ANCHORAGE – This week, Senator Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, announced legislation that would establish the “Alaska Mental Health and Psychedelic Medicine Task Force” aimed at addressing Alaska‘s ongoing mental health crisis. The task force would have a diverse membership consisting of Commissioners (or their designee) from the Departments of Health, Military & Veterans’ Affairs, and Commerce […]
Vaccines, tests, and antivirals are still effective tools in the latest COVID surge. In early November 2023, the JN.1 variant caused less than 5% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Now it is estimated to cause more than 60% of them. Virologists including Andy Pekosz, PhD, a professor in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, are paying attention. Here, Pekosz […]
Provisions from senators’ bipartisan bill included in SUPPORT Act Reauthorization A negotiated version of U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and John Hickenlooper’s bipartisan Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Support Act passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee as a provision within the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for […]
Second Hearing In Series On Fentanyl Impacts In Native Communities U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vice chairman of the Committee, led an oversight hearing titled, “Fentanyl in Native Communities: Federal Perspectives on Addressing the Growing Crisis,” a continuation of the Committee’s oversight […]