Kuskokwim 300 Race Joins Iditarod: Mandatory Vaccines For All

Full Vaccinations Required

On September 24th, 2021, the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race announced that everybody who is in any way involved with the event this winter must be fully vaccinated. That means mushers, support staff, pilots, veterinarians... anyone.

The Kuskokwim 300's race board of directors agreed to the mandate by unanimous consent. "Fully vaccinated" in the case of the Kusko 300 means more than two weeks after the final shot. 

Earlier this week the Iditarod Race Committee announced an identical decision on how Covid will be handled: full vaccinations for all.

Both the Kusko 300 and the Iditarod Race are classics. 

They involve isolated Native communities that are not on the Alaska road system, where ordinary people have historic cultural understandings of the dangers of epidemics. Western-introduced deadly illnesses swept through Alaska repeatedly for centuries, and many of the places they struck hardest were these same villages. 

The first Iditarod dog race was actually a serum run, in which dog-mushing mail carriers took diphtheria serum to Nome in relays. The postmen passed life saving serum, frozen solid and wrapped in a blanket, from sled to sled and village to village, famously saving the lives of sickened Nome children who were about to die from an epidemic. 

The 300 mile race will be held January 28th. In addition to a mandatory course of vaccine, everybody involved needs to have a negative Covid-19 test result within 72 hours of getting to Bethel.