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Well @LtGovJoshGreen can ban my comments from his Instagram when I call out his bad usage of science, but he can't stop us from both appearing in an NYT article together! I have some thoughts on this piece. Thread time! https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/travel/covid-hawaii-testing-reopening.html
1/ First, they misspelled my last name but that's minor. Also, if you're unfamiliar with the last tweet, @LtGovJoshGreen banned my comments from public view on IG when I called him out for using non-peer reviewed studies: https://twitter.com/landonjumpoff/status/1319747825891065856?s=20
2/ Back to this NYT piece. Green says "don't come under any circumstances" is not realistic to ask of travelers during a global pandemic. I think reopening tourism during a global pandemic and expecting that locals will remain safe is unrealistic.
3/ CARES act money could have kept us safer for a little longer, but that's not even being allocated in a way that's beneficial to locals. Just considering HPD: HPD spent 13.8mil in overtime, 4.7mil in services, 1.7mil on vehicles and ATV's. https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/09/this-is-how-honolulu-is-spending-387-million-in-cares-act-money/
4/ from the above article, Tommy Waters: “All this money spent on police to lock people down and keep them in their house when only $2.4 million has been expended to help them,”
5/ This HPD money went toward ticketing houseless individuals at a ridiculous rate. One man was cited 52 times for over 100 COVID-related citations. https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/easy-targets-some-oahu-homeless-have-been-ticketed-dozens-of-times-during-the-pandemic/
6/ @Kue_Kawena is right in the NYT piece that the state is pandering to tourists. Don't forget that we all saw on the news @MayorKirkHNL handing out masks to tourists instead of the citations HPD have been handing out to locals: https://twitter.com/KITV4/status/1318371414718730240?s=20
7/ Green saying that it's "unrealistic" to ask travelers to not come here during a global pandemic stands against other Pacific Nations that have controlled their COVID cases by taking advantage of their geographic isolation. Green has a realistic way to stop COVID here.
8/ Instead, Green + HI gov has haphazardly reopened tourism, subjecting locals to potential future shutdowns where we have to keep asking ourselves if increased case counts means we should go right back to shut down. Kinda like.. how we just did: https://twitter.com/KITV4/status/1324441359969898497?s=20
9/ The NYT article notes that "So far, data shows that few travelers have tested positive for Covid-19 after arrival in Hawaiʻi." but also that follow-up testing is "voluntary." Also, traveler COVID data is sometimes allocated to a travelers' home state: https://www.khon2.com/coronavirus/female-kauai-resident-tests-positive-for-covid-19-active-island-case-toll-rises-to-6/
10/ Adding to the murkiness of testing COVID amongst tourists is that behind these studies is a big corporate thumbs up from United Airlines + that HI actually is the trial run for reopening tourism elsewhere. Aaron McMillan, United: "We’re really bullish on this whole process."
11/ Green used a non-peer reviewed study to legitimate the reopening of tourism a few weeks ago so that airlines could be given the green light to run tests on tourism during a pandemic. HI will serve as a beta trial for pandemic tourism.
12/ What's most tiring is hearing how the new spike in cases is un-related to the reopening of tourism. It's in the way Green can stand in front of an insane amount of tourists like this and not be at all concerned...:
13/ ..but then be absolutely appalled, shocked, (and seemingly out-of-the-loop?) when noticing local residents standing in lines to vote this past week: https://twitter.com/landonjumpoff/status/1324082364947943424?s=20
14/ It's the constant reminder that we as HI residents might be responsible for a super-spreader event while Green and the state actively participate in turning us into the experimental group in this trial run of pandemic tourism.
15/ I'll prob be told I'm exaggerating when I say tourism = terrorism. But during a global pandemic, being subjected to experimentation by capitalist tourism industry execs ought to be at least a little terrifying if groups of unmasked tourists at hiking trails aren't.
16/ Growing up in colonial HI, a lot of us are taught to always be "welcoming hosts," and even when close friends from the continent ask us if it's okay to come right now, we might think "this is my friend, they're cool, they're safe," but flying here itself isn't safe.
17/ HI residents and Native Hawaiians abroad know the weight of bringing disease to an island population--we're familiar with that history and it informs responsible residents abroad to refrain from seeing their friends and families until cases go down. Tourism makes them wait.
18/ RIP my career.
19/ NYT corrected my name :)
