Bulletin No. 76

Date/Time sent: 01/10/2022 9:00 am

E ala! E alu! E kuilima!
Awaken! Come together! Join hands!

Statement of Gratitude and Kindness

Please take the time to watch this short YouTube video of Amanda Gorman’s new poem,
“New Day’s Lyric”. (Read poem here.)
Then listen in on the conversation with Kevin Young and Amanda Gorman on
a New Yorker Radio podcast.

Welina! Welcome to the Spring 2022 Semester!

Hoʻokāhi ka ilau like ana (Wield the paddles together)

While most of our classes are temporarily online, it is important that you remain vigilant, keeping yourself and your ʻohana healthy and safe! Stay up-to-date on campus announcements and information, and if you have a concern or query please reach out to your Vice Chancellor.

Here’s an important message regarding COVID-19 from Dr. Ric Custodio.

BCC = BASIC CORONAVIRUS CARE UPDATE 1/3/21

“HOPE FOR THE NEW YEAR”
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
– Emily Dickinson

Hope is a thing with wings, it allows us to see a better future. Last New Year we had hope in the vaccines. We protected our elderly, chronically sick and essential workers. Things could have been much worse.

This new year, we have hope that the pandemic will burn itself out. The virus only does two things, infect a host and replicate. As the pool of possible “infectables” decreases, the number of virus mutations increase. This will occur until basically everyone has been exposed and there are no more hosts to infect. That is when the pandemic will end and Covid-19 will be endemic. There are 6 different types of Coronaviruses, SARS & MERS caused epidemics in China and the Middle east respectively, the other 4 are endemic and cause mild symptoms.

The hopeful news is that the Omicron Variant is easier to catch, but makes you way less sick than Delta. Infection and transmission appears to be confined to the nasopharynx and not the lungs. The number of cases will continue to increase while the number of hospitalizations will not.

Surge Number	Date	Daily Case Peak	Peak Hospitalizations
1	Summer 2020	350	315
2	January 2021	300	129
3	Fall 2021	1600	473
4	January 2022	3500	141

So the number to watch is not the daily case count, but the daily number of people in the hospital. We may actually hit a daily count peak of over 7000 cases within the next 5-7 days. Then the numbers will drop rapidly and Covid-19 will be endemic. The bad weather is hopeful because, just like a lock down, less people got exposed.

What does this all mean?
1. Continue to do your best to PREVENT exposure and infection for you and your family – Wear a mask, stay away from crowds & strangers, get vaccinated and boosted
2, Follow the SYMPTOMS – Test yourself if you have fever, fatigue, cough or sore throat. Omiron is mainly an upper respiratory infection and does not cause shortness of breath, therefore less hospitalizations. But if you are positive, you need to isolate for 5 days.

These are just the musings of an old ‘fut pediatrician. But I haven’t been wrong for the last 2 years. Have a Happy New Year.

Mahalo Dr. Ric! So Remember — Download and check-in with LumiSight prior to coming to campus.

Students, employees, and visitors: It is essential that you download LumiSight UH to your smartphone. Register and upload all relevant COVID-19 information. Prior to coming to campus please check-in using your LumiSight UH and respond to all health questions. BE PREPARED TO SHOW YOUR “GO GREEN” SCREEN at our campus verification stations. If for some reason you forgot to sign-in, please do so before entering campus or see our friendly student assistants at any of the verification sites. They will assist you with signing in or getting a day pass. NOTE: you must have proof of COVID vaccination or negative COVID test to retrieve a day pass. Welina mai – Welcome to campus!

Please review the attached CAMPUS UPDATE.

Mahalo nūnui for taking the time to review this week’s bulletin.
E mālama pono!
Maenette Benham, Chancellor