Forcing vaccines on workers may be unconstitutional
In my humble opinion, the decision to vaccinate or not should remain voluntary and made by the individual who will be affected.
I was dismayed to read the article regarding the policy of Gov. Ige and Mayor Kawakami to require that all state workers be vaccinated for COVID-19.
Thankfully, they are allowing medical and religious exemptions, but what about those who may not fall into that category? Do those employees get a choice, or has it suddenly become the duty of politicians to make medical decisions for their staff?
I’m sure that our elected leaders are aware that people are also dying from the vaccine.
• There have been over 12,000 deaths so far, and that is a low estimate;
• At least one-third, or approximately 118,000 of all vaccinated individuals, have had at least one adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine;
• The highest adverse reaction to the vaccine was death, according to the CDC’s own VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System) website. This is a modest number, since most cases are never reported.
To my knowledge, the FDA has still not approved the vaccine, and as recently as June 25, 2021, issued a warning of the risks of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart) following vaccination. This usually happens with the second dose and among the young and healthy with strong immune systems. Are our leaders going to take responsibility for those who suffer adverse effects? And even if they do, will that compensate for the loss of life or health?
Can we all agree that there are risks and deaths on both sides? We should allow Americans to decide which risk they prefer. I believe that our elected leaders who are using their voices and positions to force vaccines on their employees are violating the Bill of Rights and abusing their power.
Sincerely,
Teresa Pennington, Kalaheo
State should reinstate Safe Travels program
The Garden Island reported 1,013 total (cumulative) cases of COVID on Aug. 20. We are daily seeing double-digit new numbers.
I totally agree with Hawai‘i Mayor Mitch Roth that it is time to reinstate the Safe Travels program. We know there are people traveling with forged vaccination cards. The only way to stop this is to return to the testing program for mainland and inter-island travel.
I know firsthand how annoying it is to have to stand in line to wait to get approved. It’s not fun. However, the fact that Queen’s Hospital is at capacity for ICU beds should be a warning. It can happen here.
Mayor Kawakami, your swift actions early on helped keep us safe. Please join with Mayor Roth to request reinstatement of Safe Travels. I also urge the other mayors to join.
Mahalo.
Donna Gould Carsten, Kapa’a
Little difference between blue and red states in COVID rates
We spent some time in Idaho last winter and were shocked to see all the businesses open, with no masks and little social distancing. Do you think people died like flies? In fact, Idaho has a 0.13% death rate from COVID-19, which is well below the national average of 0.19%. Idaho practiced business as usual, yet 40 other states had higher COVID-19 death rates.
Party politics have made very little difference. The 10 most-Republican states (Cook Voting Index) averaged 0.17% deaths per capita. The 10 most-Democratic states averaged 0.18% deaths. It is essentially a tie.
Hawai‘i has the lowest rate of COVID-19 deaths, 0.04%. Hawai‘i is a rare place where you can be comfortable all year with the windows and doors open. Most COVID-19 transmissions happen indoors without ventilation.
Idaho is much like Hawai‘i. It has a small population, many outdoor activities, and below-average rates of obesity. But Idaho gets cold, so the windows are closed. If Hawai‘i had been free like Idaho, except with open windows and more vitamin D, we would probably have had a much lower death rate than Idaho. This is about the same as what happened here anyway, after all the restrictions.
Most Democratic states have had more-severe restrictions on businesses during COVID-19, causing around 200,000 business failures. After all this hardship and loss, those states averaged the same COVID-19 deaths as the Republican states.
I am glad that states were able to try different strategies. But knowing the results should help us to make better decisions now.
It is also important to note that governors and mayors do not have the legal authority to make laws. Lawmaking is the role of legislatures and county councils. Any self-proclaimed emergency rules should only be valid until the legislature has time to consider the questions at hand. This separation of powers is our key to preventing dictatorships and tyranny.
Mark Beeksma, Koloa
12,000 deaths from the vaccine. How many did you deduct from those that survived with the vaccine?
Of the millions of vaccine given, mRNA vaccines would have to deliver. How much % do you see being effective ?
The FDA is giving full approval of Pfizer’s vaccine on Monday, 8/23/21.
VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting System) is an open database that can be used by anyone to submit information. Verification is not performed,, therefore one or many could easily submit false or misleading information. From the VAERS website, “VAERS accepts all reports without judging whether the event was caused by the vaccine.”
vaers.hhs.gov/data/dataguide.html
Its time to learn how to live with a virus among us. If you think stopping it by safe travels, think again..someone will always have it or bring it in. Do as you must individually. With vaccine or naturally or both, hopefully we will be able to move forward.
You do have a choice. Your death rate from the vaccine is erroneous.
Your choice is to risk the health of everyone who has underlying conditions and the elderly with whom you come in contact. Your choice demands that you isolate and stay home.
Also, your hospitalization from Covi-19 can and will cost the life of someone with a disease process that also needs an ICU bed. When you contract Covid-19 delta, please again stay home so intelligent people who “risked” their life and got vaccinated can have an ICU bed should they require it for another disease process.
Choice has consequences. Please accept your fate should you become infected.
The vaccinated will be needing all of the ICU beds in the near future because of the mRNA spike protein damage to the body such as pericarditis, blood clots, brain inflammation, and immune system failure just to name a few. Of course these will have no direct link to COVID. The vaccine pushers will see to that. It will all somehow be the fault of the non-vaxxers. And every death, from whatever underlying cause, of a non-vaxxer will still be recorded as a COVID statistic. There’s one statistic they can’t hide though and that is the efficacy of the vaccines is dropping rapidly, hence the need for boosters, then boosters for boosters and so on. Have they eliminated the flu with the flu vaccine? Well actually they almost did by re-naming it COVID instead. Gain natural immunity to COVID. That’s your best bet because this virus will still be around long after you’re gone thanks to the mad scientists who created it. Anyone who still thinks that this naturally evolved from bats has BS for brains.
Idaho? Ok. How bout Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Texas?
I have followed the public health recommendations to a tee but people like you -no mask, no vaxxers- jeep us bound up in a never ending round of covid. The mayor or public health or how Biden is not your enemy, winding up sick in Wilcox is!
Kauaidoug, FYI after my trip to Japan in Jan. 2020, I was promoting masks to our governor and mayor when Fauci was telling everyone not to wear masks. I was one of the first ones to publish a letter here to that effect. Wearing masks inside is fine. It has little downside risk. I am not an anti-masker. On the other hand, shutting down businesses has huge downside effects and the states that did this average the same Covid death results as those who allowed freedom. Interestingly, the four biggest states include two Democrat states and two Republican states. The two Democrat states average a bit worse than the two Republican states. Once again, a basic tie, with Republicans having a slight lead on Covid Deaths, but a huge lead on not ruining people’s lives by destroying their businesses.
Donna,
Yes, Derek, where are you now! Do it before it’s too late.
Mark,
I’ve lived in Idaho(Blackfoot) and I agree that it is like Kauai (Low in population. Also, majority are LDS. They are close to Utah and have great communication from there religous leaders. Majority are strong in their religion and live in their faith.
If they continue to follow their leaders instruction to pevgentt the Civid-19 pandemic from spreading in their state. Heavenly father will continue to watch over them.
And at this point, we too should have faith and lisen to our leaders and their advice.
Manong, do you know what the Mormon leaders are telling their followers in Idaho to do to avoid Covid? I noticed that southern Idaho has fewer cases of Covid than northern Idaho. The south is where there are more Mormons. I am not a Mormon, but I believe that Mormons do a lot of things really well, and I also like the idea of people successfully reducing Covid without the Gov’t taking away their freedoms. Aloha, Mark
I understand conservatives’ impetus to guard against encroachments on “freedoms” and fears about a nanny state, woke-ism and the rest. But people, you’ve picked the wrong hill to die on! The key to getting our country back and moving again and saving lives and ending this scourge is available–and has been approved by the same scientific institutions that approved the ibuprofen (or headache powder) you take, the stent that’s keeps your heart going and the meds that keep polio, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, and on and on and on at bay. And when these same institutions tell us the way to keep granny off a ventilator and restore normalcy is to abide by some harmless healthful practices for a while, and you guys throw a fit about your precious freedoms gettin trampled—meanwhile IC units are exploding with patients businesses shuttering and ppl are dying in droves…..well JUST WHOSE FREEDOMS ARE GETTING TRAMPLED ON HERE?
Oh Teresa, this is directly from the VAERS website disclaimer that you have to agree to before accessing any information:
VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Most reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases.
Anyone can submit anything they like and it can not be verified. Period. That system has major flaws.
Teresa Pennington needs to read and edit her letter:
https://covid-101.org/science/how-many-people-have-died-from-the-vaccine-in-the-u-s/
Mark: You might want to check your data for Idaho. This is as of today: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/idaho-covid-cases.html
COVID doesn’t care about your Constitutional Rights. It only cares about finding hosts. So, to protect my rights, should the unvaxxed be denied COVID treatment? Should insurance companies deny COVID treatment payments for the unvaxxed?
There is apparently no amount of logic and science that will make any sense to the anti-vax crowd and those opposed to the safety and precautions advised by our own sciences. They hold the world at ransom! We are doomed to a prolonged, Hieronymus Bosch nightmare of endless waves, thriving mutations, economic hardship, illness and death. Only the resurgence of the Orange Imposter could elevate humanity to a more absurd pass.
I don’t know where Ms. Pennington is getting her statistics, but this is from the CDC:
Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. More than 357 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through August 16, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 6,789 reports of death (0.0019%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines. However, recent reports indicate a plausible causal relationship between the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and TTS, a rare and serious adverse event—blood clots with low platelets—which has caused deaths
Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the authority of states to enforce compulsory vaccination laws. The Court’s decision articulated the view that individual liberty is not absolute and is subject to the police power of the state.
There is so much misinformation on display in these comments. Teresa wins the gold medal for her gross misinformation.
For more than 50 years, we have had to vaccinate our children to go to school. I bet your parents were vaccinated, and didn’t think twice about getting you vaccinated either.
So now, what is the big deal. You can’t rely on it not being approved by the FDA, as part of your absurd defense. The difference is the merging of radical political thinking, and social media. Social media is the other pandemic, when conspiracy thinking overrules fact and science. Do you go to your doctor and then tell them they don’t know what they are talking about, but you believe someone posting more information on platforms like Facebook.
When are you going to realize that it isn’t just about you. It is about being part of a community who shows respect for one another. It is time to stop saying your have rights.
I don’t think many people know the difference between their rights, and what are privileges granted to us as members of the community.
Thank goodness for Doc, Citizen Cane, and Robin Clark. They are some of the voices of reason on display.
How about taking away the abandoned cars on Anini Beach. It looks like a junk yard.