Originally Posted by
wchinchen
As a Hawaii resident, what I find troubling is the lack of clear guidance on future economic activity while balancing the health of the community. I mean guidance beyond opening the local shops for the local community. Leadership needs to make this tough decision, and that is their job. How are they going to allow international travelers? When do they want to lift the 14 day quarantine? To receive tourism dollars, the 14 day quarantine needs to be lifted.
Even General Hara in charge of Hawaii's COVID 19 response is worried about the economic state of Hawaii without clear guidance.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/0...ife-continues/
I'm no Ige fanboy, nor one of the Department of Health. I know that to be a politician one needs to have a thick skin. It is obvious to me that leaders listen to many sources, and ultimately must make a timely decision and communicate in a clear and effective manner. Ige fails on these measures.
Hawaii has one of the largest elderly populations in the US
https://www.prb.org/which-us-states-are-the-oldest/ and one of the highest rates of kidney disease requiring dialysis
https://www.kidney.org/news/newsroom/nr/KD_StateHardHit Clearly, our population is at risk of being hard hit by the pandemic. Any leader has to pay attention to these numbers, particularly one of an island entity. So if Ige errs on the side of caution, that is understandable.
It makes sense to reopen the economy to within-state transactions and test the impact before opening it up to tourists coming in from COVID hotspots. Anyone who has been a tourist knows that vacations are a time for letting loose , excessive drinking and sometimes making poor decisions. Ige is smart to go slow. We can't afford anything less.