mayor’s recent forum fostered anti-vaccine, anti-mask misinformed “science,” so we continue to die or go bankrupt as we hire Lower 48 state nurses to rescue our over-stressed medical system by paying up to $150 per hour/$10,000 per week.
Last week, I returned from a cruise shortened because a Mexican port was canceled as a hot spot. Mexico has a similar laissez-faire attitude and comparable vaccination rate at 51% to our 53%. Our cruise chose to refund money for shortening the cruise and bypassing the port. The port we did visit had hand sanitizers openly available and masks were required. Lower 48 cruises take COVID seriously — before boarding, we were required to prove valid vaccination, pass a COVID test within 24 hours, mask, social distance and use hand sanitizers.
Our current ill-informed, backward leadership is destroying Alaska’s “pristine” image — one of the “draws” for the tourism market we have worked 30 years to build. When will our state wake up and take COVID seriously by mandating masks and vaccinations for all public servants, as well as encouraging all of us to vaccinate and mask up?
— Marty Margeson
Anchorage
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