Published Mar 2, 2023 Past pandemic trauma helped shape Alaska Native response to the modern COVID-19 pandemic, limiting the damages and providing some lessons for future health responses, said experts speaking at a health conference in Fairbanks.
The influenza epidemic that struck Alaska in late 1918 and nearly wiped out entire Native villages is a “living memory” that inspired people to take precautions on behalf of their entire communities, said Dr. Alisa Alexander, senior medical officer for the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a Fairbanks-headquartered tribal consortium.
“So asking people to wear a mask for other people was really easy,” Alexander said. “Walking past those cemeteries and seeing these tiny little graves with 2-year-olds who died from the flu, it’s really easy to keep other people in your mind.”
Alexander spoke Tuesday in a panel discussion at a conference held by the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Center for One Health Research.
While those influenza memories underscored the gravity of COVID-19, they also helped provide some confidence in people’s ability to be resilient during the modern pandemic, said Taylor van Doren, an anthropologist and post-doctoral fellow with the Sitka Sound Science Center and another panel speaker at the One Health, One Future conference.
|