Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – State Sen. Mike Shower, who represents the Wasilla area, has been hosting a number of Facebook Live events in recent weeks to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
During many of his live events, and in an interview with News of the North, Shower says the virus, while deadly, is killing mostly those with advanced age or underlying conditions.
“The virus is here and it’s going to continue to be here until we achieve what they call herd immunity where enough people have it,” Shower said. “The reality is only a very small fraction of the population, usually the very elderly or those with underlying health conditions, have any significant impact of dying from it.”
Shower says business owners and workers in his district, and statewide, are being negatively impacted by the protracted lockdown orders.
“I got back to my district and I have gotten hundreds of emails, phone calls, and Facebook messages, and they all are saying the same thing… that we’re dying out here not from the virus, but we’re dying from the cure,” Shower said. “[We’re] shutting down the economy and businesses and people have lost their jobs by the thousands and businesses are being shuttered by the hundreds. People are not going to survive economically.”
When it comes to the lockdown, Shower said he has issues with the constitutionality of the orders in Alaska and in the lower 48.
“We have a little bit of a constitutional issue I’m concerned about because we’re in a quasi-state of martial law without really having declared it, where we are interrupting people’s right to assemble, due process, shutting down businesses, and travel,” Shower said. “I want to be crystal clear that I’m not minimizing the disease, that it does spread quickly and that people get it and some people are affected, but a very small portion. I’m asking the hard questions because everybody wants to take the more emotional [approach].”
So, you’re not minimizing the disease, but how much is your grandmother worth? Your mother?
Oh please! Stop this nonsense. So because this man wants thousands of Alaskans to get back to work he doesn’t care about his grandmother? It’s a ridiculous argument.
But let’s play: what if a grandmother, or mother, depended on her adult (grand)children in order to buy groceries, or receive hospice care? Yet, they are unemployed due to concern about the potential of infecting her with a virus? What a predicament!
Perhaps those who are at highest risk should continue to “hunker down” while the more robust in society keep the lights on?
Who is safe and robust? Only people that are survivors in my book.
How about the roughly 50% of people who test positive for antibodies but exhibited no symptoms? Do they count on the “survivor” tally?
Nope. They can still spread the flu. Just lucky that it can’t kill them.
Well stated, AK Touche’. I would recommend that people, especially the fear mongers, visit the website worldometers.info. to learn more about what kills people every single day.
Sadly people die every day from a multitude of causes. The really unfortunate fallout from the ongoing overreaction will be to the truly destitute people across the globe who already don’t have enough food or safe drinking water. Much of the worlds available resources are being squandered in anticipation of the “what ifs?”
Lets look objectively at the facts and base our decisions upon the actual risk vs. reward.
What, you get caught not wearing a mask and the cops chase you back to your mom’s basement and they send a swat team and your mom and grandma get caught in the crossfire?
Let’s just get completely stupid shall we. What an idiotic comment. My mother is 97 and in assisted living. She is also furious at being in lockdown. She says “I lived thru the great depression and WWII. I feel like I’m being again forced to go thru worse hardships for this so called emergency”. So if I tend to agree with her than I must be ostracised? I have more respect for mom than that. And less for you.
The Governor made a good first step by letting the medical Doctors in the State go back to their practices and our health care system will get back running again…I have been in Alaska most of my productive life am 85 now turning 86 in October and things never should have been allowed to be shut down the way they were….
You never faced a global pandemic though. Almost, but not quite.
“In February 1957, a new influenza A (H2N2) virus emerged in East Asia, triggering a pandemic (“Asian Flu”). … It was first reported in Singapore in February 1957, Hong Kong in April 1957, and in coastal cities in the United States in summer 1957.”
“The Hong Kong flu (also known as 1968 flu pandemic) was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people all over the world. … That same month, the virus entered California from returning Vietnam War troops but did not become widespread in the United States until December 1968.”
TODAY 18,193 people worldwide died from hunger. TODAY 6,857 people worldwide died from Coronavirus. Perspective. Doesn’t mean it isn’t serious and should be ignored. But shut down economies and put 22 million people in the USA alone out of work? I would ask what good is perspective if we ignore it……
I would like to hear about what exact constitutional issue Senator Shower is concerned with. We aren’t in martial law, martial law is absolutely nothing like what we are dealing with.
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The Jacobson v. Massachusetts decision said constitutional rights can be lawfully restricted when emergency public health measures are in place. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449224/
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals recently held up a temporary halt to abortions citing the Jacobson decision. In the recent ruling the majority wrote ”That settled rule allows the state to restrict, for example, one’s right to peaceably assemble, to publicly worship, to travel, and even to leave one’s home,” most of what some people are claiming to be unconstitutional has already been gone over and through the court system (due process) and ruled to be constitutional.
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Martial law is very clearly defined here from the legal dictionary
martial law
n. a system of complete control by a country’s military over all activities, including civilian, in a theoretical or actual war zone, or during a period of emergency caused by a disaster such as an earthquake or flood, with the military commander having dictatorial powers. In the United States martial law must be ordered by the President as commander-in-chief and must be limited to the duration of the warfare or emergency. It cannot result in a long-term denial of constitutional rights, such as habeas corpus, the right to a trial, and to free press.
https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1219
I interpreted his remarks “We have a little bit of a constitutional issue I’m concerned about….” as having a healthy fear that we are treading a fine line. Maybe we haven’t fully crossed it, but there are isolated examples of it (police ticketing drive in church services for example) and it is, in my opinion, appropriate for a State Senator to be willing to stand up and say “Ok folks it’s time to take a deep breath and think about how far we’re going down this path….”.
I wholeheartedly support him in this.
“[We’re] shutting down the economy and businesses and people have lost their jobs by the thousands and businesses are being shuttered by the hundreds. People are not going to survive economically.” Senator Shower
Senator Shower or Suzanne,
How many State of Alaska employees have been furloughed without pay or laid off without pay at the same time that Government mandated this of the private sector?
Honest question.
I guess on of the benefits of being a public servant and on lower pay. The benefits are good though.
The ‘benefits’ have steadily been downgraded over the years and new state workers today don’t have benefits that compare to what benefits may have been on offer years ago.
That’s one reason why recruiting is not what it once was, in a competitive job market, our ‘benefit package’ of today doesn’t rate very high on a comparative basis with equitable jobs elsewhere.
Easy to say, benefits are ‘good’, harder to quantify that and make a good comparison to private sector or other state’s when it comes to making that assessment.
Lower pay? You must be joking. Do a quick search on the subject. The number of “public servants” making well over $100K per year is astounding. The number making $150K and more is eyeopening…or should be. In case you were wondering why the local unions are so strong and vocal. How dare anyone gore their ox.
Start Paying the full PFD owned by the Resident of Alaska but blocked by the smooth-talking excuses legislators.
Stop paying teachers & other State workers working from home & watch how fast this shutdown ends!
Shower has so far shown to have been remarkably worthy of that seat. He is not owned by the elites and he serves the people of his district well. He has a love of the founding documents and principles not seen too often in public life.
Bravo! Bravo! Well said, thank you.
Wholeheartedly Agree!
Demographics of the dying are no longer just elderly and sickly, it’s taking people out from 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s… Get up to speed with your stats and don’t be so discriminatory against elderly and unhealthy anyway; isn’t that illegal?
Yeah, only killing 20% of old people.
The demographics of those dying have numerous similarities – namely comorbidities. Comorbidities are more prevalent in the elderly and unhealthy. That is not discrimination – that is a statement of fact.
Obesity, diabetes, hypertension, any condition affecting lung or immune function. You do see those underlying conditions in Americans of all ages, but they are certainly most common among the elderly.
A survey can say anything the pollster wants it to read based on the underlying mission commissioning the poll; the veritable “garbage in garbage out” concept and we only see the gleaned result. Without underlying background data to place it all in context due to HIPPA laws pertaining to release of specific medical information, we are stuck with the dilemma of swallowing hook, line and sinker, every word which spews forth from said talking head. There are enough inconsistencies coming from the state leadership to remain dubious; and I do.
I have to agree that the cure has now become on par with the problem.
“the simplest solution is most likely the right one”. Occam’s razor says that when presented with competing hypotheses that make the same predictions, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions, and it is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions.
Similarly, in science, Occam’s razor is used as an abductive heuristic in the development of theoretical models rather than as a rigorous arbiter between candidate models. In the scientific method, Occam’s razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; the preference for simplicity in the scientific method is based on the falsifiability criterion. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives. Since one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypotheses to prevent them from being falsified, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable.”
Wikipedia
OK, you quoted a long passage from Wiki
What you didn’t do is support your argument that the cure is as bad as the problem.
If we stop the distancing mandates and experience a second wave of increasingly worse proportions, as is entirely likely, we could and would also experience a worse economical hit.
Without a vaccine and without a cure, what we are doing is what’s known to be the best we can do to keep the virus from affecting our health and our economy in ways worse than it already is.
Second guessing is what caused the second wave in many pandemics in the past. Not that I expect rationality out of many politicians, but ignoring history and second guessing once more is not a rational course to pursue.
Initially, with little knowledge of the virus, your argument was seen by most to be the correct one. Probably you are right.
But it seems to me Sen Shower (and others) are taking the position that now that we have learned a bit more about the virus, it is time to adjust the “cure” to more appropriately fit the disease. We know the more vulnerable population. Continue to apply the protective measures in those grouped as needed. We know distancing has some positive affect – so reopen businesses that can comfortably adhere to those rules. “Hunkering down’ and just waiting it out until it’s all gone is not a prudent, viable or logical position.
Spot-on Sen. Shower! Thank you for coming out with this statement. I totally agree with you, Senator!
Good testimony! The flu and this virus are similar in some respects and both are seriously dangerous. We had 80,000 deaths in the US from the flu last year at this time and so far, 30,000 from this covid 19 virus. This came on different from the flu and is just as damaging and lethal. Our state has @750,000 people and to date 9 deaths. With the numbers of afflicted and time out with contracted and recovered, we are doing better in recovery than anticipated and better than the flu. 300 cases and 750,000 is not a high number but very, very low for this problem. Let’s get on with life and quit stammering to get with it. There is time this summer to make up and move on for businesses and jobs!. Let’s do it!!
Brave words, Cap’n!
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Problem is your crew stalled you out. You’re on a roll, but your crew overloaded way too much lying, cheating, stealing, now the damn load shifted. Big time.
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Want questions?
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Your brave words were approved in advance by Peoples Imperial State Senate President and Co-Governor Giessel?
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You’re ready to sacrifice your committee memberships, your ability to Get Money, if your words are not Giessel-approved?
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You submitted a bill and resolution demanding the state be immediately re-opened for business?
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You submitted a bill and resolution demanding that no state funds be used to enforce local internments and business closures?
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You submitted a bill and resolution demanding that re-opening the state will –not– be conditional on warrantless, mandatory surveillance, testing, contact tracing, and individual immunity cards?
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You submitted a bill or resolution demanding accurate, verifiable China flu reporting
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… knowing the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force said on April 7 anyone who dies and tests positive for coronavirus will be labeled as a death resulting from coronavirus, regardless of whether or not the person had any underlying health conditions prior to being diagnosed with the virus and government will count suspected COVID-19 deaths this way, despite other nations doing the opposite?
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Were you being brilliantly sarcastic by saying ““We have a little bit of a constitutional issue…”?
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Is a jet jockey capable of understanding the Constitution is the Jesus Nut keeping all the rotating, vibrating parts that make America from crashing in a heap
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…and trivializing the role of the Jesus Nut is –not– an option?
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