On again, off again: Masks required for all who enter Alaska Capitol

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Face masks are back in fashion in many places in Alaska, particularly in Juneau, and also are now required to enter the Alaska Capitol, per a Monday decision by the Legislative Council, which is chaired by Juneau Democrat Rep. Sarah Hannan.

Legislators and their staff must also be tested for Covid-19 every fourth day of the session, although this requirement is based on the honor system and whether it can be enforced is a question. There is no testing for members of the public and the building is open — for now.

Two motions by Sen. Lora Reinbold to make masks and testing optional failed, although it had the support of Sen. Peter Micciche and Reps. Cathy Tilton and Chris Tuck.

Legislative Council sets the rules for the building, and required masks in the Capitol and its annexes during the Covid-19 pandemic, except for six months between May and October, 2021.

The Alaska Legislature begins on Tuesday.

62 COMMENTS

    • No, the CDC clarified that N95s and KN95s (respirators) are considered more effective than regular masks for protection of the wearer.

      ‘https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html’

      • I wonder if these lower class leaders think that those leaders in higher places are going to care about and for them, after they’ve complete the agenda that was layed out for them to do..with funds that they were paid, of course. Are they going to enjoy the fruit of their works, when it’s accomplished? I may be wrong, but I’m thinking they’re all going to be in the same boat as the rest of us.
        Curious..

        • No idea what you’re referring to Sherry. The revised recommendations are based on studies, and the latest data that has come out. In this case, the Omicron variant has changed the game some. Not sure how that relates to high and low class leaders.

    • What was it Rand Paul’s been saying from the off?
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      Time to start INSISTING/YELLING AS LOUD AS WE CAN– “nothing less than N95’s in all public buildings must be worn by ALL public employees, all ALL times.” #f@ckem #wewillplayyoursillygame #seewhogetsfedupfirst
      .
      We’ll see have much internal fortitude these moronic-maskettes actually possess with a well fitted kosher N95 strapped over their cake-holes 8 hours a day.

      • Shocking that Paul was one of the first lawmakers to get COVID… the guy who has an allergy to masks, facts, and accredited medical boards, mysteriously caught COVID, even though he says masks don’t work. I’m sure the irony is lost on you.

        • How many people, outside of the entitled few, get daily COVID tests like Rand Paul, and actually know they COVID positive whilst asymptomatic (showing no symptoms for you folk in Brandon land)?
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          We’ve all had COVID by now John, even you double-triple maskers hiding in your basements.
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          The difference being John, you’re clueless you’ve had COVID, and spread it through that ill-fitting, defective mask because of your triple vaccinated (suppress the symptoms) status.
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          See how this works? You’re the polar opposite of the proverbial “Canary in the coal mine.”.
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          You’re all masked/vaccinated walking talking asymptomatic infection vectors.

          • Do you think your case is strengthened when you cry and hurl insults? If your only method for handling disagreement is acting like a child, then who actually runs your household? Where are the adults?

            All you’re telling me is you lost, and you can’t argue.

            So why bother commenting, when you could just cry it out in silence?

          • So, you have no proper retort to my “scientific observations”– you resort to hurling childish 5th grade insults. #morenonsense

          • Eric, what scientific observations are you referring? You made claims you can’t back up with observations or data. You hurled insults. You ruled yourself out. Don’t keep crying about it. #bebetter

        • So what John!
          Along with Rand Paul 67 million (per the CDC) Americans got this disease and SURVIVED it just fine (some of them even got it twice and live to tell about it). And before you go off about the 850,000 who died, let’s examine if they actually died FROM Covid. Real factual numbers are not to be had.
          As a side note, I find it hypocritical that when conservatives get Covid, they are derided as anti-vax knuckle-draggers. News is greeted with glee and fervent wishes by the liberal cabal that the ill person succumb to their illness. Yet liberals, who get Covid are showered with well-wishes and praised for their courage to survive the disease.
          BTW according to the CDC 79.9% of Americans 5 years and older have at least 1 dose, yet transmission rates across the country are universally high, despite masks/vaccinations.

          • We know 850,000 Americans or more died from COVID. We have annual mortality rates from previous years, and it grew 17% or more in 2020 and 2021. This isn’t rocket science. COVID is serious. You can’t imagine it away with a strong, ignorant mind, no matter how hard you try.

            As for transmission rates increasing, that is due to the extremely infectious omicron variant. What you don’t see is hospitalization or fatality in vaccinated or previously infected. Again, this isn’t rocket science, no matter how hard you try to pretend it is. This shouldn’t be way over your head. You have the ability to comprehend something this simple.

          • John Wrote:
            ——————
            >We know 850,000 Americans or more died from COVID.We know 850,000 Americans or more died from COVID<
            .
            Any and all credibility dies with ANYONE who makes such an irrefutably ludicrous UNPROVABLE idiotic statement.
            .
            #goodnightkaren

          • John with all due respect, reading comprehension here IS important:
            There is a difference in reporting deaths that ACTUALLY resulted FROM covid (per the CDC about 6% of all Covid reported deaths) and those who died of something else (some extreme cases were a murder-suicide or a car crash) but were covid positive and counted as Covid deaths, artificially inflating the numbers.
            Also since Covid emerged in 2020 you may have a 17% increase in 2021 but not both years. 2020 would be the baseline. Again counter-intuitively the numbers exploded after vaccinations became available. It is also irritating that numbers continue to be counted as totals for the pandemic and not like ALL other deaths per year, potentially to distract from the larger post vaccination numbers.
            Loved your adjustment including the “previously infected”. A point you argued against only a few weeks ago.
            Finally ignoring the millions of individual, who had the virus and lived, because they do not fit your narrative makes you intellectually dishonest.

          • Interesting mask failure news out of Europe today, so much so, the smart socialists have shut down the masking pantomime. #thefatmaskedladyexitedthestage

    • It’s based on case count. As in the number of infections currently circulating in communities. I know, this is way over your head. Lucky for you, you aren’t responsible for anything here. Professionals are, and they pay attention. Again, unlike you.

      • John, this was the first (so-called) pandemic in which “cases” did not refer merely to those obviously symptomatic of the disease, but also, and primarily, to all those who tested positive on a test — but not even actually a test, but a DNA-amplification analysis which its originator himself stated repeatedly and vehemently was not really valid as a diagnostic tool, due to the many false positives that its ill-considered use as a test would entail.
        In other words, “case counts” based on PCR analysis not only make direct comparisons to past pandemics impossible, but as anyone with any scientific and/or medical knowledge realized from the beginning, but ended up significantly if not grossly inflating the putative case counts as well.
        .
        Again, blind adherence to the pronouncements of politically-compromised “experts” is no substitute for exercising one’s one logic, reason, independent judgement and critical thinking abilities, all of which everyone in the Krazy Kovidian Kult long ago relinquished in favor of hysteria, paranoia, conformism and servile compliance.

        • Jeff, are you redefining what a pandemic is based on ignorance? That’s interesting. But not unusual for you.

          Do you have a citation to back up your definition?

          The only blind adherence going on is you, with your repeated false claims and refusal to provide a shred of evidence to support any of it.

          Does that sound about right?

      • The John wrote:
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        >Lucky for you, you aren’t responsible for anything here. Professionals are, and they pay attention.<

        You're like a bunch of Hookers & John's with this COVID theatre.
        .
        Just let those political whores lead you by your wallet, and don't forget, wear that mask and get tested regularly. #snowflakecrabs

      • Case count is now defined as whether someone has been tested or not, regardless of test results, which is a useless metric. Also, the more you test, the more you find, so case count is practically uninformative. The only reliable information to gauge the status of COVID-19 impact on the population is hospitalizations, and deaths. Cases of COVID-19 are not relevant to government policy. I’m sure that went over your head

        • I agree that the important indicator is hospitalization and death here. But you’ll notice case count rise comes before hospitalization, which comes before death. So it’s not rocket science to pay attention to case counts, since that precludes the serious case counts in hospitals and the morgue.

          • So, case count currently through the roof, hospitalizations (directly from AK’s largest two, found floor, not NPR/ADN) is DOWN, deaths also DOWN.
            .
            It’s not rocket science John, maybe this isn’t your forte.
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            Your thesis is rejected, failing grade here young man. #pleasetryharder

  1. If folks listened to the CDC, the govt., the TV talking heads or the “incentivized” Dr.’s for anything regarding the covid stuff consider yourself a lemming. Many folks knew this was BS from the start. History taught us that for those that cared to look. N95 or KN95’s work only under certain professional applications. Professionally fitted each time and no re-use and no touch during use. And then only for a few hours at most, and are then discarded. Everything else is a false sense of security and does more harm than good.
    As for the worthless tests, enough said right there.

  2. Sarah Hannan is so far to the left that she’s almost ready to fall off the face of the Earth along with the rest of her communistic extremist friends.. We need to make a real strong and concerted effort to unseat her during the next election and at least get somebody in there that’s somewhat moderate. Her decision making is based entirely on fear while at the same time she claims it’s based in science but as one can see it is clearly not.

  3. This isn’t a government we deserve. It’s one where we didn’t pay close attention and there’s been a takeover. Ranked choice voting, mail in ballots, a special ballot tabulation building, and character assasination by the mainstream media all conspired to put these people in office. Masks are the modern day Burka so they’re here to stay.

    • Ranked choice voting passed in the 2020 election ballot initiative (BM 2). The upcoming 2022 election will be the first election where we see ranked choice voting.

      And you claim the current legislature is the product of ranked choice voting? Do you see the problem here Jim? It seems as though you do not understand much about your government. So when you say we didn’t pay close attention, what you mean is YOU do not pay close attention. You gotta wonder what kind of blunders you’ve made in the past if you literally do not have the faintest clue what your government looks like.

    • If you weren’t watching the actions of your elected officials, this is precisely the government you deserve.
      The problem with far too many on the right is they have the mindset civic duty is to vote every other year. And vote for the slob with a R out of fear “ someone else” might win.
      No, this is EXACTLY the government Alaska deserves

  4. It is probably dangerous and damaging to insert wooden sticks into nasal passages every four days. It is meducal advice ti not clean our ears with cotton swabs. Sara Haaman is not expert enough to determine nor does she have a medical license to prescribe to others not her legal wards. We are equal. I cannot prsecribe to her that she stick a stick up her nose every four days to locomote through a public door of her choosing. I’m not liscensed to practice any form of medicine in this state nor is she. Under the US Constitution I may not command another freeman resident to do one thing he does not want to do. We are equal. We have liberty under the 1776 Constitution of the United States of America.

  5. The Paddy Cake / Ring around the Rosy on MASKS is sicking ! What a bunch of ” scaremongering “among grown adults ! Nothing but a form of manipulation which causes fear by using exaggerated rumors of impending danger!
    Are they not all BOOOSTED with insanity yet!
    I guess that comes when they start on the BUDGET!

  6. Can anyone tell me why there is pushback to wearing masks for Covid but no pushback to the TSA having us remove all metal, including pocket knives and Leatherman tools, when we get on an airplane? September 11, 2001, was over 20 years ago and killed 3,000 Americans. Somehow my pocket knife is implicated by Muslim terrorists having taken over 3 commercial aircraft over 20 years ago using boxcutters. This Chinese pandemic, originated in a Communist Chinese laboratory it seems, has now killed 850,000 Americans, continues to this day, and is expected to come up with new variants. We all become sheep as soon as we line up to get on an airplane. If we were not so easily intimidated by Muslim terrorists would the Communist Chinese have been more careful with this disease and to launch it on the world? The way we have responded to that Muslim terrorist attack over 20 years ago, and to this Communist Chinese disease is to me much like would have been the case had Americans responded to December 7, 1941, by asking the Japanese Empire if we could negotiate with them. Is it any wonder that a nation that won’t allow law-abiding Americans to carry pocket knives would leave Afghanistan the we we did last year? President Biden brags he has a trans-gender general officer but the Communist Chinese leaders are banishing their “sissy men,” and I am told some of those “sissy men” are disappearing.

    • But we were intimidated by Muslim terrorists. We gave up our right to privacy when they stuck facial recognition cameras at every stoplight and in every ATM and various street corners around the nation all tied to a supercomputer in Utah. I went out and bought Armageddon equipment to protect my family. Oriver North was even afraid years before if you recall back to the Senate hearing when he was afraid of Osama bin laden and that’s why I put up a big old fence around his house to protect his family.

  7. It briefly warmed up outside and now I have red bloodshot eyes and sneezing sniffles.
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    Darn all those people that refused to take a Claritin! Now look at me!
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    Lock them up!

    • That’s funny right there. I’m the same way here, I live in a pine tree Forest and right now the pine pollen is blowing everywhere and I have a battleship Gray pickup that looks like the wienermobile it’s so yellow. I get a fit in the grocery store and you see people back away from me at least 12 ft. Which actually I’m fine with that.

  8. Requiring the wearing of masks in the capitol is just another barrier between state government and the people they serve. As if they need another one with the capitol located an expensive plane ride from anchorage. The saving grace in all this is that they don’t do anything of consequence in our state government anyway. That cuts down on the need for riots, although it seems some legislators were hyperventilating at that prospect. Guess they were watching too much Liz Cheney videos.

    So, wearing masks in the capitol will show ‘solidarity’ and courtesy to those who insist masks actually work. All it does is add to the misery of working in a totally dysfunctional legislative process.

    • Do you feel the same way about your doctor? That a mask, to protect you and your doctor, is just a barrier between you too? What exactly is it you plan to do with your lawmakers that a mask blocks? Are you trying to make out with your lawmakers? Or maybe brush their teeth for them?

      Get real. This whole act has got to stop. Go take a theater class and leave the drama on the stage.

      • You are correct, John. The whole crazy act of pretending that dehumanizing and ineffective masks prevents or slows the spread of viral infection has to stop.

        • Is it crazy? Because it sure seems crazy that people keep claiming that while evidence shows otherwise. Something about instanity, right?

          • No, John, the evidence, the SCIENCE, shows precisely the opposite. Only the establishment propaganda from the failing and flailing corporate media says otherwise.
            Why do you so steadfastly stand up for the powers of corrupt corporations, John? Is it because you are at heart a crypto-fascist?

  9. Seems like a good indication of what’ll be rolling downhill for the next ninety days.
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    No? Imagine what would happen if a majority of legislators held a press conference on the capital steps and said, not no, but hell no!
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    …then invited the press to accompany them while they took their seats.
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    But apparently Alaskans don’t have a majority of legislators -or maybe any legislators- with courage and integrity to do so.
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    Not exactly an auspicious start to the 2022 session.

  10. Masks are the new teddy bear. Its presence just makes the wearer feel better until they grow up and grow out of it.

  11. At least the Trump Derangement Syndrome pussy hats went away relatively quickly. I’m afraid the Dems have finally lost too many brain cells and the masks are here to stay at least till they are swept down the drain in the mid term elections. At this point it’s all they have, science be damned!

  12. I demand that everyone at the Capitol start wearing SCBAs! Nothing but supplied air can keep the COVIDs out ya lungs! Anyone with the ‘vid will be immediately exiled to the Bering Sea.

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