Kaʻū News Briefs Dec. 5, 2024

    Kahele said, “I am both humbled and honored that my fellow trustees have placed their trust and confidence in me to lead the board. I look forward to leading transparently and in collaboration with the board, staff, community and our beneficiaries. Together, we at OHA will commit our efforts to improving the lives of our Native Hawaiian beneficiaries with the energy and passion our people deserve.”    

Kai Kahele, who formerly represented Kaʻū and all of rural Hawai'i in the U.S. Congress, is the new Chair of Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustees.

   The OHA statement says that Kahele, who recently won the election for Hawai'i Island Trustee, is a Native Hawaiian from Miloliʻi, South Kona. He graduated from Hilo High School in 1992, attended Hawaiʻi Community College and UH-Hilo. Kahele earned a BS in Education from UH Mānoa, where he balanced life as an NCAA Division-I student-athlete and UH Rainbow Warriors Men’s Volleyball Team member. Kahele also earned a MS in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College this past summer. Kahele is a combat veteran, pilot, and commissioned officer in the Hawaiʻi Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force. He is also a commercial pilot for Hawaiian Airlines.
    In 2016, Gov. David Ige appointed Kahele to the Hawaiʻi State Senate for District 1 following the unexpected death of his father, the late Sen. Gil Kahele. During his tenure as a state senator, Kahele served as the Majority Whip, Majority Floor Leader, and Chair of the Committees on Higher Education and Water & Land.
    In 2020, he was elected to represent Hawaiʻi’s 2nd Congressional District in Washington, D.C., in the 117th Congress where he represented Ka'u and the rest of rural Hawai'i.
    As the trustee representing Hawaiʻi Island, Kahele resides in Hilo with his wife Maria and their daughters.
    “This is an exciting time for the agency, and I look forward to working with Chair Kahele and the entire board addressing the challenges within our Hawaiian communities as well as seizing innovative and transformational opportunities to better serve our beneficiaries,” said Stacy Kealohalani Ferreira, OHA Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive Officer.

    Learn more about OHA at https://www.oha.org/

Lt. Governor, Josh Green, Md. led a mission to vaccinate people in Samoa following a measles outbreak that he blames partially on RFK, Jr.'s pushback on vaccines. Green opposes RFK's appointment to lead the federal Department of Health & Human Services. Photo from Team Green

GOV. JOSH GREEN, MD IS DOUBLING DOWN ON HIS OPPOSITION TO TRUMP NOMINEE ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.'s appointment to lead the federal Department of Health & Human Services. Green points to Kennedy's approach toward vaccinations. The nomination requires U.S. Senate approval.     On Thursday, the Green Team issued a reminder saying, "Five years ago today, while serving as Hawai'i's Lt. Governor, Josh led an emergency medical mission of 75 doctors and nurses from Hawai'i to fight a devastating measles epidemic in Samoa." Green is a medical doctor who practiced in Kaʻū after completing his residency.
     The Green Team states, "After receiving a call for aid from the Samoan Minister of Health, Josh quickly assembled a team of healthcare professionals and lined up the private donors and community support needed to fund the mission of compassion and aloha."
    Hawaiian Airlines, Par Hawaii, and Fiji Airways stepped in to fund travel and fuel, while organizations like the Health Care Association of Hawai'i rallied to provide essential medical supplies.
    The Green Team notes that "In just 48 hours, the medical team from Hawai'i delivered 37,000 vaccinations across the island nation, raising Samoa's national vaccination rate to 90 percent and saving countless lives."
    Green says, "It was a feat of human effort I've never seen before." The mission to Samoa in December 2019 also " demonstrated the power of collaboration, compassion, and swift action in the face of crisis," says the Green Team statement. It says that the "tragedy was preventable — anti-vaccine misinformation spread in Samoa by RFK Jr. and others left too many children unvaccinated, allowing a highly contagious virus to spread rapidly across the island nation."

This photo of Robert Kennedy, Jr. is posted on Gov. Josh Green's facebook with a television interview of Green laying out his reasons for opposing Kennedy's appointment to lead the Dept. Health & Human Services.

    Green says that "spreading anti-vaccine misinformation in Samoa cost the lives of 83 people, mostly children, and thousands of preventable cases of measles. This kind of rhetoric is reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous — and puts everyone's children at risk."
    The Green Team statement says that "Since the measles epidemic in Samoa five years ago, Josh has continued to advocate for science-based responses to disease outbreaks and to fight against anti-vaccine misinformation, including the recent nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."
    Green says,"Vaccination programs are one of the greatest public health achievements in human history. They protect our communities, especially the most vulnerable among us. Samoa's epidemic showed the 
heartbreaking cost of neglecting these programs, and it's a lesson we cannot afford to ignore."
    According to a report published this year in Scientific American, vaccines have saved over 150 million lives over the past 50 years and have cut infant mortality by 40 percent worldwide. Green says, "RFK Jr. has claimed that, 'There's no vaccine that is safe and effective.' That statement is utterly false and has no basis in science."His nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is deeply alarming — our nation's health policies must be guided by science and a commitment to protecting lives, not by conspiracy theories that put children's lives at risk," states the Governor.
    "As we remember the compassion and aloha of the Samoa emergency mission, let's also commit to protecting the progress we've made in public health. Vaccination programs around the world save millions of lives every year, and we need leaders who will champion these efforts, not undermine them. Thank you for standing with us to build a healthier, safer future for our state, our country, and our neighbors around the world," says Green.

Trojan Girls battled with  Kamehameha on Thursday. Photo by Julia Neal

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