 back to talk story with John Wahee. And our guest this afternoon is none other than the Lieutenant Governor of the state of Hawaii, Josh Green. He has been with us as a regular guest, really, because of his intensive involvement in the coronavirus pandemic that we are all having to go through. And there's no better person really than a state official who happens to also be a doctor to tell us what's happening in that whole arena. The title of this particular show is when will this lifestyle end? And hopefully we'll start to get a sense of that over the course of the next half an hour or so. So, folks, join me in welcoming the Lieutenant Governor, Josh Green. Hi, Josh. How's Lieutenant Governor? How are you? You're at home today, right? And doing what we all hope everybody is doing, which is staying at home. Except I'm at the studio and one of the few times that we can come in here. But anyway, oh, where do we start? It's been like forever. How long if you, I don't want to put you on a spot, but how long has the shutdown been in effect about approximately about three weeks, four weeks? Well, it feels like forever. The mandatory 14-day quarantine for all travelers started on March 26. So actually, it's been only the last week of March, then the month of April and the first few days of May. But it feels like an incredibly long time because people are making such amazing sacrifices. But Governor, it is paying off. And the truth is that we had to do this. The curve has flattened completely. We've now had single-digit growth in the number of cases for more than two weeks. We only had one new case today, taking us to 621. Just one new case today. Yep, one case today, two yesterday and one the two days before. So just five cases in the last five days. And that's an amazing thing. Is that on Oahu or statewide? Do you know? It was statewide. In fact, there was no cases on Oahu today. Really quite something. Well, no cases on Oahu. That's a good sign. That's a real positive sign. Yes, the virus is starting out for sure. Well, what about the supplies and tests and the rest of all of the other issues that were available were so troublesome just a week or so ago? Well, I really am glad you asked. So our supplies have been good. We've been getting pallets of supplies in what's called PPE, personal protective equipment. So we now have enough to function in our hospitals. Also, our hospital capacity has remained good. We're only using 13 percent of our ventilators and only 42 percent of our intensive care units. And to a doc like me, that matters most because that means we can keep people alive. Also, we've now run 33,537 tests and we can run up to 3,000 tests per day here in the state if we have to. So we have the capacity to address the crisis. And unlike any other state in the country, we've been able to really, really flatten it so much so that now what I like to say is the viral load is almost zero in Hawaii, which will enable us to start opening things up again. You know, Lieutenant Governor, as part of the strategy, what I noticed was to get people to get used to the idea of, how do I say it, of using mask and using the equipment and so forth. And it seems to have created a new lifestyle in Hawaii. Hawaii people have adapted very well to this crisis. I'm actually kind of proud. Am I speaking out of term or is this something that's, you know, that's unique to Hawaii and very maybe a few other places in the country, but especially Hawaii. It seems like people have just complied for the most part. Yes. Well, it was only March 31st that I asked people to start wearing masks every time they left home. And that was echoed, of course, by some of the mayors and the governor. And it seems like so long ago, one of the things people have been interested in is this funny whiteboard exercise my team does every day. And we repeat things intentionally on that whiteboard because it is a matter of changing standards, changing expectations and getting used to a crisis that is quite dangerous actually. But because people have responded so well to the crisis and so like we would hope in one Ohana, it really means that we've been able to keep people alive. Other states have had deaths like in their nursing homes and other facility big outbreaks in their nurse in their homeless camps. We haven't had those things because people have been so cooperative. And I really want to give a shout out to all of your listeners and everybody across the state of Hawaii. You've done something special and we will make sure that your sacrifices do not go unrewarded. You will be rewarded for this because people people will view Hawaii as the safest place in the world to travel to over time. Well, that's that's terrific, you know, and I wanted to do what are the stats? I mean, what's the total number of cases in Hawaii? And, you know, all of that. And how do we compare to the rest of the country? Let me share them with you. So we have a very small number, our total number is 621. And of those 621, 88%, which is 544 people have already fully recovered. So just 12% of our of our people that got positive became positive, still have the virus. By the way, if you recover, can you get the virus again? We don't believe so, although there's mixed there's been mixed science on that. It's always possible that excuse me, that somebody who was felt to have recovered still had a small amount of virus in them, and then another positive test in the future. So we're still learning about this virus. If you recall, the virus only started in late December of 2019, which is is only four, like four full months ago. So scientists are racing ahead right now all across the globe to figure out what really goes on with this virus. So okay, so we have about six little over 600 cases, 88% of the people have been cured, I guess, or gotten well. I don't like the term to use. But only 1.2 out of 100,000 people have perished, which is the lowest rate in the world, actually. And we're very similar to a couple of other places, Wyoming and Alaska, where they of course have far fewer people. It's very rural. So we're the only place in the world, not wood that has a city, a significant city that was able to keep the death rate this low. And that is testament to people and our healthcare providers and first responders. Well, that's so I want to ask you this question because I've heard it stated a number of times. And I did want some verification. And that is that actually we have the lowest percentage or the first of all, the lowest number of cases in the country for on a per capita basis, and also the lowest number of fatalities in the country on a per capita basis. Is that pretty much correct? That's accurate. That's exactly correct. It's close. The mortality rate is very similar in Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota to Hawaii. But those places have vast, vast under populated areas. We of course have a big city here in Honolulu. So it's really something people people don't realize what what a feat they have pulled off by keeping our mortality rate low. And I'm glad because when you look across the dinner table at night, if you were in New York City or some other big city, it's very likely you'd be looking across the table with someone who caught COVID and would be in trouble. Whereas in Hawaii, we don't have that very, very many cases. That's fantastic. And I guess that's a tribute to the well, the good people of Hawaii and also all the makes us begin to understand and appreciate all of the actions that were taken by the state and county governments to help us achieve those kinds of results. Um, what about the fact that right across the country now and it's seeping into Hawaii, there are people who are walking going around saying that the economy is more important in a I don't know if they're actually saying that in Hawaii, but I've heard that said in other places on the country on the newsreels that the economy is more important than the the mortality of the rate of the people. Well, you know, the doctor, I shaped my head at that because we will recover economically for sure. And I know people are hurting. I mean, you've been there when we've had to go through recessions and you've had hard time. You were governor and you pulled us through miraculously, but we will get through this and Hawaii with our low rates will be a very serious attraction for the rest of the world. But if we had allowed COVID to roll over just like it did in some of the places like Spain or New York City, we would have had 4,900 deaths, 4,900 deaths. Can you imagine that? And that would have been by April 17th. So we we've done the analytics. We know that to be true because we know what our case rate would have been and how many people die of the disease. So that's not something that a small state could have ever recovered from. So I hope that I respect protesters and I don't, you know, I definitely am a freedom of speech type guy. But I hope that people will really, instead of just making light of the sacrifices that people are making, I hope that they will instead realize that life is actually on the line. And that's why I'm leading this the way I am and why the governor is making decisions the way he is. Now, what's the likelihood that they might be a resurgence of the virus in places that, you know, get carried away and prematurely? Well, we could, if we're not careful about the restart to tourism, we're not careful about that. We would run the risk of having a heavy surge. So I'm proposing some measures that will keep us safer. For instance, I'm recommending very strongly that we have everyone get a test within 72 hours of traveling to Hawaii. And if they have that negative test, it will greatly reduce the possibility that we will get a surge of COVID-19. And it will also make for a very safe place to visit in holiday if people are coming from California or New York or anywhere. So we can avoid that and we can certainly keep it to a minimum. But I'm having our analytics experts check exactly what it would look like. And I have some pretty amazing graphs to show that if we don't test or record, we don't take precautions, we will see terrible surges of COVID-19 and all of the sacrifice will be for nothing. So is it worse when it reoccurs or is it just as bad, you know, like sometimes when an epidemic or something like that happens, the reoccurrence is often, at least I've been told, the reoccurrence is often worse than the initial outbreak. Is that some truth to that? In our case, it would be because we've so successfully kept the curve flat. I mean, we really kept it flat. If we had a big surge from tourism, let me give an example. If we had 20,000 tourists start returning per day, or even less than that, if we just had 20% of our tourist rate per day, we would see in the course of three months, over 2,000 cases in the hospital. And that is without testing. Now, if we test people before they come in, we will see no surge because we'll be able to keep the number of people at a very small minimum that are positive in the state. And so that's the kind of relation that I make daily to make sure that we're ready for anything when we're ready to bring tourism back, which obviously will have to happen sooner or later. We are going to have to take a short break, Lieutenant Governor, and part of this very interesting conversation, and we will be right back. Aloha, my name is Duretian. I'm the host of Finding a Future here on ThinkTech Hawaii. I'm here every other Tuesday from 1 to 1.30pm. Here on this show, I cover issues around sustainability, global issues that matter for young people for future generations, and other social justice issues. So please join us. It's live streamed on ThinkTech Hawaii and also up later on YouTube. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Waihe and our guests, the Lieutenant Governor of the state of Hawaii, Josh Green. We were right in the middle of a very important conversation about what might be some of the strategies to get us back to normalcy or get us out of this lifestyle back through some. I want to see the Hawaii I grew up with when you're not afraid to walk over and hug somebody that you've known your whole life and nowadays we don't even want to bump elbows it seems. So tell me, what are some of the thoughts? You just came up with your recommendation about having people get tested when the tourists come in. Now, how does that all work? Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. No problem at all. Thank you, Governor. So the way it would work would be simply before people came to Hawaii and when they've scheduled their trip, they would go see their health care provider, nurse practitioner, or doctor and they would just get a basic test and that test would be done within three days of their travel so that we knew that they were negative and therefore very unlikely to be infectious. And they would have like a card of some kind of certification. I am... Yes, I've even recommended that we enter into a partnership with some of the national folks, whether that's Longs or the other minute clinics across the country. If they were to do those tests, CVS and other pharmacies, they have a database that we could partner on. So it could become very simply. We certainly could have a certificate that people... Guys, we certainly could have a certificate that we could have from the Department of Health and that certificate would be more than enough to decrease our concern than anyone hadn't been tested. And it's not really a matter of being perfect, it's a matter of being very good to keep the virus... That's a great analogy. By the way, we have a listener question and I think it's directed to me but I'm the host so I get to ask... So I'm going to pass this question over to you and it says, would you allow businesses to go back to work at where we are at the moment? Yes, I actually would. I would allow medium, and I think it's coming in the next few days, medium risk businesses, which is to say businesses where they're able to, on some level, socially distance, just the basic minimum. I would think that's safe now. We have a very low viral load here in the state and that would be okay. So businesses like what? Like wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, places like that? Anyone that can do a modicum of social distancing, meaning keep their numbers semi-diminished over time, like only let a few customers come in at a time, taking terms and keeping six feet apart more often than not, that's sufficient. So retailers, shops at the mall, offices, all of those things now in my opinion are safe enough and the governor will make some additional announcements I'm sure this week on this subject. The goal really is to get everybody back to work that we possibly can before opening tourism up so we react from May. I know that that will still leave significant numbers unemployed but we will obviously honor unemployment and get everyone their checks even if we have to give them back checks. So that should sustain people but getting the mid-level businesses and medium risk businesses open in the next two weeks is very important and all of us around the governor and others are pushing hard for that. So before Memorial Day I'm hopeful that much of the business community will be back operational. I'm assuming that administration is spending time working with the airlines and hotels and the rest of it. This is going to sound a little bit different but frankly in my opinion one of the most essential businesses that's out there which I wouldn't have thought so in the beginning of the crisis is a place where I can get my hair cut you know and I brought that up I was like oh I said you know with some I said I think what I would like is a haircut actually I was up at the governor's office when I mentioned that with my mask of course and I said hey you know what we ought to open up is the place where we can get a haircut and he they laughed and they said and somebody to hairdress the ladies and I said yeah and when a business is like that going to get a shot at reopening. Well look I've seen pictures of you looking all sexy with your sideburns. But look at this I look like I you know I don't know what I do with this I need a haircut. I'm not back to 30 years ago I would have not minded it all but you know in other words the smaller mom and pop businesses when do we start really open them up? I think that those businesses will be able to open in early June that's my hope. There's an interesting quirk about hairdressers and that is that they have to spend you know 30 minutes directly right right over a person and that is the kind of the definition of high risk which is in close contact with somebody because they obviously have to be right on top to do the haircutting and that makes it a challenge and I'm I feel badly because I love going to my hair cutter I've had one of my staff has been buzzing cutting my hair and I really appreciate Jeremy but I you know I feel badly when I don't get to give some business to our local friends at small businesses so that will come back soon too and if we continue to have virus loads and virus counts this low there will be no excuse not to open everything so we're getting there really fast go. Now what about the different islands appear to have different rates of for example I've been told that Kauai hasn't had very many if any new cases in a quite a while and it would seem that in a place like that you could move a little faster to reopen businesses then in somewhere else. Yeah I gotta I've gotta give a shout out to Mayor Kyle Karmit he's done a very excellent job they have not had a case I don't believe in three weeks and there have been no cases for instance on Linai either another shout out to Mayor Victorino in that sense and each place has its own challenges of course there'd be very few cases on big islands had it not been for that one cluster at the McDonald's which was problematic so each and all the mayors have done something good Mayor Caldwell has done very good work to try to help the homeless community so each are doing some good work but some places will open a little sooner than others because of that and I've been in the meetings with the governor where he's been able to get flexibility to each of the mayors there is the question of confusion for people however and we're trying to be mindful that when we open say each parks in one area that people don't get the idea that all of them are open or if we get the idea that a certain type of restaurant is open say on Kauai where they're not having any cases we don't want people to suddenly flock to all the restaurants just a little bit before we're ready here on Oahu so there's some nuance to it and I'm sure that you having experienced being governor for eight years you you recall very clearly I'm sure how quickly things can get out of control and people get the wrong idea well absolutely absolutely and you know what are the criteria for example on the beaches that need to be I just to see where we were I drove I drove out around the Hawaii Kai area and to just take a look I didn't we didn't stop anywhere we just my wife and I just went down and just to see how people were you know how people were getting along and what I noticed was that for example the blowhole area out there just before you get to Sandy Beach was closed but Sandy Beach itself was open I mean what am I asking something that I should have saved for for for the mayor or is this something you can help us with what makes what makes a place different well the main premise is that at beaches right now people can go and exercise so if there is capacity to exercise like there's a large stretch of actual beach or a beach park and it's open for exercise but for places that are kind of like landmarks that you really you're not exercising there but simply people would be gathering as if they were you know oh okay I got it yeah so that's the real reason and so we're also going to have the same standard for state parks and all of the parks we want to keep people moving we're not yet ready to go to the next level where we'll allow I would guess up to 10 people again to congregate and have a picnic or what have you that's coming and when we are able to take us ourselves down to the next day for not which is very soon certainly by June 1st that's when we'll begin to restore that kind of behavior I heard that the summertime is is the is a time where the viruses don't like the warm weather I mean the corona but is that a factor in this decision-making process it is I commissioned a small study to make sure that that was correct and it is once the temperatures reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit the virus plummets and the reason for that we believe is because droplets which is how this is spread droplets are sneezing and coughing and breathing dry up extremely quickly at those temperatures and so that's why I've never been too too prickly about people being on the beaches because the beaches of all places will tend to be safer please everyone take that with a grain of salt I don't want people to congregate until the governor gives the order but honestly beaches are much safer than many other places well I would think so because if you're in the water and you're being washed off and the like of it uh yeah I can see where it would be safe and that's really the the genesis of the question which I can see where it would be safer in a way to be on sandy beach than to be standing around the bloke you know but I you know I I'm really grateful for all the work that all the the responders first responders are doing uh doing this crisis and I do notice that we we didn't get it we were fortunately running out of time but I did want to I did notice that certain subgroups seem to be having more of the virus than others and one particular group would be native Hawaiians and is that something that you could give us a little insight to in about 20 seconds yes the pacific islander community in general has had much higher rates of infection and that's very likely because we have much larger extended families living together so everyone just be careful get through this in the next few weeks and we'll restore the economy I'm so grateful to you governor for including in the dialogue well thank you thank you lieutenant governor and thank you for all the work you're doing I know that you're a strong proponent of us sensibly reopening the economy and I want to thank you for that as well as being the stalwart that you are to make sure that the virus itself doesn't really affect our people badly so thank you and we'll all to our listeners we'll see you again in two weeks