Recently I read that frontline doctors and nurses, exhausted from treating COVID-19 patients, are pleading with the public to get vaccinated. I believe that Dr. Anthony Fauci and the CDC made mistakes along the way that led to people’s distrust of these institutions. Instead of admitting they were learning about the pandemic as it unfolded, they made statements they later had to rescind.
I have a healthy dose of skepticism myself, but I also did a lot of reading and decided to get vaccinated. I also wear a mask everywhere in public. My belief is if masks don’t work, then I have been inconvenienced, but if they do work, then I may have prevented the spread of COVID-19 and people potentially dying.
As I watch the numbers exploding in Florida and Texas, I have to ask myself if the leadership in Alaska is paying attention. As a leader, I would be examining the policies that allowed these states to get out of control, with COVID overrunning the hospitals, and try to make policy that avoids these same mistakes. Leadership is not always making the easy choice; it is making the hard choices for the benefit of all.
I feel our state and local government lacks true leadership. It seems our leaders tend to succumb to the most vocal minority. Yes, mask mandates will make some people mad for a short time, but most will get over it. I do not see asking someone to wear a mask as a freedom issue. We wear clothing; wouldn’t being told you must wear clothes be an infringement on your freedom as well, if this is truly about freedom?
It is interesting that the same people who champion the “right to life” are now taking issue with protecting unvaccinated elementary students by being asked to send their children to school in masks. I guess my question is: What happened to being reasonable, and what happened to loving thy neighbor?
— Susan Blanton
Anchorage
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