This week marks five years since Hawai‘i’s first confirmed Covid-19 death — the beginning of a crisis that has claimed more than 2,200 lives across our islands. More than hurricanes. More than tsunamis. More than wildfires.

Soon, it will surpass the number of Americans killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, becoming the deadliest event in modern Hawai‘i history.

And yet, there is no memorial. No plaque. No public ceremony. Not even a bench.

It’s time we changed that. Hawai‘i needs a Covid-19 memorial: a permanent public space that reflects the gravity of what we endured, honors those we lost, and teaches future generations how we came through it.

We Rarely Memorialize Epidemics

Wars and other tragedies are remembered with monuments and museums. Epidemics are not. Diseases are messier — morally complex, politically fraught, and uneven in suffering. People die in isolation behind hospital curtains, not on battlefields or in moments of public catastrophe. There’s no singular date of infamy, no clear enemy, no sense of closure or satisfying moment of victory. Grief is fragmented because our individual experiences are so deeply personal and widely varied.

It’s more convenient to just move on than look back. So we forget.

But forgetting is dangerous. Memorials don’t reopen wounds — they help close them. They give shape to the collective trauma. They tell future generations: this happened, and it mattered.

Across the country, few permanent Covid memorials exist. A national initiative stalled in Congress. Temporary tributes, like the white flags on the National Mall, came and went. Most states remain too politically divided, too weary, and too eager simply put it all behind them.

Let Hawai‘i be different. Let us be the state that says, clearly and permanently, that the lives lost mattered. Our shared experience matters.

Why We Need A Memorial

Memorials do more than mark the past; they help shape the future. A Covid memorial in Hawai‘i would serve five essential purposes:

No. 1 — To Remember Lives Lost

Thousands died in Hawai’i — many without funerals, without loved ones by their side, without the rituals that help us grieve. A memorial would give families, friends, and our broader community a space to honor them.

No. 2 — To Honor the Frontline

From nurses to janitors, grocery clerks to delivery drivers, countless individuals risked their health to keep society running. We thanked them with applause, hotel rooms, coffee, and handmade signs taped to clinic windows.

But their years of sacrifice deserve more than temporary gestures. They deserve something enduring.

No. 3 — To Promote Community Healing

Everyone was affected by the pandemic in some way. While Covid may have physically separated us, it is also the single greatest shared experience in history that unifies all of us. Hawai‘i is a place where place matters — a public memorial is a space for us process our collective trauma, celebrate our resilience, and reflect on our interconnectedness.

Whether it’s a sculpture garden, a wall of names, a sundial marking time lost, or something entirely new, what matters is that we build it. Memory fades. Memorials endure. If we don’t mark this moment, who will?

No. 4 — To Preserve History

While Covid may be Hawai‘i’s deadliest modern tragedy, the islands have experienced even deadlier epidemics in the past. A measles epidemic in 1848-1849 killed at least 10,000 Native Hawaiians — possibly up to 20 percent of the population.

The crisis marked a turning point for the Hawaiian Kingdom and changed history forever, yet it’s almost completely forgotten today. No marker, no memorial. We are witnessing the consequence of that silence as history is now preparing to repeat itself.

Science gave us one of the most effective vaccines that has saved countless lived. We successfully pushed measles out of Hawai‘i and the devastation it causes into the past.

But vaccination rates have dropped dramatically in recent years. Many schools and communities have fallen below the critical threshold for herd immunity protection. Measles has already returned in other U.S. states — in places with higher vaccination rates than ours. It’s no longer a matter of if measles will return to Hawai‘i, but when.

Our history had the lesson but we didn’t have the memory — and that’s the problem. By forgetting that past, we’ve invited the risk back again— and now it’s knocking. We must memorialize to learn.

No. 5 — To Promote Our Values

Hawai‘i’s response to Covid was one of the most effective in the country. By nearly every metric, we were the best-performing state in one of the worst-performing nations. That wasn’t dumb luck. We achieved this through early action, strong leadership, science-based decision-making, a coordinated healthcare system, and most importantly, a collective commitment by the public to put the protection of each other over personal preference.

Yes, our island geography and outdoor climate helped, but our tourism-driven economy and culture of large multigenerational households living under the same roof made us more vulnerable. What made the difference? We masked up. We stayed home when needed. We got vaccinated. We listened to science. We took care of our kūpuna. We chose community over convenience.
That’s a legacy worth remembering — and a lesson worth teaching. We were national leaders when it mattered most. Now let’s lead in how we remember.

Now Is the Time

We remember Pearl Harbor. We remember the lives lost in distant wars. We remember monarchs, astronauts, and moments of tragedy and triumph. We must also remember the Covid pandemic. A public memorial would not only honor the past — it protects our future.

The time to build is now. Five years is long enough to forget. It’s also long enough to start remembering.

The only question is: What should our memorial be? If you have ideas, please share them. Let’s start the conversation that thousands of families in Hawai‘i deserve.