Statement by Health Committee Chair John Mizuno on Retirement of DOH Director Anderson
“I am sad to hear that the Department of Health Director Bruce Anderson is retiring. On a personal note, I’ve had the good experience of working with Dr. Anderson during the last three years and although we may not have agreed on issues, we always had mutual respect for one another and I’ve always had high respect for him. I wish the best for Dr. Anderson.
“That said, I think two major points hurt the Department of Health’s credibility during the COVID-19 pandemic as follow:
- From the start the Department should have focused on robust COVID-19 testing, because that is how we can identify the positive COVID-19 cases; and
- Have a strong Investigative Team with an adequate workforce of contact tracers to follow up all positive COVID-19 cases.
“If the Department implemented these two points we would have contained the virus and Hawaii would only have double digits reported daily for new COVID-19 cases, not in the hundreds we have today. Moving forward if interim Director Char and the Department can collaborate with the Legislature, the National Guard, the County Mayors, the Medical community, and the Department of Transportation (COVID-19 screening) and be extremely transparent and honest to the public, then I think the changing of the guard will be good for Hawaii.”