MANY HAVE COVID IMMUNITY, BUT SUFFER FROM LOCKDOWNS

By MARTHA CARVER, RN

An open letter to Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson,

Do not shut down our city for the month of December. This will have devastating effects on our community, which has suffered enough. This is an irresponsible move and I am asking for your resignation as acting mayor. Step aside and let someone else be in charge of Anchorage. 

The CDC, American Nurses Association, and individual nurses have been asking the public to stay home due to COVID.

They key word is ask. I am a nurse and as a profession, we respect an individual’s right to autonomy. It is so important a concept, that it is included in the American Nurses Association Code of Ethics because sometimes patients do not follow our recommendations. The healthcare provider informs them of the benefits, risks, and alternatives to treatments, and then needs to respect their decision. That is their right.

Years ago, I provided care for a patient who had a low hemoglobin and needed a blood transfusion. She refused since she was a Jehovah’s Witness adherent, and although we knew she needed the transfusion, we respected her decision. There are times when patients leave the hospital against medical advice. We may not agree with their choice, but we have to honor it.

Likewise, the government must respect the individual’s right to make his or her own decisions, even if the person makes the wrong decisions. And who is to say what is wrong for them? As many people in Anchorage have recovered from COVID-19, should you make laws to limit their rights when they can no longer get COVID or infect others? 

People can wear masks without an ordinance commanding them to do so. People can stay home when they are experiencing symptoms or had contact with a COVID-19-positive individual, regardless of a municipal ordinance.  You should not compound our economic disaster by placing any further restrictions on businesses. And yet, not only have you decided to restrict businesses, but you have chosen to extend the restrictions into our private homes. That is a mistake. You should have faith the residents of Anchorage. Trust the public to do what is right. 

It is time to weigh the negative effects of mandates against the threat of Covid. The World Health Organization is now requesting leaders to end lockdowns.

According to MSN.com, “In the United States, lockdowns have been tied to increase thoughts of suicide from children, a surge in drug overdoses, an uptick in domestic violence, and a study conducted in May concluded that stress and anxiety from lockdowns could destroy seven times the years of life the lockdowns potentially save.” Seven times the years of life that the shutdown would potentially save! This is significant and demonstrates the negative effects of restrictions.

I have heard the argument that it is reckless to end the mandates when the number of cases is high, but I argue it is reckless to continue the mandates.

Leaders must balance the risk of COVID, which is minimal, as many people are asymptomatic, treatments are available, and has a low mortality rate, against the other public health problems of anxiety, substance abuse, domestic violence, child abuse, sex trafficking, and depression.

When you take the time to assess the full magnitude of the problem rather than just looking at one piece, then it is easy to see the solution is to allow the public their freedoms and end lockdowns.  

My mother grew up in German-occupied Yugoslavia. She was told by the government that she could not do many things either. She had to make sure she carried her paperwork.

Yet as a 12-year-old girl, she would ride her bike to bring food to the local troops hiding from the German soldiers. She told me if the Germans found out what she was doing, they would have killed her. It would have been safer for her to stay home, yet she chose not to. If she was still alive, she would not like being told that she could not celebrate Christmas with her family.

Our Municipality’s actions are similar to the restrictions my mom experienced when growing up during the middle of World War II. Please change your mind on these restrictions. Open Anchorage.

Martha Carver started her nursing career in the Air Force. She has worked for many years in med/surg nursing in various states. She moved to Alaska ten years ago and taught at the University of Alaska Anchorage School of Nursing. She is not working as a nurse presently and writes in her personal capacity.

By WIN GRUENING

Is anyone paying attention?

Scientific evidence continues to mount that K-through-12 schools can operate with face-to-face learning and do so safely and responsibly.  Yet school boards and government officials across the country continue to bow to pressure from teachers unions and some parents to keep schools closed.  

Many healthcare professionals world-wide are now recommending an alternative approach rather than continuing extended lockdowns and school closures that cause irreparable damage from educational, physical, and mental health impacts.

In Juneau, Bartlett Hospital Chief Behavioral Health Officer Bradley Grigg, told Juneau Assembly members that hospital personnel have treated an unprecedented number of kids experiencing high levels of stress, thoughts of self-harm and suicide attempts over the past seven months.

In the nine months prior to the beginning of the pandemic in March, 37 children under age 18 received psychiatric services and 3 children were seen by Bartlett Hospital personnel as a result of suicide attempts.  In the six-month period since, 85 children received psychiatric services – 12 children for attempting suicide – 7 of those, age 13 or younger.  This does not include cases handled by other mental and behavioral health providers in Juneau.

This is an astounding increase in psychiatric caseload for a town the size of Juneau. Absent the pandemic, parents and schools would have declared it a health emergency by now.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s recent op-ed states what now appears obvious: “When Trump Was Right and Many Democrats Wrong”.  He describes how government authorities have ignored the data and science when it has become increasingly clear that schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children.

Yet decisions to close schools or not reopen them have continued to multiply in the latest pandemic surge.

American school districts initially responded to the pandemic by shuttering many public schools and turning to remote learning, even as many businesses have stayed open or reopened. Much of Europe pursued the opposite route, doing everything possible to keep schools operating — and the evidence suggests that Europe had the smarter approach.

Instead of acting on this information, school authorities seem more intent on promoting the narrative that everyone is equally at risk of contracting and transmitting Covid-19 with no differentiation between vulnerable groups and our school age population.

The Anchorage Education Association, a teachers union with about 3,200 members, cited a survey that reflected most Anchorage teachers — about 80% — are afraid to return to classes, and many also do not believe the district is properly prepared to mitigate COVID-19 risks.

Predictably, Anchorage school opening plans were derailed when their planned November 16 re-opening was postponed once again until later next year.

In Juneau, a modest proposal to re-open school for a small cohort of kindergarteners was abandoned as community infection rates increased.  Yet, bars and restaurants and many other retail establishments stayed open – albeit at reduced capacity.

It’s time to ask again: What are our priorities?

The evidence of the human cost of school closures is beginning to surface.  Absenteeism, failing grades, and skyrocketing mental health issues indicate that virtual learning is significantly less effective than classroom instruction and school closures are inflicting a crushing impact on working parents and children’s mental health.

The emotional toll on our young people cannot be over-stated.

The lack of social interaction and physical activity combined with academic  struggles have produced a level of stress that most young people are ill-equipped to handle.

How many children, not yet identified, are suffering from the damaging psychological and educational impacts of school lockdowns?  If the safety of students is not threatened, on the whole, by Covid-19 and students are minimally contagious if infected, how can our elected school boards and school officials ignore the longer-term effects of Covid-19 lockdown measures?

While there may occasionally be reasons to close a school temporarily, it must be seen as a last resort. Because it affects so much more than academics, education must be viewed as an essential activity and school officials should recognize that school buildings are the safest place for students to be.

Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970.