David Ige: Governor of Hawaii

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I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. This episode's guest is David Ige. He is the governor of the state of Hawaii. Hawaii has the least number of coronavirus infections adjusted for population of any state in the union. It also has the least deaths. I interviewed Governor Ige to understand how Hawaii achieved these remarkable results. It is true that Hawaii is surrounded by water, so controlling infection by outsiders is easier. But there's no doubt in my mind that if some of the governors of other states were the Governor of Hawaii, the results would not be the same. Governor Ige was born and raised in the Pearl City area of Honolulu. He attended the University of Hawaii where he got a degree in electrical engineering. He worked for GTE Hawaiian until after college. He started his political career in 1985 when Governor George Ariyoshi appointed him to fill a vacant seat in the Hawaii House of Representatives. He and his wife have three children. I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. And now here's Governor David Ige.

According to the Numbers today, there's 48 cases per 100,000 people in Hawaii and one death per hundred thousand people in Hawaii. Using those normalized figures, you are the best state in the nation. What do you attribute these remarkable results to?

First and foremost, it's our geographic isolation, right? So the this is one of the few times with the COVID 19 pandemic that our isolation kept us away from the virus. And then I did take decisive action to order a 14 day mandatory quarantine for all travelers coming into state. And clearly no other state can do it like we did. And it is a real 14 day mandatory quarantine. Only essential workers can get beyond the quarantine. And that really allowed us to isolate Hawaii and really test those that are infected and do the contact tracing and all of those things that the public health people insisted that we do.

So when did you institute that quarantine?

I ordered the quarantine on March 24th, 21st. So it was very early on, I issued the emergency proclamation on the 4th. We made modifications to that on the 16th. But the 14 day mandatory quarantine I ordered on March 21st, and that allowed us to isolate Hawaii from the rest of the United States and really the rest of the world. The other part of that guide for us, I knew that testing was going to be very important. And our ability to test and detect the virus, especially because of our isolation, it was a high priority. And Hawaii was one of the very first states to get certified to be able to conduct the COVID virus tests here in the islands. Our state lab was the first public lab certified. And so we had the ability to test locally and we could get results in a day. And that made a world of difference in allowing us to identify those infected and then trace contact and really identify others who may be sick and isolate them. And then the 14 day mandatory quarantine allowed us to isolate from the rest of the country and the rest of the world.

And how did you, unlike perhaps 49 other governors, how did you come to such a rapid decision? I heard that your daughter's a nurse. Did she call you up and say, dad, this is what you got to do?

We do have a strong public health department here in the islands, and we had to deal with SARS and MERS prior to COVID 19. So we have experience in dealing with infectious diseases. And I did realize pretty early on that the only opportunity for us to manage the virus was to really take decisive action and isolate very early. As you know, we have limited hospital capacity here in the islands. And I think we've all seen all of the videos about New York and all of the deaths that resulted when your healthcare system is overwhelmed with patients. And we did not want to see that happening here in the island. And there is a real sense of community. And I think that generally when we ordered the action, everybody knew that we all had to do our part in order to combat Covid.

Would you do anything differently if you could go back?

I don't know that I would do anything differently. You know, we learn so much every single day about this virus. It certainly is challenging in how it is so infectious, unlike other coronaviruses. That's a big challenge. I do read more about asymptomatic carriers of the virus, and I think that has all of us just very concerned because if we can't see the symptoms that someone is infected, it's virtually impossible to keep people from spreading it, especially when they don't know that they're infected themselves.

This may be a sore subject. But about two weeks ago, I read an article where there was a poll about the popularity of governors. And you know, I thought you would be like number one, two, three or five, four or five. And you were number 49. And the only one worse was the governor of, let's see, Alabama. And you know, you're 48 per hundred thousand, he's 504 per 100,000, you're one death per hundred thousand, he's 21 deaths per 100,000. Why is that? Why, why was that poll portraying you as so unpopular?

It definitely required me to take very harsh and quick action. So, you know, it's, it's hard to be governor and chief executive when you're in the middle of a crisis. And, and remember Guy, we went from having the lowest unemployment rate in the country at less than 3% to having the highest unemployment rate in the country in the course of six weeks. And so there are a lot of people being laid off just implementing the social distancing and the stay at home orders. There are a lot of people who felt like, how dare you order us to be at home, those kinds of things. So certainly I, I was surprised and disappointed by those ratings. But I'm an engineer, right. I'm more concerned about performance and outcome than I am with popularity. And, and you know, people have commented that I'm not the most eloquent speaker or most inspiring and so I work at it. But clearly I have trouble communicating sometimes and I think that that results in the poll results that you see.

Yeah, but if I had a choice between an eloquent governor or an effective governor, I would pick an effective one. That goes the same for president, by the way. So I'm pretty much convinced that being in Hawaii is safe. But right now there are sort of two deal killers. One is for a tourist or even myself. I don't want to get in a plane for six hours sitting with 350 people, I don't know, elbow to elbow, using the same bathroom serviced by the same flight attendant. So that's deal breaker number one. And deal breaker number two is I land. And you know what? I'm going to stay in a Halekalani for two weeks. I mean, knock on wood, that's a high quality problem. So what's the plan? I mean, would you consider shortening quarantine or maybe proof of negative results before you get on the airplane? This can't go on forever.

Yeah, absolutely, Guy. And I think that that's the challenge and the dilemma in just communicating to the broader community in general about the challenge. We do have 100,000 people unemployed now. They are getting close to the end of the unemployment support that they're getting and certainly we need to restart the economy. So last week we launched what the reopening plan would and it is focused in a couple different areas. There still is a huge concern about getting infected with the virus. And you know, the community in that same poll that you referenced, they did talk about most in our community would rather us go slow than go fast. Right. I mean they are concerned about their health. They don't want to see flare ups of the virus. And so when we look at restarting the visitor industry, we're looking at what are the conditions that would allow us to do it safely and how do we bring people from outside of the state back into the state in a way that doesn't put our community's health at risk. So we're looking at it in phases. I announced last week that we're going to allow up until this point we had a quarantine also on interisland travel. So if you are really. Yes, because. Well, because part of that was that the virus was really circulating at a much higher rate on Oahu and on Maui and the virus infections on Kauai and Hawaii island was very low. And so there was a concern and the mayors asked that I implement the quarantine for Inter island travel as well. And that really drove the numbers down so that all the counties became pretty much equal. There's very little virus in any of the counties. So part of my reopening tourism is starting with interisland first. So trying to get the local economy Kamaina economy going, encourage people to take staycations. But we are implementing a new process because we know public health is important. So I am ordering a new public health form. So when you travel inter island you're going to have to give us your name and residential address as well as where you're going to, the flight you're on and a phone number, two phone numbers actually that we can contact you. And then we're doing a health screening asking have you traveled anywhere to be exposed to the virus? How are you feeling? We are taking temperature screens at the airport to make sure that no one with a fever is traveling. Then just asking, do you have a cough, shortness of breath, all of the symptoms of COVID 19. At least we can do a screening. Then we let them know that if you get sick or you become symptomatic you need to let us know and we'll provide services to you as you travel. From our perspective, the interisland is phase one because it allows us to fine tune this process of being aware of where people are traveling and being able to contact them should they get sick.

You did not mention any kind of swab test, so that's not, not required.

For inter island travel. Okay. So beyond that, so that'll allow us to really, you know, we're putting an app together. We're going to ask people to load the app, enter the information online, and then we're going to ping them every once in a while to make sure that they're healthy and that they don't become symptomatic. So the next phase is really Trans Pacific, you know, and we are looking at bringing people from out of state into state in a couple of different ways. Hawaii gets tourists from all around the world and definitely looking international and we are looking for communities that have low virus infection rates that are similar to ours. That's kind of the first phase of bringing people from out of state into state. So clearly Japan and Korea on the international level have done very well in fighting the virus. Also looking at New Zealand, everybody talks about New Zealand and all the work that they've done and Australia and both of those have very low virus transmission rates. The challenge for us is domestically, as you know, the virus is really increasing in California. And so, you know, that's going to be the biggest challenge is when will we be ready here in Hawaii to invite visitors from California or anywhere else in the United States for that matter?

I can't ask you the timeline because who knows what's going to happen? But what are the conditions that you say, okay, now it's okay for people from California to come to Hawaii?

Well, so we are working on a couple of pilots, what we call pilots that, you know, and I actually am trying to set up a call with Japan and members of the diet there. But so we are looking at the whole notion of can we require them to take Covid tests, prior PCR test prior to departing, 72 hours before departing to Hawaii and be able to demonstrate a negative result so they are not infected with COVID And that would allow us to make sure in our community that people are comfortable that they've been tested and that they're negative. And we are working with the whole hospitality industry and asking them to be a part of the solution. So part of that is, you know, they have to help us keep track of the visitors who are staying in their facility. We're going to Ask them to embrace new cleaning and sanitation standards. We're going to ask them to educate the traveler to what is respect and appropriate travel. So, you know, in Hawaii we have been in the past promoting protecting our native Hawaiian culture and protecting the environment specifically. And now we're going to expand that a little and ask them to be respectful of our health so that if someone travels and becomes symptomatic and begins to show signs of COVID 19, then they agree that we'll provide them health care and get them tested and really ask the properties to take responsibility and make sure that they're isolated so that they don't infect other travelers. And most importantly, they don't infect our community. So we are looking at establishing these kinds of protocols and processes so that we can bring travelers back in in a way that ensures the health and safety of our community.

I've read a few stories where.

People.

Come to Hawaii, they're supposed to do 14 day quarantine and you notice that they're not in their hotel rooms and all that. And they actually get arrested. I mean, that's true. They get arrested for doing that.

Yes. You know, we, you know, Guy, it's one of those things, right. I wanted to make sure when I ordered the quarantine that people understood that this was a real quarantine. It's not like just something for show. 22 other states have ordered a mandatory quarantine. We're the only state that's actually arresting people who violate quarantine. We've actually arrested 41 individuals who have come in broken quarantine. And we do have law enforcement. We do, you know, most of that is in response to, you know, they're posting on TikTok or Instagram or all of those kinds of things, flaunting the fact that they've come to Hawaii and they're in a hotel and they're violating the quarantine. And so we have been aggressive in going after them because we don't want people to just be traveling and think that the quarantine isn't meaningful. We are in a public health emergency and someone coming from California, where the virus is raging, coming into Hawaii has a higher probability of being infected and obviously making residents sick.

Is it literally true that hotel rooms, hotels are giving people keys that open the door one time so if you, if you go out, you can't get back in the key a second time? That's true.

Yes, we are. That's part of our protocol. I can send you what the, the quarantine protocol Is. And you're supposed to go straight from the airport directly to the quarantine site without making any stops for any reason.

Not even Zippies?

Not even Zippies. You're supposed to go straight to your hotel or your accommodation, and you're not supposed to leave. And we do have providers who will deliver food so you can get meals there. And we have been working with the hotels here so that they understand and they help communicate. When people check into the hotels, they are informed that we have a real quarantine here and they're not allowed to leave their rooms. So in some instances, they would be escorted to the room and they don't actually get a key at all. In other instances, they get a key that is keyed so that it'll work once and then it won't work again.

Okay.

Yeah.

What is your opinion of the federal or national leadership at this time as a governor?

It's really been hard for all of us governors. You know, Guy, I'm on a call once a week with all the other governors, and we're just sharing notes and talking about it. You know, especially in the last two weeks with all of the Black Lives Matter protest and all of that, all governors felt like it was really important that the president provide some assurance to the general community and he shouldn't be instigating more activity or military action to really quell the violence. I think regardless of party, I think we all feel and recognize that the tragic death of George Floyd just demonstrates that we still have a long way to go in racial equality all across the country. In Hawaii, as you know, Guy, where we're all minorities, we learned a long time ago that we have to work together in order to be able to do anything. And so for all of us here in the islands, it's very important. And some of the governors respectfully suggested that the President needs to move to be the president for all people and really calm people's concerns and really express the notion and make a commitment to reforms to address the grievances that have festered so long in our community. And unfortunately, the president wasn't willing to do that. And I think a number of governors called him out on it because it. It's really important what the president says, regardless of the politics of the situation.

Do you think that this. This lack of national leadership, has it caused you to have to almost redefine what a governor is It.

It absolutely has. And for a number of reasons, and typically in an emergency situation, our roles in connecting to the federal government for a hurricane or A tsunami or things like that is very specific. And I think because all of us had wanted assistance from the federal government and they were not reliable and we couldn't count on them. All of us governors had to take matters into our own hands. For the longest time we had trouble purchasing personal protective equipment, N95 masks to keep first responders safe, you know, swabs and reagents to be able to conduct tests. All of us states were really competing with each other to try and get the materials that we needed to protect our communities. In fact, we had an order for personal protective equipment lined up early on in the episode in, in late February and early March. And we got outbid by the state of California and suddenly the supplier wanted us to charge us three times what we had agreed to because California was willing to pay and we just couldn't do it. So it's those kinds of things that really should have been coordinated early on. You know, availability of testing. It was very clear to me as governor from Hawaii that we weren't going to get much help from the federal government in terms of testing. And so we made a commitment to not only get the state labs, but we were working with our private sector labs and helping them to get certified and making sure that they could get access to all of the materials and equipment that they needed so that we could conduct tests for COVID 19 in the state of Hawaii. In the very early days when we had to send samples to the mainland to get tested, it would take a week to 14 days to get results back. And how can you fight a virus with an incubation period of up to 14 days and it takes you 14 days to get test results? It's virtually impossible and it's not helpful. So it did force all of us as governors to be more self reliant and really count on each other more than we would count on the president.

Well, the irony of that is I think one of the GOP or conservative theories is the reduction of federal government. And so the party that stands for that has caused a situation where the states are for unintended consequences in that position.

Right.

I think states are more independent now and less dependent on the federal government because they could not depend on the federal government. So what irony.

Yes, it certainly is. And you know, and it's really sad. Usually emergencies, you know, for all of us involved in politics, you know, emergencies is, is one thing we felt that politics shouldn't be involved. It really should be the needs of the people and the communities should clearly come first. And this is one instance where it's very clear from the federal government that politics would be involved and that some of what they did or how they did it was really depending on the specific politics involved in the situation.

Switching gears a little, going to Black Lives Matter. What do you think the impact will be on policing going forward? Is it going to be more controlled by the state government as opposed to the municipal governments? Do you think there's this movement for defunding police departments? What's your take on what's going to happen to policing in America?

I'm disappointed that one of the solutions that is being promoted by some of the protesters is the whole notion of defunding police. I think we all recognize that there needs to be law and order in all communities, regardless of political parties. And defunding police is just not a pragmatic or realistic solution, really. It doesn't address the fundamental issue of racial inequalities and the fact that there are still remnants of discrimination throughout law enforcement throughout the country. And just defunding police doesn't really address it directly. You know, guy, in Hawaii, I was really proud. You know, this past Sunday, we had the largest demonstration or statement of concern that I've seen in Hawaii, probably in more than a decade. There were more than 10,000 people collecting at the state capitol to really support the Black Lives Matter and make a commitment to fund and invest and support addressing the racial inequalities and the mistreatment. We don't see it so much here in our community. As you know, our police departments are filled with minorities pretty much in the ratios of our communities. And I think our police departments here in Hawaii have embraced the whole notion of community policing and being involved with the community a long time ago. So we don't have the anger and the hostility here in the islands that we saw across the country that really erupted in different ways. But I think all of us recognize that, you know, there's no place for discrimination and mistreatment of anyone, you know, due to skin color or ethnic background. And it really just reminded all of us that that we need to all take ownership of that and really do everything that we can to end the racial inequalities and the miscarriage of justice, regardless of ethnic backgrounds.

As governor of perhaps the most diverse state in the union, do you have any advice for governors of other states about what they can do to reduce racial inequality and increase racial harmony?

Well, I mean, I do talk a lot in my participation in the National Governors association, just about recognizing that it really comes down to A respect for all peoples. And, you know, Guy, what I talk about a lot is the gift that all of us received. You know, all of us immigrated from somewhere in the islands, even the native Hawaiians, although they may have come thousands of years before the rest of us as immigrants. But, you know, the gift we receive from native Hawaiians is, you know, the whole notion of. It's important of where you came from and not forgetting those who came before you. But most importantly, it's about being proud and willing to celebrate where you're from and the traditions and cultures that you believe in and really allowing all of us to celebrate. I'm from Okinawa in Japan, the first Okinawan descendant elected governor in the country. And in Hawaii, we celebrate that and how different Okinawans are from other Japanese and, you know, Koreans and Chinese and native Hawaiians. All are empowered to do the same. And so I just promote the notion that everyone deserves to be proud of where they've been, proud of the traditions and cultures and religions that they have and that they embrace, and certainly that they should be allowed to share it with everybody. And we all become better when we do that, when we are able to participate in cultural festivals here in the islands and be able to share, you know, what my grandfather believed in with others is just an important part of working to build that better nation where everyone is truly treated equally.

Do you have any advice for just the random listener, something tactical that they can do vis a vis either the pandemic or the racial discrimination? Like what. What can, you know, Mr. Or Ms. Regular Person do? Not a governor, not a president, not an influencer, just anyone.

I mean, I think what. What we promote a lot here, Guy, is about living aloha, right? It's about l. That you would want to see your neighbors embrace, about being respectful of everyone and all views, you know, even those that might disagree with you on specific issues. You know, everyone deserves to be respected. You know, and I think that that's really key. Treat others as you would want to be treated. You know, that's the golden rule. And I think if everybody could embrace that, then the world would be a much better place. This pandemic has truly forced all of us to evaluate what we're doing. And I know that Hawaii will not be the same moving forward. The challenge and the opportunity is to reinvent every single industry. It's remarkable how every business, every industry in the islands have had to rethink what they do and operate differently, to protect employees, to protect customers, to protect the community. And clearly, In a different way 911 changed the world. I do think that in 2020, this novel coronavirus will change the world and being better prepared to be flexible, you know, to embrace technology, because clearly a lot of the technology in Hawaii, I've not seen so much telework and telecommuting. My son is a software engineer for Microsoft and he's been working from home for the last six months. And I'm trying to get him to recognize that he can come home and do software development from Hawaii, as we've talked a lot about.

Well, you know, I, I could, I would agree with that sentiment that before there was sort of a judgment, right, that, you know, you're not in Silicon Valley, you're not where the center of the universe is for tech and all that. But now, quite frankly, nobody knows where anybody is anymore. My niece, you know, works for cbs, and cbs not the drugstore, and she used to be based in la, but she, you know, is in Hawaii and nobody could tell that she's making sales calls from wherever. So why couldn't you have a Microsoft or an Apple or anything start in Hawaii? Absolutely.

You can, Absolutely. I can't think of any place better in the world to live. Our commitment to equality is beyond compare to any other community. And I think the quality of life here and our commitment to the environment, there is no better place to live and work and to raise a family than to be here in the islands. And this pandemic has really proven that you can be anywhere and work for anyone and able to be very productive. And so certainly I'm going to go track down your niece, make sure I can connect to her and keep her here. I'm definitely working on my son to get him to be able to do software for Microsoft from here in the islands.

As you look back over your career, do you have any mistake that stands out and what you learned from it? Just. People find it very curious what someone remarkable and successful would say. Yeah, I really blew at that time.

I don't know if I ever can point to anything specific. You know, Guy, my wife likes to remind me, when I graduated from engineering school back in 79, I had several job offers from Silicon Valley, from a few startup companies like intel before they became the giant that they are. You know, and she keeps saying that I should have took that job because my life would be different. I'd be like you and getting out surfing and doing all the things that you enjoy doing. So she reminds me that I really should have done that and taken that job instead of returning back to the islands.

You tell your wife that I quit Apple twice. Steve offered me another job. I turned him down. I turned down the opportunity to interview for the CEO position of Yahoo. The first CEO of Yahoo. So if you add all that up, it's a lot of money.

Something you.

And I share that we made those kinds of mistakes. Well, thank you Governor. I appreciate this very much. I know you have lots on your plate and it's not just macaroni salad. Loco moco. Take care. I'm coming to Hawaii as soon as I can.

Just remember you'll be subject to quarantine team. But please come along.

I can't say I'm the friend of the Governor.

There's no fog plan, unfortunately. None. No get out of quarantine free card.

If nothing else, I hope that you learned from Governor Ige that Hawaii takes its 14 day quarantine really seriously. Don't be flying there and then post pictures of you cruising around Hawaii because you will get arrested. The lesson of Governor Ige is that listening to scientists and doctors, taking decisive action and putting people's lives above partisan politics is how to control a pandemic. This attitude is sorely missing in much of the United States. As an exercise, compare and contrast what your political leadership has done. Okay, it's review time and boy, this has got to be one of my all time favorite reviews. The title is why this Podcast is so Darn Important. It's by Josh Rippon. Here is why Guy Kawasaki's podcast Remarkable People is so crucial to this. Covid 1920 moment. I taught United States, European, Hawaiian and medieval history for 17 years in Hawaii. Throughout my life and my career as an educator educator, I came to understand that the stories of remarkable people are one of the prime drivers of history. There are hundreds of thousands of podcasts that occasionally capture the stories of exceptional humans, but so far, not one that focuses so exclusively, so intently and so intelligently on remarkable people. Every single day. Young readers around the world read about these people in books. They watch them in great films and theater productions. They follow them on social media. And as they read, watch and follow remarkable people, they emulate the evident innovation, imagination, creativity, vision, sustainability, resilience, kindness, compassion, morality and wisdom in their stories. This is our hope for the world. So to have Guy Kawasaki bring these remarkable people and their qualities to life, especially in this particular COVID 19 moment that cries out for leadership, is a great blessing to the world. When I listen to great questions for and great responses from Steven Pinker, Jane Goodall, Sean Thompson, Arianna Huffington, Sam Weinberg, my superhero and Sir Ken Robinson. Oh my, another superhero, among others. I aspire to be just a little bit remarkable to my friends, my family and my community. I'm inspired to be better and do more. That Guy Kawasaki's podcast has this kind of impact on me and hopefully millions of others is way, way cool and very remarkable. Well, what can I say, Josh? Thank you very much for that review. I'll give you one more title of this one is awesome By Bright Brian M254 I first saw Guy in a documentary on Apple. His screen presence was really captivating. I thought he would be a good podcast host. Then I forgot about it. The thought returned to me years later and I looked Guy up on Apple podcasts and there he was. Guy seems genuinely curious and open minded. I will definitely keep listening. Thank you Brian. Thank you Josh. I really appreciate these reviews. I hope others will also post reviews of remarkable people. Just go to the Apple podcast app and off you go. I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is Remarkable people. My thanks to Mufi Hanneman, the CEO of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association. Think about how hard that job must be. Now he's also running for the Mayor of Honolulu. Mahalo also to Jeff C. And Pig Fitzpatrick for the magic that makes this podcast happen. Until the next episode, wash your hands.

Maintain your social distance.

Listen to scientists and doctors, not politicians. Be safe and be healthy. Aloha. This is remarkable people.