My recent blog posts highlight how people take the distrust of authority, institutions, and government too far when it comes to the coronavirus crisis and the covid vaccine.
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2021/08/should-you-trust-or-distrust-authority.html
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2021/08/libertarians-maturity-covid.html
A few days ago, a person I met when I was a student at UH-Mānoa mentioned on social media that she got a covid infection in which she experienced fatigue, rashes, hives, body aches, fever, sore throat, and a loss of taste & smell. She admitted that she didn't get vaccinated because she thought eating a vegan diet and staying physically fit would be enough to immunize her from covid. She also stated that she (and some of her unvaccinated friends) didn't trust the pharmaceutical industry & for-profit health care systems in general. She now states that she regrets being unvaccinated.
As I mentioned in previous blogs about how the government & media sometimes can be wrong about some things and correct about others, the same is true about private industries.
Here are my thoughts on the pharmaceutical industry: I benefit a lot from their products (oxybutynin for overactive bladder, Immodium AD in case I get diarrhea, Tylenol for headaches, etc). And I'm so glad they made vaccines to keep me from needing more meds. I do understand that like all industries, it's not immune from shady characters (like Martin Shkreli aka Pharma Bro) and it's not immune from mistakes. When those things happen, those involved should be held accountable. But I'm not going to pretend it's all bad, because all industries have their positives and negatives.
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And also here in Hawaii, a map of Oahu has gone viral (pardon the pun) about which areas got higher coronavirus infection rates
The area with the highest infections is Waianae, on the west side of Oahu. That area is majority Native Hawaiian.
What doesn't get much talked about is the areas with the least amount of infections are Kaawaa, Hauula Kahuku, and Laie, all areas with a lot of Native Hawaiians. All of those communities are on the northeast side of Oahu.
So the high covid rates in Waianae are really more about a geography thing than a Native Hawaiian thing.
But this map has gotten people talking about the lower vaccination rates among Native Hawaiians as compared to European-Americans and Japanese descendants in Hawaii.
The commonly cited reason is that some Native Hawaiians distrust government & other institutions being that their native land was taken over and exploited by outsiders.
But when Hawaii was an independent nation, the native government took public health seriously to the point of requiring smallpox vaccinations & other restrictions to reduce infections of foreign diseases that already killed off many Native Hawaiians.
learn more at
Ku'u Kauanoe, and April Estrellon. “What We Can Learn From Hawaii's Past Pandemics.” Honolulu Civil Beat. November 15, 2020 https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/what-we-can-learn-from-hawaiis-past-pandemics/.
At the beginning of the pandemic, one of the main reasons the people of Hawaii (both native & non-natives) took it more seriously than the continental US is because of our knowledge of the history of how after the Europeans arrived, that Native Hawaiians (who lived in isolation from the rest of the world) died from foreign diseases because they haven't yet developed immunity that the Europeans developed over centuries of exposures. Because of this, the lower covid vaccination rates among Native Hawaiians are surprising.
Last Thursday (08/26/2021), many Native Hawaiian leaders in the realm of politics, education, and health care came together (while practicing social distancing) near ʻIolani Palace for a press conference to encourage other Native Hawaiians to get vaccinated and follow other public health guidelines.
Learn more at
Jayna Omaye, “Native Hawaiian Leaders Urge the Lahui to Help Stop Covid-19 Surge,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 27, 2021, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/08/27/hawaii-news/native-hawaiian-leaders-urge-the-lahui-to-help-stop-covid-19-surge/.
KITV. “COVID-19 surge pummels Hawaii and its native population.” August 26, 2021. https://www.kitv.com/story/44611918/covid19-surge-pummels-hawaii-and-its-native-population.
That's the thing, people are more likely to listen to those they trust. Because of past negative experiences with institutions, many people just assume that means everything the institution does is all wrong.
This is why the government & other institutions must collaborate with people who understand the marginalized communities.
There has been a lot of outreach with the Micronesian community in Hawaii after they experienced a major outbreak early in the pandemic. Public health guidelines were translated into several Micronesian languages, and vaccination clinics were set up in areas with many Micronesian residents (ie Kuhio Park Terrace, Mayor Wright Housing). Because of this, there are now fewer reports of covid cases and vaccination hesitancy among Micronesians in Hawaii.
And now the new Honolulu police chief Rade Vanic has shown that he is taking outreach with the Micronesian community seriously after the controversy of the police shooting of Chuukese teenager Iremamber Sykap and other racial profiling allegations.
articles mentioning about HPD outreach with the Micronesian communities
Peter Boylan, “Honolulu Police Department Takes Steps to Form Micronesian Alliances,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, May 20, 2021, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/05/20/hawaii-news/honoulu-police-department-takes-steps-to-form-micronesian-alliances/.
Peter Boylan, “Honolulu Police Department pledges more public transparency,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, June 17, 2021, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/06/17/hawaii-news/honolulu-police-department-pledges-more-public-transparency/.
Jayna Omaye, “First-of-its-kind Micronesian Youth Center Opens in Liliha,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, July 22, 2021, https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/07/22/hawaii-news/first-of-its-kind-micronesian-youth-center-opens-in-liliha/.
(note: Sykap was one of my students from back when I was a substitute teacher. I blogged about it at https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2021/04/former-students-and-tragedy-on-kalakaua.html
And the most important thing is that when people at institutions are held accountable, there is less hesitancy to trust them when things go correct.
Police, pharmaceutical industries, public health organizations, and the media all play a necessary role in society. When things at those institutions go wrong, people become less trusting towards those institutions even when those institutions also do some things right.
That being said, I encourage people to not just automatically assume everything an institution does is always wrong just because they did some things wrong in the past.
