David Shapiro: Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi shows welcome practicality on pandemic response

Mayor Rick Blangiardi took office in January strongly inclined to open up restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses that had been restricted by COVID-19, but promised Gov. David Ige he wouldn’t “go rogue” by acting without state coordination.

Blangiardi succeeded in wresting looser restrictions on Oahu from the cautious Ige.

Now, with the delta variant feeding a new surge in which cases are four times the initial onset, we’re seeing a role reversal, with the mayor taking the lead in pressing for stronger abatement efforts.

While the governor has dithered on imposing a statewide “vaccine passport” to limit access to many public accommodations to the fully vaccinated, Blangiardi has enacted his own simplified system for Oahu, with Ige’s apparent OK.

Under his Safe Access O‘ahu program, starting Sept. 13 patrons and employees of establishments such as restaurants, theaters and gyms will need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.

Critics accuse him of violating promises to pull back on restrictions, but he argues convincingly that smartly targeted measures such as Safe Access O‘ahu are the only way to prevent having to go back into full lockdown.

“We don’t want a lockdown,” he said. “But we need to all work together to make sure we don’t have to do that, and this is a good, safe way to get it done.”

The new policy comes at a difficult time for the affected businesses, which were just starting to recover from the initial COVID-19 lockdown, but Blangiardi helped his case by involving them in the planning.

Greg Maples of the Hawaii Restaurant Association joined the mayor at his news conference and reinforced the point that the best way to keep businesses open is to make them safer.

“If we continue to do what we’re doing, we’re going to continue to get what we’re getting,” Maples said.

While there are concerns about the many exceptions allowed, it’s encouraging that the mayor is thoughtfully following the data, not noisy protests, and is willing to adjust course as cases, hospitalizations and deaths increase alarmingly.

Both Safe Access O‘ahu and his tough stance on requiring city employees to be vaccinated have drawn criticism from some City Council members and raucous demonstrations at Honolulu Hale.

Blangiardi testified before the Council as protesters banged on windows and answered questions for an hour from a group that ludicrously demanded an in-person, maskless town hall meeting of 500 people, drawing the line only when they shouted personal insults.

The great majority of Oahuans who have cooperated with virus control by getting vaccinated and wearing masks have effectively been forced into isolation by those who drive new surges by refusing to cooperate with abatement measures and then overflow hospitals when they get sick.

Efforts like Safe Access O‘ahu and employee vaccine mandates set things right by putting the isolation on the noncooperators rather than those who do their part to end this pandemic.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.