Anchorage public health department sees another resignation

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – As COVID-19 rates skyrocket, the Anchorage Public Health Department has lost another leader in the city’s fight against the pandemic. Public Health Division Director Christy Lawton, who has led the city’s COVID-19 screening and vaccination programs, resigned her post this week.

Corey Allen Young, spokesperson for Mayor Dave Bronson, confirmed Lawton’s departure in an email. Young did not respond to further questions on whether the mayor had called for her resignation, calling it a personal matter of confidentiality.

Lawton is the third executive to resign from the Department of Health since Bronson took office. City epidemiologist Janet Johnston resigned in July and longtime chief medical officer Bruce Chandler resigned in August.

When contacted for comment, Lawton did not say what led to her resignation.

“I have the deepest respect and admiration for my colleagues in city and state health departments for their dedicated and tireless efforts,” she wrote in an email. She then urged people to get vaccinated and “do their part to protect others.”

But Johnson, who now works for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, told Alaska’s News Source when she resigned that she found the situation in the city’s health department worrying and attributed it in part to the Bronson’s tough stance against masking or vaccination demands.

“Concerning, but not surprising that so many senior executives have left the health department since the new administration,” said Johnston. “This is not surprising given the rhetoric during the campaign, given the lack of leadership on vaccines and masking, in the face of the incredibly high number of cases. We know that masking helps reduce transmission, and vaccines are the way to beat the pandemic and get out of this situation. “

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