Hawaii isn’t ready for tourism. Most people in Waimea would just as soon never see another tourist in their life. See my post on Life in Waimea during quarantine: http://yrh.ewp.mybluehost.me/2020/03/29/life-in-waimea-while-in-coronavirus-quarantine/

On top of that, we have a rather serious Covid outbreak going on here. Our numbers may look good compared to some places on the mainland, but we are stuck in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and when we run out of beds or ventilators, patients can’t be easily shipped to another hospital. And many of the hospitals we have are rural, and not equipped to deal with seriously ill patients.

As of today, there are 135 people in the State hospitalized with COVID, including 25 in intensive care. Hospital beds are 65% full, and intensive care beds are 54% full, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.

We have lost 27 veterans who lived at the veterans home in Hilo to COVID. People who lived in another nursing home in Hilo have also died. Hawaii County continues to have too many new cases every day. The politicians blame the locals, but there is no way having tourists here is going to make things safer.

Many residents are incensed by this betrayal of our interests in favor of the tourist industry. Here’s one take on the situation, and I like the characterization of Hawaii County’s mayor in this article: https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/10/lee-cataluna-hang-on-for-hawaiis-iffy-reopening/ (“a stubborn badass”).

One of our more prominent part-time residents, billionaire Marc Benioff, tweeted this recently:

“Amazing leadership by Hawaii County @MayorHarryKim creating a multi-test protocol for reopening of Hawaii & stopping the insane 1 test plan of @GovHawaii & @DrJoshGreen. Oahu, Kauai, Maui & others all must adopt a multi-test protocol. Just look at this testing model!”

Hang on is right, Lee Cataluna-this is not going to be pretty! Hawaii isn’t ready for tourism, and we’re scared!