FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK
Palau and the Federated States
of Micronesia are among the
last countries standing, sharing
the hall of fame with just a few
other countries that have successfully
hindered the entry of the treacherous
Covid-19 into their communities. They
were among the first nations in the
region to shut their borders when the
contagion was in its nascent stage. And
despite remaining Covid-free, they are
not racing to be the first ones to reopen.
Palau President Tommy Remengesau
was inclined to keep the wall up as
long as necessary. “It became a question
of economics or people’s lives,”
Reuters quoted him as
saying. “Profits come and
go. But you only have one
life to live and that’s the
basic model we’ve been
following.”
Such a careful thinking
manifests caring thoughts
that seem sparse on Guam.
FSM is biding its time as
well. The nation’s eventual
reopening is preceded by an
elaborate preparation with
meticulous details. FSM
has conducted a series of exercises to
assess and simulate the nation’s capacity
and procedures for what to do when
FSM nation’s citizens stranded abroad
are allowed to be repatriated. The tabletop
exercises included a simulation of
how the national and state governments
would respond if a commercial air carrier
arrived in Pohnpei with at least one
passenger showing symptoms consistent
with Covid-19 during the flight.
Palau and FSM are putting Guam to
shame.
Think again
It doesn’t take an economist to predict
that attempting to arrest the current
economic blow at the expense
of public health can be counterproductive.
A renewed spike in infections
and accompanying deaths will make
another shutdown inevitable.
That the Leon Guerrero administration
even thought of lifting
the quarantine requirement
for travelers from certain
countries was troubling.
Granted that Japan, South
Korea and Japan have been
“cured,” there is still no
guarantee that travelers
will not get exposed along
the fight. The virus lurks in
random places.
This does not make
Guam an attractive destination.
On the contrary, it
could make Guam land on the list of
places to avoid for its careless policy.
Fortunately, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero
quickly recalled the precipitous plan to
reopen tourism on July 1. Guam can’t
be too complacent again.
Mass testing is beginning to give us
a better picture of what Guam graph
really looks like. The 14 new positive
cases that popped up on June 24 may
be an indication that “a second wave”
is not just a crackpot warning.
The outbreak among servicemembers
deployed to Andersen Air Force
Base and the previous presence of more
than 1,500 infected sailors from USS
Theodore Roosevelt alerted us that we
are not exactly in full in control of the
contagion. We can curate the statistics
by separating military from civilian
numbers, but in the end, any infected
person who is physically on this island
is exposing anybody around them.
The outbreak involving the servicemembers
who arrived on Guam in the
late part of May offers a glimpse of
what might happen if we open back up
too wide and too soon.
It doesn’t take an economist to predict
that attempting to arrest the current
economic blow at the expense of public
health can be counterproductive. A
renewed spike in infections and accompanying
deaths will make another
shutdown inevitable. Another reckless
decision can potentially set up rolling
waves of public health collapse and
economic devastation.
To quote President Remengesau
again, “Profits come and go. But you
only have one life to live.”
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Mar-Vic Cagurangan
[email protected]
Contributing Writers
Vincent Akimoto
Raquel Bagnol
Bea Cabrera
Phillip Cruz, Jr.
Zaldy Dandan
Jayne Flores
Jeni Ann Flores
Geoff Goodman
Theodore Lewis
Diana Mendoza
Johanna Salinas
Alex Rhowuniong
Jay Shedd
Visual Editor
Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Sales and Marketing Executive
Jan SN Furukawa
[email protected]
Account Executive
Anna Marie Alegre
[email protected]
Administrative Assistant
Ricky Panelo
***
Pacific Independent News Service LLC
Tumon Sands Plaza
1082 Pale San Vitores Rd.
Tumon Guam 96931
Telephone: (671) 929-4210
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.pacificislandtimes.com
The Pacific Island Times is published
monthly and circulated in Guam and
Palau by the Pacific Independent News
Service LLC. Editorial and advertising
submissions become property of the
Pacific Island Times and cannot be lifted
without consent of the publisher. Views
and opinions from contributors do not
necessarily represent the editorial position
of the Pacific Island Times.
4