Alaska’s failed leadership gave us a fatal lottery

Updated: 1 hour ago Posted: 1 hour ago

I was going to write: “We live …” but I stopped. “We” don’t all live through this lottery of death created by the utter failure of the leadership of Governor Mike Dunleavy, Mayor Dave Bronson and their chorus of anti-vaccine and conspiracy theorists who have flooded hospitals from Alaska. So some of us live, others die, and the so-called “leaders” who refuse to do anything to contain this virus will remain forever stained with the blood of our fallen neighbors.

I get the impression Governor Dunleavy thinks this is all a political game, an excuse for a press release, a lawsuit, a ridiculous tweet. What does the governor not understand about our neighbors who die, every day, when almost everyone would have lived if he had just used his political influence with the far right to wholeheartedly encourage vaccination?

Mayor Bronson appears to be living in an alternate universe, declaring “I don’t know what more we can do” as healthcare providers have already argued for the obvious: masking demands and strong support for the vaccination.

As of this writing, more than 1,000 Alaskans on average test positive for COVID-19 every day, and our positivity rate of almost 10% probably means double that number is in fact infected. The sad reality is that these numbers mean that we will soon see 10 or more Alaskans die every day. This virus – or, indeed, Dunleavy and Bronson’s failure to do anything to stop it – will kill more people than any murderer, any natural disaster in the history of the world. ‘Alaska.

The level of healthcare crisis – and the resulting rationing of healthcare – driven by Dunleavy isn’t just coming to the unvaccinated. God forbid, you need hospital care and cannot get it because the unvaccinated Alaskans made sure there were no beds available regardless of your health care provider. I don’t think we’ve ever had elected “leaders” who so joyfully and mercilessly embraced mass death through their inaction.

It’s not obvious to me that Dunleavy and Bronson care, or even think about, the magnitude of this tragedy for 30 seconds. Maybe if they did, they would consider taking some life-saving action instead of issuing another cynical, anti-vaccine press release that will only help increase the body count.

Last but not least, but just as important and serious, our neighbors at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson have now declared a public health emergency to avoid places without masks or distancing.

Kevin McGee is president of the Anchorage NAACP.

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