The Good, The Bad, and Social Distancing in Hawaii

Apr 20

This is part of a series of posts highlighting results from the Hawaii COVID Contact Tracking Survey conducted by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC) and the Pacific Urban Resilience Lab (PURL) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The Hawaii Data Collaborative has partnered with this group to share regular analyses and updates from this survey in the coming weeks. If you have not done so already, we encourage you to participate in the survey here.

In Hawaii, we have a tradition of taking care of others, especially when they are vulnerable. We look after our keiki, our kupuna, and those beyond our immediate ohana because, in truth, we are all part of a greater ohana that is our islands home.

During times of crisis, the vulnerable are at even greater risk of becoming casualties of fast moving events. In Hawaii and throughout the nation, we are beginning to see how the current pandemic is overwhelming seniors, those living in poverty, those living on the edge of poverty, and the homeless. They are the most vulnerable in these times. And while they may be overwhelmed, in Hawaii, they are never left behind. That is not what we do nor who we are.

By looking at the underlying data represented in the chart below, we discovered that a surprisingly small proportion of surveyed households that include a kupuna had a respondent who practiced complete social distancing (16 percent). Similarly, 16 percent of respondents who have a chronic illness also practiced complete social distancing.

Among surveyed households with kūpuna, 58 percent practiced social distancing when possible. Similarly, among respondents with a chronic illness, 61 percent practiced social distancing when possible. The difference between complete social distancers and those who practice social distancing only when possible reflect the very real conflict between our desire to take care of others and the need for complete social distancing.

Thirty-one percent of our survey respondents reported going in to work within the past five days. Here is the dilemma they face:

Many are essential workers who are at higher risk of both contracting and spreading the COVID-19 virus. Essential and non-essential workers have family who rely on them for support. However, providing that support often means increasing the risk of exposure to household members.

That’s a red flag that we all need to be aware of: employee, employer, health professionals, and our community leaders. At a minimum, places of work must implement preventative measures, such as those outlined by the World Health Organization, to protect employees and their households.

At the end of the day, there is a temptation to feel that all of this is really not our personal concern and that we, given our own circumstances, have more than enough to worry about. To a large extent that has much merit. But consider this: Who do we really help when we work to prevent the spread of the disease in all corners of the state?

There is no escaping the fact that we are an island state. We are bound to each other in ways that no other state in the nation can truly understand. That is not just our fate. That is our salvation.