Letter: Cooperate to end COVID-19

Updated: 8 hours ago Published: 8 hours ago

I’d like to talk about COVID-19 on the political side of the pandemic. I read and hear many talk about their “rights” being violated due to government overreach; mandating what we should do, and how their civil liberties are being violated. “We should be free to decide when and where we choose to wear masks, and not be told we must … our liberties as U.S. citizens should prevail over what government tells us to do.”

I disagree. First off, my own civil liberties are being violated when those who choose not to wear masks in public or social distance expose me, my friends and family to COVID-19. I should have the “right” under the Constitution and our civil liberties to be able to protect myself from others who choose to not believe the disease is real, ignore medical recommendations, make up conspiracy theories and hold political views that are dividing and separating us, and allowing this virus to mutate and continue. All the while, this is causing more hospitalizations, more family suffering and more deaths to occur.

Alaska is now the state with the highest rates of new COVID-19 cases. We may be the biggest state, about which we are proud, but this is a statistic we should be ashamed to acknowledge. How does anyone believe this pandemic will end under these “political”conditions?

The only solution to ending the pandemic is through cooperation, standing together as individuals, a community and as a nation by practicing whatever we can to eradicate the continued transmittal and mutations of COVID-19. It is terrible how the business community has suffered under this pandemic, as have our schools and institutions. We deserve to move forward into the future to regain our normal lives without fear of contracting this disease.

We can shorten the time when we return to a form of normality; we can do it if we individually work together, cooperate and remember, this is a disease, not a political side to hide behind.

— Ken Pendleton

Anchorage

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