We applaud Mayor Michael Victorino for his efforts to assess the film production that has requested to film on Maui within the confines of a Wailea resort.

With the COVID-19 cluster at Maui Memorial and Hale Makua, he did the right thing by pushing the pause button on production until he could secure all the necessary information to ensure that the production would not be putting our community or citizens at risk.

As medical professionals who have lived and worked on Maui for more than 25 years, and after hearing the safety plan for this production on Council Member Kelly King’s town hall meeting, the production should be able to execute their plan successfully without compromising the health and safety of the community.

We are grateful that film productions like these have the resources to provide the best level of COVID-19 safety for both their crew and the resident hotel workers. In this uncertain age of COVID-19 and with the grave uncertainty of restarting tourism, film production using this model would be a great way for us to provide safe employment opportunities for our residents to get back to work and start rebuilding our struggling economy.

K. Malia Song, RN

Dr. Alan S.W. Song

Kula