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Editorial

Trust in vaccine may improve

A Herculean effort by the science community has produced several vaccines for COVID-19 in record time. With preliminary efficacy results around 95 percent, the vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are far more effective than anyone dared hope. AstraZeneca has also posted a promising early result. A dozen other teams around the world are reportedly closing in on vaccines. Once approved, the drugs will be mass-produced and distributed. Making the treatment available to every person on Earth could be the largest production and mobilization effort in history. Won’t the ...

TP hoarding fuels anxiety

You’ve got packages of toilet paper stacked in your bathroom closet. But then you throw some more rolls into your grocery cart, while food shopping. And you’re tempted to add some to your online cart as you take advantage of those Black Friday deals. Just in case. Sound familiar? We bet it does. As the COVID case numbers rise so do the rolls of toilet paper people are buying. We’re already starting to see some empty shelves and sold out signs on online retailer websites. “Panic shopping” they call it. The unpredictable destruction of a hurricane and likely interruption of ...

Slowdown on Pi‘ilani

Before Pi‘ilani Highway opened in the early 1980s, South Kihei Road was South Maui’s only north-south artery. During rush hours, the oceanfront road became a congested mess. It could take an hour to travel the length of rapidly growing Kihei. Left turns were impossible without the kindness of other motorists. Two-lane Pi‘ilani Highway alleviated some of the traffic stress when it opened, but it too became snarled as development boomed. Without much widening, apart from having its drainage swales filled with asphalt, Pi‘ilani became four lanes in the 1990s. The roadway was ...

Downsizing the holidays

One of the joys of Hawaii’s melting pot society is how each new culture adds its favorite foods, traditions and celebrations to the mix. The same Maui family may pound mochi and light fireworks on New Year’s Day, eat hot malassadas every Fat Tuesday and decorate the yard for Christmas. Of all of the holidays, low-key Thanksgiving is one of Hawaii’s favorites. What’s not to love about a day based on family, friends, food and fellowship? As a federal holiday, it’s practically the law that we put aside responsibilities and gather with people we love and appreciate, many of ...

Trump should cooperate

American presidents need to hit the ground running, especially when it comes to national security. We have too many enemies in the world to let our guard down for even a few hours. President Donald Trump continues to challenge results of the Nov. 3 election through court challenges. That is both his right and entirely understandable. It does not appear that the president’s attorneys will be able to prevail to the extent needed to mount a successful challenge to the election. Unless something entirely unforeseen by anyone occurs, Joe Biden will become president on Jan. 20. Trump ...

Healing divisions

We did not need schooling on the fact that the media does not get to pick the president, as some readers were compelled to tell us Nov. 7. It is, however, historically based and quite normal for media outlets to call an election in favor of one candidate over another. The Associated Press has done so since 1848. And yes, those calling elections have on occasion been wrong. But calling an election is generally steeped in evidence of how votes are being tallied and an ability now to zero in on specific pockets of voters that typically lean red or blue. Certainly that is true with respect ...