In sum, Hawaii is empty and Waikiki is not Waikiki without our ohana from abroad staying with us and coming back to us. In late January 2020 and February only predictive models for SARS-Cov-2 were available which caused a lot of worry and concern due to the many uncertainties. This feeling reminded us of the uncertainties and unknowns felt during the early days of the HIV AIDS epidemic. The hope is that we treat people recovering from this illness with care and compassion rather than being bashed as pariahs and freaks the way HIV and AIDS afflicted patients were treated. Remember at one time there were posters and news about how HIV could be contracted by touching infected toilet seats. It was a sad, fearful wrecked state of affairs and ridiculous now that we have the data about transmission vectors, viral loads to transmit knowing a great deal more about HIV and AIDS.
AIDS Mass Hysteria, Evening Herald, February 5,1985, Ireland
Now that actual new data is becoming available for SARS-Cov-2 every day to replace predictive models, the worry and concern has subsided. Independent research into SARS-Cov-2 over the last couple months have helped a lot to form limited conclusions on how to orient how to service guests based on the available data now. Concerted initiatives were taken to understand where the State of Hawaii, Department of Health, local Hospitals and Clinics stood in terms of helping to improve confidence in how to operate logged below;
Inquiry To State of Hawaii DOH Disease Outbreak and Honolulu Covid Response
May 11, 2020 Interest in Serology Data for the State of Hawaii for Covid-19 (Antibody Prevalence) compelled another inquiry into the Department of Health to understand how far or close our community was to Immunity. Calls were made to Hawaii Department of Health Disease Outbreak +1 808-587-6845 and Honolulu Covid Response +1 808-768-2489 to request for Serology Data. Covid Response recommended we email covidexemption@hawaii.gov . DOH Disease Outbreak stated they are still compiling the Antibody data for Covid-19 and do not have any information available. When a timeline was requested, they stated no timeline is available at this time. When preliminary data was requested on whatever information was available they could not provide any data.
When asked about how the Department of Health could measure what factors whether social distancing, lockdowns or immunity were the causes of the decreasing spread of SARS-Cov-2, they were not sure, furthermore stated that they are not sure if immunity exists for SARS-Cov-2.
As of May 6, 2020 no reply received from the Lt. Governor’s office.
Inquiry To Queen’s Hospital and Straub Clinic
April 24, 2020 As more is learned about current treatment sets and plans available for people working in health care. Contact was made with Covid hotline at Queens Medical +1 808-691-2619 and Straub Clinic Honolulu +1 877-709-9355. The Queens Medical Covid Hotline representative were callous and unhelpful directing us to the CDC. A Dr. Nohea at Straub was very helpful and explained currently there are no treatment plans for mildly symptomatic patients or patients discharged that are simply not recovering as of yet. Unless patients are in serious condition repurposed treatments will not be considered for administering. Remdesivir and Favirpiravir are currently unavailable at Straub Clinic.
Inquiry To Makahiki Clinic Waikiki Health Center
April 23, 2020, calls were made to Makahiki Clinic for clarification and inquiry for treatment plans, prophylactics, certified hospital grade UVC germicidal lamp. the clinic mentions they do not know or have any medications specifically for treatment of COVID-19 and we should talk to Queens Hospital or Straub for assistance.
Inquiry To State of Hawaii DOH Disease Outbreak and Lt. Governor Green’s Office
From April 1, 2020 to April 6, 2020 several calls were made to the Department of Health Disease Outbreak +1 808-587-6845 calls and email to Lt. Governor Green’s office +1 808-586-0255 to confer guidance on safety protocols developed in house, questions regarding if they were certain regarding the 1-2 meters or 6 feet safe distance based on new models of respiratory pathogen emissions provided by Dr. Lydia Bourouiba from MIT , request for recommendations on UV germicidal disinfecting lamp vendors, and prophylactics and repurposed medicines, treatment plans available now locally for the general public, health care and related sector workers were made. Their response was;
- If our safety protocols follow their’s and CDC guidelines that is what they recommend to use as a guide.
- Regarding recommendations for UV germicidal equipment vendors, the DOH Disease Outbreak mention look up and research the vendors ourselves.
- With regard to prophylactics and repurposed drugs their stance felt highly reluctant towards using unapproved drugs for unapproved purposes even for compassionate uses. They do not wish to invite lawsuits from families of patients that pass away from complications or suffer any adverse effects resulting from the use of repurposed drugs and medicines.
- No treatment plans or prophylactic plans are available in Hawaii to their knowledge currently as of April 6, 2020 for patients, for health care and related workers.
As of May 11, 2020, The conclusion with the State of Hawaii support so far has been an emperor has no clothes on type of situation where they do not know anymore than anyone else. With little to no assistance with feedback for upgraded measures provided, their customer support and requests for clarification have been absolutely poor and unreliable. Brilliant experts abroad, Businesses and our local Ohana are the only people we can turn to for support. In fact taking cue from the data from epidemiologists, virologists, immunologists, ER doctors, Bio-Statisticians such as Knut Wittkowski, and Johan Giesecke below and others abroad in many cases have provided advanced notice ahead of the Department of Health, CDC and WHO.