Masking Ordinance
Dear Editor: I would like to share my public comment on the masking ordinance that I sent by e-mail to the members of the Sitka Assembly. I am including it here because I don’t feel comfortable giving my comment in person due to the heckling that occurred during the last Assembly meeting on this topic. However, I think it includes some reminders about science that we could all use in our way forward as a community.
“I am writing in support of the masking ordinance, however I thought I would share some ideas to help support your decision making process. In listening to the public comment and subsequent assembly deliberation on the masking ordinance during the Sept. 15th meeting, I heard some statements about science that I feel need some clarification. I can only imagine how difficult it was to sit respectfully through the public comment and then be heckled during your deliberation. I can see how that type of intense experience could make speaking clearly with purpose a huge challenge. I have a few tips for you that I employ in my high school science classroom that might help in your discussions with the public.
‘‘In every science class I teach, we do a quick unit on the scientific method. We then integrate those ideas and practices throughout the rest of the course curriculum. First of all it is important to remember that there isn’t a ‘my science’ or a ‘your science.’ Science is a specific process that is oftentimes circular as new observations and questions are made during experiments to then become the focus of future work. This might make it confusing to some folks who want one answer now and forever and don’t understand that science changes as new information is discovered. Following the scientific process takes time and is rigorous in that it is double checked by others, has a robust sample size and is evaluated through a peer review process. Meaning that the source of information matters.
‘‘If ‘facts’ are given from a source that isn’t from a peer reviewed study, then it isn’t science. So, if someone says, ‘6 studies show…..’ then there are a lot of followup questions that need to be asked in order to ascertain the validity of their statement.
‘‘I appreciated Doug Osborne’s public comment on Sept. 14, about masking, which included a variety of sources from peer reviewed primary journal publications on the effectiveness of masking against the transmission of COVID-19. This is a great example of the effective use of using valid scientific evidence during a discourse.
‘‘I understand that science has become super political lately, but one thing that I talk to my students about is the difference between a belief and a scientific theory. A scientific theory has a body of evidence that points to an explanation of something. That evidence may change as time goes on, which in turn changes our understanding potentially of the scientific theory that is based on that evidence. A belief, of course, is something that we think is true. It does not have to be backed up by any evidence. In science class we are not being asked to believe anything, however we do need to understand the evidence that supports the information that we are learning.
‘‘We should also feel encouraged to ask new questions and be bold in our observations about the world around us. We don’t use phrases like, ‘I believe…’ in science. We use phrases like, ‘it was predicted that….,’ or ‘the evidence shows…...’ This might help you separate yourself from the emotion that is being thrown at you so that you can focus on what is fact and what is pretending to be fact.
‘‘Inasmuch as many of my students don’t want to be scientists when they leave high school, many of them will be leaders in their communities. I hope that they are critical thinkers who know how to ask questions, know how to find reliable information to answer their questions and make decisions based on that information. I appreciate your time, energy and critical thinking skills as you work through the many complicated topics that come across the Assembly table.”
Chohla Moll, Sitka
Pandemic
Dear Editor: Please, wear a mask. The Pandemic of 1918 circled the globe for at least three years (The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry). The Pandemic of 2020 will likely do the same: it will circle the globe for at least three years, if not longer. The world population in 1918 was approximately 1.8 billion persons. The world population in 2020 is almost 7.9 billion persons. There are 6 billion more persons for the COVID virus to affect or mutate through. So many people. So many opportunities to mutate. Pandemics do not put ‘end dates’ on a calendar. COVID-19 will run its course on its own timeline. We cannot control the virus but we can control its opportunities to mutate and infect people.
There was never a cure for the 1918 influenza. There may never be a cure for COVID-19. We may only ever be able to treat the symptoms of COVID-19, reduce the number of deaths and hospitalizations, and reduce the spread. We have rules and policies to enhance the wellbeing of our community as a whole – we respond to traffic lights and stop signs, we don’t drink alcohol and drive, we reduce our speed in school and road construction zones. We do all of these things to protect and save lives. In the same way, mask-wearing in the shops we frequent, in our places of employment and public spaces in the community protects everyone and saves lives.
Medical persons – doctors, nurses, dentists, surgeons – wear masks to protect patients. They have been doing so for years. I’ve not heard of any protests amongst medical professionals against wearing masks. They wear masks to protect us from their bodily fluids and themselves from ours. We need to wear masks to protect each other for the very same reason. Masks are proven to be effective. There is little sacrifice in wearing a mask and doing so protects and benefits everyone around us.
Health care workers are more at risk of infection and death than any other profession. Our health care workers have run out of steam. Many of them are suffering from PTSD. Many are leaving their positions. They are burned out, tired, and unable to give the care they are accustomed to giving. We rely on them to care for us when we are not able to care for ourselves. Can we not make their lives a little less stressful by wearing a mask and getting vaccinated thereby lowering the COVID infection rate and the rate at which individuals are admitted to hospitals?
There is no room in hospitals for anybody at this moment. If any of us has any medical emergency (heart attack, stroke, broken bones, injuries requiring surgery) we cannot get into an emergency room for care. There is no place for a medevac plane to take us. Hospitals have run out of rooms and beds or are sending patients far from their home area if/when a bed does become available. If hospitals have rooms available, they do not have the staff necessary to care for patients. Medical care is being rationed. (www.npr.org 2021.08.19) (www.cnn.com 2021.09.13) (www.adn.com 2021.09.20)
Anti-maskers bullied and intimidated the Assembly members at the last Assembly meeting. They also bully and intimidate shop owners who ask for masks to be worn. They say they feel disrespected when asked to wear a mask. They have threatened shops with picketing because a shop or store requires people to wear a mask in an effort to protect employees. When these same people are needing emergency medical care, do they believe bullying and intimidating the caregivers in emergency rooms will get them in sooner, or at all, to receive treatment? Which patient should give up a bed and a room and hospital equipment to make room for them? Have the anti-maskers considered they may not be able to receive medical care for any medical situation anywhere because hospitals are overrun with COVID cases and medical professionals are burned out and unable to care for any more people?
I do not believe masked persons are creating conflicts or disturbances at shops, in the community, or at the assembly meetings. From what I have seen, heard, and experienced, it is the unmasked at the root of disturbances. I do not see or feel any love, peace or kindness coming from the anti-maskers. Are they treating their neighbors as they themselves would like to be treated? If their bullying and intimidating of the Assembly members, shop owners, and community members is how they treat their neighbors (we are all neighbors in such a small community), I feel very sorry for them as their treatment of others is, or may be, an indication of how they may have been treated in their life. We have listened to them but they seem unable to listen to others, interrupting presenters at the assembly meeting with jeers.
There are many young, impressionable, and easily influenced persons working in stores owned by individuals not requiring them or customers to wear masks. Are the young people feeling pressured to not wear a mask when at work? Who is looking out for their wellbeing? Many of the employees may not be able to afford to leave their positions for any number of personal reasons. Are they allowed to make their own decision regarding mask wearing or are they pressured to not wear masks by employers and co-workers?
I keep wondering what would persuade antimaskers to change their minds. When does their right to not wear a mask infringe upon the rights of others who perhaps don’t have a choice (have to work in high-risk areas like grocery stores, health care for livelihood)? When you live in a community, you give up some rights: you cannot drive on the wrong side of the street, you must stop at stop signs, you can’t take things that don’t belong to you, you can’t randomly shoot people.
These policies protect the community – keep people safe and healthy. So will wearing masks. If you find mask-wearing uncomfortable, try another brand or make one! Too many people are unnecessarily dying from COVID--please wear a mask and save a life, prevent needless mutations, and save the medical staff and facilities for real emergencies!
I’ve sent this letter to the Assembly in lieu of public testimony.
Bridget Kauffman, Sitka
Mask Mandate
Dear Editor: During the recent Assembly meeting, I listened with sadness and growing horror to the testimony of people I care about, old friends, who got up and talked about their “freedoms being taken from them,” Talking about “bacterial pneumonias resulting from mask use, children being starved for oxygen when they are forced to wear masks…”
I trained as a registered nurse and we learned about mask use. When we went into the room of a person with an infectious disease, we masked, gowned, and gloved outside the room and when we left the room after giving care, we took off the mask, the gown, the gloves and we washed the heck out of our hands. Were we doing that so we didn’t give the patient bacteria we might have? No, we did that to protect ourselves and our other patients. I can’t swear that the mask was effective, but neither I nor anyone I worked with got any of the diseases from those patients. When we were in on surgeries, we washed, we masked, gowned, and gloved. Those times, we were doing everything we could to prevent spread of bacteria or viruses TO the patient.
I watched neurosurgeons do intricate procedures that lasted for 10 or more hours fully masked. They were tired, hungry, needed to urinate, but they were certainly not oxygen-deprived. I would be willing to bet that if you needed a brain tumor dissected, or a similarly complicated procedure performed, you would want that surgeon to be alertly operating and fully masked, doing everything possible to prevent you from getting an infection. And I never heard of any of those nurses or doctors getting a bacterial or fungal infection from their mask use.
Cleaning or replacing masks is definitely a good thing. A recent study, (released Sept. 1, 2021,) involving a large, randomized trial by Stanford and Yale universities showed that wearing a surgical mask over the mouth and nose is an effective way to reduce the occurrence of COVID-19 in community settings. This is in addition to a growing body of scientific evidence also showing that mask wearing is of significant benefit and does not lead to a sense of false security that might cause carelessness. Doing research, I found reports of concurrent bacterial infections in people who had COVID, but these are not bacterial infections from wearing a mask. It is common that when someone has a serious infection, there are concurrent bacterial or viral infections that take advantage of their compromised immune status. Please wear your mask for the sake of others who are at risk.
Pat Kehoe, Sitka
Masking
Dear Editor: When I first moved to Sitka 16 years ago, one of the greatest features was Sitka’s sense of community. People cared for each other, and even if they had differing political beliefs they had each other’s backs when someone was in need. That is why I am writing in support of the proposed new mask mandate for Sitka.
We currently are in the midst of an unprecedented health crisis with COVID-19, and that’s why we need to band together and have each other’s backs. This past weekend, Alaska reported more than 4,000 new cases of COVID-19, and it now has the highest rate in the country. According to the New York Times, if Alaska was its own country it would rank second behind Grenada in its rate of new COVID-19 cases.
Our health facilities are overburdened, and we need to do what we can to bring this pandemic under control. Even though Sitka’s COVID-19 numbers have gone down since our current mask mandate took effect in July, we can’t relax now. Our health care workers are exhausted, and most of their new patients are people who aren’t following medical advice such as wearing masks or getting vaccinated.
Our statewide health system is interconnected, and hospitals around the state are running out of ICU beds, ventilators, and other infrastructure, which means people are being turned away. This includes people with other health issues besides COVID-19. If you’re in a car wreck or have a heart attack, there may not be room for you. Many of Sitka’s worst cases end up having to be transferred to larger facilities in Anchorage or Seattle, but there’s no room. The Mt. Edgecumbe Medical Center is a regional hospital, which means it also catches patients from Kake, Angoon, Yakutat, and even Juneau.
It’s been about 20 months since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States, and we’re all tired of the pandemic. Pro-mask or anti-mask, we all want to go back to normal. But right now that isn’t a possibility, and we need to do what we can to protect ourselves and others from the coronavirus. Regardless of what some people say, this is not a bad flu. I’ve known at least seven people personally who died from COVID-19, and numerous others (including myself) who have had cases to various degrees.
Getting vaccinated is the top defense against COVID-19, and the second-best defense is to wear a mask. There have been a lot of claims that masks don’t work. But there are new studies coming out all the time that show the effectiveness of masks, such as one last week from the CDC that showed students in Arizona school districts without mask mandates were 3-1/2 times more likely to get COVID-19 that students from districts with mask mandates, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7039e1.htm.
As far as the masks violate my personal rights argument, we are in an unprecedented health crisis and that means looking out for the community over individuals. Part of living in a community is you protect your most vulnerable neighbors, and there are many kids who can’t be vaccinated yet, people with immuno-compromised systems who can’t get vaccinated, and others who are at high risk. Wearing a mask is more about protecting others than individual rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has a history of upholding vaccine mandates, dating back to 1904 and including upholding an Indiana University vaccine mandate earlier this summer. If it upholds vaccine mandates, you know it will uphold a mask mandate.
When I listened to the Sept. 14 Sitka Assembly meeting where the mask mandate was discussed, I was very concerned about the division in this community over this issue. I feel as if a very vocal and misinformed minority is keeping us from gaining a handle on this pandemic. We won’t be able to rebuild our economy until we’re able to control the pandemic, and we saw our local cases of COVID-19 go down when we introduced a mask mandate in July. Let’s be a real community and work together to control the pandemic, with masks. Thank you.
Charles Bingham, Sitka
Surgical Masking
Dear Editor: As a friend mentioned to me recently – if the next time you need a medical procedure or surgery done and you don’t believe masks work, just tell the surgeon/doctor that a mask and surgical gloves and gowns are not necessary. Why bother since they don’t prevent the spread of infection.
Of course, all good medical professionals would reject your request.
Rebecca Osborn, Sitka
Increase in Need
Dear Editor: Like any community in the world, Sitka is no stranger to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some ways though, because of the cloistered nature of Southeast Alaska, the effects were amplified within the community’s needs and service agencies.
Despite the difficulties ranging from logistical and supply shortages, the Swan Lake Senior Center, has not experienced a disruption of service. This is through the diligence of Site Manager, Sandra Koval and her amazing and dedicated staff. From cooks to drivers, they have weathered the effects of the pandemic with incredible stamina and grace five days a week.
Though congregate meals have been suspended due to community health concerns, home-delivered meals have continued to reach those in need. The number of hot, nutritious home-delivered meals produced and delivered this past year have totaled 10,948. In addition, over 2,000 paratransit rides were given in the past year as well.
Catholic Community Service and the Swan Lake Senior Center would be remiss not to thank our community support that has enabled such a feat as listed above. We wish to thank the City and Borough of Sitka, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, the Alaska Division of Senior and Disabilities Services, the Sitka Legacy Foundation, the White Elephant Shop, CHARR and all our community donors – all of whom are part of the successful navigation in one of the hardest times in our community’s history.
If you would like to receive meals or rides, please contact Sandra Koval at 747-8617 or your care provider to set up a registration. Please visit ccsak.org/sitka.html for more information or to donate.
The Swan Lake Senior Center is operated under Southeast Senior Services, a division of Catholic Community Service in Juneau.
Matthew Walker, NTS Coordinator,
Catholic Community Services
