 Why are 70% vaccination is so important here on Restaurants of Hawaii. And we have Cheryl Montsoca, she runs Restaurants of Weather Restaurant Association. And Siobhan Garcia, she works with her together, you guys. And special guests, Brooks Bear of the Department of Health and Patrick Bullard, a PR professional, oh wow we're going to have a discussion about events and and encouragements and ways to get up to 70% or more. Let's go for 100. Yes. Why don't you start to show by introducing these guys proper and by giving us an idea of the scope of the conversation we want to have with them. Of course, thank you again Jay for having Hawaii Restaurant Association on Restaurants of Hawaii and think tech Hawaii. Today, of course, June 29 2021 tomorrow is the last day for our high got vaccinated.com campaign. And as you know Jay, there's wonderful prizes and incentives for people and we're encouraging everyone, as long as you've had one dose to jump on and register for those trips. Jay, hotel rooms, there's gift certificates, $1000, there's all kinds of prizes. But more importantly be sure to take that second dose, of course. So today we have two guests. I would love to introduce Siobhan Garcia Hawaii Restaurant Association's executive assistant. Siobhan, could you please introduce our two guests. Sure. Thanks for having me. I wanted to introduce Brooks Bear. He's the COVID-19 and pandemic respond administrative assistant for the Hawaii Department of Health. We also have Patrick Bullard. He's the managing director of Heinrich and Bullard marketing. Thank you Siobhan. Now, the main reason we're here today Jay is to discuss. To get our state back to normal lifestyle we really need full population immunity against COVID as soon as possible. To be on track to reach our 60% vaccination rate soon, our next step would be to get our state to 70%, which is what Governor E. Gay has stated. Once we achieve that 70% vaccination rate, all travel restrictions will be lifted and the safe travels program will end. So restrictions on indoor businesses such as wearing masks in restaurants will be dropped. And there are so many, right now there's so many vaccination sites available. It's in all the different communities. And so there really is no reason why someone can't get to a vaccination site. One of the most frequently asked questions and we're going to cover some of these later Jay is do I need medical to get my vaccine, my dosage and the answer is no, you don't need a medical program which is so important because a lot of people feel like if they don't have medical coverage, they don't want to go to the vaccination site. So the truth is you don't need medical coverage. You just need to show up. And I'd like to turn it over to Brooks who's going to talk a little bit more about the Department of Health and what they're doing and the current stats. And then Patrick was going to talk about the prizes Jay and I hope you signed up because there's some airplane air trips. There's restaurant gift cards. There's a lot of incentives for you to join the high got vaccinated campaign. But just a footnote on that I'm already vaccinated Patrick. Can I get a prize can I get $1000 even I've been vaccinated. Absolutely absolutely all you have to do is enter you can go to the high got vaccinated.com site and put your name in there and you'd be eligible to win. We go through a pretty significant verification process to ensure that everybody that's entered actually is vaccinated so we want to make sure that you check out the rules on the on the website make sure you comply with all the rules so that you're not a, you know, a relative of me or somebody else executing the contest. And then we actually utilize acuity LP they're a independent accounting firm that helps us select the winners, so that we're completely out of the loop on that. So that would be the means to select a winner which their name is matched to a number in a computer system, and then we contact the winner to award the prize so you could be that guy Jay if you're entered. I'm going to be rich. I'm telling you now, I need to be rich. You know, do you ever say to people, you know, in addition to the $1000 and all the benefits we the state provide you. This, this actually helps you stay alive. But you know for at least you get you get all this stuff but also you get to stay alive. Also, you get your family to stay alive. You know which which one's more important. What's it worth. Do you tell them that because that should be the most persuasive thing of all. You're absolutely right. And thanks for bringing that up because you know the incentive that this high got vaccinated campaign and particularly the incentive component of the high got vaccinated campaign is something that didn't begin until we were more than six months into this vaccination effort, or about six months into the effort up until that point. We've really been relying on on people's will to protect themselves protect their neighbors their families their coworkers their loved ones and actually beyond that the entire economy and because this virus is a global virus. We're really protecting the whole world when we get vaccinated. So, absolutely that is the number one reason people really should get vaccinated. But look, we know there are reasons that there are a lot of reasons why people haven't been vaccinated. Cheryl touched on one of them some people think they're going to get hit with a big bill. No, the vaccines are absolutely free. In fact, even if you don't have insurance, you can get yourself vaccinated. There are all these hurdles and questions that people have. And early on, we were able to vaccinate, you know, large amounts of people very quickly, but now that they've been vaccinated people like you Jay who were eager to be vaccinated. We're working with other populations, people who, you know, have questions they they they, they, you know, cost questions that maybe they've been busy maybe they're waiting for full FDA approval instead of that emergency use authorization. Maybe they don't have transportation to a vaccination site or they have language problems. And these are all things that we're wrestling with here at the Department of Health to try to provide them with transportation if they've got transportation or to put the vaccine in their neighborhood to make it easy to accessible or to bridge that that language gap that they may have by coming up with translations and brochures and videos in in multiple languages we've got those kind of things available in up to 20 languages. So it's it has gotten more difficult to get people vaccinated and to get the good quality science and the credible information to people because there's so much malarkey floating around, you know, in certain circles, that that sometimes we have to counterbalance that just with getting credible good science out there. But that's not always going to be enough. There are multiple reasons why people haven't been vaccinated. And some of them just need that little extra push. And that's where patent comes in with this incentive campaign with a high got vaccinated effort. You know, I want one thing is implicit in what you said. And when I've seen in the paper, the national papers is that is that we are at a point where it's harder to get the next person to take a vaccination. It's like we're hitting, hitting Trump's base or something, we're hitting the hardcore now. And so you have to work harder for each single person, you want to vaccinate, you have to provide greater incentive, greater outreach for each single one. And it's really extraordinary that we're at this point and, you know, he's not going to make nationally not going to make it 70% by July 4, I'm sorry to say. And he's going to have to work harder getting it done and it's going to be harder getting it done. So you guys are really sort of in the same place, although I would hope that we don't have that kind of hardcore base here that resists, you know, your efforts. I think, we should be more progressive here, more Akamai here, we should be, are we, or is it a parallel to the mainland? No, we actually are. We've done several surveys and polls and we found that in the neighborhood of 10% of our population has just decided they're not going to get vaccinated. And we may never be able to convince them to be vaccinated. So what we really want to do is focus on the people who have said, yeah, I'm receptive to it or yes, I'm going to get vaccinated. I'm just going to do it on my schedule when the time is right, maybe when we answer their final questions. So for the Department of Health, the high guide of vaccinated campaign has really been about outreach, education and access, outreach to communities, populations, geographic areas where they really haven't had that easy access to the vaccines, you know, bridging those language gaps, those kind of things, making sure that the vaccine is available just about around every single corner, which it is now. You can get a free shot today. And so we're ahead of the rest of the nation. But again, that little extra push could come from from people who are looking for incentives and and and that's out there right now on high got vaccinated.com. And there's actually some exciting news about the future of that campaign. Well, let's have it. That's right. Well, drum roll please. A couple of things that we will be announcing later today in a press conference that Brooks and the Department of Health have monitored our campaign. And we actually have seen that the high got vaccinated. The high got campaign has worked to move the dial. Brooks can elaborate but it's working. You know, some people have different buttons you got to push for, you know, for various reasons. And some of us are just on Hawaiian time, no matter what's happening. So, you know, we created the campaign with the intent to get as many people excited about getting vaccinated and we've seen that it's work. So tomorrow, June 30 at midnight, the stroke of midnight, we will turn into pumpkins and the first round of the high got vaccinated.com site contest will be done. We'll be putting a fork in it. And on Thursday, July 1, we're going to pick 83 winners. To win the balance of the prizes that we have left, which includes Marriott Bonvoy points Hawaiian Airlines 100,000 miles. We've got Southwest American Alaska Airlines we've got a car lease some great restaurant prizes to give away so we've kind of reached out to a lot of different businesses and businesses in turn reached out to us to say, what can I do to help. That's a great idea, because it's in their interest it's in their interest to see this happen. Absolutely the businesses, particularly some of the travel industry businesses the restaurant businesses that are greatly affected by the current numbers that we have to achieve. And then to give us the 70% we're all a part of that equation so you know sitting on the fence and you know I if people have health issues and have concerns God bless them. You know we respect that but for people who absolutely could get vaccinated. Let's go get it done so we were going to award 83 prizes by July 14 will announce all the winners for that. We're not done today we're going to announce round two of the contest the sequel, if you will is going to happen beginning on July 12, and we're going to reload the cashier prizes. This time, the prices are going to get even more fun for some people we're going to push different buttons, and we've got cash. So we're going to be making announcement today. I can't spill the beans just yet but we will be announcing that we've got some fabulous cash prizes and more to come, and we are looking for more business businesses and in this case restaurants that want to support us to support you. So you can get on board go to the website, contact Cheryl, and just say hey how could I help. We know that the more incentives we pride provide the people. The more people are going to participate and do what we want them to do so that's the reality. How involved is the restaurant association in this. What does it mean to the restaurant association from a, you know, say a business interest point of view, and how is the restaurant association participating. The restaurant is the restaurant associations participating 110%. I mean, we have been communicating this from prior to even the program launching right Brooks and trying to get all the restaurants campaigning around this initiative because, as we know when we get to that 70% the masks indoors will come off we have more freedom to get back to the way it was we get to resume our lives back again Jane that means a lot to these restaurant tours. We're even hoping that we can lift the six foot distancing, which, as you know it's still enforced right now, but the restaurants are all trying their best communicating with their employees encouraging. The employees are vaccinated and you like you said you know there may be a few that are holding out and as you said when you go to restaurants, they still are taking your temperatures and contact tracing restaurants are doing everything they can to protect their employees they got to get vaccinated or can't work there. They that that is something where, as you know with unemployment and it's hard now right now we have as you know very very, it's difficult to get employees and it's been the challenge. I do know of a few restaurants that have really been every, every meeting with all of their workers you know they're sitting them down and saying, you know, please get vaccinated this is just going to help you and your family, you and your loved ones and you know, we just need to get to that 70%. Yeah, well I'll tell you the truth if I saw like your department of health has ratings a little green window sign in the window. And that encourages me to go into a given restaurant. If I saw the restaurant had a sign in the window, said our all our people are vaccinated that would encourage me. I mean, put it another way, if I didn't see that sign, I would not be nearly as encouraged. Let's talk about the magic of 70%. What I get from what Patrick was saying is that, if we reach, as in when we really should reach 70% easily. Then, then the governor will reduce the restrictions. That's that's fiat that's not necessarily a health fact. That's a call it a governor fact. And the question to you is, what exactly, from the point of view of the health of the state, does 70% mean, I guess I'm talking about herd immunity or some such concept like that. Sure. Great question. A lot of people are asking if 70% is attainable and what is herd immunity. And I think the important thing to know is that there is no magic number for herd immunity. One of the scientists we have here at the Department of Health and there are some brilliant people here. They can't tell you exactly what herd immunity is because it's a moving target. We get these variants come in, and they're more transmissible than the original COVID the native COVID. And because they're more transmissible that changes the equation. What exactly is herd immunity. What variants might might arrive, you know, tomorrow or next week. And so we've got to keep our eye on the variants we've got to keep monitoring them. We've got to keep the transmission rates low the new case counts low, and we do that by getting vaccinated is our very best tool, and by wearing masks and distance things are things that we've been so good at for a while. But there's no magic number for herd immunity. In fact, we don't determine what herd immunity is the virus determines what herd immunity is, we're going to know we get there. When we see those case counts just plummet and disappear. And look, they're down, Hawaii has done a tremendous job, better than almost any state in the nation at getting vaccinated and we've been terrific with the masks and respecting one another and showing a loa. We're approaching 60%. Today, we're at 57.8% of Hawaii's entire population that is fully vaccinated, and more than 62% of the state's population has initiated the vaccination process. So within the next couple weeks we expect that those who have initiated the process will finish their vaccinations, and we're going to reach 60%. But boy it's getting tough to, you know, to move quickly towards 70%. And it's going to take a couple months at least. But look, take advantage of the offers that Pat's given you. If you've been looking for a reason, you know, you've got until midnight, Wednesday the 30th to get yourself at least one shot is all you need. Then you're eligible to go to highgotvaccinated.com. Then you can register for those prizes. You might win a fabulous prize, and then you'll be automatically in the drawing that comes up in July and August. And you know what? You could be saving your own life or someone's life that you love. And that is way more important than any prize. That's a good reason. That's always actually the best reason to save your own life or your family's life. So let's talk about something you mentioned and that is, you know, being mindful of Delta and other variants that could very easily pop up. We have states which are shamelessly low in terms of the vaccination level. It's really frightening. It's scary how people in those states don't want to take a vaccination at all. And in those states, you have more cases. And when you have more cases, you have the greater possibility, not necessarily limited to Delta variant, but any variant, a new variant, a brand new, even more infectious and lethal variant. Okay, and these people under the Commerce Clause, they can come to the state of Hawaii, which has done a good job with its own population so far, but which is a, you know, tourist destination. And my question to you is how do we prevent those people from getting here and spreading around Delta and other variants, which we may or may not be vaccinated against? Well, it's really difficult because here's what can happen, even under the Safe Travels program, which as you know, is perhaps the best program in the nation, a very conservative program, aimed at saving lives and protecting us in Hawaii. And it has worked tremendously well. That's one of the reasons that we have such low death rates here in Hawaii is the approach that Governor Ige took and putting a premium on our lives and the Department of Health, we really appreciate that. But you're right. Someone can, for example, let's say they're traveling to Hawaii on a Sunday. They take a COVID test on the mainland on Friday because they have to be tested negative within 72 hours of boarding their final flight to Hawaii. So they test Friday, they're negative. Well, then they go out to dinner Saturday with someone who's, who's positive with COVID and they are infected with COVID and maybe with one of these variants. And then Sunday they board a plane armed with their negative COVID vaccine test result. They are perfectly, you know, they are perfectly within the right, within the rules to come to Hawaii. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, they have just been infected. They come to Hawaii, they're here for a couple days, and then they start experiencing symptoms. They go get tested. They're low and behold they're positive. Who knows how many people they came in touch with before they knew they were positive and before they go into isolation. And look, I don't want to just put this on the tourists. We've seen a lot of cases of residents who have traveled and come back and they, you know, they run into this exact same situation. Yeah, same thing. Sure. Yeah. So, but Jay, you said something that's really important that, you know, in places where the vaccination rate is really low. There is more opportunity for these mutations to develop because there can be no mutation without replication. So as the virus is replicated, there's more opportunity for a mutant to happen. So what was that? They can't, they can be more replication. What was it now? Well, they're saying again, because I want to put it on the final exam. But I appreciate it that there really, there can be no mutations without the virus replicating itself. In other words, if I don't pass it to you and you don't give it to Pat, the virus has not had a chance to mutate or become a variant. And so this gets back to that global aspect of this virus. And the latest, the Delta variant originated, we believe, in India. Well, the vaccination rate there was very low and infection was running rampant. So, you know, here we are in Hawaii halfway across the world. What's, you know, what's at our, you know, what do we care what happens in India? Well, we should not only care and have compassion for the people of India, but to protect ourselves, we should hope that they can get vaccinated at a high rate too, because the mutation that develops there becomes a variant here. Yeah, sure. So my question to you then, I mean, you know, assume that we, we that is the world cannot control these variants. Let's assume just for this discussion, you know, hope they can, but maybe not. Isn't the solution then to get everyone, I mean everyone who doesn't have a medical reason vaccinated right away. Like, you know, if not 100% than 99.9, if we do that, then, and I'm thinking of Hawaii for a moment, then Hawaii is pretty much safe. It means that, you know, anyone coming or going for that matter is going to be vaccinated and protected and not, and it's not going to have the disease, at least if the assuming the vaccination works against all the variants, which is not entirely clear right now, but then you add to that the notion of a passport, a vaccination passport, and you've got it licked, right? Now, I don't know if that's in the plan, but it seemed to me that, you know, if this gets worse and it may, that's what we got to do. We're on the way. And the contest Patrick, you know, is useful to get up to a greater number of vaccinations, but if it gets to be, you know, an ongoing concern, then the answer at the, you know, logically is to require people to have vaccinations, require them to carry proof of vaccination. Isn't that, you know, the ultimate solution? Jay, you talk about the variant coming here from some of those states that don't have high vaccination rates. It can absolutely happen. How can we protect ourselves? We can get vaccinated. I'm vaccinated. If I come in contact with someone who's got a variant or any brand of COVID, I am certainly not as concerned as if I had not been vaccinated. And you know what else? I've been vaccinated. So if I'm exposed to someone, I don't even have to go into 10 day mandatory quarantine. So there are tremendous advantages being vaccinated. Once the FDA grants full approval of the vaccines, and both Pfizer and Moderna have asked for that full approval, and we expect the FDA will grant it at some point, then the discussion will begin on mandatory vaccinations. As you know, the University of Hawaii and other institutions have already said that to attend classes on campus at the University of Hawaii, you will have to be vaccinated once the FDA gives full approval to the vaccines as opposed to just this emergency youth authorization. So it is something that may be coming down the pike. We're not there yet because we don't have that full approval yet. But for example, the military, you know, will they require, you know, full vaccination? It's an interesting question. It's coming. I think it will happen. I mean, if you're talking about national readiness, national security, you really can't afford to have any holes in the boat. So Patrick, you know, how do we achieve that ultimately, vis-a-vis the people who are difficult to convince? You know, the point, this is really a takeaway point that Brooks mentioned. If we are all vaccinated in the state of Hawaii, we really don't have to worry so much about the replication, what do you call it, the variance coming in from other states where they haven't taken care of their people. How do we achieve that on a voluntary basis? Or do you think we're going to have to address the hardcore people in ways beyond a contest? You know, an interesting thing, and Brooks can verify this, but as some figures that I heard, which I believe are current, is that everybody that's currently in a hospital right now in the state of Hawaii and perhaps in other states are people that have not been vaccinated. So to me, that says, it speaks volumes. You know, if you don't want to end up in the hospital or have a family member end up in the hospital, then, you know, this is almost intervention time. You know, for folks who may be a little stubborn or, you know, have other reasons why they aren't getting out to get vaccinated. You know, for God's sake, you know, somebody rattle you and say, I love you and I want you to be well and I want you to stay with me and let's go get vaccinated. If that doesn't work, we're going to give you some cash. But in the meantime, we want everybody that can get vaccinated to go ahead and do it for the sake of our whole community. And Brooks has said suggests another argument you could put on them. And that is this, you know, we have relatively good numbers. If you look at the national charts, state by state, we have good numbers. And it's serendipitously wonderful that we have this. It's a credit to the Department of Health, it's credit to, you know, the aloha spirit and all that in Hawaii where people think of the community and contributing to the community and, you know, following rules that benefit the community and so forth. But one other argument you could make in the face of, you know, the risk of having variants come in from other less noble states is to say, you know, we may not be able to hold on to our lead unless you do this. And we will continue in our low numbers. If you don't do this, there's a risk that these variants will sneak in somehow and put us all at risk. So you're, you're, you're protecting the whole state. It's very clear that you're protecting the whole state and we have something to protect. What do you think Brooks is that a worthy argument. Yes, and I think here's another one. You know, kids will be going back to the classroom this fall. Right. And we know that that those 11 and younger are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. So how do we best protect them. Well, we man up we won't enough, you know, we buck up when we go get vaccinated. You know, that's going to protect them how because it's going to keep the very you know it's going to, it's going to increase and get as close to herd immunity. If I'm vaccinated, I can't transmit it to a child or anyone else. And then, while children don't get as sick. When they get COVID they can certainly get sick and they can carry the virus without even knowing they have it because they're asymptomatic, and they can infect a loved one who is older and more vulnerable. So it is it really incumbent upon all of us to be good neighbors to show the aloha and to get ourselves vaccinated. Look, whether it's the fact that we're going to be opening up a pop up a pop up clinic at a mall or a beach park or, or a community center near you or a school near you. If that does it great. If if you get vaccinated because you want to cash in on on miles on travel on a shopping spree with the high got vaccinated.com campaign. That's great. Please know the vaccines are free. They're tremendously effective. They're very safe more than two and a half billion shots have been administered worldwide. You know some people said they're going to wait and see how they work. They are amazing. They are lifesavers and frankly, I want to get on with life. I want to get back to seeing friends and getting together and go to a concert and, and I can't wait to get to some of Hawaii's terrific restaurants. You know, I've been doing a lot of takeout and I want to sit down right next to somebody shoulder to shoulder without my mask, knowing that I'm safe and the best way we can do that is to get vaccinated. Well, I, and I said at the inception of the show. I don't see a reason really why you guys with your programs and, you know, your efforts at reaching people can achieve very nearly 100%. And if we have 100%. And this is another argument to make to them. We are exceptional. We're at the top dark in the whole state, maybe the world, if we can do that. And everyone will be, you know, in awe that will be they'll admire us for our efforts and are the result of our efforts. And I hope you guys can find a way to reach every single man, woman and child who is, you know, capable of being vaccinated and vaccinate that person. It will be a statement about Hawaii. It already is. Cheryl, we're almost out of time so it's time for you to dig deep, maybe call on Siobhan a little bit and summarize this and connect it up. Well, I don't know Siobhan if you have anything to say before I wrap it up. Nope, I think it was all well said. So again, Jay, thank you so much. The Hawaii Restaurant Association really appreciates this time. This is an important message, Jay. And we all want to get back to our normal lifestyle and the Hawaii Restaurant Association, who is the voice of Hawaii's restaurants and food service industries doing everything we can to support this important initiative. And like you said, it's only going to better the whole state. So thank you, Jay, for this time. And thank you, Brooks. It's a great case you make and a great thing you're doing good for the Department of Health. And Patrick, thank you very much for putting these programs together. And I'm sure they will work in the way that these things work with human nature as we know it today. But the other thing I just want to say is that, you know, getting vaccinated reaching what we can argue was herd immunity or better will really assure the reopening of our business and our economy and their restaurants. And it strikes me that we could get our economy back on track, if what you want to do is actually successful. Thank you so much. We'll be looking at the stats, and I'll be I'll be putting my application in for the $1,000 drawing. Okay, today. I'm sending him the link. Thank you, everybody.