COVID-19 thoughts
In mandating lockdowns, governments claimed they were choosing “lives over money.” Some journalists argue that in reality, first they chose some lives over others, and second they sacrificed someone else’s money.
First: Choosing to save the old and sick from COVID-19 at any cost led to the escalation of deaths from other diseases due to lack of immediate treatment or lack of insurance due to unemployment. Also, suicides went up.
Second: Sacrificing someone else’s money such as personal wages, small business closures, and the value of 401(K)s due to insiders cashing out stocks early, which included many government officials.
When COVID-19 was discovered, computer models said that if we did nothing, 2 million people would die, and if we did something, 250,000 would die.
With each COVID-19 case, data began to be gathered. When the data was made public, which showed the virus is less deadly than originally thought and lockdowns were not necessarily needed, the press and government officials immediately attempted to discredit the data. No thoughtful debating of this data, just a smear campaign.
It is clear that their objective is to keep everyone in panic mode.
I can’t believe the irony. Both right- and left-wing narratives are embracing the opposite stance of what they have held for so long. The right embraces total civil liberties; the left believes in saving human life no matter what the cost.
Neither extreme stance for dealing with COVID-19 is correct. This has obviously turned into complete political football, and unfortunately. what is being trampled into the grass on the field are our very lives and our livelihoods.
Wearing masks, washing hands, no hugging and kissing, isolating the vulnerable, and no lockdown is what Japan did.
Japan, no lockdown, 7 deaths per million. USA, lockdown, 418 deaths per million.
Deborah Beaver
Hilo
‘Sitting ducks’
It’s more than a second wave coming at us. It’s a second Pearl Harbor.
This time last year, 35,000 visitors came to Hawaii per day, every day.
If only 1% of them have COVID-19 and the testing didn’t catch it, or if they get infected on the plane, that’s 350 new cases arriving in Hawaii daily.
We will be sitting ducks while the visitors unknowingly drop their COVID bombs on top of us.
It’s more than a second wave coming at us. It’s a second Pearl Harbor.
Linda Carroll
Keauhou
Family planning
I am one of many Hawaii residents who was laid off due to COVID-19.
It took a long time to collect unemployment, and I didn’t know if I would be able to pay rent, much less afford to go to the doctor.
While lawmakers face impossible decisions in the budget, it has never been more imperative that we fully fund programs to ensure access to health care services, especially for those most vulnerable in our community, including people of color, low-income communities, and the LGBTQIA+ population.
Family planning is critical to our economic recovery, and providing funding now will ultimately be less costly than treatment down the road.
As an Oahu voter who has been deeply affected by the current crisis, I urge Gov. Ige to invest in our future by passing a fully funded family planning program so all people have the agency to make healthy decisions.
Chelsey Bryson
Kaneohe, Oahu