The Alaska Department of Health shows lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV cases by week. You can see the updated counts on the Department's website.
I had a curious, I would say unpleasant, brush with the Canadian health care system on the way down the ALCAN to Seattle late last August. By the time I got to Whitehorse I was pretty sick. I knew I had been exposed to COVID-19 but I repeatedly tested negative on self-administered tests. Still, I felt terrible.
The next day was Saturday, and I wanted to go to a walk-in clinic for more accurate testing and treatment. No dice. They were all closed on the weekend. So I decided to hold out until Monday and go then. Monday rolled around and it turned out to be a national holiday. The clinics were still closed. I was feeling a little better but, to play it safe, I called a provincial nurse line for advice.
"Before I head down the sparsely populated ALCAN, should I go to the hospital emergency department which is the only open clinic in town?" I told him the story and noted I was a 79-year-old American driving down the ALCAN. In response I was lectured.
The nurse assured me that in Canada COVID was considered hardly more than a cold and he strongly advised me not to go to the emergency department unless I had certain symptoms like chest pain or trouble breathing. I have great respect for the Canadian health care system, but I think his advice was a little too casual. In any case I was feeling a bit better so I took my chances and got back on the road. The rest of the trip was without incident. Nevertheless, to the nameless nurse I say "Harrumph!"
Fact check: COVID is potentially way more serious than "a cold." According to KFF, a leading health policy organization in the US, there have been a total of 1.2 million COVID deaths in the United States since 2020. And they continue year after year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in the last year ending September 20, 2025, there were 44,000 to 63,000 COVID deaths.
But there is more to that story. According to the nonprofit Vaccinate Your Family, "Older adults are at the highest risk of becoming very sick and dying from this disease, with more than 81% of COVID-19 deaths occurring in people over the age of 65." Yikes. That causes some anxiety. I had kind of forgotten about COVID, but apparently it has not forgotten about us.
And I really have to dig into my memory synapses to recall the phrase "Long COVID," but it too has not forgotten about us. According to the CDC, "Long COVID is defined as a chronic condition that occurs after SARS-CoV-2 infection and is present for at least 3 months. Long COVID includes a wide range of symptoms or conditions that may improve, worsen, or be ongoing.
"Fatigue, brain fog, and post-exertional malaise (PEM) are commonly reported symptoms, but more than 200 Long COVID symptoms have been identified."
Long COVID may affect up to 10% of people who've had a COVID infection, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Pardon me for being snarky, but I just have to ask the Canadian hotline nurse how many "colds" leave people suffering for months or years afterward?
Ironically, about the time I was having my little snit with the Canadian nurse, the State of Alaska was putting the final touches on "COVID-19 Update," a report which "summarizes COVID-19 activity from September 1, 2024, through August 31, 2025."
The research indicates that reported COVID-19 cases have been dropping since 2022 in Alaska. Even so, during our most recent peak season, August and September, we had more than 1,000 lab-confirmed cases in each of those months with a dramatic drop in the winter. Strangely, this pattern is exactly the opposite of the Lower 48 which has their peak in the middle of winter. This is probably because of the huge influx into Alaska of tourists and seasonal workers during the summer.
But the pressing question remains, what is to be done? The update discusses the recommendations of several professional organizations and summarizes by saying: "Healthcare providers should recommend COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible patients aged ≥6 months, especially considering those who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 infection."
Furthermore, if you squint down there at that tiny little footnote at the bottom of the document, as I recall it says something like "Do not be crabby with the overworked provincial nurse-line staff on your way up or down the ALCAN."
Lawrence D. Weiss is a UAA Professor of Public health, Emeritus, creator of the UAA Master of Public health program, and author of several books and numerous articles.
