Governor Still On TV Inviting Unvaccinated Tourists To Alaska While Rural Alaskans Can’t Get Needed Hospital Treatment & State Has Highest Infection Rates In World

According to Wednesday’s Anchorage Daily News at least two more patients from Rural Alaska died recently because there was no space to treat them at Alaska hospitals. Doctors have been warning for weeks that they have to decide who gets care and who doesn’t.

Yet the Governor was still on TV Tuesday night inviting unvaccinated tourists to come to Alaska. Unvaccinated people are the most likely group to need hospital care if they get COVID, according to state health experts..

“The Governor is still on TV inviting unvaccinated tourists to Alaska when hospitals are working with ‘crisis standards of care.’ It’s irresponsible self-promotion for the Governor to be on TV asking more unvaccinated people to come to Alaska when hospitals that can’t treat Alaska patients who need medical care,” said Gara.

“We should listen to warnings about the inability to offer life-saving care, and not make the inability to treat all patients who need that care worse,” said Gara. According to an October 4, 2021, Anchorage Daily News report, ”Alaska’s recent per capita case rate is the highest in the U.S., and higher than that of any country in the world.”

Here are recent warnings from doctors that hospitals are unable to promise life-saving care to all Alaskans who needs it (Anchorage Daily News Sep. 15, 2021):

“We’re out of beds. Life saving measures are not going to be possible in every case,” said Dr. Leslie Gonsette, an internal medicine hospitalist and member of Providence’s executive committee board who helped draft the letter. “And that’s what we’re trying to emphasize.”

“We are in a crisis at the hospital,” Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw said. “That means when we have four patients and two machines, two people are not getting that care. It’s happening now.”

“Making that worse by inviting up unvaccinated tourists isn’t responsible,” said Gara. The Governor has no e-mail contact address. He’s been asked to pause this ad campaign with a direct message on social media.

  Alaska, care, dunleavy, gara, hospitals, tourists, tv, unvaccinated