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Regardless of the subject, Governor David Ige regularly ends each press conference by urging people to take advantage of free COVID-19 vaccines statewide.
And on Thursday, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi warned unvaccinated Oahu residents that they risked getting infected and becoming “very sick,” especially from the more virulent delta variant.
But with eight consecutive days of triple-digit COVID-19 cases statewide on Thursday – and a third of Oahu adults still refusing to be vaccinated – the persuasive powers wielded by the governor’s and mayor’s offices have may have reached their limits as Hawaii only gets closer to its goal of seeing 70% of the population vaccinated.
Through no fault of their own, it seems there is little more that Ige and Blangiardi can say for those who continue to refuse vaccinations, political analyst Neal Milner said.
“They are exhausted,” Milner said.
“I don’t know how much more in front of the public the mayor and the governor can get. This is a fairly straightforward question. We no longer have top-down messaging options from people like the mayor and governor. I don’t think it’s going to move the needle.
Blangiardi told reporters on Thursday his administration was working to persuade union leaders to vaccinate more of their members, but there is no “clear strategy” to influence remaining Oahu residents who resist vaccination .
“If you’re not going to protect yourself, you’re probably going to get it,” Blangiardi said. “(They) now stand open to getting very sick. … It’s really hard to tell what’s going on in people’s heads.
Studies have shown that the coronavirus vaccines, which have received emergency clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration, are very safe and effective.
In response to a question from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Blangiardi said people told him they were wary of vaccines because they had not been fully approved by the FDA – even after government officials had them ” begged, begged and cajoled ”for them to be vaccinated.
State Senator Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point), Senate Minority Floor Leader, called the lack of full FDA approval as “main” cited by those refusing to stand up. get vaccinated, followed by a list of unproven conspiracy theories. spread on social networks which he described as “trash”.
They include the belief that COVID-19 vaccines contain stem cells from aborted fetuses and that vaccines are a trick to implant a microchip.
“There are so many people listening to disinformation,” Fevella said. “They listen to social media like news and like facts.”
House Speaker Scott Saiki (D, Downtown-Kakaako-Mccully) plans to reconvene on August 2 the House Special Committee on COVID-19, which was suspended on the eve of the last legislative session.
Saiki believes the public and policymakers need more information on the COVID-19 cases in Hawaii, including the number of unvaccinated people who have been infected and contact tracing to identify where and how they got. been exposed to the virus.
“The governor needs to provide more data on the source of these cases and why the number is increasing,” Saiki said. “I didn’t hear that kind of message. I have received calls and concerns about the lack of information.
State Senator Jarrett Keohokalole (D, Kailua-Kaneohe), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, said members of the legislature must also continue to urge the unvaccinated to get vaccinated or to risk to overtax Hawaii’s hospitals and health care system “and burn our hospital staff.”
“It is very important for our leaders, including among the legislature, to convey a sense of urgency about vaccinations,” Keohokalole said. “The numbers are worrying.
He called Ige’s relatively conservative approach to loosening social distancing and gathering boundaries – to communities on the continent – “justified, especially with the school about to start.”
Even well below the 70% vaccination threshold, with 59.5% of the state’s population fully vaccinated on Thursday, Honolulu fell to a less restrictive Level 5 this month ahead of the latest triple-digit series of cases. .
Blangiardi said Thursday he “didn’t want to go back”.
Asked by the Star-Advertiser if Honolulu relaxed COVID-19 restrictions too soon, Blangiardi said: “I don’t think we went too fast.”
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