Hawaii needs to quickly adopt and implement a plan to control and then halt the spread of the coronavirus or the cost in terms of lives and damage to the economy will be catastrophic. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic had an infection rate of 28% and a death rate of 2.5% for the infected population. If the corona virus followed the same path in penetrating Hawaii’s current population of 1.4 million, it would lead to 9,800 deaths. Before considering a specific plan, we lay out the roles of the federal and state governments in preventing an economic collapse and in controlling the pandemic. Given this general framework, Hawaii’s chosen plan should then take into account the state’s special characteristics that should give it some advantages in facing these challenges compared to states on the mainland.
