Longtime activist and thinker Bart Dame took to Facebook last week to look back at the “official” chart setting out the system of tiers for reopening from last year’s pandemic lockdown.
Remember this?
A 7-day average case count greater than 100 would put us back to Tier 1, pretty much locked down again. Oahu is now over 120 cases per day.
Bart then questioned how we are going to handle the situation if this surge caused by the Delta variant continues? At what point do we step back a bit? Here’s an excerpt from his FB post.
…what happens IF the infection and positivity rates continue to climb? Can we agree in advance upon objective metrics so we will know if/when we need to re-impose restrictions? Or has COVID fatigue swept away the ability to discuss this rationally?
Earlier this week, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi said quite definitively, and this is a direct quote: “Going back to Tier 4 is not an option.” He didn’t say, “I think we need to do what we can to suppress the spread of the virus because going back to Tier 4 would be undesirable.” No, he said it won’t happen. Irregardless, so to speak.
…But if the whole idea of setting up the Tier system was to establish objective targets and to remove the decision from the influence of a politician’s desire for popularity, we need to talk about what we need to do if the current March towards re-opening causes the rate of infections to climb. To rule out that discussion in advance is not the sign of a bold leader, but of a fool.
Thoughts?
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We are at the beginning of a biological disaster.
It’s now up to each individual to do whatever needs to be done to keep themselves and their families safe. Don’t gather. Avoid contact with others. Wear the best masks possible. And maintain good sanitation.
As for those who choose to demand freedom from sound pandemic prevention practices, someone suggested that insurance companies could consider withholding coverage to anyone who goes through extensive medical treatment because they refused to get vaccinated.
Don’t expect society to pay for individuals who are reckless and adamantly ignorant.
Should the insurance companies also withhold coverage to other folks who take health risks? What about UH students who play football even though a concussion is a traumatic brain injury? What about motorcyclists who choose not to wear helmets?.
What about folks who jump off the rocks at China walls?
None of those you mention affect other people within breathing distance and the web of people they’ll spread to after initial contact.
Isn’t that what insurance companies do? Asses risk factors and charge higher premiums? So maybe the unvaccinated should have their premium ins jacked thru the roof?
But as pointed out this really is about the risk posed to others. If car insurance companies could determine who would be 99 percent more likely to drive drunk, do you think they should or would treat them differently?
The tier system was pre-vaccination.
I think I’ve had my fill of pandemic porn.
It was also pre-delta variant.
Increasing indications are that vaccinations give much less protection against infection with the delta variant than against earlier variants, and viral loads are much higher with the delta variant.
So while the vaccines protect us high against hospitalizations and death, they don’t provide near that much protection against spreading it, especially to the unvaccinated, which includes all kids under 12.
Actually the data is pretty clear… The current vaccines give pretty good protection against delta, breakthrough infection rates seem in line with 90%+ protection, and an almost insignificant risk of severe infection or death for vaccinated individuals unless you have notable health complications that lead to immuno-compromise.
As much as the travel restrictions are a nuisance, it makes sense to extend them – especially with rising case numbers. Good letter to the editor in the Star-Advertiser this morning asking that we get more detail on where the new cases are being noted. Might diffuse some of the finger pointing toward tourists; might encourage residents to be more conscious of and careful about their personal interactions. It’s clear many people simply don’t “get it.”
Picked up grandkids from their first day of school yesterday and saw many parents and apparent-grandparents doing the same – many un-masked, in spite of the (private) school’s mask mandate. Auwe.
I’ll have to agree with Bart. Rick is a fool! We should return to TIER 1 protocol. As a senior, I will continue to mask and avoid the fools!
We can’t just open and close as fast as we change clothes. The economy can’t sustain it.
This is what happens when you elect a bewildered moose in headlights.
Overall maybe Amemiya would not be doing a better job as mayor. But I’m sure he would be handling Covid a whole lot better and thoughtfully.
“Common sense is an uncommon virtue”, if I may twist the words on the US Marine Corps War Memorial in D.C.
Blangiardi is really turning out to be quite a hopeless fool. I don’t want to be age-ist but I have been wondering about his mental capacity of late, especially after the HART/Hanabusa contract fiasco and police commission appointment swings and misses.
When Tricky blew up the tier system we now have no scorecard so we have no idea where we stand. What last year is bad…this year is no problem at all. Even at a much higher number and trending out of control. All good according to Mayor Tricky and Guv Ige. So all those lockdowns and jobs lost LY was obviously totally unnecessary.
Blangiardi might have a bit more credibility as a leader if he used his moose pulpit to loudly, adamantly, and repeatedly implore everyone to get vaccinated unless they have a sound medical reason for not doing so.
Blindly acting as an agent of the business community and opposing restrictions despite the changing nature of the pandemic is not leadership.
The issue is deaths, not infection rates, and the two have become disconnected. Infection rates are now a false measure. Also, 99.5% of current deaths are people who did not get vaccinated, not even once.
Hospitalizations are also a concern, and those have been going up.
Whether those hospitalized with covid are vaccinated or not, that potentially affects all of us as it leaves less room in the hospital for non-covid care.
As there are long term health impacts for those who survive a Covid bout, I would say infection rates are almost as important. We might be looking at a serious strain on our healthcare systems 10-15 years from now if we do not.
YES, in a perfect world and society there would be 100% rates of vaccination. As for why some people don’t, it’s my understanding that it boils down to plain mis-trust of the vaccine. Here in Hawaii, where health-food is a way of life for some, I would imagine these same folks are staying away from the vaccine for the same reasons they oppose efforts to fluoridate our water supply or grow GMO crops. Like it or not, there are some people that don’t want to pollute their bodies with anything they perceive as being unnatural and potentially dangerous.
So where do we go from here?
For one, it doesn’t help society as a whole when governmental leaders say one thing and do another (e.g. Newsom at the French Laundry). Those acts of hypocrisy had better stop soon otherwise the masses will not care anymore and stop listening for good.
Secondly, educate and inform. Covid language can seem so vague and esoteric. Maybe more people need to see what a person looks like on life support in ICU so they can be scared straight!
The availability of effective vaccines changes the game in making the lockdown decisions. Lockdown or get vaxxed? You wonder if in the back of public health official’s minds is the thought that increasing infections and death, highly publicized, might actually push people into getting the shot. What else would actually overcome the effects of so much misinformation and lies about the vaccines?
Check the Rick for Mayor website, under “Rick’s Agenda for Honolulu’s Future”, interesting in hindsight.
It’s time for people to realize if your not vaccinated you will eventually get the delta variant. Even natural immunity may not be enough. The delta is super contagious.