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Letters for Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Vaccination helps us all

Aloha. I appreciate our leaders’ attempts to protect the public from COVID 19. Unfortunately, what we are doing isn’t as successful as we hoped.

Allowing unvaccinated people to travel freely to our islands and around the world is a bad idea. It’s their choice to not protect themselves with a free vaccine.

Is it fair for the people who are choosing to try and protect themselves by getting the vaccine to have to keep undergoing business shutdowns, no large gatherings, on and on?

You have a choice. If you choose not to be vaccinated, stay home.

Keep yourself and others safe. We can’t welcome you with open arms. You are putting yourself and others at risk for a deadly disease that is preventable.

On another note, traveling to and from the islands is a huge inconvenience for vaccinated citizens, especially if you are older and have to get the QR code every time you leave the island. If you have proof of having two vaccines couldn’t we streamline this process? This process is causing chaos and anxiety at airports.

People, I cannot stress enough how being vaccinated will help us all!

Linda Bothe, Kalaheo

Koke‘e roads are dangerous

Now that we are open to almost normal and there are more tourists around the island, there is one site that is getting dangerous to drive: the road to Koke‘e and Waimea Canyon state parks.

There is a high volume of tourists visiting the sites and no shoulder on the side of the highway. Also, it’s a winding road where semis, cyclers and all kinds of vehicles and full-size pickup trucks travel on.

At the antenna near the horseshoe turn, tourist are parking their vehicles and using half a lane to park, both ways north and south.

Farther up north, at the fourth set of guard rails, the same situation, with people walking alongside of the highway to view the waterfall.

Then when you get to Pu‘u Hinahihina Lookout, when the parking lot is full, tourists park around blind curves and walk along the highway to get to the lookout. And approximately a quarter mile up the road by the trail going to the waterfall, vehicles and people are on the highway.

My point is, like they made improvements to the North Shore parking, the of Hawai‘i Department of Transportation should find land to build parking lots in those area mentioned above.

Maybe a paid parking lot at the foot of the hill and shuttle service might help!

Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele

Get booster shots now

I just recently got my booster (third) COVID shot, and I just want to say how incredibly AT EASE I feel now.

It is so relieving and relaxing to not have to worry about getting sick from COVID.

Being vaccinated, I have a much-lower chance of getting infected.

And, if I do get infected, I am not likely to get very sick or need to be hospitalized.

And I am pretty much guaranteed not to die from an infection. Getting boosted has brought me SO much more “peace of mind” than I ever thought it could. I recommend it to everyone! Aloha!

Kathleen Johnson, Kalaheo
Source: The Garden Island

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