Anchorage medical leaders endorse mayor’s ‘hunker down’ order and ask the public to stay the course

The morning after announcing the extension of a “hunker down” order, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz was joined by leaders from the city’s three major hospitals during a community briefing. The chief medical officers praised the mayor’s actions and stressed their importance in slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The hospital leaders also pleaded with the public Wednesday to continue abiding by the “hunker down” order, despite economic hardship and restlessness.

“Please, continue to stay socially isolated," said Dr. Keri Gardner, chief medical officer for Alaska Regional Hospital. "Your health care is better if people can get sick in small numbers that the hospitals can handle. Keep Alaska from becoming another New York City.”

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Gardner was joined by Dr. Holly Alfrey of Alaska Native Medical Center and Dr. Michael Bernstein of Providence Health and Services Alaska, who expressed similar views.

The message from hospital leaders came after Anchorage Assembly members received an onslaught of emails from the public asking that the “hunker down” order be eased or abolished at Tuesday night’s Assembly meeting.

As the meeting started, there were two small protests outside the Loussac Library. Each had a little more than a dozen adults and a few children. They held signs with messages like “open our playgrounds” and “churches are an essential service.” The group accused city leaders of abusing their power and not caring about the well-being of residents.

But on Wednesday, Berkowitz said rolling back regulations now would cause a spike in cases. It would undo all the work and sacrifice that got us to this point, he said.

“The virus hasn’t barked yet, because we haven’t agitated it,” Berkowitz said. “If we agitate it, and give it an opportunity to get into the community, it will bark, and it will bite.”

However, some restrictions are easing. The governor announced Tuesday that elective medical procedures will be allowed again soon. After that, the city will look at slowly easing restrictions over time, Berkowitz said, with the intention of tightening the restrictions back up if the situation takes a bad turn.

[Alaska will lift ban on elective medical procedures and allow to-go alcohol, Dunleavy says]

On Wednesday, the Anchorage hospitals’ chief medical officers said restrictions enacted over the past month allowed them time to acquire more personal protective equipment and build up medical infrastructure.

“We are open to very cautiously revisiting and opening up all our public work but watching very, very closely, as my colleagues described, so that if we need to reverse and put the brakes on a little bit, we can do that,” Bernstein said.

Gardner attributed a decrease in the number of patients in hospitals to the shutdown of some procedures. Medical workers have been furloughed, she said.

But Gardner said they now have the capacity for a “measured" increase in essential services, which is why those services are going to soon be offered again.

Gardner also urged caution regarding speculative treatments for COVID-19.

“People looking at (the anti-malaria drug) chloroquine and vitamin C, I think they are going to be disappointed,” she said.

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