Three quarter million people live in America’s largest state Alaska. Of these, one third are in Anchorage. The rest spread out into diverse communities in one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world. Health care costs are extremely expensive even by U.S. standards according to Alaska Common Ground. It can therefore be a cold choice between life and death if you have COVID, New York Times warns chillingly.
Alaska Doctors Decide Who Lives and Who Dies
Alaska’s citizens can face harsh choices, especially in far-flung isolated communities. Their nation is at its highest peak in COVID infections. Yet their official COVID-19 portal states there are no special entry, or travel testing requirements. Just turn up it advises, and you can have a free vaccine if you want.
Even in Anchorage intensive care beds are in short supply. New York Times sketches a scenario at Providence Alaskan Medical Center in Anchorage in the middle of the night. One bed is coming available, they don’t say why. Another severe COVID patient is in urgent need.
While doctors gather to make their cold choice between life and death, an emergency surgery patient from a rural community arrives. They decide the emergency patient has a better chance of survival. The surgery is a success. The COVID patient dies.
‘This is gut-wrenching, and I never thought I’d see it,’ a physician who has been in practice for 30 years says. ‘We are taxed to a point of making decisions of who will and who will not live.’ We salute doctors in Alaska with the strength of character to continue in these harsh times.
A Cold Choice Between Life and Death Worldwide
It takes years to construct, equip, and commission a hospital if funds are available. But it could be surplus to requirements when the pandemic is over, and that’s another challenge. People are dying in Alaska as we write. Good decent honest folk are being saddled with Long COVID, sapping their dreams and hopes.
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Preview Image: Alaska Government COVID Dashboard
