Eliminate the filibuster

In his first few months as Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell has given us a preview of how Republicans will behave for the next four years. They will use every tool at their disposal, like the filibuster, to cling to power and stop progress.

They used it to block civil rights legislation in the 1960s. They used it to block background checks for gun sales in 2013. And they’ll use it to block EVERYTHING Democrats want to do in 2021.

Republicans have changed the rules to entrench their power, and we need to fight fire with fire. The only reason McConnell hasn’t already gotten rid of the filibuster is because he hasn’t needed to.

He has changed the rules in order to pack federal courts with judges who will overturn Roe V. Wade, declare the ACA unconstitutional and go after our civil rights, at a minimum. Democrats won the majority, and they should act like it. They promised Americans bold relief, and they shouldn’t let Republicans use procedural hurdles like the filibuster to block their agenda.

The best chance of keeping Republicans from permanently controlling the levers of power is by passing big, bold democracy reforms — and the only way we do that is by eliminating the filibuster. Mitch McConnell is too eager to use it.

HAROLD THOMAS, Lahaina

Share more details on Covid cases

I am really disappointed, and think it also very wrong, that when TV stations give their numbers on how many people died from Covid, they do not add how many were vaccinated or not.

There is no need to mention names, so there would be no violation of privacy. But if the report says “26 people died in Hawaii last week from Covid,” why not add the number of how many were not vaccinated?

If it would say, “… and of the 26, 23 were not vaccinated,” it might change a few minds and save a few lives, prevent a lot of people from getting sick (it’s bad enough to get Covid without dying). People all over America — not just Hawaii — need as many wake up calls as possible.

Yes, you have the constitutional right to die, but not the right to infect and possibly kill others. Just saying…

JOHN BLAHUTA, Lahaina

Residents seek hearing on county actions

Nearly three dozen residents have requested a contested case hearing regarding the county’s illegal attempt to remove residents without alternative housing being available in Maui County.

The Request for Contested Case forms were hand-delivered to Mayor Victorino’s office and to the director of finance.

The proposed county actions violate CDC guidelines, as adopted by the governor’s emergency proclamation covering the houseless during the Covid emergency.

LISA SEIKAI DARCY, Founder, Share Your Mana

Spreading Covid vaccine misinformation is dangerous

People can disagree about vaccine mandates, but the science on vaccines is clear: they’re safe and effective.

In the late 19th century, people protested against mandatory smallpox vaccines. Despite them, today we live in a world without smallpox.

COVID-19 policy is not a value-neutral, objective matter of science. The people of a nation as diverse as ours will have differing — and even conflicting — values, interests and opinions. We can disagree and debate what rules, policies and priorities are appropriate.

People can disagree about vaccine mandates, for example. However, when it comes to the vaccines themselves, the available evidence is quite clear: they’re safe and effective. A recent study found that unvaccinated Americans were 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19 compared to those who were vaccinated. In breakthrough cases, vaccines were also largely effective in preventing hospitalization.

Furthermore, choosing not to take them puts oneself and others at risk. When one person’s commitment to baseless or demonstrably false beliefs results in their own death, it’s a tragedy. When it results in the deaths of others, it’s an injustice.

Vaccines are not simply a matter of personal freedom. I believe the expression “my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins” applies here. Each person’s decision to get vaccinated or not affects others around them.

For one thing, it spreads the virus and leads to new variants. For another, unvaccinated people who contract COVID-19 can strain hospital resources so much that people with other types of health problems cannot get care. That’s why emergency rooms across the country are begging people to get vaccinated.

Spreading opposition to the vaccine that is grounded in misinformation is ethically problematic. Misinformation kills — not only the innocent, but sometimes the purveyors of misinformation themselves.

Tragically, at least five vocally “anti-vax” conservative talk show hosts have died from COVID-19: Phil Valentine, Bob Enyart, Marc Bernier, Jimmy DeYoung and Dick Farrel. In some cases, they made deathbed appeals to listeners to get vaccinated. They left behind grieving families.

But other voices are more cynical. As the nation tries to get back to work and to school, Fox News personalities are throwing another wrench in the gears by advocating opposition to asking Americans to report their vaccination status.

Meanwhile, their own employer, Fox, has asked its employees to report their vaccine statuses. Off camera, Vanity Fair reports that Fox hosts scrupulously follow strict COVID-19 safety protocols.

Is the channel gambling that spreading misinformation will improve ratings by gluing eyeballs to the screen more than it will lower ratings by killing viewers?

Anti-vaccination protests, the journal Nature notes, have “always been a proxy for wider fears about social control.” Opposition to vaccines is related to other concerns that have nothing to do with whether the vaccines are safe and effective.

JILL RICHARDSON, Otherwords.org