Lt. Gov. Green mistated the results of the March 22, 2021 Lancet study in a way that gave his $afe Travels program support when the study actually showed $afe Travelswas inadequate. To make matters worse, Lt. Gov. Green ignored our beloved 'noisy doctors' when they confronted him with the correct…

Hawaii’s Golden Calf of Tourism Demands New Sacrifices The tourism lobby’s pandemic narrative goes basically like this: “Hawai’i can have EITHER tourists and a good economy OR, we can quash the virus through restrictions on public activity including quarantines on travelers (residents and tourists).” But this is a false dichotomy. …

David and Goliath (or, how to speak truth to power even if few listen . . .) Thursday, August 5, 2021 was a pivotal day in Hawaii’s pandemic journey. Two events took place — each very separate, but equally relevant and important in their impact on life in our islands. …

Vaccine Mandates in Hawaii — Several Flavors After super surges in case counts and nine months after the vaccine was first introduced, Hawaii policymakers have finally come around to ‘requiring’ public workers to be vaccinated. I put the word ‘required’ in single-quotation marks because there are significant variations in how…

In a recent (7/25/21), Honolulu Star Advertiser front page article by Allison Schaefers entitled: Safe Travels will likely stay in place through 2021, the author begins by outlining Governor Ige’s benchmarks for removing all pandemic restrictions including Lieutenant Gov. Green’s ‘$afe Travels’ program. The current threshold for that to occur…

I believe the large majority of our Hawaii policymakers care greatly about public health — I also believe that they justify their policy decisions in the belief that they are making the best of very hard choices. But, I also believe that, analogous to the prevalence of systemic…

The March 22nd Lancet study uses a complex simulation, not actual data, to evaluate the effectiveness of various travel testing protocols. One of these protocols is essentially Hawaii’s Safe Travels program which consists of a single PCR test 72 hours prior to travel. But Hawai’i has a considerable body of…

Data scientists could have spared Lt. Gov. Green and KHON2 from filing an embarrassingly erroneous report. On March 27th, Green and KHON2 reported on a recent study published in a March 22nd online edition of The Lancet. Green mischaracterized the study when he said: “. . . the study backs…

Important Findings for Hawai’i Policymakers — Results From a Recent Study Published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases J. Raymond, (Retired) Deputy Attorney General, Kailua, Hawai’i, April 12, 2021 Introduction A study, published in the March 22, 2021 online edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases (Lancet article, Lancet study), evaluated five…