Editorial

It’s up to us

Whatever our reaction to COVID-19 is, the pandemic is here and the virus is ready to strike once we let our guard down.

If you are tired of the mitigation strategies – mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing – and pretend that the dangers of SARSCoV-2 are hyped up, know that your choices are making all of us unsafe and thus prevent the fully re-opening of the economy or risk the closure of schools.

If you chose to adapt and get used to the mitigation strategies — mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing — then you are part of the solution and your efforts help all to get back to fully opening the economy, keeping our schools open and speeding up the process to get back to life as we know it.

We have to act beyond our own selfish impulses and take into consideration that our actions are either for the greater good for all or against it.

It is surprising to see the state relax travel requirements when Alaska saw over the past week record numbers of new COVID-19 cases. State officials explain the change that the increase is due to community spread, and that travel does not figure prominently into the uptick in cases we see. However, what happens when travel related cases rise during a time of rampant community spread while we go into fall and winter, when people are spending more time indoors?

As we head into the holiday season, people are itching to travel and see their families and loved ones. But do we really must travel? If we do, we need to take precautions to not contract the virus and bring it back home to Nome or the region. And then we need to adhere to requirements of quarantining and testing.

This virus doesn’t care about politics. But it is opportunistic and jumps on any opening we give it. So, please, do your part. —D.H.