[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 172 (Friday, October 1, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6873-S6874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I have come to the floor this 
afternoon, unexpectedly. I had anticipated that I was going to be 
taking the long trek home, for even a short weekend, going back to 
Alaska. That is not the case this weekend, unfortunately.
  Our COVID numbers are at alltime highs, and most of the events and 
meetings that I would have had back home canceled. They are on Zoom. So 
life is just a little bit different. You roll with it. And it means 
that I am here in Washington, DC, on this Friday afternoon.
  But I opened up the paper this morning, the Anchorage Daily News, our 
largest statewide newspaper, to, again, headlines that have just kind 
of unfolded over these past weeks with more just grim and difficult 
news. The headline today is: ``Alaska infection rate remains high with 
over 1,200 new COVID cases.''
  We are leading--we are leading the Nation right now in our COVID 
rates, and it is interesting. Alaska has--we are separated enough 
geographically, but through the advantages of air travel and road 
travel, we mix, we mingle, we get around, and the virus knows no 
bounds, as we all know. But as we are seeing, thankfully, the case 
counts beginning to decline here in the lower 48, Alaska is doing just 
the opposite.
  I am quoting here from our paper:

       On average, the U.S. saw a 26% decrease in cases over the 
     last two weeks while Alaska recorded an 84% increase.

  They go on to say:

       If Alaska were a country, it would be the nation with the 
     world's highest per capita case rate, according to data from 
     the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns 
     Hopkins University.

  The article proceeds to state that:

       Alaska's 171 average daily cases per 100,000 over the last 
     seven days is nearly double the rate seen in West Virginia, 
     which . . . [is currently] second in the [Nation]. Bermuda 
     and Serbia, at the top of the global list, have a case rate 
     of 99.

  So we are at 171 average daily cases per 100,000. It has been 
challenging. We are a State that has limited capacity. We have got a 
smaller population, obviously. But that also means that we have fewer 
hospitals. We have more limited means, in terms of our ability to care 
for those who have become very, very sick, and it is straining--it is 
really maxing out our hospitals to levels that we really just could not 
have even anticipated could happen.
  As our hospitals are maxed out, it is not just the capacity, the 
number of people that you can put into your ICU; it is those who are 
daily doing the work of caring for those who are coming into our 
hospitals, coming in sicker and staying longer. We have maxed out our 
hospitals, and when I say ``maxing out,'' in the Alaska vernacular, 
basically that means there is no room at the hospital. Our largest 
hospital is Providence, Alaska Regional, Mat-Su, Alaska Native Medical 
Center, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Bartlett--they are at capacity 
within their ICUs, and let me share with you what it means to be at 
capacity in your ICU.
  I will share. I was at Alaska Regional just a weekend ago--actually, 
now two weekends ago--and I was told that their ICU, which is a 16-bed 
ICU, had been expanded to 20; and 100 percent of the beds, when I was 
there on that Saturday, were occupied by COVID patients with no room 
for anyone else to come to that particular medical facility.

[[Page S6874]]

  I had been at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital--actually there on an 
emergency, not myself but with another individual. We go to the 
emergency room, and as we were waiting for the doctors to come and 
address this non-COVID-related medical emergency, I was advised by the 
evening supervisor that Fairbanks Memorial Hospital was at capacity 
within their ICU. And what that meant was that Fairbanks Memorial was 
at capacity and, as of that evening, all of the other hospitals in 
Alaska that could care in an ICU capacity were filled. So I was told 
that my loved one may be in a situation, if he needed to be in the ICU, 
that I needed to prepare myself and others that he may be sent to 
Seattle or Portland that night. For those of you that don't know your 
geography there, that is a 3, 3\1/2\-hour flight by jet. It would have 
been a medevac. It is thousands of miles away.
  That is what is happening in Alaska right now. When your hospitals 
are full, you just can't put them in an ambulance and take them to 
another town. We are taking these folks to another State. And, again, 
keep in mind, the reason that I was there that evening with this 
individual was not COVID-related, but that is the squeeze. That is the 
pressure that it puts on the rest of your system.
  Just this week, the State is dealing with crisis standards of care 
guidelines as it relates to how individuals may receive monoclonal 
antibody treatments because the supplies are scarce out there.
  So it is tough right now. It is tough. Beds are hard to find, and the 
extraordinary men and women who every day are going in and doing as 
best they can to provide for the level of care that is needed are doing 
so, but they are tired. They are tired. They can't get enough help. You 
have those who are exposed. You have to quarantine. It puts pressure on 
everybody else. People are running themselves to the ground.
  But we have good news that is happening. Our Governor has been 
working to bring additional health workers in, and we are starting to 
see, just this week, as many as--we were hoping 500 but maybe a little 
bit less than that--nurses, respiratory therapists are starting to come 
to the State as part of a Federal contract. So you have got State-
contracted healthcare workers. The Alaska Native Medical Center is 
going to be receiving additional support from a disaster medical 
assistance team. Again, we are at a point where you just can't take it 
on anymore. And our numbers have not yet peaked.
  I don't share these statistics and I don't share the front page of 
the Daily News just to bring people up to speed as to what is happening 
in Alaska. That wasn't necessarily my purpose here.
  My purpose this afternoon is, in the midst of this, in the midst of 
this real crisis in my State, when it comes to the availability of 
healthcare and responding to this virus that is killing--killing--
Alaskans, killing Americans, killing people around the world, that we 
show a little kindness because right now that seems to be in as limited 
capacity as some of the hospitals that we have in Alaska. It is 
kindness and respect for where people are.
  Your healthcare workers are giving every ounce of what they have to 
be there, to leave their families. They are worried about everybody. 
But they are there for us, and they are doing the best job possible. 
And some of what we see in return is not the best of America. It is not 
the best that Alaskans have to offer.
  We have had some just horrible, horrible confrontations in our public 
meetings in Anchorage. The top of the fold in the Anchorage paper is 
about an assembly meeting where individuals wore yellow Stars of David 
to protest the mask ordinance that the Anchorage assembly was taking 
up, comparing the mask mandate to the Holocaust. It is shocking. At 
some of the assembly meetings--and it is not just in Anchorage, we are 
seeing it in other communities as well--it is neighbor against 
neighbor.
  We have had providers go to provide testimony before in these public 
meetings, and not only have they been ridiculed and mocked, but we hear 
the stories, we read the stories that they have been spit upon. This is 
not how we show appreciation for those who are trying their absolute 
best to be there for us. And they will literally turn the other cheek 
and make sure that the care that they are providing in that ICU, in 
that ER, is without discrimination as to whether or not you have been 
vaccinated or not. They are going to be there to take care of you. So, 
please, can we please show some kindness to one another at these times 
of stress and of anxiety to families?
  We in Alaska are pretty hardy. We are independent. We can handle 
things on our own, but we are better because we are also good neighbors 
to one another, more often than not.
  When somebody's car breaks down by the side of the road, and it is 
cold and it is dark, we stop. We help them. We are there for them. When 
somebody is sick, we deliver the food. We are good neighbors. So we, in 
Alaska, need to remember to be that good neighbor to one another. We 
can have disagreements. We can have differing points of view. We can 
express them without degrading one another, without denigrating one 
another, without humiliating, and mocking one another.
  So I know that we will be beyond COVID. It is not coming soon enough 
for any of us. But I just ask that as we go through this, in this State 
and around this country and around the world, that we remember that we 
are all better when we care for one another and we show a little 
kindness.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.