The enemy is among us
The political cartoon portends what is a coming disaster that rivals the polio plague of the ’40s and ’50s.
In this case it is the mosquito of a particular type that can carry dengue fever as well as the Zika virus. How long will it be before a tourist with an active infection of Zika brings that virus for those same mosquitoes to spread? And we won’t even know about the problem for nine months.
But in our ignorance we are more afraid of Syrian refugees, telescope builders, a raise in the GET, Donald Trump, and other fears that are easier to name than the potential to destroy the lives of a coming generation from a small, almost unseen insect lurking in a pineapple plant or a tossed soda can in the ditch.
“Fight the Bite” works in your yard, but what about those densely overgrown areas all around us near our parks, schools, beaches, ball fields, and jogging and hiking trails? Tulsi was right; call on our governor to declare a state of emergency before we become the poster state for mosquito-borne disease. Then our tourism industry will suffer.
We can do more by taking action to assure visitors that everything that can be done is being done, than to sweep the facts under the rug until the facts are unavoidable.
Barbara L Franklin
Honokaa
Outer island needs important, too
I support Congresswoman Gabbard’s call for a state of emergency and urge Gov. Ige and Darryl Oliveira to answer that call now.
As outer island residents, our needs are just as important as those on Oahu and we cannot dismiss this window of opportunity to get on top of this issue.
The island’s vitality, the health of our keiki and kupuna and the importance of our visitor community’s safety cannot be underplayed.
Yasmin Vatter
Keauhou
National Guard would have been called on Oahu
The time is way past due, for this whole community, including the media, to take this dengue fever outbreak seriously and as a threat to our health and our livelihoods. Having it become endemic is not only a hazard to the health of our citizens but also a huge economic threat to the Big Island.
It seems that the only politician who “gets it” is Tulsi Gabbard and we should all jump on her bandwagon to have the state and county be proactive in the fight to eliminate the mosquitoes. Regardless of what they want us to believe, they aren’t being proactive, in fact, I wonder at times whether they are active at all. The second round of dengue can be life threatening as that is when it can be hemorrhagic. Do we have to have people die in order for the powers that be to take it seriously?
Many of us from the Big Island truly believe that if this outbreak happened in Honolulu, they would have called out the National Guard to fight the mosquitoes. But we are an outpost with not many voters, in comparison.
What is it going to take to stop it before it becomes endemic? Someone’s death? How many deaths? An economic collapse?
Cynthia Salley
Honaunau