How to reduce sickness, death: Public comments on who gets vaccine next

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Critical infrastructure workers, such as power, gas, and waste water workers; pilots; school workers; domestic violence shelter staff; court system staff; senior citizens; those working in domestic abuse shelters.

Representatives from the commercial fishing industry and those who work on processors were especially noticeable in the public comment period today, as were those from the education system.

They were among the groups that had someone call to give a one-minute plea to State health officials to include their workers or demographic in the next round of COVID-19 vaccinations.

The State’s public comment period today on Zoom was in front of the panel making the decision; it is comprised of health care professionals, ethicists, and other health professionals, led by Dr. Anne Zink, the state chief medical officer.

Also requesting to be in line were representatives of zoo, sea life workers, veterinary workers, and search and rescue volunteer groups, such as Juneau Mountain Rescue.

Elizabeth Medicine Crow of First Alaskans Institute requested that Native culture bearers, elders, and language teachers be at the top of the vaccination list even if they are young, because they are so important and the culture is in jeopardy, with some languages near extinction.

Cynthia Christiansen said that rather than younger people, the next group should be the group most vulnerable — the aged — and that Alaskans were being pitted against each other to get in line for the vaccine.

Ollie Christieansen agreed, saying elderly and the ill should be a priority, not young people who can better fight the disease.

Monte Hawver of the Brother Francis Shelter in Kodiak said his staff needs to be innoculated so the shelter doesn’t need to shut down, leaving people in the cold. A representative from the court system reminded the panel that the 39 courts with 775 staff members around the state cannot work from home and cannot take court files home, and that justice must go on.

The committee will be weighing its decision based on guidance from the CDC, along with how to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of vaccination, prevent illness and death, as well as achieve equal outcomes for all Alaskans.

The state is currently in the 1a phase, with frontline health care and first responders being vaccinated.

Phase 1b guidance from the state will be released on Dec. 30. The state does not yet have numbers from the federal government for what it will be receiving in January for that allocation, but expects regular shipments throughout 2021, in addition to allocations going directly to Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense, as well as separate Tribal allocations.

Phase 1c is the next round after 1b, and public comments on that phase will be taken on Jan. 11.

92 COMMENTS

  1. It should be based on the most vulnerable first. Then go down the line from there. Everybody is trying to cut the line. Very last should be those who refuse to wear a mask since they believe there is no risk.

    • Greg: I’m a mask refuser and it isn’t because I believe there is no risk. It is because I don’t see the evidence for mask efficacy. With my education in forensic anthropology, I have experience in conducting medical and scientific research. I acquired all four randomized, controlled, clinical human trials of mask efficacy in controlling the spread of upper respiratory infection and I discovered that all of them agree: masks have no impact on respiratory infection spread. Its not a “belief” but a conclusion reached after careful study of the evidence. All it does, in fact, is communicate to others…. as an armband, badge, or talisman might do. I’m not interested in that.

      • I respect your opinion. I am an asthma sufferer, so during certain times of the year I wear a mask anytime I’m outside because I have found out that it does filter pollen and other allergens. I realize the virus may be a lot smaller than a pollen particle, but I also wear n95 masks exclusively made by 3M and with four or five depending on who you ask risk factors, I have managed to stay virus free for almost a year now, while others have died. I also have a poor immune system. I credit my n95 masks to keeping me safe. Also by social distancing, sanitizing every time I come out of a store etc. You don’t think they work and that’s fine and I think they do. I don’t think you’re in a professional position to be able to say without a doubt 100% that the masks don’t stop some of the virus. I would agree with you on the cloth masks I think they are basically useless.

        • According to your logic you will continue to wear a mask every single day of your life. If not you are just another hypocrite.

        • Based on my reading of the evidence, your best option is the KN95 mask because in one (and if you can believe it, there’s been only one) breathing sample analysis, researchers found SARS-CoV-2 viral load in the lowest quantities in individuals using the kn95 respirator type masks. That said, when you do the statistical analysis, the difference in detected viral load between masks of all kinds vs. no mask were statistically insignificant. Also, other studies have done more simple mask vs. non-mask infection rate analysis, most recently (and with largest sample size) in Denmark, published last month. No statistically significant difference between mask vs. non-mask wearers in terms of acquiring new infections. So, if you are interested in what actually works, take a look at the incredible PLETHORA of research on Covid outcomes for people with adequate Vitamin D blood concentrations… at this point, based on the EVIDENCE, if you believe you have a target on your back due to Covid, and you’re not taking Vitamin D, you are a FOOL. Get on it in high doses, NOW. And if you can’t “take” a supplement, start TANNING (each day, 5 mins, full body…not with the intention to get a tan, but to let your body synthesize vitamin D the natural way). If you expose an area of skin the size of the back of your hand to direct sunlight for only 20 mins per day, then you will synthesize enough Vitamin D to meet your body’s needs without needing to “take” a vitamin supplement of any kind. Also: SALMON. Eat salmon or take salmon oil. Good sources of dietary vitamin d.

      • According to CDC, masks any masks can help slow the spread of the disease because if you’re sick some of it that you breathe out is going to stick to the inside of the mask. That means that some I should say most of your breath droplets are contained on the inside of the mouth and not floating around for somebody else to inhale. That’s just demonstrating carrying respect for the well-being of people around you. The CDC also says that n95 masks should not be worn and should be saved for medical personnel. That suggests to me that an n95 actually protects the wearer from outboard virus droplets as well as filters their own breath from escaping. Any mask is going to stop some of your breath moisture and it will become saturated over time and become useless and will have to be changed. You can do your own research and you can come to the conclusion that’s totally different than the CDC, but right now that’s who I’m trusting. They might actually know a thing or two.

    • You lefties are so very good at making lists, aren’t you? With compliance rate in state over the last 6 months over 85%, there are precious few Alaskans refusing to mask up outright. Note that masking these days is all about compliance rather than any notion of public health.

      Folks not needing a vaccination ought to include those who recovered from the disease. This can be determined by an antibody test. And those folks no longer ought to have to comply with masking or social distancing. Cheers –

    • What if you refuse to wear a mask because you have significant evidence that they do not help, and actually cause more harm than good?
      Should those people who actually know and understand the risk be excluded?

        • Greg, I can point to numerous studies that demonstrate that strict mandated mask shows no measurable benefit over voluntary use.
          .
          I can also point to numerous studies that clearly demonstrate wearing a mask for an extended period of time leads to increased risk for several diseases.
          .
          On the other hand, you are sure they work because “…some I should say most of your breath droplets are contained on the inside of the mouth and not floating around for somebody else to inhale….” and “…suggests to me that an n95 actually protects the wearer from outboard virus droplets as well as filters their own breath from escaping….”
          which is nothing more than opinion.
          .
          Please, if I am incorrect, please point to a study where mask usage has actually slowed the spread of this virus.

  2. If we’re really going by importance (which of course we’re not) for this unnecessary vaccine, state workers and legislators should go last.

    They offer the least value to Alaska and are the most easily replaced if necessary.

  3. I am shocked at the number of people willing to be guinea pigs for this so called vaccine. And for a sickness with a 98.9 % recovery rate. That’s better than the flu! Get a grip people. This is not the bubonic plague. When are you going to wake up and see that this is just a scare tactic to control your behavior.

      • What amazing mind reading powers you have Greg!
        I am impressed. You were able to figure all that out from WakUp!’ message.

      • Actually, I am insured to the hilt, and have an extremely clean driving record. I am also 74 years old, very healthy, and I not only refuse to wars a mask, but you couldn’t pay me to take this unproven vaccine. To each his own, do what you like, I could care less what you do or don’t do. America is still a free country, at least until Harris takes office, and I choose liberty always. Those of you willing to take the mark do so at your own risk.

    • Why are you shocked? If you truly are shocked you need to get out more and see that probably 80 or 90% of the people in the country are indeed wearing masks and are concerned about this virus. I’m glad you’re not scared and won’t be getting a shot I’ll just leave it for someone who really wants one.

      • 80-90% of the country is wearing masks because they have to in order to go about their day to day lives. Even in areas where mask mandates are not in place because of government diktat, a lot of shops require them because of scary headlines.
        .
        No mask, no service. So most folks just put something over their lower face for just long enough to get groceries.
        .
        And, just because a lot of people are wearing masks does not prove anything whatsoever. What conclusion do you expect anyone to draw from your statement?

  4. Sex workers are essential and should be included in this survey.Mostly they cannot wear a mask doing their job though some should. Please support these workers .
    .

  5. Geeze..They don’t have to worry about me fighting for my place in line for one of their experimental vaccines. I wonder where all the vaccine makers are storing all their ill gains. (Switzerland or the Caimans)

    • I’m not sure what income you’re referring to but as you know it’s just legitimate, if it were mine it would be invested and no more than $100,000 in any one given the bank account that way it is protected by the FDIC.

      • FDIC protects accounts to $250,000 now Greg.
        .
        In a previous comment (different article) you said something about being right most of the time. Still waiting for that.

        • Thanks for clarifying that. It’s been a while since I had $100,000 in a bank account. I never said anything of the sorts about being right 100% of the time. I said I was honest 100% of the time.

          • First of all Greg, I did not use any percentage at all. Please read what I wrote, and stop responding to things you think you are seeing.
            .
            Your statement, on another article was you are right most of the time. Again, that is not a trait I have seen you demonstrate much.
            .
            I also note it is curious how you cherry pick the comments you chose to respond to. Further up on this article, I specifically asked for you to provide some info, but you are glossing over that. Not drawing conclusions here, but that seems a bit odd.

  6. What would these people do if there was an actual pandemic? There have been 200 deaths allegedly attributed to the Wuhan; what they actually died from we will probably never know. A virus that has a mortality rate of less than 1% is not something that should have completely shut down our country for the last ten months. Everyone who is militant about wearing the mask has resigned themselves to wearing a mask for the rest of their natural life. If you ever take that mask off you are a complete hypocrite. There will always be communicable diseases floating around the atmosphere, lurking on door knobs and grocery shelves. Get a grip people, this is no pandemic.

    • You guys running around here saying the sky isn’t falling when there are dead people stacking up all over the place aren’t insane. We’ve had more than 200 people die in Florida alone. Your numbers look like they have come out of a mad magazine article.

      • 200 people!
        Wow, that is scary. I mean, that is almost the same number of people who die from the top three causes of death in AK in about a month and a half.
        Terrifying!!!!!
        .
        Oh, that’s weird. You are citing a number from Florida? How exactly does that relate to distributing the vaccine in Alaska?
        .
        Not sure what Mad Magazine article you are reading, but at least the rest of the folks on MRAK can keep their geography correct.

        • Put the crack pipe down and read what I’m writing. I recently moved to Florida after spending 20 some years in Alaskan Bush. I think I know a little bit more about Alaska probably than you’ve even been alive. If you’ve been on must read Alaska any longer than the last few weeks and go back several years then you would know that I am a regular.

          • Wow Greg… That is amazing. I am pretty sure I have never met you, but somehow you know about my recreational drug habits, as well as my age.
            .
            Here’s a tip. You try reading what is written, and responding appropriately. My reply to your message was very specific to what you wrote. It put your 200 deaths number into perspective, and questioned what a number from FL has to do with who gets the vaccine first in AK.
            .
            Your response is unrelated (as far as I can tell) to what I wrote.

      • There have been approximately 200 deaths in ALASKA attributed to the Wuhan. This is an Alaska centric website hence the name “Must Read Alaska”.

    • CKB11,
      There is a good argument that the mortality rate is far below 1%. A very large percentage of those deaths That are attributed to C-19 are bogus. They involve tens and tens of thousands who had co- morbidities that most likely killed them. They died with C-19 but not from it. We will probably never know the truth because of the money involved. It has been in the financial best interest of the health care businesses and care providers to attribute these deaths to C-19. Maybe some day we will learn just how much money went to them on account of their often bogus diagnosis that a person died from from the virus instead with the virus.
      I read that an auto accident victim who died in an auto collision and was discovered to have the virus had his cause of death listed as being caused by C-19. . The deaths caused by these suicides were officially claimed to be from the virus when it was found during an autopsy the person had C-19.
      Greed has no boundaries.

  7. School workers, including teachers, are not essential workers per definition. If they were, they would be having in-person classes. If the State decides that school staff are essential and get in line ahead of older Alaskans, then the K12 schools will still be closed because the students will not have been vaccinated. And the CDC does NOT recommend vaccinations of anyone younger than 16 years. So, chalk this up to a win-win for the teachers unions!

    • Yes yes we all know you want teachers to die a horrible and miserable death. But not every teacher is a member of the nea. I for one detest the teacher’s Union and I know many who do and have never paid one red cent in union dues so stop lumping all of us into one basket please.

      • Once again, I am amazed by your mind reading abilities, Greg. You were able to definitively state that Mr. Boyle wants teachers to die based on what he wrote.
        .
        Amazing.

  8. For those of you who think you can dictate a medical procedure on an unwilling individual without their consent!!! Pay attention to informed consent and HANGING !!! Notice LEGAL document!!!

    Nuremberg Code Establishes the Principle of Informed Consent

    Legal document

    By: Nuremberg Military Tribunal

    Date: August 19, 1947

    Source: Excerpt of the verdict in the case of U.S.A. v. Karl Brandt et al. (“Doctors Trial”), contained in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10 (Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949), vol. 2, pp. 181-183.

    About the Author: After World War II (1939–1945), the Allied nations established a series of International Military Tribunals, mostly at Nuremberg, Germany, to try several high-ranking Nazis as war criminals. These trials sought to bring to justice those responsible for the atrocities of the Holocaust. Among the defendants were physicians who had either ordered or performed the torture or murder of prisoners in numerous Nazi concentration and death camps.

    INTRODUCTION

    Since ancient times, beneficence has been a key principle of the medical profession, enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath and subsequent codes of medical ethics. Beneficence entails that physicians must always put the needs and welfare of patients first. By extension, bioscientists must always put the needs and welfare of human research subjects first. However, until the verdict was handed down in the Nuremberg “Doctor’s Trial,” the specific rights of human subjects of modern biomedical research were not codified.

    Twenty-three physicians, including Karl Brandt, Adolf Hitler’s personal physician, were charged as defendants at Nuremberg. The most notorious offender, Josef Mengele of Auschwitz, escaped and was never brought to trial. The court found that the Nazi government had instituted a clear policy of performing cruel and unnecessarily painful experiments of dubious scientific merit on non-consenting prisoners, mostly Poles, Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the handicapped. The trial, under judges Walter B. Beals, Harold L. Sebring, Johnson T. Crawford, and Victor T. Swearingen, all Americans, lasted from December 9, 1946, to August 20, 1947. Seven defendants were acquitted, sixteen were convicted; seven, including Brandt, were sentenced to be hanged.

    One of the most important outcomes of the Doctor’s Trial was the portion of the verdict subtitled “Permissible Medical Experiments,” which defined the concept of informed consent and marked the beginning of international jurisprudence and regulation in this aspect of biomedical research ethics.

    Its ten enumerated principles became known as the “Nuremberg Code.” Informed consent is what allows human research subjects to be active and voluntary participants rather than victims or unwilling tools of the scientific process.

    PRIMARY SOURCE
    PERMISSIBLE MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
    The great weight of the evidence before us is to the effect that certain types of medical experiments on human beings, when kept within reasonably well-defined bounds, conform to the ethics of the medical profession generally. The protagonists of the practice of human experimentation justify their views on the basis that such experiments yield results for the good of society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study. All agree, however, that certain basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts:
    1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
    This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.

    The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.

    2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.

    3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment.

    4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.

    5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.

    6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.

    7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.

    8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.

    9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.

    10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probably cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.
    Of the ten principles which have been enumerated our judicial concern, of course, is with those requirements which are purely legal in nature—or which at least are so clearly related to matters legal that they assist us in determining criminal culpability and punishment. To go beyond that point would lead us into a field that would be beyond our sphere of competence. However, the point need not be labored. We find from the evidence that in the medical experiments which have been proved, these ten principles were much more frequently honored in their breach than in their observance. Many of the concentration camp inmates who were the victims of these atrocities were citizens of countries other than the German Reich. They were non-German nationals, including Jews and “asocial persons,” both prisoners of war and civilians, who had been imprisoned and forced to submit to these tortures and barbarities without so much as a semblance of trial.

    In every single instance appearing in the record, subjects were used who did not consent to the experiments; indeed, as to some of the experiments, it is not even contended by the defendants that the subjects occupied the status of volunteers. In no case was the experimental subject at liberty of his own free choice to withdraw from any experiment. In many cases experiments were performed by unqualified persons; were conducted at random for no adequate scientific reason, and under revolting physical conditions. All of the experiments were conducted with unnecessary suffering and injury and but very little, if any, precautions were taken to protect or safeguard the human subjects from the possibilities of injury, disability, or death. In every one of the experiments the subjects experienced extreme pain or torture, and in most of them they suffered permanent injury, mutilation, or death, either as a direct result of the experiments or because of lack of adequate follow-up care.

    Obviously all of these experiments involving brutalities, tortures, disabling injury, and death were performed in complete disregard of international conventions, the laws and customs of war, the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, and Control Council Law No. 10. Manifestly human experiments under such conditions are contrary to “the principles of the law of nations as they result from the usages established among civilized peoples, from the laws of humanity, and from the dictates of public conscience.”
    Whether any of the defendants in the dock are guilty of these atrocities is, of course, another question.

    SIGNIFICANCE

    For two decades after the Nazi atrocities came to light, a false and self-satisfied optimism pervaded the Western world that such cruel mockeries of good science could only happen under dictatorships such as Hitler’s. While indeed the Nazi abuses of human research subjects were the worst, other blatant and unjustifiable violations of the principle of informed consent continued to occur throughout the West. Two examples are the study of syphilis among African-American men in Tuskegee, Alabama, funded by the federal government from 1932–1972, and the study of hepatitis among children at the Willowbrook State School for the Retarded, Staten Island, funded by New York State from 1955–1972.

    As these abuses were gradually exposed, various governmental and professional agencies, both national and international, moved to counteract them and to prevent future occurrences. The Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association in 1964, the U.S. National Research Act in 1974, the Belmont Report of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1979, and the Common Rule of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 1991 can all be seen as corollaries to the Nuremberg Code.

    • I don’t think private businesses can insist that their employees get vaccinated, or take a drug test, or have a dress code, or have unsightly tattoos visible to the public that are deemed detrimental to the company I know businesses can do that. It’s their right. You don’t have a whole lot of Rights working for somebody else which is why I would suggest you start your own business then you can make up your own rules.

  9. It’s like the Titanic all over again! (hahahahaha) The First Class passengers dominantly made up the population ushered into the lifeboats over steerage cause the crew didn’t know better and they decided to value human life by ones financial contribution.
    The state can’t say they value peoples lives against their so called dangerous virus and then separate peoples lives based upon determining which life is essential by who they choose live longer.

    • So right! Reading that article I became more and more disgusted with these vile and repulsive wretches. Swine will mob at any trough.

    • John Jacob Astor today would be worth $100 billion with a capital B dollars and according to your wisdom he would have been able to buy some sort of a scrap of wood that would have kept him afloat. Perhaps leave the history lesson to the professionals next time. Stick to churchy stuff.

          • Isn’t it cute when a new Alaska resident tries to pretend 20 years in state is significant in any way.
            20 years means you are just getting your feet under you in my book.

        • Not are you. Not in mind anyway. It takes more than being a resident to be a true Alaskan. Like many up there you snuck in by way of Seattle or Portland and you think that makes you an Alaskan you don’t even have a clue.

      • This is why I believe performing musicians should be LAST to receive a vaccine.. Not that I have anything against performing musicians.. But who else can play the music while the Titanic is sinking???

  10. I am thinking by delivering based upon Essential Services Alaska vaccinate the Entire Legislative body and the Governor’s Administration as well local government elect since they are the ruling class. If they sickened and die because of waiting too long for a vaccine, their death would create more chaos than there already exists because of a lot their choices made. Their sudden death will make the chaos grow worse.

    • Again Jenny you are wrong as usual. We the people are the ruling class in this country and this is solved by elections. The people we elect to govern us merely work for us and if we don’t like the decisions that they make we have an opportunity to correct the election. But again you go back into history like today is England France Spain all the monarchs of 300 years ago. You’re not smoking something are you?

  11. This will be a test of Alaskan’s values and moral compasses. I expect that we will fail the test! What I came away with after reading this article is that we Alaskans are about to show the country a side of us that we will not be proud of when reviewed later on. The selfishness demonstrated already is unseemly at best. Seems that just about everybody believes they should be first in line for the vaccinations and will say anything to move up the line. The lies that will be told in order to go closer to the front will tell us who these people really are.
    It is a mistake to open up this process so the world can see how selfish and self serving we Alaskans can be during times where selflessness should be the order of the day. Instead of putting this on display, a very few policy makers should step up to the plate and decide the priorities. And do it quick and then carry out the policy NOW. Don’t allow us Alaskans to create an ugly, undignified circus that causes even the slightest delay.

    • Your age and medical history will determine where you are in line because our society values the elders. Younger people regardless of their occupation are less susceptible to this illness and are forced to take a position further down the line. That’s just the way it is like it or lump it.

  12. This reminds me of the military draft in the 1960s and early 1970s, except for that que people were finding ways to be further back (move their sons further back), or to leave it altogether. That time the designation 1A limited options (until the war ended in a more ignominious way than anyone could have imagined). So Congress and the Selective Service came up with a lottery, and that may be what needs to be done here as everyone can contrive some reason to move to the front of the vaccination line. Government does everything poorly yet in Alaska, and more and more throughout America, we want government to do everything. It’s an indicator of how much Alaska has changed that apparently no one spoke up for escort girls and the like at this H&SS hearing.

  13. Very first on the list ought to include those in the Pioneer Homes and other elderly care facilities. I’d also seriously consider including anyone in jail / prison, as they are in a position they are unable to escape exposure. Cheers –

    • Nope on prison. Besides, here in Alaska a small portion have gotten, no deaths that I’m aware of.
      Or do you want to side with the Governor of California and release prisoners and/or give the vaccine to convicted murderers/rapist etc, over seniors?

      • Prisoners are wards of the state and as such or helpless just like old people in a closed setting like a nursing home. Yes humanity dictates that they get a shot too.

      • Incarceration ought not to be a death sentence, something we don’t have in this state.

        Report out this morning that one of the correctional facilities has a 100% infection rate.

        Cheers –

  14. How does the flu vaccine get distributed? Oh yeah it goes to Pharmacies, Dr. Offices, Hospitals. Just start delivering them and let the people decide OMG!! how long before you realize the government is trying to run your life.

      • Man I hope that was sarcasm. If you really think the government needs to protect your neighbors from themselves that’s borderline evil. I’m looking for the government to protect me from the people that think they need to protect me from myself, thank you very much- in fact I think that’s what the constitution is for: protecting us all from busy bodies and Karen’s who make their way to positions of power.

  15. I was on the testimony, on 28 Dec with the ACIP committee. First off. To those that do not want to take the vaccine, fine, do what you want. I do not, nor will not demean you, so shut the hell up on your demeaning those whom choose to take the vaccine, period!
    Now, what happened last night. Teachers, electrical, fisheries, court workers, on and oncalled in demanding they get ahead of the line. Although none came out and said to hell with seniors that want the vaccine, not one of them mentioned seniors at all!.
    I think there was maybe 10 people that called wanting seniors to get first shot, I quit listening the last 5-10 minutes as I was making calls for the Governor to disregard the ACIP recommendations if they keep with the CDC recommendations.
    There are approximately 140,000 seniors in Alaska, 19 to 20% of the population. So, let’s do a bit of math. According to polls, 1/3 of people nation-wide will not take the vaccine. So, let’s take 1/3rd away from that 140,000 so now that is 93,800. Then according to the VA, there are 30,000 vets in Alaska (I think that is low), so, let’s say all 30,000 wait for the Vat to get the vaccine (vets may wait a long time), and say all 30,000 are 60 and above). Now that 93,800 is 63,800. Then say we take away the 200 deaths (vast majority seniors), and those have had the virus and now immune (this per State dashboard) 6778 so now the total is 56,822.
    So, if all 56,822 get the vaccine with the upcoming doses coming (numbers unknown at this time), but let’s assume that this could be done if we get 30,000 doses each month,with two shot Moderna or Pfizer, we could have herd immunity of seniors in 4 months total. That isn’t counting the second dose number in addition to more for 1st dose of others. So, within the next 2 months 56,822 seniors could have had the first vaccine and now a 50% immunity until the second dose that gives 95%.
    After seniors are protected. then the fear that people will pass the virus to seniors is over. Then the non-seniors that want the vaccine can start and that along with those 37,628 that are now immune from having the virus, minus the 33% that will refuse, we can have herd immunity easily by late spring.
    Now, as to those selfish people that testified yesterday. That means the fishery workers will be immune by fishing season. The teachers that don’t teach now by face to face and still refuse to do so, along with the NEA and Alaska teachers unions can be covered by late spring and able to teach physically at least the last couple months of the school year (these teachers are the most selfish of them all IMHO). All those others that have been working the past 10 months, that haven’t gotten the virus because of what they have been doing to protect themselves will be able to burn their masks after “sacrificing” for just a few more months!
    According to the hearing yesterday, the ACIP committee will come out with their recommendations by 30 Dec, this Wednesday. Will they protect seniors, all seniors that want the vaccine, or will they support selfish so called “essential workers” that have self defined themselves as such and allow more seniors to be ill, fill up the beds in hospitals and or die? Will the ACIP by not supporting seniors, in essence, go along with an form of genocide of seniors because we aren’t “essential”? If they do the latter, I call on the Governor to refuse the recommendation and order that all future vaccines go to all Alaskans 60 and above, first and until all are 100% that want the vaccine are covered! Let the “young”, middle aged”, healthy continue “mitigating” and making all the “sacrifices” that they have said they supported prior to the vaccine coming out! Let those age groups get the herd immunity numbers up until they can get the vaccine, thus we will need less vaccine!
    I ask that all that read this actually support the 140,000 Alaskan Seniors!

  16. Why the heck wasn’t this done already? A plan should be in place at this point in time, Texas is already giving the vaccine to the elderly, so I would assume that the first line people have already been inoculated.

  17. This should not be an issue. This allocating vaccines based on some arbitrary measure is panic driven, not science driven.
    .
    Can anyone please tell me what is so horrific about this disease that any of this is justified?
    .
    And, please do not pull the “It killed 300,000 people in the US…” line. Dying with the virus is very different than dying because of the virus. And, if you do not understand that subtlety, please do not respond.

    • So, I want the vaccine for the same reason I want the flu vaccine, the pneumonia vaccine. So I DON”T GET SICK! I do NOT like getting sick! I do NOT like a possibility of going into a hospital.
      If you don’t care, that is your decision, I will not belittle you for that decision. I’m sick and tired of people second guessing and belittling us with assumptions. I am an adult and I have read up and educated myself. I’ve read the negatives and the positives. I make my decision NOT based on “panic” like so many others. So, why don’t you just make your decision and leave my decision alone!

        • Based on that logic, people die from being alive. As soon as your are born, you start dying. Complications from life killed you.
          .
          Nobody dies from the virus is like saying no one dies from cancer or a heart attack. They die from complications caused by cancer or a heart attack. Same same.
          .
          You are smart enough to know that the primary cause of death is what is generally listed as the “cause of death.” If malignant cancer destroys your lungs’ ability to function, cancer is the cause of death, not asphyxiation. If part of your heart starves for blood and stops pumping, a heart attack is the cause of death, not cholesterol.
          .
          When the average person who earns a check mark on the COVID-19 death column has between two and three life shortening co-morbidities, odds are the virus was not the primary cause of death.
          .
          But, thanks for demonstrating that you do not, in fact, understand the subtlety.

      • Hi Mike:
        .
        I am a bit baffled by your response. Where did I tell anyone not to get vaccinated? I think I asked a very simple question, yet for some reason, you seem to be taking it as an affront.
        .
        Please believe me, I will not stand in your way of getting a vaccine. Please do.
        .
        However, if you can shed some light on the question I asked, I would really appreciate it.

        • I’m just tired of people questioning why I will take the vaccine.

          You asked why I would take it, my answer was simple, I don’t want to get sick.

          You make an assumption that those of us taking are doing so from “panic”, that offends me and most likely others.

          What really pisses me off is that so called “essential” workers now all of a sudden want to jump ion line over seniors! I would bet a big bunch of those hate Trump and bashed him for Operation Warpspeed. The manner on how this is being bantered about, people overty or covertly attacking those of us that are and believe me, I have been attacked just for asking the question.

          • Sorry Mike, but please go back and read my post. I asked no such thing.
            If you want the vaccine, please get it.
            .
            Please also note that my statement concerning panic was about allocating the vaccine, not about choosing to get the vaccine. The words used are important. “This allocating vaccines based on some arbitrary measure is panic driven” is exactly what I wrote.
            .
            And, I agree with the rest of your response. It is very annoying to see people like Kamela Harris, who openly stated that she did not want the vaccine if Trump said it was OK, getting injected. Either you have standards or you don’t.

      • Good for you. They want to beat up on people that want to get the shot and people that wear masks because they don’t want to make somebody else sick around them to try to make themselves feel better. It’s kind of clinical. I guess misery loves company. In the end they’re nothing but bullies.

  18. I say let the Liberals have the vaccine. Being infected with COVID and 100% recovered in a day, I will gladly pass and sit back and observe. Masks have done nothing but aggravate my asthma, I’ve doubled by inhaler use since the mandatory use was forced upon us.

    • My mask lets me escape to outside most days because of my asthma. Florida is one of the worst states to live in if you have asthma because things grow most of the year. It’s the same way we used to wear dust masks in the wood shop to cut down on small dust wood particles from getting into our lungs kind of like black lung and a coal mine.

  19. I think take the vaccine or don’t. I do think it’s funny tho- we have known since late spring, that the virus doesn’t affect kids very much at all, and yet we locked up the schools. So now, we are being told we must get the vaccine or we can’t get to herd immunity, when, not only did they tell us back then that herd immunity wasn’t a real thing, but when they ignored a solid mechanism of herd immunity by closing the schools. In reality, we should have exercised both options if we were really serious about beating this thing. And for all the people projecting what they see down south on to OUR Governor? Get a grip. This state has had about the 2nd or 3rd LEAST amount of restrictions put on it, and has like the 2nd lowest fatality ratio. To me? That’s winning. You don’t like what Anchortown officials did? Then get off your ass and work to get new ones in. Your apathy has affected the whole state, not the other way around. The rest of the state would love it if you cleaned up your corrupt city government-it’s dragging us all down-but don’t come crying to the governor because you all didn’t get involved when you needed to. Take your OWN city back. That’s Called “Local Control”. It’s a bedrock conservative principle. I’m glad we have a Governor that respects it.

    • Unfortunately there are more than just kids in a school. Also unfortunately it is proven that kids are carriers asymptomatic carriers and can take the virus home to Grandpa.

      • Actually no, not to any great extent have kids ever been proven to be a significant vector of transmission for this disease. So that was panic and hysteria that damaged our kids and their learning, and also slowed the rate at which we will ultimately achieve herd immunity. It was I’ll advised on so many levels we could take up all the comments on this page just discussing all the damage it’s done. It’s generational now. Fear mongers and control freaks did what they always do; make everything worse.

      • “… it is proven that kids are carriers asymptomatic carriers…”
        Interesting statement. What I am seeing demonstrates the opposite. Can you provide info on the study that proved that? I know that MRAK does not like links, but if you can provide a title, author, and date of publication, that would be extremely helpful.

    • People got to delete themselves off Facebook and its sister Instagram and all its cousins. Social Media is what really cradled the generation, now under 91, to sleep raising their children and meeting the neighbors around them not waiting for people connect with them because of having a Facebook account. It has declined and declining what little social skills these generations had before 1965. Until people delete themselves off Facebook they are THAT car noisily going down the street with a bad muffler! Hahahaha
      Look! i am waiting for people meet outside and build a relatiomship. The wall is peoples lack of social skills. Social media really has robbed its users social skills making people Effective for change. Social media is just a Noisy gong where people rally around and hit the bell creating attention. I agree with you. My two cents. I like to see more users delete themselves off Facebook before Facebook bans and delete them off. Hahahaha hahahaha

  20. Do your own due diligence everyone.
    Many doctors around the globe are being silenced while trying to disclose critical facts: There have been significant increases in pneumonia and respiratory illnesses being caused by wearing these masks long-term and is much more detrimental.

    Best Rule of Thumb:
    Stop listening to the CDC and Zink.
    Every ounce of their credibility has been dismantled. Just like our local Anchorage restaurants one at a time.

    99.9% of those having symptoms will survive. That is not debatable any longer. Certainly no justification to close a person’s business for 30+ days during Christmas.

    The real virus is the local/national MSM paralyzing everyone with irrational, unnecessary fear for this long, along with Godless, incompetent members of the Anchorage Assembly
    & a clueless, weak, liberal un-elected Mayor.

    They all are destroying the state I’ve lived in since 1976 and numerous businesses and lives. We will be having an independent audit soon regarding every dime of the Cares Act funds. I’ll pay for it myself if necessary.

    God bless the struggling restaurant and businesses owners.

    • Some of the business this tyrant “acting mayor” has destroyed:
      Spenard Shell station
      Marco T’s Pizzeria
      Last Frontier Bar
      Anchorage Markets
      Table 6
      Peggy’s Restaurant
      Midtown Kava’s
      Cattle Company Steakhouse
      Patella Denny
      The Alleyway Grille
      Crostini Cafe
      Campobello Bistro
      Crab Terror Island
      Village Inn, Spenard
      Roti
      Partycraft West Anchorage
      Pho Bowl
      Carrs, Penland Pkwy
      Pho Lena Express
      Helena’s Day Spa & Supply
      Deha Yoga
      Southside Sun Spa

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