Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty’s Real Estate Corner brought to you by Sakamoto Properties, Coldwell Banker Kapalua. It’s another day, a lot of craziness going on. Shortly, I’m going to have Elizabeth Quayle calling in from our office with some kind of interesting covid information. We are going to go over it on the phone so that you all get to hear it. I think we’ve all got to start being so careful not just for ourselves but for everybody around us. Dr. Norm Estin is going to check in with us probably in another 10minutes,15 minutes something like that to give us his current information about what’s happening with vaccinations and people testing, etc. It is happening. If you watch our statistics right now and even people that are dying in Maui. It’s a frightening thing. We’ve got to make it stop happening. We’ve all got to take care of ourselves and take care of everyone around us. Remember, it’s not just about us. We’ve got to protect the field so to speak we said that before but we’ve got to do it. We’ve got to protect the field. It’s not just me and it’s not just my family. It’s more than that so we’ve really got to find a way that we protect everyone around us. I’m not sure, is it Elizabeth on the phone? Elizabeth Quayle are you there and we’re listening and you will be on the radio now.
Elizabeth Quayle: I’m here. Can you hear me okay?
BS: We sure can, perfect.
EQ: Okay, wonderful.
BS: I just let whoever’s listening today know that you are checking in and what we want to talk about is I’m going to call it an incident that happened that involved you but it could be any one of us at any 5 minutes second rule or whatever it is. Last night, my understanding is you were getting a service and one of the businesses in Lahaina and the person taking care of you got a phone call that her daughter or son someone had been diagnosed with the virus. They are an unvaccinated person.
EQ: Yeah. They tested positive.
BS: Yeah, okay.
EQ: I mean the irony of this whole thing is because she’s not only a friend and a client. She is a business person. We were talking about how we are all double vaccinated because we have to be. We work with the general public and her daughter had covid earlier this year.
BS: The same daughter?
EQ: She was the only person who wasn’t vaccinated in the family and she thought that maybe because she’d have it she didn’t need to get vaccinated. She wasn’t feeling well. It’s the domino effect with everyone because you come to that moment where you freeze. It’s like, okay she’s running a business, her daughter is working for a company that’s trying to run a business, her husband’s in the public. I was supposed to go to the radio station today and get to sit with you and I had to go get a covid test. Just to you know my grandkids are coming over for the 1st time for the weekend. It’s such a ripple effect and you are suddenly paralyzed because you don’t have the information or the capacity to get an instant reply. I do want to give a big shout out though to Dr. Estin and the doctors on call because I was so happy that I’m able to go up the street to have a rapid test done and just got cleared, Yey.
BS: Perfect
EQ: Going back in a few days and double-check it just to be responsible but again one little mistake affects everybody. It just isn’t about me, it’s about us.
BS: It’s about us, that’s right. Right now Elizabeth it seems to me that technically you should do your best to self-quarantine for a few days till the next test.
EQ: I’m most definitely not going to get to tickle my grandkids and hold them down on the floor and hug them deeply because I’m going to be very careful. I have to keep a mask on and really avoid the general public even if it’s not something I have to do. I think it’s something that you should do just to be careful.
BS: I agree with you.
EQ: Again, that influences everybody down the line. My client, my grandson Jake. He is my partner he would have had to take over everything. Thank you for being there Jake. It’s not about one person it affects everybody.
BS: We’ve been saying that recently we’ve all got to protect the field it’s not just us.
EQ: Yes
BS: We got to protect everyone older than us, certainly anybody younger, those of us who are older.
EQ: and now you are seeing it.
BS: Yes
EQ: It’s rampant.
BS: It’s rampant.
EQ: And it’s because we are invincible when we are that age.
BS: It’s true.
EQ: We know everything and we are invincible.
BS: Did you see today on television this morning? The girl who was arrested I believe in Oahu there were a number of people arrested that came in with fake vaccination cards. This girl stood there I mean in a courtroom kind of crying and I’m sure she was upset and should be upset but the same thing what she’s doing doesn’t protect anybody. Not her, not the field, not the state.
EQ: It’s criminal.
BS: It’s criminal. She could go to jail for a year.
EQ: That’s why she’s in jail and up to $5,000 bucks. You can have any belief you want and if God willing wearing a mask let you be. You know, poor people that can’t get vaccinated.
BS: Right.
EQ: They have immune issues with their immunity, not everybody gets to get the vaccination.
BS: No, there are people that can’t. It truly can’t.
EQ: That’s criminal because even though she didn’t mean it to be, that lie could cost a life.
BS: She had to know that what she was doing was criminal. It’s like you are faking a driver’s license. You are faking something else.
EQ: It’s fraud.
BS: She is faking a vaccination card. She is old enough, she is not like 12. Even a 12-year-old knows better.
EQ: If you are old enough to be put in jail it means you are an adult.
BS: That’s right. She is definitely an adult and she is been arrested. I just looked at her crying and I’m thinking come on sweet lips you know this is enough.
EQ: Of course it is.
BS: I mean in a way it is sad, I feel bad for her, I feel bad for her family but I feel worse for all the people she came in touch with and is coming in touch within jail no matter where she is because she’s just wrong. She should get her vaccinations and get a legitimate card and hopefully go back home. If she has to spend some more time in jail she should.
EQ: Well, be grateful if she gets to come back and understand what she missed out on because she made a technical error.
BS: Absolutely.
EQ: Lying and stealing. You are stealing the truth from someone.
BS: Hey, as long as you are on the phone and we’ve done us whatever we are going to call it. I know you had that new listing in the Napilihau that everybody was talking about realtors everywhere because it’s such a great property it needs work but it’s in a great location. What’s happening on that?
EQ: Well, we actually opened up escrow this morning on it and we have 2 backup offers.
BS: Wow.
EQ: Place on it.
BS: That’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s such a great place though, so great.
EQ: Great location and there’s very little in West Maui for you know.
BS: What was it priced at? How much was it?
EQ: $750,000.
BS: Yeah, in a great location.
EQ: It is a fabulous location, really good bones but it’s had tenants in there for over 6 years so it needs some cash and people who have a vision. The outside agent who brought in these, this young couple we’ve worked with for many years before and they are just the perfect ideal buyers. His dad a retired contractor. They can’t wait to get over here.
BS: Super.
EQ: working on the house.
BS: And it is habitable. I mean somebody could move in and be thinking about it. What they are going to do but if they’ve got someone ready to go for them. I thought it was in relatively good shape. We’ve all lived someplace worse in Maui. Let’s say that.
EQ: Yeah. It needs TLC and in real estate, that means time and lots of cash.
BS: That’s not the truth.
EQ: That’s why it was priced the way it was. I mean it’s a great price. The house kind of perched above the lower road, there above Alaeloa.
BS: It’s fabulous
EQ: A deck and a permanent tree house so you are sitting there.
BS: Is that a riot I forgot about that.
EQ: Yeah. There’s something for everyone and this is just my friend bought it from me in 1999. My stepdaughter Gina was the listing broker at the time so it’s a giant big wonderful circle. We have done this so long that we get to recycle these things and help.
BS: It’s a good thing how blessed we are.
EQ: And the next people are just so happy and grateful.
BS: It’s a perfect real estate deal.
EQ: You get to be on Maui.
BS: You get to be on Maui. Norm Estin is calling in shortly so I suppose we can get ready for him. Is there anything else though that you can think of either virus-wise or another newer listing that you have or something that you’d like to report?
EQ: I’ll give us a quick little real estate tidbit. We just took a beautiful listing at 2760 Kolepa Place in Royal Kaanapali Estates, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths home. Beautiful ocean views, the floor plan is great.
BS: Backs up to the golf course, that one?
EQ: It’s on the golf course.
BS: Okay
EQ: Casey and I will be sitting open house Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Actually, Casey will be there Sunday and Monday because the grandkids are coming but we will be there. If you want to do something private there are only 15 parcels in an entire subdivision, no gates, hidden away, great views, find us.
BS: Okay, Norm’s calling in so I think we’d better say a quick aloha.
EQ: Thank you, Norm.
BS: Thank you for calling and reporting everything.
EQ: Thank you for having me.
BS: It’s very personal and hard. Good for you. Aloha. Talk to you soon. Hey there Dr. Norm.
Dr. Norman Estin: Hey, aloha Betty, and Roy. I’m here in our Times office in West Maui with my star PA Tia Palikin who just joined us. She works here as well as over to our new Wailea office. We are here to answer any questions and give you updates on the pandemic.
BS: We just got off the phone with Elizabeth Quayle. She was kind of trying to keep certain pieces of information out of it but talking about the fact that she had suddenly had somebody was near her that had just been exposed to the virus. They’ve been in your office already or she’s been in. She had a test that was negative. She is going to come back I think in 3 or 4 days whatever you had told her or someone from your office said to retest. She is going to be somewhat quarantined for at least those days to be sure that she didn’t pick something up. She’s of course vaccinated. We keep talking about vaccinations. How do we get people to just step up and get vaccinated?
NE: Well, you raised a couple of great points. We prefer the word isolated rather than quarantine in that situation because it’s a little more gentle. The idea is that you are protective of yourself and of others. It’s hard to convince people to get vaccinated as you well know. I think right now what we have is increasing evidence of the effectiveness of the vaccines. We have all 3 of them are still effective against this delta which is great news. One of the questions people have is should they wait for a different vaccine to get immunized? No, they should not they should get one as soon as they can. If they’ve had 2 already of the Moderna or the Pfizer or 1 of the Johnson & Johnson they should very seriously consider getting a booster. Right now a booster is approved for anybody who’s got a low immunodeficiency or the inability to fight off infections. This next later this month in September we’ll be able to give it to everybody. Five months after they’ve had their first series. It used to be 8 months but it got reduced this last week by the government to 5 months so this is a good sign. What’s happening in this state is I think we are near the top of the delta peak as we predicted the last couple of weeks can be this week or next week in terms of the number of cases and hopefully a week later there won’t be that many cases swamping the emergency rooms everywhere. The response locally has been to isolate like that person did if they have been exposed to somebody. Get vaccinated as soon as you can if you haven’t. Get vaccinated in any of our offices, any physician’s office, or as well as CVS or Walgreens, and continue to be cautious in terms of wearing a mask in public and maintaining your distance from people in public or in an indoor space. If you are outdoors you are protected then you just have to be careful to either wear the mask or maintain a lot of social distance but indoors the masking and distance are very important. I get the question how long is this going to last? If I knew that I wouldn’t be in this business but I think the history around the world is that this peak is going to last a few more weeks and gradually get better. It’s going to be prolonged if we expose people to the schools and things like that. We are doing what we can in the state hereby limiting the exposure to restaurants and there’s been an initiative this last week as you know to 1 require vaccination cards to go to restaurants I think as of September 13th. In addition, everybody who works in a restaurant either has to have a vaccination or a weekly negative test. Whether that will be translated into other parts of the hospitality industry or not. We’ll have to wait and see. We’ll have to wait and see what the governor says for the entire state and what Mayor Victorino decides on for this county. I think what we are looking forward to and this is for everybody who says, “Hey, what are the next couple of months going to be like is?” We are going to be slow in terms of visitor counts, in terms of traffic, in terms of activity. There are going to be very few outdoor gatherings and they are all going to be small. There’s going to be fewer indoor gatherings and they are all going to be small. You are going to want to see a lot of people walking around with masks on until we get this particular surge under control and that’s going to be really until the end of October.
BS: Norm, what do you think wouldn’t it help if somebody coming into the state had to show that they were vaccinated? I know that’s a political question I guess but I’m still curious. Medically do you think that would help?
NE: I think it would be fantastic and a lot of physicians think it would be fantastic. A lot of countries require vaccination. You can’t go to Canada without a vaccine. You can’t go to most European Union countries. You can’t go to Bermuda. You certainly can’t go to Asia and even in Asian countries you have to be vaccinated and you still quarantine for 10 days to sometimes up to a month. That would be extremely valuable to have the required vaccination for anybody coming in here who’s a visitor or resident. If they leave the state to have been vaccinated so they can come back safely and that will eventually decrease the amount of illness that we have in this state and will actually make us the healthiest state in the country. It’s very hard to institute. There are reasons that it hasn’t been made into legislation or law. It’s unfortunate but in the meantime, the idea is to try to get voluntary vaccination as much as possible out there.
BS: You think Norm that people coming to the state already see us in a way as the healthiest place in the world? That as a state and I wish that everybody would listen. We should make it mandatory. It doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult.
NE: Well, I agree with you totally and so do a lot of doctors. A lot of care providers and most of the people in our office and clinics but you know going from that thought to the action is a stretch sometimes. You do have a problem and they’re always going to be people coming in the state to think they don’t have to obey the laws or guidelines. As you have seen in the newspaper we’ve had a couple of people coming in with phony vaccination cards. Moderna was spelled wrong or they said the location was just Delaware where they got the immunization. I mean clearly, there are people trying to game the system and they’re always going to be a couple of those. We do need to have some basic change in our entry policy if we are going to get a hold on this anytime in the next couple of years otherwise this is going to drag on for a couple of years. Now, the best thing we can do as individuals to not have this drag on for months and years is to get our own immunizations and shots very easily just go to CVS or Walgreens or doctors on call or any place you can. Just get 1 it’s free. We’ve had essentially no reactions and it will save you having to worry about being really sick or being in a hospital. That’s the real dilemma here. The people that are in the hospital now with covid almost overwhelmingly are people who have not been vaccinated. If you talk to them they all say man if I knew then what I know now I would have been the 1st online to get that vaccine.
BS: You know Norm one other thing, what if at the same time you are saying and I’m saying we are both saying get vaccinated directly it to a person. Get vaccinated but also encourage everyone around you to get vaccinated. Speak up you know talk about the fact. I’ve had all of the vaccines now and I’ve had no problems at all. I think we’ve all got to tell that story. It’s not a problem vaccine I’m not hearing of anybody that had a major issue. Somebody that maybe was exhausted for a day or they purposely took 2 days off because they could. I’m not hearing anyone that truly got sick from the vaccine.
NE: You are absolutely right and I agree with you 100% and TRPA who’s here with me she can say the same thing. She is counseling patients all day long about hey you haven’t had a chance to get the vaccine yet let’s do it for you right now while you are here. We offer it to people while they are getting tested. Testing is going to be around everywhere. We have these rapid tests we can get a result in 15 minutes if you are having any symptoms. You are worried that you have been exposed or around anybody who’s had this. We have these at all our locations and between rapid testing and vaccination, we can get a handle on this. The rapid testing is only going to last for so long because unless we really do the vaccination. We are not going to bring this thing to an end.
BS: No. Are more people right now like I know that there are miles of people just about at every place that you’re involved with. I just heard somebody here in Wailuku say that the 1 over is near Whole Foods huge lines. Are they getting vaccinated or are they primarily just getting tested?
NE: Primarily just getting tested.
BS: A lot of those people aren’t vaccinated then.
NE: It’s running about half and half. Remember, if you are vaccinated you can still get exposed.
BS: Yes
NE: And still be positive in fact you can still even get sick. If you do get sick it’s going to be very mild. You are not going to get sick to the point where you have to be in a hospital and you are not going to die. That’s what the purpose of vaccination is. The vaccination is not supposed to be a blanket preventive cure. That’s going to be this invisible protective shield to protect you forever and ever. It’s to protect you from being really sick or dying. The vaccine is doing its job and it’s doing it well. Those of us in preventive medicine say this is one of the best vaccines ever made. We’ve had so few problems and we’ve saved so many lives. Again, we’ve given 5 billion of these things around the world already. There are only 8 billion people now some of those have had them twice already.
BS: That’s right.
NE: We don’t have as many people around the world as we need but that’s a lot of vaccines in 9 months. It’s phenomenal.
BS: Dr. Norm we are now down to pretty much 1- minute warning.
NE: Very safe, very few side effects at all. It prevents people from being sick and dying. Again, we’ve had 650,000 people in this county that’s the way.
BS: Okay, wait, Dr. Norm, we’ve just passed the 1- minute warning so we are going to have to you know bring it to an end quickly. I mean what you are saying is get vaccinated. What I’m saying is to get vaccinated. We’ve all got to protect the field, protect those around us, take care of everybody. Thank you Norm so much for everything that you’ve said and for taking care of Maui the way you have. Your practice is unbelievable and I did meet your new PA fabulous. She’s wonderful.
NE: Aloha to both of you.
BS: Aloha. Talk to you soon. Danny Couch is back with I love Hawaii. Please get vaccinated. Aloha.
