Despite a sharp and steady decline in reported Covid cases, the Alaska Department of Health is continuing to press residents into widespread and continuous jabs for the virus.
According to the state’s latest data, reported Covid cases and deaths have plummeted over the last two years. Nevertheless, state health officials are urging doctors to push Covid shots much more aggressively than the CDC recommends.
A Sept. 23 state health bulletin notes there were only 22 reported resident deaths in which Covid was listed as a “contributing” or “underlying” cause. That’s far below past years and nowhere near the pandemic peak.
The state’s 2023–24 respiratory summary recorded 80 Covid–associated deaths among Alaska residents. The latest total is 73% lower than that season.
State records note that the 2024 calendar year saw 58 Covid-related deaths.
By contrast, the CDC’s guidance states that all decisions regarding Covid shots should be made on an individual base, rather than default recommendations for every eligible person.
By comparison, the state’s December 2025 epidemiology review counted 1,564 COVID-19 deaths from March 2020 through the end of the federal public-health emergency in May 2023. Nearly half of those deaths, however, occurred in the six-month Delta wave from 2021.
Reported Covid cases have fallen in lockstep. The new bulletin says fewer laboratory-confirmed infections were reported in 2025–26 than in 2023–24 or 2024–25.
While the virus has not disappeared, it has become dramatically less potent. Nevertheless, state epidemiologists still want clinicians to continue to aggressively push Covid shots for all eligible patients 6 months and older, while recommending that health facilities urge staff to get the shots.
The state’s position largely ignores current CDC guidelines and relies on recommendations from pro-jab specialty societies to justify its more insistent stance. The state cites organizations like the American Academy of Family Physicians, which recommends a Covid shot for all adults 19 and older, and two doses at least six months apart for adults 65 and older. Likewise, it relies on the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that all infants (6-23 months old) get one dose, along with older children who have high-risk conditions, are around people with risk factors, or whose parents choose vaccination. A second dose is advised for moderately or severely immunosuppressed children. The state also cites the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ recommendation of one dose for people planning pregnancy, pregnant, or postpartum.
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By contrast, the CDC’s guidance states that all decisions regarding Covid shots should be made on an individual base, rather than default recommendations for every eligible person.
Furthermore, the CDC cautions that the risk-benefit balance is less favorable for adults under 65 who are not at high risk.
With younger children, the CDC advises that parents and clinicians have a shared discussion to weigh benefits and risks rather than treating a shot as a blanket recommendation for everyone.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has been very clear that Covid shots should not be universally recommended. The latest CDC guidelines have removed Covid shot recommendations for healthy children and healthy pregnant women.
