Better visitor screening the key
It is hearting to hear that the mayors of all islands are working together to find a long-term solution to protecting the residents from COVID along with helping to revive the economy.
There is a proposal being considered by the mayors that requires visitors who arrive in the islands to come with a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of arrival. This would be followed by another COVID test done four days after arrival. This approach could help protect the residents of Hawai‘i. However, there are some process issues with this, including the difficulty to get travelers to have the second test. It is clear that with this approach there will be great difficulty with compliance in assuring the visitors to the islands do come back after four days of arrival and take the second test. Who will help insure this?
There has been another proposal that would make sure that visitors are tested a second time. It would eliminate the need to track the visitors down to make sure they were compliant with having a second test. It would test for the virus in a way that would be done in an appropriate timeframe for all that we know about the virus at this point in time. This plan would have the visitor take the COVID test within 84 hours of arrival. This would eliminate the stress of the visitor trying to adhere to having the results in hand or uploaded upon arrival, as many of the trusted partners are having difficulty with getting results to the visitors within the current timeframe.
The second step to insuring a second test would be to test upon arrival at the airport. Those who need to do this would be a “captured audience.” In Alaska, residents are tested for free and visitors are charged for the test at the airport. Follow up would be done by contact tracers. This approach would protect the residents, eliminate a step in the first proposal, and allow visitors to help the economy recover.
As before, now just wear your masks to protect yourself and others.
Carol Bagley, RN, Ph.D., Part-time resident of Kaua‘i and Alaska
Glamping poorly-thought-out idiocy
Pursuant to this “glamping” fiasco, let me say that I’m not too good with computers and all this new-fangled stuff, but I’m pretty good with history and what makes Americans a different breed. That said, when it comes to ANY outside power imposing its will on citizens, that “power” will lose — sure as shooting.
British tried it — picture Washington crossing the Delaware.
Germans tried it — picture Omaha Beach.
Japan tried it — picture Iwo Jima.
Russians tried it — picture the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
Now, a very rich guy is again challenging the will of American citizens, for what purpose: To become yet richer? To become more vilified? To impose his individual will on the multitudes? To prove, despite American history, that HE alone has the POWER to circumvent the WILL of Americans in PRINCEVILLE, HI.?
Well, guess what — the self-worshiping kng will lose. Not just him but every paid public official who supports this will be voted out of office. Not just this poorly-thought-out development idiocy, but every more-grandiose scheme this self-proclaimed emperor may devise in the future for his thousands of verdant, open, scenic land holdings.
So is it really worth the angst forced upon our American spirit to squeeze a tiny bit of profit out of a highly-developed community? I think not.
Bob Chrisman, Princeville
Roadside Guinea grass a danger
I am sure that everyone knows how overgrown our roadsides have gotten. This has created an extremely-dangerous situation to drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.
There is no room or visibility along the road edges, which forces walkers and bicyclists to have to go on the road and highways. Drivers often do not have clear vision of the road edge, especially around curves. A wild boar running through the guinea grass and across the road may not be seen, and could put a driver (and others) trying to avoid it in extreme danger.
State and county, get to work NOW! Clean these roadways before someone gets killed or seriously injured! Anyone injured by this malicious disregard for public safety could sue. Tourist industry and citizens, please call and complain.
Sincerely;
Sherwood Conant, Kapa‘a
Dear Sherwood,
In reply to your letter asking for complaints about the guinea grass- I have noticed the constant maintenance task of mowing our roadways, and on any day of the week you can find the crews out doing their job. It is a dangerous one, dealing with traffic and unknown objects hiding in the tall grass. I applaud the effort it takes to mow instead of relying on toxic herbicides. Thank you county crew! PS. Mahalo for fixing Koloa road too!
Ive been riding here for 3o years, you don’t know jack. Your clueless, Larry Dill has repeadtly asked for budget to clean the guinea grass and make the median clean, but for many years nothing happens and Honolulu has deaf ears.Now they crying covid, . The airport corridor looks fine. But the north shore is a death zone. Your on point about the crews, your out of touch about budgeting, how money gets allocated and where it gets used. Absolutely many mahalos to the over worked fand underpaid men and women who the state treats poorly. You have no idea but i do, I stop and speak with them when I ride, they over worked under staffed and the state gives dill 600k annually to clean the roads on the entire island. So your totally clueless and probably never rode a bike more than 10 miles in a stretch and never from say kilauea to Kealia, I got fotos, videos, and a string of emails for years on this and here you are, knowin it all. Did you just get out of quarantine after moving here last month? Be quiet we sick of it.
Than you Sherwood for bring this up. I live in the Wailua Homesteads and only bike for transportation. The road crews( private contractors for the most part) cut the grass on Kuamo’o maybe twice a year. Going down the hill on a bike is very dangerous, not just for the cyclist but also the car driver. When I am forced into the the lane cars will try and pass by swinging into the oncoming lane. Someone will be hurt. Kuamo’o is a State road, seems like the money spent on the contra-flow every day could be better used on our highways. No one will die without contraflow.
I think we can agree that a test 72 hours prior to arrival plus a mandatory post-arrival test is a better approach than the current Safe Travels that Mayor Kawakami opted out of. However, during the “Safe Travels” period on Kauai where post-arrival testing was voluntary, it was clear that Kauai did not have the resources and processes in place to support post-arrival testing on a big scale. A single location for all incoming tourist to get tested which works when very few tourists volunteer for the post-arrival. I would assume less than 20 people per day paid $150 for their voluntary test.
We know how inefficient pre-travel testing is on the mainland where testing sights are overwhelmed, test are difficult to get, and the timeline for results does not align with the safe travels requirement. Combine that with the testing limits and the lack of infrastructure on Kauai and the result is worse than Safe Travels. Think about the lines and the traffic when 1000 or 2000 people each day need a “mandatory” test.
The “mass testing” on Sundays sponsored by the county seems like a huge waste of money with the rate of infection so low, it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The community mass testing should be limited to people who are symptomatic, people in the health care industry, people who are exposed to a lot of people in their jobs, and people taking care of others that are at risk. As a tourist destination, they money would be better spent supplementing the cost of taking the test for everyone. If the real cause of the virus to the island is coming from visitors, why not open “free” test for everyone visitor and resident alike.
Instead of reading about the mayor’s grandiose ideas (ex. Bubble Resorts haha haha), it would be refreshing to read and see what he is doing to create the infrastructure that is necessary for successful implementation of those ideas.
Possibly altering the pre-test to allow an 84 hour window is fine, but since that means that travelers can test anytime from 84 hours before to 2 hours before their flight (there are testing centers at most airports).
So if someone gets a negative test 2 hours before flying, then is tested again at landing (maybe 5-8 hours later), and gets a negative test – that tells us nothing. They’d need to land, quarantine for 7 days, and then test again.
I concur that more should have been done with open forums including the County Council and the local Health care people INSTEAD OF DOH AND THE MAYOR picking a closed door approach to how to manage the excessive amount of money dumped in their laps!!! Millions to dollars in emergency funding at the County level and Hundreds of Millions of dollars at the State level from Federal CARES and private donors certainly could and still should be used to set up quality test labs and more icu care!!!
Instead of giving his close friends “vacation ” pay and every one else ordered to “stay home”….. we are NOT all in this together!
mAhalo Malama. We have never been “All in this together”! If they could we would all end up “set-up” as they did with Mr. Brun. However, we need to stay outa the way, due to the strides to keep Hawaii-nei free from the CCP, wuhan, and Fentanyl cabal and all the american hui counterparts that are clueless to reality of cok fakerstate super clowns media mafia publishing side-track “garbage”. More liars that will pay to play, when it is seen what FBI Kenji and the combined minion Moron fodder that guarantee has GITMO in their sights! Tribunal “guilty kealoha stolen mailbox” tip of the politicojudiciomilitary fraudulators iceberg, and up-coming sentencing phases for aLL! Three book publishings names most of them, is truth, and should be considered an educational tool to awaken transplants, newbie-americans! KPD Blue, Superferry Chronicles, and Benish authored The Fifth Seal! Truth and Integrity will prevail! Those that think we dont know will PAY to play forever in their very own rabbit hole including free supper. The parents who trained these kinds of dogs, have been disinterred, as they rolled so hard in their graves, theyve returned to slap a few boto heads, pulling their ears, and even swiped them with a guava stick! Yet the gucci and gopro buy out is just too gOOd to “Just say no”! Liar liar pants on fire!
Speaking of overgrown,,, anyone notice coming up Kuamoo that you can only get a quick view of the falls? What were once short bushes have now grown into viewblocking trees. Anyone living here knows you have to keep the jungle trimmed or it will get away from you. Get to work on the views that we love and visitors would like to see. Pretty soon it will take chainsaws to get rid of the viewblocking trees.
Thank you for the support of testing using the second proposal of my letter. Just one comment. In order to get more correct results with testing, the first test should be done 84 hours before arrival. Carol Bagley, RN, PhD