There can be no doubt the “delta variant” is impacting the health care capacity in Alaska hospitals, said Gov. Mike Dunleavy on the Friday Must Read Alaska Show.
Dunleavy had just finished visiting an Anchorage hospital, where he spoke with health care professionals about the dual problem of not having enough beds and also hospital staff burnout.
Alaskans who are enjoying the state on their mountain bikes and four-wheelers might want to keep this in mind. People are coming into the emergency rooms with their usual cuts and bone breaks, and there are increasing numbers of people coming into hospitals for or advanced care for Covid-19. The staff of hospitals are tired from working long hours, a situation that is true across the country, Dunleavy said.
“The virus is real. It’s making people sick, the beds are filling up, staff is diminished. And you may not get the care you’ve come to expecting our hospitals,” he said. “Most people coming in with the virus are unvaccinated and the age group is dropping.”
He encouraged people to give serious consideration to getting the Covid-19 vaccination, and to take more precautions in their outdoor activities, to alleviate the pressure on the medical infrastructure.
That said, Dunleavy is not caving to the pressure coming from Democrat partisans who want him to enact mandatory vaccines and universal masking, and to declare a disaster again; the drumbeat from Democrats has grown in what appears to be a coordinated political front to force behavior onto people.
Disasters should be declared sparingly, Dunleavy said.
“Many leaders across the world are coming to recognize that this thing thing is probably going to be with us for some time, if not forever. To be continually be issuing disaster declarations, really, it’s an inappropriate use of that power,” he said.
Emergency declarations should be reserved for events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, and floods, Dunleavy said.
“Really what we need to have is a targeted response to the needs that the hospitals have,” he said, which is why he added two items to the Special Session that is underway in Juneau. He asked the Legislature to work quickly to change the laws, so that more nurses can be working in Alaska and so more telemedicine is available — all that can be done without a disaster declaration.
To hear the entire 15-minute discussion with Gov. Mike Dunleavy on this topic and his views on the the Permanent Fund dividend debate, tune into the Must Read Alaska Show at this link:
