HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0843.131 2018-2020 COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAII
RECEIVED
Time 11:10Pm By eV
Thu 3/19/2020 11:10 PM
Testimony For the Council Meeting Date MAR I et 2020
To: Council Testimony
•
Dear Councilmembers:
This is not my letter, but the author has articulated my thoughts so clearly that I prefer to forward
it with only these words:
DITTO!
Mahalo. Please make it so.
Patricia Ravarra
From Kate Bell:
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. 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
Comm. No. 4310'I)I
Ref. To: P I CDU
Ref. D MAR2 0
ate 2020
have everywhere, and yet our"leaders;'.',are still:spinelessly wishing away the hard choices,
trading dollars for lives with every passing day.
IT'S TIME FOR A MUTINY! Here what our county council needs to do:
1. Close all schools until at least next fall. i
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
1?reak quarantine will be evicted immediately.
We cannot stop the flights,but we can discourage the visiors. We can take the economic hit up
front, without requiring our local population to slow it down with their bodies and their
lives. This pandemic will cost our island almost everything, one way or another. So let's face
this with concern for our people and the least loss of life.
� I