Hawaii currently has the lowest COVID-19 fatality rate of any of the 50 states in America. Far more people die of the flu than are dying of COVID-19 here in Hawaii (about 500-600 people per year die of the flu in Hawaii). According to news reports, there is very little community transmission in the state.

The threat of the virus is very real, but it is obvious that the threat is not the same for all communities and my belief is that the mitigation applied should be commensurate to the threat.

It appears to me that our current mitigation is way out of proportion to the level of threat that we are facing. For instance, not allowing someone to sit alone on the beach, or not allowing someone to jog on the beach, are both absurd, and I would argue that with more testing more businesses should also be opened up.

The comments published lately that Hawaii may stay locked down through the end of May seems to be completely unwarranted by our very low infection and fatality rates. Please tell us exactly why, with solid data, that is justified. We would be far better off to have a goal of testing most residents of Hawaii than a goal of locking us down for another five weeks.

Scott Werden

Haiku