HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0843.122 2018-2020 COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAII
Fri 3/20/2020 8:39 AM RECEIVED
Coronavirus Testimony Time $:511 BY
Date VAR 2 0 2020
To: Council Testimony
We on Hawaii are suffering from a major deficiency of leadership. While our governor and our mayor
dither, cases of Covid-19 are arriving daily on disastrously cheap flights from the mainland and abroad.
Asymptomatic and presymptomatic tourists with zero concern for the health of Hawaiian residents are
fleeing their local hotspots for a cut-rate Hawaiian fling.
Hawaiians need to be protected. Our economy is already fragile. Many of our kupuna are still working
in the service industry. Many live in multi-generational households, or do child care for other working
parents. People cannot afford to leave their jobs to protect themselves, and so are forced to endure all
the risks demanded of them.
Whether we stop the influx of visitors now or after our population has been ravaged by illness and
death, is now in your hands. Every case of Covid-19 will link back to a tourist.
No doubt,our island is on the road to economic collapse. The only question is whether it happens
before, during, or after our families are decimated. With a population of about 1,400,000,you can
expect a minimal community spread of at 20%,to be very conservative. With a fatality rate of 2-3%,
that's a minimum of 5000-7000 residents dying in our hospitals, in the hallways, in pop-up tents outside,
or even turned away at Code Black over-capacity facilities. And the fatality rate could realistically be 2-3
times as high, based on the base infection rate. Did you know we currently have fewer than 20 working
respirators on this island?
Covid-19 is a plague. We do not have adequate health care on this island at the best of times. We
already face a shortage of physicians statewide that ranges from 800-2,500, depending on the data. Our
people will die in large numbers from lack of infrastructure,overwhelmed hospitals, and a dearth of
health care workers. Cases of Covid-19 will increase exponentially here as they have everywhere,and
yet our"leaders" are still spinelessly wishing away the hard choices,trading dollars for lives with every
passing day.
Here what our county council needs to do:
1. Close all schools until at least next fall.
2. Require all airlines to inform ticket purchasers of the following emergency edicts, in video and
pamphlet form. This is w-a-y more critical then whether a traveler is carrying an apple.
3. Pass emergency legislation to keep all travelers at the airport until they have passed through exit TSA:
had their temperatures taken, registered where they are staying, and agreed to self-quarantine for 14
days. They would be issued a Visitor's Pass stating their date and means of entry, and which they should
carry at all times.
4. Stop all car rentals to anyone without a local island address.
5. Establish screening barriers outside every hotel to block tourists who have not completed their 14-
day quarantine from leaving the premises. We had law enforcement vehicles lining Saddle Road for
months, now let's use our worthy forces to protect our own citizens.
6. Visitor Passes from#3 will help us track any outbreaks back to their source. Tourists who break
quarantine will be evicted immediately.
Comm. No. 594101'
Ref. To: Q
Ref. Date MAR 2 0 2020
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We cannot stop the flights, but we can discourage,the visitors: We can take
the economic hit up front,
without requiring our local populationto slow it down-with-their bodi6 and their lives. This pandemic
Ucnstourix|ando|mosteveqthing, onexvayoranother. So let's face this with concern for our people
nd the least loss of life.
Jennifer
p»80ensee
Kai|ua'Kona, Hawaii
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