LHS Aloha Club appreciates the community’s support

On behalf of Lahainaluna High School’s Aloha Club, we would like to sincerely thank Island Grocery Depot and the community of Lahaina.

With your contribution, our club was able to raise almost 1,000 pounds of food and over $1,000 for the Maui Food Bank.

We are so thankful for the wonderful and giving spirit of our Lahaina community during these troubling times. With generosity and compassion, we can get through COVID-19 together safely. ALEXIS NORDBLOM, Corresponding Secretary

Real cheer and hope are coming soon

When I was a child, I thought Christmas would never come. The weeks dragged by while I wore out the toy sections of the Sears and Penny’s catalogs hoping Santa might stop by. I always looked for Santa Claus and tried to stay awake on Christmas Eve just to catch a glimpse of the jolly big guy. Typically, I would see him at the five and dime store or G.C. Murphy’s. I always had a list longer than Santa could carry. However, Santa typically managed to show up with something on Christmas thanks to hardworking parents who loved Christmas and giving as much as they could.

The anticipation of Christmas was an adrenaline boost as a child. The hopes and dreams of what might come or be always was exciting. The downtime came when late on Christmas day I had to reconcile that Christmas wouldn’t happen again for another year. I dreaded seeing the Christmas tree and the outside lights come down. Christmas was always a good winter mood boost. My dad didn’t put a lot of Christmas lights up outside, but the ones he did put on the house always seemed beautiful and filled the outside air with cheer, brightness and hope.

America is ready for some cheer, brightness and hope, and it’s coming. Santa Claus won’t be dropping this down the chimney but it’s coming soon via your local medical care provider. This one is on its way via pharmaceutical company Pfizer and biotechnology company Moderna. Millions of doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 are ready to be released. This vaccine is not coming too early for a country that has been paralyzed by sickness and death.

While the release of these vaccines is coming in record time, it’s still too late for many. Millions of Americans have been blindsided by this ugly disease that took their lives. People are sick today and desperately need this medicine. For all of us, it cannot come soon enough. Business owners, restaurants, schools, churches, families, factories, the travel industry and old fashion family gatherings are more than ready for these miracle drugs that will hopefully save us from COVID-19.

Americans are living in anticipation of a lot this December. Millions are hoping for a job, an unemployment check and a roof over their heads. They are hoping Congress will get their act together and approve one more stimulus package. Many Americans this year dread Christmas because they don’t have any money and life is filled with worry and uncertainty. For them, life is dragging by, and better times can’t come quick enough.

We will get through this in America, and our vaccines will not only turn America around but will help millions of others in other nations as well. While this Christmas is still going to be tough, there are some lights burning. The lights are going to get brighter for 2021.

Some real cheer, brightness and hope are coming. Let’s get through this safely and plan one big Christmas celebration for next year.

DR. GLENN MOLLETTE, Washington, D.C.

Voter fraud in Hawaii? You decide

It was a fun Halloween this year dressed up like jail-birds. It was equally as fun going to the Hilo County Building and videotaping ourselves dressed like that to drop off our ballots in their unsecured, no personnel or I.D. required ballot box.

Newly elected Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi is basically Republican, yet Congress seat (Democrat) and President Biden (Democrat) won the elections here in Hawaii. People don’t vote like that, first of all.

Also, our nursing homes were only having their patients put an “x” by their names, and then a nurse or caregiver would sign their signature for them. Poor things probably didn’t even know what they were signing.

Not enough ballot drop boxes for the amount of people residing in Hawaii.

Denied ballot counting access to Republicans.

Not enough walk-in voter machines.

Like Biden, Kai Kahele knew the elections were rigged, so no need to campaign.

Corruption runs rampant through the veins of Hawaii, so why would our elections be any different?

Hawaii’s dirty Dems aren’t worried about the lawsuits, because they do not hold one another accountable!!! Remember now, I’m talking from experience with these circus clowns.

We all know that no one wins lawsuits in Hawaii, sillies. They aren’t certifying the state (even though they did already on election night, and Kahele is packing his bags to D.C. as I write this); truth of the matter is, Hawaii is now backpedaling because they know they are guilty of voter fraud and are afraid of what Trump may or may not uncover. So they are waiting it out.

Remember now, we are dealing with Hawaii leaders who are master snakes, and where your civil and constitutional rights are just an illusion.

LISA MALAKAUA, Hilo

Uncle Sam shouldn’t steal Gilead’s Remdesivir patent

Over 30 state attorneys general recently sent a letter to federal health officials urging them to confiscate Gilead Sciences’ patent on Remdesivir, one of the only drugs approved for use on patients suffering severe symptoms caused by COVID-19.

These politicians allege that since Uncle Sam helped pay for some of Remdesivir’s clinical trials, the federal government can use its “march-in” power in a 1980 law to appropriate Gilead’s patent and license it to generic manufacturers to lower the price and increase availability of the drug.

Unfortunately, the state AGs don’t understand the law in question — or the drug development process. If they succeed, this would sanction government theft of patents that will chill innovation and harm patients.

The law they cite, the Bayh-Dole Act, was not enacted for government confiscation of patents. Congress enacted this law to facilitate universities and research institutions to obtain patents and license their innovations in the marketplace. Before 1980, no one knew who owned inventions if federal funding was used in the basic research that led to the patent. As a result, life-saving innovations sat on the shelf in the university lab. Bayh-Dole changed this. The legislation spurred the licensing of new innovations and massive economic growth. It contributed to the explosion in new drugs over the past 40 years that have turned what were once death sentences into manageable conditions — from cancer to diabetes to hepatitis.

Bayh-Dole does authorize a “march-in” power for the federal government to take patents and license them under limited conditions. Contrary to the state AGs’ claim, this is not an authorization for the federal government to confiscate patents merely to lower a price. The National Institutes of Health stated that “march-in is not an appropriate means of controlling prices.”

Bipartisan administrations have consistently rejected lobbying efforts to use the “march-in” power for lowering prices of drugs. They did so because Bayh-Dole does not authorize it. Remdesivir is an example of the miracle drugs created by the biopharmaceutical sector. Researchers at Gilead labored for more than a decade, and the company will spend more than a billion dollars in R&D expenditures on the drug.

The federal government’s total funding of Remdesivir’s testing, and the funding provided in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ranged from $30 to $70 million. These federal monies are 3 percent to 7 percent of the total $1 billion in private investments made by Gilead in this medicine. For this, the state AGs would have the federal government confiscate Gilead’s entire patent.

This is not what Bayh-Dole was intended to do. The politicians and activists lobbying for the government to invoke its “march-in” power for COVID-19 drugs do a disservice to innovators and American patients. If the government can twist the Bayh-Dole law and arbitrarily decide to confiscate patents, companies will no longer risk billions of dollars and decades of research in creating miracle drugs like Remdesivir. We will never see cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and pandemics like COVID-19.

ADAM MOSSOFF, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute