Ka‘ū News Briefs, Saturday, May 9, 2020

VOLCANO GOLF COURSE CLOSES, LESSEES LEAVE. The Japanese company that has managed Volcano Gold Course & Country Club since 1982 recently shut the place down, after a double whammy: a fire that burned the clubhouse and COVID-19, which led to temporary government bans on playing golf throughout the islands. The 18-hole, 156-acre Volcano course opened nearly a century ago on Kamehameha School lands.
     After the fire, staff members told The Kaʻū Calendar that the business wanted to use insurance money from the fire, and loans, to rebuild the clubhouse. The golf course operated out of a trailer next to the golf cart shed.
     This morning's Hawaiʻi Tribune-Herald, however, carries a story by Michael Brestovansky, saying, "The Volcano Golf Course and Country Club has permanently closed, leaving the future of a beloved Big Island destination in doubt."

Volcano Golf Course clubhouse after last November's fire. Photo by Julia Neal

     Brestrovansky quotes Kamehameha Schools' Alapaki Nahaleʻa, senior director of community engagement and resources for Hawaiʻi Island. Nahaleʻa told the Tribune-Herald that Kamehameha Schools is surprised and disappointed. "We want the businesses on our lands to succeed." He also told the Tribune-Herald that the school will weigh its options on the best future for the lands, but could "stay the course," noting the golf course is appreciated by travelers and residents, including those living in houses along the golf course boarder. See more at Hawaiʻi Tribune-Herald.

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FISHING AND AQUACULTURE BUSINESSES IN HAWAI‘I WILL RECEIVE MILLIONS IN TARGETED COVID-19 AID. Congressman Ed Case announced this week that more than $4.3 million is available for Hawai‘i's fishing and aquaculture industry impacted by COVID-19. The state Department of Land & Natural Resources is tasked to administer funds. Eligible are commercial fishing, charter for-hire fishing, qualified aquaculture operations, and marine fisheries management agencies, said Case.
     He said money comes through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which Congress passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. The President signed it into law on March 27. U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administers the funds. Read more on funding for fishing and aquaculture industries.
     Case serves on the U.S. House Committees on Natural Resources and on Appropriations and subcommittees, overseeing NOAA. He urged Commerce to accelerate CARES funding.

Fishing to sell for the local community increases as hotel and restaurant orders dive. Fishing businesses, even small ones, and community non-profits developing local food distribution, are eligible for funding. Photo by Julia Neal

     Case also announced that State of Hawai‘i and counties can apply for a share of $1.5 billion in emergency assistance through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration aid to combat the effects of COVID-19. "Much of that $1.5 billion will come in the form of grants," said Case. "It was made possible through the CARES Act.
     "Those eligible can apply through EDA's Economic Adjustment Assistance program. Projects eligible for this very flexible grant funding include: economic recovery planning and preparing technical assistance strategies to address economic dislocations caused by the coronavirus pandemic;  preparing or updating resiliency plans to respond to future pandemics; implementing entrepreneurial support programs to diversify economies; and constructing public works and facilities that will support economic recovery, including the deployment of broadband for purposes including supporting telehealth and remote learning for job skills.
     Eligible applicants under the EAA program include State, county, city, or other political subdivision of a state, including a special purpose unit of a State or local government engaged in economic or infrastructure development activities, or a consortium of political subdivisions; institution of higher education or a consortium of institutions of higher education; or public or private non-profit organization or association acting in cooperation with officials of a political subdivision of a state. For more information, visit EDA CARES Act Recovery Page.

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A full ʻumeke or calabash is a sign of "strong relationships, knowledge, and resource abundance" in a community.  Photo by Kaʻōhua Lucas

SUPPORTING HAWAIʻI ISLAND'S FOOD SECURITY is the goal of the Full Calabash Fund. Established by The Kohala Center and a group of Hawaiʻi food systems practitioners, the fund will support community-based organizations that are purchasing food from local farmers, ranchers, and food producers, and providing food to community members in need.

THE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB SERVED OVER 20,000 MEALS IN 35 days, according to its CEO Chad Cabral, who sent out a message on Friday to the public, volunteers, and contributors to the program.
     "Now into our sixth week, the Boys & Girls Club of the Big Island continues to provide free, hot meals during this coronavirus pandemic, to assist our most in-need and vulnerable populations throughout Hawaiʻi Island. Today it was beef stroganoff, mashed potatoes, and hot cooked vegetables produced out of our two Boys & Girls Club of the Big Island kitchen operations.
KAʻŪ HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REMAINS IN THE PLANNING STAGE. The Kaʻū News Briefs recently jumped the gun and posted one of the ideas for the event, but graduation remains in the planning and approval stage. Principal Sharon Beck said that she will soon release the details, date, time, and protocol, following finalization and approvals from the Department of Education.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our Fresh Food on The Kaʻū Calendar and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.

     We need to expand contact tracing dramatically. Chinahad 1,500 teams of five people per team that roamed all over Wuhanand the surrounding areas. They found individuals and clusters, isolated them in their "hospitals" and quarantined others with monitoring at home or in government facilities. They screened those who might be infected with adequate testing to find the infected individuals.

     At the start of our outbreak I was told that our department of health had seven contact tracers. That number has since been increased by use of volunteers, but it is still far from adequate. A new, well-trained, and fiercely dedicated doctor with an MD and an MPH, Sarah Kemble, is leading that group. She is Sara Park's deputy, but Sarah Kemble seems to believe that contact tracing cannot just mitigate but suppress and eradicate this disease. We need hundreds if not thousands of contact tracers with that same belief to ensure we stamp out this disease and keep it from coming back, and she could lead that group.

     I worked as an epidemiological investigator for the Department of Health on the BigIsland in 2002-2003 for part of the SARS outbreak and know that we can readily train the contact tracing teams that we need. In a recent op-ed to the Star Advertiser, I advocated recruiting a COVID Corps of young people that could more safely do that and other jobs. There are thousands of college students that could be activated and trained, housed, and fed in empty hotels, provided transportation by the National Guard – who could get this critical job done. In addition to their food and housing, they could be given college credit for their work and tuition waivers they could use when they got rid of COVID-19 and reopened their campuses.

     Undoubtedly the U.S.mainland has become a grisly testing ground for possible medical treatments, but most of those treatments will likely help only marginally. They could possibly shorten hospitalization time and perhaps spare a few more lives. Our best course in Hawaiʻi is to have no cases to treat.

     The issue of vaccines is a worrisome one. In the 1980's, I was the medical director of a biotech star-up vaccine company that was using new techniques to make veterinary vaccines. We were one of the first two companies to make a Feline Leukemia Vaccine. The reality is that making vaccines is not easy. Making vaccines for animals is easier as they do not have to be as flawless as human vaccines.

     Human vaccines are usually tested first in animals to confirm safety and some degree of effectiveness but then they have to have that safety and efficacy confirmed in human trials. No one has successfully made a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine for humans. Attempts were made to make vaccines for two earlier coronaviruses that caused outbreaks. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) vaccines failed in part because, in both cases, Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE) occurred in the animal trials, which made the diseases worse in some vaccinated animals and stalled the project. After 40 years, we still do not have a vaccine against HIV. It could take years for a vaccine, but Hawaiʻi could solve our problems without a vaccine.

     How would Hawaiʻi benefit if we could "Stamp It Out, and Keep It Out?" I would leave that to your imagination but the increase in quality of life would be dramatic. Some examples:

     Our kūpuna in our nursing homes could stop cowering in fear of a horrible death and could see their families again. Our other vulnerable populations could breathe easier as well. My father is 101 years old and his mind is sharp as a tack. He was born during the 2018 flu pandemic and remembers hearing stories of its horrors as a child. He is now totally isolated in a Minnesotanursing home and just wants to die. Prior to COVID, my sisters visited him every day.

Hula from kūpuna of Lori Lee's Hula Studio. The kūpuna would be free to gather again, for exercise and socialization, if COVID-19 were gone from the island. Photo by Julia Neal

     Our schools could reopen. Colleges could selectively recruit the best students from the mainland. They could recruit great faculty fleeing the COVID-ridden mainland. We could solve our teacher shortage. We could recruit the best and brightest teachers who wanted to teach in a school without fear of death. Older, more vulnerable, but experienced teachers would flock here.

     Our health care workers shortage would also be solved. Rather than facing death every day they work on the mainland, they could rejoice in our COVID-free workplace and lifestyle.

     The tech and dot.com industry from Californiawould likely also see us as a fear-free paradise for them and they could bring their money and their skills, and provide great, high paying jobs.

     The film industry would love to come to a beautiful and COVID-free place.

     The tourists could be brought back with rigorous prescreening and we could reinvent our tourism industry to be more selective and emphasize quality not quantity. We would be the only COVID-free tourist destination in the world (although New Zealand and Australiamight join us). What a great trifecta that would be. It is likely that we would free the neighbor islands of COVID initially, and those could be opened up to local and out-of-state tourism with appropriate screening. Oʻahu could join us with a little more work and in the meantime screened Oʻahu residents could take a COVID-fear-free break on the neighbor islands.

     Our real estate industry would probably get so heated up that we would have to impose strict regulations to protect our local residents.

     The best is left for last. Our military, particularly our surface and undersea Navy – but also our best airmen, our marines, and our army – would love to be able to train and live in a COVID-free environment. They would not have to be penned up on their bases behind razor wire, fearing that their crews could be decimated by disease at sea. We could have a spending and building boom to support an increase in the Indo-Pacific Command and be able to stand up to Chinaagain. We could make our most important forward military bases secure and functional, as Chinais undoubtedly going to try and take advantage of this pandemic.

     Furthermore, if we can do this now, we can do it again when the next pandemic comes our way (and it will)!

     Let us join together to realize that with a little more patience, dedication, and hard work we can "Stamp It Out and Keep It Out!"