I’ll pass on the vaccine
People are awaiting the arrival of a vaccine to control the COVOD-19 pandemic. Aside from the fact that COVID-19 may not have been accurately isolated as a disease-causing virus, here are a few of the worst vaccine fillers: aborted human fetal tissue, bovine calf serum, chick embryo, dog kidney, duck egg, fetal bovine serum, horse blood, human diploid cells, monkey kidney, pig blood, porcine pancreatic hydrolysate, rabbit brain, washed sheep red blood cells.
Although all may not be included in the vaccine, it certainly is an eye-opener as to what may be in there. In addition, agents which can enter the host cells (that’s you) and modify RNA and DNA may be included.
Yikes. I think I will pass.
Molly Jones, Kealia
Nature, application of reopening rules bother visitor
Preamble: First, I love Kaua‘i and I would never do anything to jeopardize the people or the land. I’ve been coming here two to three times a year for the past 15 years. Second, if anyone should have been dead from COVID-19 by now, it’s me.
I am a health-care worker in New York (commuting on public transportation from New Jersey), and I have been working 60 to 80 hours a week since the start of the pandemic.
I was on Kaua‘i for the COVID-19 outbreak in March. I traveled home on an empty airplane to New York, and I am due to arrive back on Kaua‘i Oct. 1.
At work, I am tested weekly for COVID-19, and have to fill out a COVID-19 HealthCheck each day before going to work. The daily precautions I take, although mandated, are mostly common sense: masks, distancing and clean hands have kept me safe throughout.
Currently, coming in on Oct. 1 with a negative test, I’ll have to quarantine until the 15th, and then I’ll be “SAFE.” If I arrive on Oct. 15 with a negative test, I’d be free to come and go as I please. Why not change plans? I’ve made a commitment to dog-sit starting on Oct. 1, and I will honor it, quarantining with Sadie for two of my three weeks on the island is still pretty great. Unfortunately (and not meaning to boast), my quarantining will keep several thousand dollars out of the local economy.
My point? I’m sure I had one when I started writing.
The arbitrary nature and application of the rules are what bother me the most. The people who make them are not affected by them. I’ve sent a couple of emails about an exemption, or a modified quarantine, but I doubt they were even read before being dismissed.
Richard Gontarek, Woodbridge, New Jersey
