Issues

COVID-19

1. I support the COVID-19 vaccine. I am double vaccinated and boosted. We know for a fact that the Covid vaccine decreases the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid. Alaska did a wonderful job of rolling out the vaccine to all parts of Alaska, primarily through the amazing Alaska native peoples health care systems. We need to keep it up, Alaska! 

2. We now know that natural immunity can provide at least as good immunity to future cases of Covid as the Covid vaccine. The interplay between vaccination and natural Covid immunity needs to be further studied so we can figure out how to keep every Alaskan and American protected from serious Covid disease and deaths from Covid.

3. I fully support keeping schools open. Many students are suffering with depression and anxiety, and I can only guess that this must be at least partially due to kids not having the daily routine of going to school. Kids need other communities besides just their families. School closing was especially detrimental to children with less economic opportunity. We need to do whatever we can to keep our schools open.

4. I oppose state wide or federal wide mask mandates. I do support local authorities putting mask mandates in place if the local risk is high and they are deemed necessary.

5. There is uncertainty about the strength of natural immunity versus vaccination immunity in the data, and at this time I do not support vaccine mandates for Covid. That being said I do strongly support that every eligible person in Alaska and America get a Covid vaccine.

The last two years have been really hard on Alaskans and Americans. We lost many good people to Covid disease.  However, now is the time to look ahead and move forward.

We are fortunate to have vaccines available to fight Covid-19. If you are vaccinated, the risks of hospitalization or dying from Covid are very low. We must move on with life. But the devastating effects of Covid-19 continue to deeply affect families in the United States and across the globe. The American people deserve a comprehensive public health system that will continue to address any further ramifications from Covid-19, and also function to plan for future pandemics.