Ease COVID-19 restrictions
COVID-19 seems to be never-ending.
I feel we need to finish taking our precautions and make sure that everything is done with this disease so we can move on with our lives and stop living in uncertainty.
Our governments and higher powers are pushing the vaccines on us, saying it will protect us, which to a certain extent may be true. But we are still seeing those with the vaccines being infected today.
We are all going to get the disease to a certain extent, and that is how we will build resistance to it. I see no reason to keep us bundled away in our houses, restricted from the world. Many of our people die from the flu and sicknesses we get every year.
Tia Low, Lawa‘i
Open schools already
COVID cases on Kaua‘i are increasing.
Is it because of travelers or because our island opened up?
I feel like since our island is opening up, then students should be able to go back to school and school activities should come back completely.
A lot of times the schools or people say our education is important, but they keep us back from getting our education. A lot of students are struggling in school because of this pandemic. They want to open up our island but not our school?
The more cases we get, the less chance of our schools opening up and going back to our normal activities.
I feel like our schools should have opened up first instead of our island, because our education is important and our life depends on it.
Some students are struggling with their grades because they don’t have sports to motivate them to do good in school. Some people depended on sports scholarships because they were good at sports, and now they can’t get those scholarships because our island keeps opening up and getting more cases.
I feel like our government should think about the people on our island before other people, and put their priorities first.
Qiyrah Rapanot, Kekaha
Thank you Qiryah Rapanot. Those are well thought out ideas you came up with. School is just one part of our community. The greater population was thought to take more important role. So they considered that first. Then school. It is good to see young minds willing to take part in voicing opinions on a forum as this.
You want to get back to normal? Then get vaccinated. simple.
“I see no reason to keep us bundled away in our houses, restricted from the world.”
We’ve been able to shop, dine, go to the beach, etc. throughout most of the pandemic. Nobody has forced us to stay in our houses. LOL.
And, there’s still many Countries around the world that require quarantining upon entry, even if they’re returning residents of that Country. It’s interesting to note that in Tokyo there’s a new State of Emergency in place until the end of May. Look how strict they’re being!
https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/japan-updates-its-quarantine-rules-and-extends-entry-restrictions-030421
“I feel like since our island is opening up, then students should be able to go back to school and school activities should come back completely.”
The last day of this school year is June 1st. Makes no sense to open up for 11 days.
In response to Tia Low, Lawa‘i’s letter to the editor:
Everyone, universally, wants to have things go back to normal. But wishing it so won’t make it happen any more than wishing a hurricane would turn tail and race in a different direction would work. Both are natural disasters.
The best way to get back to normal is for everyone to be vaccinated who CAN be vaccinated.
So let’s address your feelings towards the vaccine. You say people who have been vaccinated still are getting infected. Yes, a TINY portion as in miniscule group of people are getting infected after the shot or shots. But the vaccine is only 95-97% effective so, of course there will be some break through cases. Also many of these small number of breakthrough cases were in people who were either exposed to the virus before the 2 week waiting period after had expired. Or they didn’t turn up for their second shots in the case of the pizer and moderna vaccines.
Secondly the ‘building resistance’ /herd immunity choice hasn’t panned out other places, like Sweden, where it’s been tried. The problem is that the more unvaccinated people the virus can infect, the more opportunity it has to mutant/change/adapt into something even more lethal and transmissable. And that means it becomes even harder to get to ‘herd immunity’ because people who get one version of the virus might very well NOT be immune to another variant that comes along down the line.
So it could take forever to get to this high level of ‘herd immunity.’
But if everyone gets vaccinated, the virus has a much smaller pool of people to infect, less chance to mutant into something more dangerous. And THAT is the scientific way to get where we want to be.
If everyone on this island who was eligible for a poke got one asap, we would be through with our problems and could open up widely. Without that, we’re stuck in mask-land for a whole lot longer
Carey in Hanalei
Qiyrah’s letter gives us food for thought. Unfortunately, that food is that right now, there are anti-vaxxers driving the opposite way on Kauai’s 2 lane highways!
Thank you Tia! This charade and stupidity has gone on long enough! The medical corporations and politicians have made their money and solidified their votes at our expense past the point of greed and the hijacking of our freedoms! Wake up sheeple! Enough is enough!