PBN editor-in-chief lambasts lingering lockdown

From Grassroot Institute, June 7, 2020

The debate over how fast to reopen Hawaii’s economy is intensifying as the state and counties gradually lift their restrictions imposed in response to the coronavirus crisis. 

Kam Napier, editor-in-chief of Hawaii’s leading business publication, Pacific Business News, addressed the hidden costs of the lockdown and how to strike the right balance in easing the restrictions, during a webinar on Friday, June 5, 2020, sponsored by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

In his weekly column, “Pupu Platter,” Napier has encouraged his readers to think critically about how our state and counties have responded to the public health threat.

“Even the health care community is getting worried about the cost of the policy response to COVID-19,” he wrote in one of his most recent commentaries. “The irony is, it’s not only an economic policy failure, it’s a public health failure, too.”

Before joining Pacific Business News in 2014, Napier was with Honolulu Magazine for 19 years, the last eight as editor. During the hourlong webinar, Napier discussed lockdown issues with Keli‘i Akina, Ph.D., Grassroot Institute of Hawaii president, then fielded questions from the audience.