Residents need to send message to visitors
I am a registered nurse from the mainland, and I visited Kaua‘i last week for a much-needed holiday from caring for COVID-19 patients. As much as I enjoyed my stay, I’m sad to say how disappointed I was at Kaua‘i residents‘ lack of mask wearing. Following are just a few examples from my week:
While on a hike, I encountered a group of four young people approaching me on the trail, none of whom were wearing masks. I asked them in a friendly way if they had masks, and they replied they did not. I gently suggested it might be a good idea, and one in the group replied, “but we live here!” Another day, on a river boat tour, there was a group of eight couples, of retirement age. From overhearing their extended conversation, I gleaned that they were residents of Kaua‘i, not part of the same family. They sat closely to one another, none wearing their masks properly. These are but two examples; I could offer more.
I understand that reopening the island to mainland visitors has caused considerable anxiety among residents. My impression is that we mainland visitors are all just so very grateful to be allowed back on the island that we want to do right by Hawaiians, and we don’t want to do anything that would mess this all up. I would respectfully suggest that Hawaiians take the same precautions they expect of mainlanders. If you are a resident, concerned about catching COVID-19 from mainland visitors, wear a mask. Wear it to protect yourself from the likes of me, a mainland RN who works with COVID-19 patients, here on holiday.
Elizabeth M. RN, San Francisco, California
It really is your call, mayor
To Mayor Kawakami,
What will it take to demand the permission from Gov. Ige to require a post-test for all incoming travelers? Under the present, voluntary, post-test situation, it is only a matter of time before Kaua‘i’s active COVID-19 case count accelerates to unmanageable levels.
It is inevitable, with the accelerating levels on the mainland and new active cases sneaking through from incoming travelers, with no required post-test. At what active case levels will it take before you take action? Your heart is in the right place on this, but you must now face reality and take action.
A required post-test is the only way to protect all of us on Kaua‘i. The cost will be far less than what it will be with an overloaded health-care system on Kaua‘i. Look at what is happening with overloaded health-care systems in many states on the mainland.
We now have the opportunity to protect ourselves from this pattern, or to hope against hope that we will not be invaded by accelerating active cases of COVID-19. Please take action before it is too late.
William Hackett, Kalaheo
The goal is to keep Hawaii safe. Closing a loophole by demanding travelers to show a negative COVID test before landing on Hawaii is good, necessary and helps guarantee the safety of Hawaii residents. If there is no negative test or no test pending, why allow these travelers to board their flight, only to enjoy a 14 quarantine upon arrival? During these critical 14 days, if in quarantine, these travelers are requiring the use local resources to enforce/guarantee the terms of the quarantine. Why should the State of Hawaii spend anything for these travelers’ quarantine? A partial solution is to simply deny the travelers entry until such time that they can provide their negative COVID test results. Those who travel with no negative COVID test or test pending, present a potential hazard to those with whom they come in contact during their journey. Nothing is perfect, Special circumstances will always exist, but there must be a system that does a better job of keeping out the virus and protecting residents of Hawaii.
In addition to presenting a negative COVID test upon entry, the follow-up test, 5 days after landing on Hawaiian soil must be instituted.
Dear Elizabeth:
Thank you for working on the frontline of the pandemic.
As RN you should know that a typical surgical mask provides only limited protection and its main effect in stopping droplets from your mouth. So wearing a mask mainly protects the others from yourself. You should certainly wear one of you come from CA where Covid-19 is spreading like fire.
Unfortunately, even after 9 months into this pandemic we do not know how the virus spreads. Is that through personal contact, surface, or may be food? The medical community cannot agree on the best therapy is once a person gets infected. The big money has been already made by mask manufacturers and the test developers and providers. Today the vast majority of US population is wearing masks, stays 6 ft apart, and we run a huge number of tests every day in USA. And what is happening with the number of cases in the mainland and your home Bay Area? Did not see any drops recently.
If you are so much concerned about us here, please stay in CA.
In response to the nurse from California, I would assume you know better than to travel from a highly infected area to a non infected area. Shame on you for even suggesting no body was wearing a mask. Stay home.
“Wear it to protect yourself from the likes of me, a mainland RN who works with COVID-19 patients, here on holiday.”
Ah yes, just what we need a little self flagellation from a visiting Karen. There is NO evidence (you know, data) that wearing a mask has had or will have ANY positive effect on SARS CoV-2 spread. If you look at the graphs for every state or country and mark when mask mandates were put into effect you will see they had zero affect. Yet here she is admonishing young people, the least vulnerable, to wear a mask while in the great outdoors on a hiking trail. So Karen, it’s better for one to breathe CO2 rather than fresh clean air?
It seems that rational data backed thinking when it comes to masks, and lock-downs for that matter, has been abandoned.
RG DeSoto
You just can’t make this stuff up.
I think she is smarter than you RG
RG I think the nurse is smarter than you
“You just can’t make this stuff up.”
And yet you did just that.
Biden, Trump & Guy…you boys need to get a grip and look at the actual data and graphs that clearly show masks and mandated lock downs DO NOT work. Start here: https://pandata.org/ check out the live feed.
BTW: I made no comment on the nurse’s intelligence…there are many smart people making the same errors that she is. You three are apparently in the same boat and I make no judgement on your intelligence either.
Also by your ad hominem, a logical fallacy, you attacked your opponent’s character or personal traits in an attempt to undermine their argument.
Check out the data…
RG DeSoto
Aloha Nurse Elizabeth,
It was refreshing to read a letter from someone who works in The City, San Francisco, a city that strives on LIVE and LET LIVE. Perhaps, you’re not a native.
For many of us on Kauai who are not buying into the medical fear tactic to promote any one of several vaccines perhaps too hastily manufactured in laboratories at warp speed, a speed that exceeds all safety standards set by the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration. Already South Korea has announced the vaccine they are using killed 35 of their people and they had to stop their vaccination program.
AstraZenaca a big pharmaceutical company stopped their testing as too many got sick more than the acceptable few days of flu feeling, which with the Covid-19 virus, 98% of the people only get Zero to mild or moderate symptoms, so why bother buy a risky unknown vaccine made at a careless warp speed and whose side effects are not fully known.
Perhaps you are unaware that hiking and boating on Kauai are very Healthy things to do due to our having the Healthiest air on earth, which masking and RE-breathing diminishes that fresh air benefit due to inhaling our already excreted breath filled with respiratory waste products is made even worse by wearing a mask.
If masking, social distancing, and frequent washing of the hands worked, why is the Covid-19 virus being so spreadable on the mainland and Americans so sick in general and unprepared for a pandemic, what with 80% of Americans taking 1 or more prescription drugs a day, while 55% take 4 or more prescription drugs a day, which is proof that prescription drugs are not restoring Health and Wellness to Americans, and there’s no proof but only danger predictable with a vaccine.
You do realize that the doctors you work with in America alone, prescribe For Sale 4.4 Billion prescriptions a year, making the medical industry the greatest drug Cartel on earth, while America has only 330 million people, that’s 16 drug prescriptions a year for every man, woman, and child. Do we really need that many?
It’s like the famous Nursery Rhyme, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall (Covid-19 virus pandemic), All the King’s Horses (hospitals), and all the King’s Men (doctors and nurses), couldn’t put Humpty back together again (hospitals and doctor’s offices filled with sick people).
It seems we are overdue to have the medical industry re-tooled and instead of a Pill or Vaccine for every ill, it is time to re-educate the doctors and nurses to educate the sick people, in order for the people to practice Health every day and restore themselves to being Well and Healthy.
The thinking that petroleum from oil wells and coal mines, made into carcinogenic petrochemicals to make over the counter medications and prescription drugs has been given its chance, with 80% of Americans sick enough to require prescription drugs every day has shown that the current model of medical industry Disease Care is not working.
We as a people, we as a Nation, deserve better, how can you expect 80% of our nation being on 1 or more prescription drugs, to be able to confront a Covid-19 virus when there’s not enough healthy people and not enough healthy Immune Systems to deactivate the virus in their bodies.
Drugs and chemicals burden the Immune System and render it less capable to confront viruses and other sicknesses, so why when we are apparently losing the battle against the Covid-19 virus, do we need more chemicals, another drug, that is another Vaccine.
Millions of Americans die each year needlessly too young from avoidable chronic degenerative end of life diseases seen in people not elderly enough to die from those diseases.
Medications amd prescription drugs do not restore Health and Wellness, they only mask the signs and symptoms of diseases and allow the causes of disease to continue on and not removed or prevented.
Medical disease care does perpetuate disease, disease being the basis of the income $$$:for the medical industry, which includes nurses.
While all medical staff are appreciated for their hard and tireless work, their efforts would be better invested in educating patients about the daily use and practice of actual Health Care, the foundation of which is a Healthy nutrient rich diet, and an Active amd Healthy Lifestyle.
Masking, distancing, and testing have shown by daily increase in statistics that they are not working as the Covid-19 virus continues to spread.
The medical industry has little understanding and thus little to no confidence in the Immune System, which in 98% of the Covid-19 virus cases the people have zero to only mild to moderate symptoms. And almost all of those people after 14 days of their immune system working they become immune to the disease and become non-contagious, which is the solution to the pandemic.
Without exception sick elderly people need quarantine or isolation and nutrient rich meals and Sun, Water, Air, Rest, and Exercise.
And while people will develop some immunity to the vaccine, they won’t develop immunity to the Covid-19 virus. You need exposure to the real virus to get immunity for that specific disease virus.
If medical man and mind power, and the $4 Trillion a year spent on disease care was invested in our Health, we would not be at the forefront of death and sickness in this pandemic, and instead of being the worst in the world, we could be a shining world example of Health.
And William, testing is not a form of prevention because if you test positive you already have the disease amd you are only contagious for an approximate 14 days from onset of being infected, then thank God, due to a functioning immune system that person becomes immune to the Covid-19 virus and No-Contagious as well, and the best type of person to be in our community…immune and not contagious.
Elizabeth…I thank you for your service in this dangerous pandemic. BUT choosing to visit a vulnerable island, considering your livelihood and possibility of being a covid carrier was a very selfish choice….regardless of your test since they are not totally reliable, not to mention the several hour plane ride during which you could have been infected.
Kauai is very precious and we need to honor the island and STAY AWAY. Send money to help those who are struggling if you want to help!
whew…………………………………….maybe you should run for mayor of Kauai
It could have been this simple, but now we are on the same path of all other places with off the wall cases…. if the state demanded that all people wanting to vacation on Kauai MUST. complete and posses documents showing no sign of the virus before flying to Kauai, then we would be how it was before all this got started again. I think maybe it’s to simple of a solution for the talent we have to hear and cope with. Watching the conversations between mayor lg and gov is becoming more political than common sense doable.
Maybe if people had to be cleared before they even enter the airports traveling anywhere we would stand a better chance of seeing people making it to their destinations far more healthy than what we see going on right now. We had stopped the virus prior to Oct.15th.. how? The same way we need to do now. No negative test result, no flight period, 14 days of prison. I too see stress with govt. leaders attitudes leaning in more talk about who is going to lead us through government trying to save us from ourselves. I will say the efforts to control the virus on Kauai has led it to be known as one of
Per capita best places to escape the mainland madness. With many houses selling online in just days, sight unseen it might bring on property tax revenue to help offset the loss of tourism money. It’s The new safe haven for those who can live and go to work anywhere they need to.
Because they live here on Kauai. Does not mean they’re Hawaiian. If you do not have the Blood. You are not Hawaiian !!
What blood are you talking about? Portuguese? Japanese? Philippine? Samoan? Chinese? Other Pacific Islanders? Caucasian? Black? If you’re talking about “Hawaiian, what percentage is required to call yourself Hawaiian? By the way, weren’t the Hawaiian Islands colonized by the Marquees people first, then the Tahitians? So what exactly qualifies as “Hawaiian”. Is the mayor Hawaiian with a Japanese last name? We are a vast melting pot of ethnicities. Residents are people who live in a given area permanently regardless of race or ethnicity.
Dear Elizabeth,
I am actually horrified that you think it is okay to travel for leisure during a pandemic. As an RN who has probably seen this disease first hand and what it can do to older people I would think that you would put the greater good above your own wants and stay at home during this time. Apparently I am wrong. By the way, after having no deaths due to the virus we had our first kupuna death yesterday.
As to the locals not wearing masks, yes there is some educating to do there, but I am not surprised at the response you got, after all prior to the 15th of October we had virtually eliminated Covid here and everyone relaxed because of all the hard work we did to keep it to a minimum. And yes, this is our home, should we have to wear masks in our own home because you want to come here and party?
And finally, I was at the beach on Saturday for two hours and saw maybe two tourists wearing masks on the path and on the beach. They were walking and not swimming, and were coming within 6 feet of other people constantly. I even got some strange looks from them as I was constantly wearing my mask. So it goes both ways.
Aloha.
Elizabeth M. RN, San Francisco, California,
Thank you for coming to beautiful Kauai to stuff your California ideas down our throats. Big deal if your a nurse from California! You should have known better and not be selfish and come to our small island to spread your message and disease.
Of course, like most from the west coast, your views are only one sided, and see what you want too, we also driver around the island too, and since allowing visitors back on the island, we have seen 90% of you folks speeding around the island, traffic back to the mess it was prior to COVID, and majority of the “tourist” we see around the island is not wearing their masks.
Do us a favor, please stay in California, we really don’t need your one-sided opinion here, practice what you preach, stay home, especially you that has the greater chance of catching the virus, we really don’t need you here.
ALOHA!