Green wrong about inmates and virus

Lt. Gov. Josh Green needs a hard education on America’s incarceration problem, especially Hawaii’s.

Green said that if corrections officers get the appropriate personal protective equipment, “then prison is safer than Costco” (“Lt. Gov. Josh Green questions plan to release prisoners, declares ‘prison is safer than Costco’,” Star-Advertiser, April 8).

First, the issue is about the safety of inmates, not corrections officers. Second, I dare Green to volunteer at any of Hawaii’s jails or prisons and make that statement again. Based on my volunteer experiences, jails and prisons are breeding grounds for communicable diseases.

Green also uses statements such as “a big outbreak in the prisons … could take up our ventilators.” Medical resources, including ventilators, are for everyone and are triaged based on medical need, not social class. Hawaii’s inmates are every much a part of our country as Green. Please do not view them as second-class citizens.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky said, “A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals.”

Jeffrey James

Manoa

Virus testing should be greatly expanded

I am outraged by the state’s reluctance to expand testing for the coronavirus. Anyone following the news can see that places like South Korea and Germany, which have placed a heavy emphasis on testing as many people as possible — whether or not they are symptomatic — are reaping the benefits of an aggressive approach.

If there are not enough tests to test anyone who wants the test, give priority to our health-care workers and other front-line heroes who, even if asymptomatic, are daily interacting in environments where physical distancing cannot be practiced with any reliability.

In addition, anyone living with an infected individual should be tested.

Why do we have to rely on the efforts of a private physician who is funding drive-through test sites on every island at his own expense and relying on his own staff and family?

My sincerest appreciation goes to Dr. Scott Miscovich and his staff and family, but really, he is doing a job that our government should be spearheading.

Deborah Nehmad

Hawaii Kai

Curfew won’t stop Easter gatherings

Can someone please explain to me how a nightly curfew for three days would deter Easter gatherings? Generally speaking, gatherings are celebrated during the day via church services and breakfast or dinner feasts.

What is happening between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.? Bars and restaurants are closed. Parks are closed. Who celebrates Easter between these hours? The only person that might be stopped is the Easter Bunny!

Judith Santos

Kailua

Total virus cases not meaningful number

I am flabbergasted by the COVID-19 reporting of data and how it is presented. Your scary graph on Page One was a case in point (“Rising tide of disease,” Star-Advertiser, April 2).

The line going straight up to 258 is shaded in red. We know what the 258 signifies, but the graph is meaningless.

A line connecting the number of new cases tells the story much better. It shows the number of new cases increasing daily, but not exponentially, which your graph implies.

What’s missing is the number of active cases. Yes, there were 258 cases of COVID-19 in the state, but there have been many who now are cured and symptom-free. The number of active cases is a much more important benchmark. Depicting how fast that number is rising or falling on a daily basis tells the story much better.

Kevin D. Connelly

Kahala

State officials should know who’s essential

Why can’t we hold our state government officials accountable for knowing the number of employees who are directed to stay at home, can’t do their work from home and are still getting paid?

Every department head should have a roster of whom they’ve designated essential or nonessential as part of the state government’s disaster action plan.

Why do we constantly accept the standard response of, “We don’t know because, and oh, by the way, their union contract says …”

We have to do better and be smarter than this.

Bruce Spear

Kaneohe

KINDNESS GOING VIRAL

Even in these days overshadowed by the coronavirus, bright spots exist. If you see kindness or positivity going on, share it with our readers via a 150-word letter to the editor; email it to letters@staradvertiser.com. We’ll be running some of these uplifting letters occasionally to help keep spirits up, as we hunker down. We are all in this together.

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