About 15 doctors, nurses, and medics showed up at the Anchorage Assembly meeting on Tuesday, fully outfitted in their white medical garb, looking like they came directly from their shifts at Providence Hospital to testify that the mayor of Anchorage must enact a mask mandate in the municipality’s buildings, and he must encourage people in Anchorage to get a Covid-19 vaccine.
They bunched together in groups, shoulder to shoulder, fully masked, and in scrubs and lab coats. There was no social distancing among them. Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar came down from the dais before the meeting and conferred with the union organizer who was with them.
It had all been coordinated in advance with the Anchorage Assembly leadership. Their major argument was that people will die if they don’t get vaccinated.
Assembly Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance gave the group 20 45 minutes to present, while the public only got three minutes apiece. The leftist of the Assembly, including LaFrance, Chris Constant, Dunbar, and Meg Zaletel, knew they were coming and made sure they were lined up in front of the microphone even before the meeting started. Even Must Read Alaska knew they were going to show up en masse in their lab coats with their coordinated talking points.
It was the Anchorage Assembly majority’s way of driving a wedge between the medical community and the community at large, and also driving a wedge between medical professionals, many of whom are being fired for not adhering to the vaccine mandates at hospitals and care centers.
Other professionals, some who reached out to Must Read Alaska privately, said they disagree with the direction of the hospital leadership and they were aware of the coordinated entourage and the talking points, but had to keep quiet to keep their jobs.
Over the weekend, Providence Hospital enacted a policy that they said will prioritize crisis care, as over 30 percent of adults in the Anchorage hospital are said to be Covid-19 positive.
The medical professionals who stood in unison said they were concerned about the rationing of medical care. That issue was disputed by other doctors, who called after the meeting and said there is no rationing going on a Providence.
Donna Mears from the Anchorage Health and Human Services Commission said, “Our overwhelming recommendation is to get vaccinated.” But their main result of their venture into politics was to alienate conservatives further, according to several who observed the spectacle.
The medical group drifted out of the chambers shortly after their staged political event.
