msp3

Yay preventative house arrest! Who needs the 4th amendment and habeas corpus anyway?

Bearcat06

I work for DOD and have been here since June and already looking to leave.

This place is a mess

I've lived here a few times, I am a military brat born in Germany, came here the mid 80s and graduated from Leilehua, showed back up in the late 80s and was active duty military, came back in 2009 and worked for DOD, and just got back out here for what I was hoping another long stint.

To me, its just not the same to me anymore. Yeah, I have friends/family out here to hang with but seeing places closed for good that have been here for 50 plus years, not getting to enjoy the beaches and parks, and the Aloha spirit is just kinda blah now just makes me sad.

Sorry for the rant. If/when this place finally opens up, its going to take 10 plus years to get back to a "normal" and even then it won't be the normal a lot of us on here know and love about the place....

WrightHI

It was a mess before Covid with tourism metastasized to where it was really impinging on quality of life for a lot of people who live here. Now it's a different kind of mess. Hoping that on the other side we can go forward to a new normal that works for everyone, but it's going to be a long, slow, painful road, and it would sure help to have higher-functioning leaders to help us through it.

Weatherboy

About 3 weeks ago, Ige and the travel board kicked off an agressive media campaign to get the word out Hawaii was open for business 9/1, thanks to the 72 hour testing program. There was also outreach to travel writers, bloggers, and influencers who further promoted the "fact." Which is why as recent as 2 weeks ago articles about Hawaii open for business went viral.

Knowing how ill informed people are, I feel bad for the Ige-suckers who assumed 9/1 would be the big opening date and took advantage of low priced deals to come over for Labor Day. And haven't paid attention to Hawaii since. Instead of eating out at a popular restaurant or lounging about Hawaii's beaches, they're going to find out they can't leave their hotel room, can't travel to another island, eat out at a popular Honolulu eatery, or even lounge about Waikiki beach without being arrested, fined, and/or imprisoned.

With the new Oahu lockdown, and no big tourism marketing push to discuss it, visitors are in for anything but some aloha.

HaleiwaFlyer

Makes the mandatory 4.5% GET tax that everyone is paying even more painful.

philemer

It's two weeks for Oahu with some exceptions. See: https://www.staradvertiser.com/

COSPILOT

Thats today’s announcement. If we are consistent with anything it’s continued restrictions despite what they say today, yesterday, or even a few days ago. I’m not necessarily saying they are wrong or right, but we change tunes daily, and I feel better with odds at a blackjack table in Vegas than what Hawaii will do next.

Im not faulting anyone, but had a long discussion with my fireman friend today. We were trying to figure why our hospital in Maui has such a huge outbreak. He thought it was time of exposure, and while I can’t recall if it was on FlyerTalk or somewhere else, we aren’t seeing similar spikes on mainland hospitals. My time in the ER I can say the hospital was hardcore in protecting employees. I was very impressed with the procedures they were doing for each patient to protect the staff, so it’s disturbing to see the outbreak.

747FC

Can't speak for Maui or any hospital in particular. I can relay an anecdote that may explain the problem:

I saw a friend who was standing around outside with his wife and child, all unmasked, in a commercial district of HNL. I later called him and chatted. He said that his wife, a nurse, doesn't believe that any of them are at risk because it is only old folks who get hit with coronavirus. If this nurse is out there exposing herself and her family, it is likely that there are more inane ones out there like her who contract COVID-19 and walk right into the hospital and infect patients.

COSPILOT

You might be right, but why Maui spikes and not elsewhere? We aren’t experiencing what Oahu is other than our hospital. I’m not suggesting anything, not saying one island is doing it better. Obviously Oahu is and has been a problem, but speaking first hand and knowing what I know having been a ER patient in Maui, I was very impressed with the measures they took took to protect them from patients. Obviously they are doing something wrong though.

I don’t think even the CDC has all the answers yet, or possibly never. Hawai’i is and always has been a fragile community, mostly economic. The least we can do is anything and everything to do what we think in the moment will help. Could be right, could be wrong. I don’t like that we aren’t following in Alaska footsteps for the sake of the economy though. There has to be a balance.

Finkface

I was chatting with a good friend on Maui yesterday. His auntie works at Maui Memorial. She had a possible exposure on Monday and was told to wait until Saturday to get tested, to see if she started showing symptoms first. I was speechless. I know they are woefully short staffed but this is utterly reckless. If this is happening to more than just her, this explains why Maui and not other hospitals. They may be taking the proper precautions when dealing with patients but they sure aren’t taking possible exposures seriously by telling staff to keep coming in to work and not be tested until they start having symptoms because they are so short staffed that they can’t afford to have anyone off work.

COSPILOT

Im not a doctor and by default I have no clue. But why they are getting hit hard is beyond me unless it’s like an episode of a Greys Anatomy and more related to after hours social gathering. That makes sense, and something we need to work on. Some friends don’t care, no mask use at all when I visit. Others are hardcore and I’m welcome to visit but mask use and distancing is expected. Stress levels for all are high, Im sure alcohol sales have skyrocketed, which is certainly not good for anyone’s health. I stopped by the store at an early hour the other day for juice milk and eggs, and most people in front of me have some form of alcohol they are buying. Not a good sign at all. I’m not judging as my level has increased to keep my sanity and sleep at night, but nonetheless prior Covid I didn’t see people buying alcohol at 8am and now I do.

Finkface

Well to answer my own question and to my surprise, it seems the CDC has just yesterday changed their advice. They now say that testing is not necessary even after close contact with a Covid positive person until one actually shows symptoms. A complete 180° from previous advice. This will mean that hospitals can do exactly what Maui Memorial did and tell health care workers (and anyone else) they do not need to test until they show symptoms. Color me surprised. Seems a little reckless that someone with a known contact with a Covid-positive individual can be set loose in a hospital, caring for other vulnerable patients because they are short handed and don’t want to possibly lose staff.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...-overview.html

If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms:

• You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.

747FC

Following the CDC's advice is great if you use it as a floor. Unfortunately, institutions are using it as a ceiling.

For example, all of the temperature checking going on (which is a highly insensitive measure) uses the 100.4 standard set by the CDC, as if 100.4 is some magic threshold. False negative rates can be lowered because Institutions are not barred by law from using a lower temperature number to keep customers and employees safer. Airline travel is a perfect example: where it might make sense to allow someone into a grocery store to shop for 15 minutes while having a 100.3 temperature, I can't see why airlines are not setting the threshold much lower, to 99.4, if someone is entering a locked tube for 10 hours.

COSPILOT

That would stink for me, for decades I always run high, high metabolism to blame I don’t know. I have a few places that do temp checks for entry and I consistently run a full degree higher than others. Always have and always will.

denver19

Yesterday, Mayor Victorino was on the news saying they were running low on PPE at Maui Memorial. I just can't relate how devastating I find this news. We have been shut down for 6 months, cases may be climbing but they are low, and we haven't stockpiled anything. It is just unimaginable.

It also speaks to the utter lack of any possibility of reopening. Any thought of October 1 is a misrepresentation, because since the shutdown in March, they haven't prepared any plan to reopen, the first step of which would be to stockpile PPE supplies. So the re-opening is just a shiny object: "Look over here".

I am making my business plans now with the thought that we aren't open, without a 14 day quarantine, until late spring. Maui has no political leadership, and is in a very bad place right now.