The mayor of Anchorage blames the vaccination warrants for the shortage of hospital staff. Hospitals say he is wrong.

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Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson on July 1, his first day in office. Anchorage was then reporting 20 to 30 new cases of COVID-19 per day. Now the city is registering several hundred a day. (Jeff Chen / Alaska Public Media)

As Alaskan hospitals say they are overwhelmed by a relentless wave of coronavirus patients, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson says vaccination warrants are one reason hospitals fail. can’t keep up.

“The persistent pandemic, associated with historically busy hospitals at this time of year, as well as some employers forcing employees who chose not to be vaccinated to lose their jobs, have contributed to a staff shortage,” he said. Bronson said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Hospital officials say there is no evidence to support the mayor’s claim. The two largest hospitals in Anchorage have announced vaccination warrants, but they have not yet come into effect.

RELATED: Masking and Capacity Restrictions Slowed Delta Variant in Juneau, Expert Says

Alaska’s COVID rate remains the highest in the country – quadruple the national average. Doctors from Alaska’s largest hospital traveled to an assembly meeting on September 14 to advocate for the community to be vaccinated and wear masks. Some members of the Anchorage Assembly are pushing for a new mask mandate, which they are expected to consider on Tuesday.

Bronson, however, calls the masking and vaccination a matter of personal choice. Eagle River Mayor and Assembly member Jamie Allard held his own unofficial public hearing in the Assembly Hall on September 18 to shine the spotlight on the complaints of another group of workers at the health: those who say they would rather lose their jobs than get vaccinated.

A woman named Sara, who identified herself as a pediatric nurse in Providence, said she was waiting to see if the hospital would accept her religious objection to the vaccine.

You know, all the providers that I have met along my journey have advised me to get vaccinated, ”she said at the invitation-only event. “And it’s very stressful, a lot of pressure and coercion, from my personal providers and of course from everyone I work with.

The state predicts COVID cases will double within a month. The state last week adopted crisis care standards, allowing hospitals to ration scarce resources.

Jared Kosin, chief of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, said the high volume of complex COVID patients is the reason hospitals are overwhelmed. Blaming the staff shortage on hospital-imposed vaccination mandates is unwise, he said.

Of all the hospitals and nursing homes that deal with this, I haven’t heard a single concern about the mass exodus of staff due to these demands, ”he said.

Kosin points out that the hospital staff shortages predate the vaccination mandates announced in Anchorage. And that state’s hospitals are understaffed, even though vaccination policies vary and no one has yet been fired for non-compliance.

Representatives from Providence Alaska Medical Center and Alaska Native Medical Center said they did not expect an exodus of employees when their vaccination mandates go into effect next month. Dr Holly Alfrey, chief medical officer at ANMC, said there were very few “pushed back” staff.

I think burnout is a bigger issue than the vaccine’s mandate, ”she said,“ by far.

Providence has alternative protocols for employees who refuse the vaccine, and it has allowed some exemptions, although hospital spokesman Mike Canfield is not sure how many. He said the hospital was focusing on retention by providing caregivers with access to the vaccine and information on safety and efficacy. At the last check-up, he said, no experienced staff had left due to the requirement.

The New York governor was considering calling the National Guard to replace health workers who refused to be vaccinated before the September 27 deadline. Vaccination rates varied depending on the hospital, from 80 to 100%.

Employer mandates aren’t the only pressures on vaccine laggards. President Biden imposes a vaccine requirement on healthcare facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid, which are essentially all hospitals in Alaska.

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