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At a U.S. News health forum, the physician-governor said that travel restrictions could be needed if measles or bird flu outbreaks ‘explode.’
WASHINGTON _ If infectious disease outbreaks such as measles or bird flu explode into larger-scale emergencies, Hawaii could begin screening visitors to the state, as it did during the COVID pandemic, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a wide-ranging interview on the margin of the National Governors Association meeting.
“From a practical standpoint, the best we could do would be to assess outbreaks analytically and then, yes, do screenings or make sure that people were healthy” to travel, Green said.
Green, the only governor who is also a physician, said if things take a turn for the worse with bird flu, for instance, “we are already preparing what is right now a very private strategy to deal with a large outbreak should it happen nationally,” he said. “Can we focus on everything and everyone’s vaccination status? I don’t think that’s possible. So we are preparing extra support.”
During the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hawaii “closed completely,” Green said, to manage the spread of disease because of concerns about shortages of health care workers and medical supplies on its islands. “We learned a lot of lessons from COVID about how to be prepared in advance,” Green said Thursday at a health care event hosted by U.S. News & World Report.
READ:
Measles Spreads Amid Health Worker Purge
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 90 cases of measles have been identified in Texas since late January. Several cases have also been reported in New Mexico.
Green helped battle a measles outbreak on the island of Samoa in 2019 when he was serving as lieutenant governor. “Many Samoans were afraid to vaccinate their children,” Green wrote in a January op-ed for The New York Times, after activists from other countries, including newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “claimed vaccines were dangerous.” Green urged Congress in public testimony not to confirm Kennedy to lead HHS. Earlier this week, Kennedy pledged to examine the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
“I’m concerned that there’s already outbreaks of measles that are going to explode across our country,” Green said. “I saw the impact of misinformation on vaccinations, and if that amps up, we are going to face a lot of extra illness, and we will lose children.”
Green, the co-chair of the National Governors Association public health and disaster response task force, is joining other governors in Washington for the annual winter gathering of the NGA this week, which includes a meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday and a dinner at the White House on Saturday.
During COVID, Green said Hawaii used real-time data and analytics to deploy additional masks, clinicians and hospital beds, for instance, across different parts of the state, which is home to about 1.4 million people.
WASHINGTON _ If infectious disease outbreaks such as measles or bird flu explode into larger-scale emergencies, Hawaii could begin screening visitors to the state, as it did during the COVID pandemic, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a wide-ranging interview on the margin of the National Governors Association meeting.
“From a practical standpoint, the best we could do would be to assess outbreaks analytically and then, yes, do screenings or make sure that people were healthy” to travel, Green said.
Green, the only governor who is also a physician, said if things take a turn for the worse with bird flu, for instance, “we are already preparing what is right now a very private strategy to deal with a large outbreak should it happen nationally,” he said. “Can we focus on everything and everyone’s vaccination status? I don’t think that’s possible. So we are preparing extra support.”
During the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hawaii “closed completely,” Green said, to manage the spread of disease because of concerns about shortages of health care workers and medical supplies on its islands. “We learned a lot of lessons from COVID about how to be prepared in advance,” Green said Thursday at a health care event hosted by U.S. News & World Report.
READ:
Measles Spreads Amid Health Worker Purge
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, 90 cases of measles have been identified in Texas since late January. Several cases have also been reported in New Mexico.
Green helped battle a measles outbreak on the island of Samoa in 2019 when he was serving as lieutenant governor. “Many Samoans were afraid to vaccinate their children,” Green wrote in a January op-ed for The New York Times, after activists from other countries, including newly confirmed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “claimed vaccines were dangerous.” Green urged Congress in public testimony not to confirm Kennedy to lead HHS. Earlier this week, Kennedy pledged to examine the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases.
“I’m concerned that there’s already outbreaks of measles that are going to explode across our country,” Green said. “I saw the impact of misinformation on vaccinations, and if that amps up, we are going to face a lot of extra illness, and we will lose children.”
Green, the co-chair of the National Governors Association public health and disaster response task force, is joining other governors in Washington for the annual winter gathering of the NGA this week, which includes a meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday and a dinner at the White House on Saturday.
During COVID, Green said Hawaii used real-time data and analytics to deploy additional masks, clinicians and hospital beds, for instance, across different parts of the state, which is home to about 1.4 million people.
