 Good morning, everyone. We're going to start this morning with a presentation from Mr. Pichek on our modeling, and then we'll go to other remarks after that. Mr. Pichek. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Governor. I'm Mike Pichek, and I've been leading Vermont's data and modeling team throughout the pandemic. We'll begin today's press conference with an updated data presentation focusing on COVID-19's growth across the country, across our region, and then finally in Vermont. As a reminder for those who are watching at home, today's presentation is available on our department's website, dfr.vermont.gov, along with all of our resources from our modeling partners. Yesterday, the United States crossed the threshold of 4 million reported COVID-19 cases. This is a staggering number when compared to other countries around the world, but the pace at which we arrived at 4 million cases is also staggering. As you can see from the graph, it took the United States about 99 days to report its first 1 million COVID-19 cases. Although we should keep in mind that testing was limited during much of this period, we can see, however, that the pace of growth begins to speed up at an alarming rate. The U.S. adds an additional 1 million cases in only 43 days, followed by another million reported cases in only 28 days, followed most recently by hitting the 4 million mark in just 15 days. When we look at the daily growth rates across the U.S. census regions, we do see some improvement in the areas of the South and the West. However, their numbers continue to be quite high on a daily basis, and we continue to see increased case counts in the Midwest as well. Further across our country as a whole, our seven-day rolling average for reported cases on a daily basis is the highest it's ever been throughout the pandemic, according to the CDC. Another concerning trend is the increase in hospitalizations and deaths across the country. Although Vermont has the lowest hospitalization and death rates on a per capita basis over the past seven days, we are seeing both of these metrics rise across parts of the South and across parts of the West. Yesterday marked the third consecutive day that the U.S. reported more than 1,100 deaths, and as you can see, the vast majority of these deaths did occur in the South and West census region with much lower numbers in the Northeast. Turning now to our regional data, our week-over-week new reported cases again grew this week. In the Northeast, we saw new cases rise just over 8% compared to last week. And when we compare our region's weekly total since May 21st, we see that this rise in new cases has become a trend with the last three weeks seeing an increase in case-over-case growth in the Northeast. Although this is certainly not the explosive growth that other parts of the country have been experiencing, new cases are approximately 20% higher this week than they were for the last week of June, which should give us some pause here in Vermont. Further, when we forecast out for our region, looking at the four models that we've been relying on, each projects future growth in our region for many of the states over the next four weeks. Although Vermont continues to perform well under each of these forecasts, some states in our region are expected to see case growth between 50 and 100%, with some even forecast to see higher growth in that. Again, this is something that should give us pause here in Vermont. Turning to our own data in Vermont, we have seen our case growth hold steady this week with 52 new cases reported compared to 55 cases from the week before. And we also see that our reopening metrics remain stable here in Vermont as well. Our syndromic surveillance, which is the number of people with COVID-like symptoms that come into the emergency room or urgent care, continues to remain flat under 5% for today and well below our 4% guardrail. The three and seven-day viral growth rates also remain steady and low this week, both sitting around a half a percent. Again, this is not the sustained kind of growth that would give us concern for Vermont. Regarding our test positivity rate, our rolling average is again under 1% this week, safely below our guardrail and continuing our trend as one of the lowest positivity rates in the country. The fourth metric is hospital and critical care bed availability. Like last week, we've seen this ICU number trend around our 30% buffer, and it has gone above that buffer again this week. But like we said last week with our other syndromic surveillance or with our other restart metrics performing well, this metric does not give us pause for concern at this time. And we should point out that no one is in the ICU for COVID-related illness. It's unrelated to COVID and back to a more normal status prior to the pandemic for many of these hospitals. Turning now to our update regarding our travel map, we continue to see a relatively stable number of visitors who are allowed to enter Vermont for leisure travel without a quarantine this week, standing at 7.1 million visitors today. This is a slight increase of about 200,000 people from last week. We can see that there are relatively few and scattered counties across a region that saw improvement this week, with them moving to green status. And there are many more counties where their status has worsened, including many counties in the northeast. Again, although we saw an increase in the overall visitors allowed to enter the state without a quarantine, we continue to see that number reduce among the states in the northeast that made up our original travel map. With that number peaking in late June and gradually declining over the month of July, again, lowering this week to about 4.4 million. Again, this is reflective of the case growth we have seen across the country and the case growth, which is now starting to impact the northeast to a greater extent as well. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to the governor. Thank you, Commissioner Petschek. As you just saw, trends in Vermont continue to hold steady, keeping us in a good position to keep our economy open and continue to move towards schools reopening in the fall. Even as we've opened back up, our positivity rate is frequently the lowest in the country, and right now we have fewer cases than any other state, even when adjusted for population. Importantly, we have a loss of Vermont due to this virus in well over a month. This is the result of having one of the strongest and most nimble testing and contact tracing programs in the country, the hard work of our health department and emergency management teams, and especially for Vermont's willingness to follow guidance and stay safe. I want to thank everyone for doing all they can to suppress this virus and help us contain the small number of outbreaks we've had to prevent it from gaining much traction. You stayed home when it was required, limited your travel, stayed home when sick, kept your distance from others as we've opened back up, and many have worn masks to protect yourself and others. At these news conferences and on social media, we've heard many reports of non-compliance, but our numbers show Vermont has stepped up to keep each other safe, which has become known as the Vermont way. With our low numbers and other considerations, I've waited to implement a mask mandate thus far. I prefer to focus on education, helping Vermonters understand why they should wear a mask, which is to protect their neighbors and themselves and keep Vermont open so they can make the right choice on their own. And I still believe that's been the right approach today. But looking at the situation in the south and west and knowing we'll have more people coming to Vermont and more Vermonters inside as the weather gets colder, we need to be sure we're protecting the gains we've made because as I've said before, we all want to keep moving forward. No one wants to retreat, especially me. So as our data and modeling just showed, the outbreaks across the nation may be spreading back towards us. And while we're in much better shape than the west and south, those states that are trending poorly or where we're watching with caution are inching northeast, closer and closer to the region and therefore closer to our borders. I want to assure you while these trends and projections are concerning, we're still in very good shape as a state. But it is time to prepare. Rather than waiting like other states have until it's too late, I feel we need to act now to protect our gains, which has allowed us to reopen the economy. This is a much better approach than having to roll things back like they've done in states like California and Texas. That's why today I signed an order that will take effect August 1, which will strengthen our current mask mandates. This change will require, rather than recommend, masks be worn in public places, both indoor and outdoor, where physical distancing is not possible. This means public places of all types, including grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores, hardware stores, and other business settings when you come in contact with others. As well, this order requires masks or cloth-faced coverings be worn outside if you cannot keep a six-foot distance from others. This order applies to everyone over the age of two, but there are some exceptions. For example, masks are not required when eating or drinking during strenuous exercise or activity, or for any child or adult with a medical or developmental issue that is complicated by a facial covering. And I want to be clear, and this speaks to the point I've been trying to make for weeks. This is a difficult policy to enforce. A person who declines to wear a mask because of health concerns or difficulty breathing will not be required to produce documentation or other evidence, because doing so would clearly be a violation of their health care or privacy rights. To help us with our education campaign, businesses, nonprofits, and government entities are required to notify customers or clients of this change. This may include, but it's not limited to, posting signs that masks or cloth face coverings are required. And I want to be clear about this. Businesses can refuse to serve people who are not wearing masks. While the benefit of wearing a mask to help reduce transmission has become more and more apparent, getting people to actually wear them is what really matters. Because as I've said all along, mandating masks doesn't make it so. That's why we'll continue to move forward with our education campaign, because reducing the spread of the virus and keeping Vermont healthy and open is the goal. And to accomplish this, we need everyone who can wear a mask to do so. Unfortunately, this issue has become polarized. And I'm still worried that a mandate will create conflict and resistance. So I want to take a moment to talk to folks on both sides of this issue. First, I want to acknowledge there are some who can't wear a mask for health reasons like asthma or even claustrophobia. And there are times when a mask isn't necessary, even under this mandate. So let's give each other the benefit of the doubt. For those for monitors who don't fall into this category but have resisted wearing a mask, I'm asking you to look at the data, the real data, not just something you see on Facebook and realize that the science is real and that wearing a mask will not only protect the gains we've made, but also help your family members and friends to stay healthy. Even the president who's been a skeptic is now convinced masks will help get us through this. In fact, the CDC has said the surge in the Sun Belt, places that previously resisted masks, could be controlled in four to six weeks if disciplined enough to wear a mask. So if we want our kids to go back to school, if we want the place we work or eat or shop to stay open, if we want our health care system and hospital beds available when we need help, then wearing a mask or physically separating is the best way to do that. So please, help us out. Not because it's mandated, but because it's the right thing to do for our seniors, for our kids, for our own health, and for our economy. I'm asking you to take personal responsibility because we must continue to fight these battles in order to win this war and each of us has a role to play in our success. And to those of you already wearing masks that are concerned about those who aren't, I ask you to give them the benefit of the doubt because attacking, shaming, and judging isn't going to help. But understanding, educating, meeting people where they are and maybe using a little kindness and understanding might. Let's not make the news with screaming matches caught on video. Let's do things the Vermont way by being role models and leading by example. Because again, the smarter we are and the more good choices we each make and the more personal responsibility that each of us takes, the better off it will be and the easier it will be to defeat this virus. So with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Green for our health update. Good morning. Vermont is still fortunate to have low levels of virus in our communities, but low is not the same as none. We still expect to see cases of COVID-19 and work quickly to contain them. To do that, we reach out to people who test positive and their close contacts to provide guidance including staying at home to prevent further spread of the virus. I have no new news to report now regarding any of the outbreaks that we have been following or any of the non-outbreaks we have been discussing either. The policy of containment continues to work. The regional and national data that Commissioner Pechak has reported on today continues to be of great concern to the Department of Health. We empathize greatly with those parts of the country that are less fortunate than Vermont at this time. Because our triad of no deaths since June 16th, lowest number of new cases and lowest percent positivity rate creates some reason for optimism that news outlets have picked up upon to some extent nationally and even internationally, I thought I would share with you what I tell others are four possible explanations for this performance. First and foremost is Vermont's cooperation and compliance and their prioritization of health as evidenced by our frequent rankings in the top states for healthy estate, often first. Second, our belief in a policy of protecting the most vulnerable, especially since a slight majority of the Vermont deaths have occurred inside of long-term care facilities like nursing homes. And I've discussed here previously the strict protocols that we've implemented to protect those residents. And we certainly credit the directors and staff of those facilities for working with us on instituting these intense measures to protect the vulnerable populations they care for. And we credit the families who've sacrificed so much in terms of visiting their loved ones. Third is the fact we did not reopen until we had a sufficient level of virus suppression in our state. We began the reopening process cautiously and only when we had a sustained decrease in new cases and an adequate level of virus suppression. And lastly, the very phased and gradual reopening of our state, this coupled with the virus suppression we've achieved through the cooperation and hard work of the Vermonters has led to less active cases, which means less opportunity for hospitalizations and serious life-threatening illness. We, of course, continue to ask Vermonters to protect one another by keeping a six-foot distance from others, wearing a face mask, washing hands, and staying home when sick. If you do travel, know when you need to quarantine. As always, if you're concerned about your health, please consult with your health care provider. As the governor has just said, the decision on mandatory masking was not taken lightly, and we know it will not be welcomed by everyone. But in the end, government does take responsibility and reasonable actions to protect the health and safety of all those who live in our wonderful little state. Public health takes responsibility for making recommendations that help government make decisions that are data-driven and science-based. And in that vein, we truly do believe that a mask mandate is reasonable, especially giving the red zones that we are seeing expanding all around us daily and encroaching now on the northeast. We know that mask wearing can substantially slow the spread of virus, only if a substantial majority of the population who is able to does so. Mask wearing, in combination with other simple actions, will prevent disease and save lives. If each one of us who is able to wear a mask and keep a safe distance from others who are not in our household, if each one of us will wash our hands a lot and stay home when we're feeling sick, or when we've recently been in close contact with someone who has had COVID, we can avoid the resurgence of disease we're seeing in these other states. There's been evidence for some time that wearing a mask lowers the risk that you will spread COVID to others. And we know so much more now about asymptomatic, and especially what I have termed pre-symptomatic, transmission. And that's 48 important hours before one knows that they're ill but could transmit the virus to someone else. Newer evidence is also suggesting that a mask might protect you yourself from getting the virus at all, or from getting more severe disease. As the governor stated, not everyone is able to wear a mask, many for medical reasons. And you won't necessarily be able to tell who is able to or who is not able to wear a mask. So we must all be understanding and avoid the temptation to judge or shame. One of the many reasons we wear a mask is to protect others who cannot. This will support the continued opening of our economy. It will help shop owners, businesses, farmers, suppliers to stay in business. It protects the health of the frontline workers, and it relieves them of the burden of reminding clients about what is now the state's mandate. We will continue our campaign to promote mask-wearing and to educate the public. Because with or without a mandate, the fact is we rely on each other to take this virus very seriously. And keep in mind all the reasons why it's important to take all precautions if we want to get through this pandemic and get back to our more normal lives faster. Thank you, Dr. Levine. With that, we'll open it up to questions. We'll start in the room as usual. Thank you. Governor, I guess I've come out to ask the question back to you. So compliance, how, what sort of fines or penalties could people face if they've walked into a business and they say, I'm not going to wear a mask. You can't make any, what kind of fines? Yeah, again, we know that compliance is going to be difficult. Enforcement is even more difficult. So we're going to continue with the education process. We haven't put a fine structure in place at this point in time. Again, we just want people to do the right thing, get prepared for this and understand that it's in the best interest of all of us. We'll get through this a lot quicker if everyone does the right thing. So again, with our education campaign that we put in, we'll see more and more this week. As a matter of fact, we put it into place a couple of weeks ago, but it's gaining momentum and we're hoping between that and this mandate and with everyone trying to pull in the same direction that we'll get through this without having the controversy of a fine structure. But that could be implemented at any time if we see it necessary. But I don't believe that that's going to be the case. I've been looking at the travel map. Maybe this is a question for sure to be checked, but it looks like in Ohio, for instance, there's only, I think, four or five counties that people can actually travel from without a quarantine. So I'm wondering at what point do we roll back the travel map? Well, we're doing that on a weekly basis. I mean, it is being rolled back county by county. So if we see an area, you know, I look at the map and look at the data on a daily basis and that's what gave me cause for concern and thought it necessary that we take a different approach. Because when you look at Ohio and Pennsylvania and Virginia states that actually have mass mandates and they're starting to go in the other direction, it gives me concern. So we'll be tightening that up as we move forward. We'll do it county by county. David? Following up a little bit on the mandate, it sounds like education is still the primary focus and there's great hope that reminders will follow too. What would be, I guess, the hope to come out of it stating the mandate? It sounds like the approach with education will continue. So in short, what do you hope will be different about it stating the mandate? You know, I've talked with a lot of people over the last couple of weeks about what we should be doing because I truly believe that education guidance is the best approach, giving people the flexibility to do the right thing and we're highly compliant here in the state. But hearing some who have reached out and have made the argument that while they may be a bit embarrassed in some respects to wear a mask could be the only one going into a store maybe and being the only one with a mask has given them pause, they don't want to be the first. So they said, you know, it would be a lot easier if we had a mandate and then we could at least maybe blame someone. And if that rests on my shoulders and we get better compliance and we get through this quicker, I'll take that responsibility, but it did have an effect on me. That was a consideration that people needed a backstop. They needed a reason to do it, not enough that they didn't understand enough that it could protect others, but they just needed to, again, be forced to do so, even when they really wanted to. We'll try this one. I think it's going to work. Timing is everything in every endeavor. Everything that we do to be successful is as much a timing issue as anything else. So with the campaign that we've rolled out, what we're seeing across the country and with more science coming out and giving us a little bit more information as to why the masks are so important, I think we're peaking at the right time, we're doing it at the right time, and I think we'll be successful. And on a different note, the federal supplement, the $600 unemployment supplement, is expiring this week. There's plenty of reminders we've lost jobs and this is going to hit them. Have you got a response or does the state have any plans to be able to try and fill that void? We don't have the resources to fill that void, to be perfectly honest. This is going to be up to the federal government. I know that they're debating this in Congress as we speak. I believe from some of the conversations I've had with other governors and our congressional delegation that there's a possibility that something will come into place before this expires, and so we'll see. But I don't believe it'll be $600 if it is reinstated. It'll be at a lower value. But unemployment is still available to anyone, the traditional unemployment, and the PUA is still available for those who need it. But the $600 supplement will expire unless Congress takes action. Senator, given the updated travel habits right behind you, does it concern you that as things start to close in on Vermont that obviously we're seen as a destination, a place where you can go where you're fairly safe? Does that concern you that that may be the undoing of the state right now? Well, I don't believe it has to be our undoing in some respects. That's why I'm taking the step today implementing the mandate on MAS because I want to be able to stay open. I want us to continue to be the safest state in the country with the lowest number of positive cases, the lowest positivity rate in the country. We have so much going for us. And to protect that, I felt it necessary to implement the mandatory MAS policy today. So we'll continue to watch the data to inform the traveling public so we don't bring more of the virus into the state unknowingly. But I believe, again, we'll just keep track of this. It is concerning to see the outliers. And I want to reiterate, we're in good shape here in the state. We're in good shape within, you know, a five, six, seven hour, nine hour drive at this point. And that's typically where we're seeing a lot of travel, you know, from our friends in Massachusetts and New York and so forth. Their numbers are still good. So we're still in good shape. And one for Dr. Ken. Is the department concerned right now given the testing and given these private companies are now coming in and they're trying to get a piece of the testing pie, so to speak. And as you stated, the particular test they're using is not necessarily accurate right now. As they fight for those dollars, are you concerned that it becomes more of a business rather than a public health issue? I think you've got a couple questions linked together there. So, clearly testing is a business for many commercial firms. But it is clearly out of a public health issue. We are, if I can try to dissect your question a little, we remain concerned about testing resources, supply chains, all the components that I've laboriously laid out in the past from collecting a specimen to actually processing them in the lab and getting a result. So we are paying extra special attention to that literally every day of the week right now. And working across the state with our partners in health care systems, with our partners who are needing testing, but also providing the testing and have the laboratories to make sure that we have a diversified portfolio across the state, and to make sure that if there are places where the supply chain is weak, we at least have places to counterbalance that in a big way. Another part of your question had to do with sort of the different types of tests because we've got the PCR test, which is the mainstay of what we do and then the antigen test. And the antigen test, I'm sure we will still begin to start seeing more and more of as it becomes better known. And I do believe that we're in an appropriate place in a state's testing strategy for those tests. And we've been discussing that all along in terms of how they can be utilized in a high-risk setting and with a symptomatic patient in the population to help make decisions very quickly. So if there's a nursing home resident who's in a state that has a high prevalence of COVID and that patient has all the symptoms of COVID and you can get that result in 15 minutes, that can do wonders for how the nursing home behaves with regard to isolation, quarantine, who's in contact with who, which staff take care of that patient and how they don't take care of any other patients, etc. So that can be very valuable. Less valuable if you're just trying to generally screen a bunch of people who don't feel badly in or in a state with very low prevalence. So we just have to find that sweet spot in between. Well, and these various businesses that are looking to be mobile partners, are you worried that maybe the business end of things becomes a little bit more important than necessarily Yes, I don't worry about that so much. The thing that I'm worried about the most and this morning the governor was actually telling us from phone calls he's had with other governors that they turn around time for results from some of these companies which wasn't traditionally bad, has become overstressed by the surges all around the country. And with those surges come way more requests for tests and to handle the volume of those tests has created backlogs for them. And what might have been returned in 48 hours is now 5 days later. And that's really not acceptable at a time when you need to make quick decisions from a policy perspective and from a health care perspective because your state is experiencing a surge. So that's what concerns me and much of the country the most right now. Wilson Ray Hi, good morning everybody. Happy Friday. I have two questions here. As we see apparently the virus moving back into the Northeast, not that it's ever left completely, but that it seems to be getting worse again. Is that the beginning of the second wave we've been talking about for so long? Because it first started. And then secondly the question is the president was saying I don't know recently, I don't know exactly when but he said that the administration has, that there are zero unfulfilled requests from states for any sort of equipment PPE or ventilators or whatever. Does Vermont have any unfulfilled requests from the federal government that are outstanding right now? And those are my two questions. Wilson, I'm going to ask Commissioner Levine to answer the first question and maybe Commissioner Shirling could answer the second question in terms of PPE and inventory. Thank you. Good morning Wilson. You're very upbeat this morning. Thank you. Appreciate that. Most of the country we don't believe is in the second wave. It's the first wave never really went away. I would have to say if all of a sudden Vermont had a major wave I might call that a resurgence in Vermont and the reason I say that is just again because our percent positivity rates and our case rates are so low that the virus truly has entered a state of if you will use the word suppression here in Vermont. For a fairly prolonged time which has allowed the state to reopen in so many ways and so if we saw a dramatic spike I would call that a resurgence but I think most public health officials are calling what's going on in the country a continuation of something that was going on from March that never really got to the level of suppression that it needed to before a lot of very dramatic reopening activities occurred in various places so that's how I would answer that. I'll turn the rest of it over to Commissioner Schurl. Good afternoon Wilson. If I understand the question it was two part general overview of our PPE inventory and then unfulfilled federal orders, is that correct? Yeah, pretty much. Yes. In general our PPE stocks and the warehouse are good now keep in mind that those are emergency reserves that we're trying to build up to a fixed month total reserve I think on average we've got about 100 days stock on average of the various types of PPE material and those range all the way down to 50 or 60 days all the way up to some things are in stock for over a year based on current burning relative to federal orders will never be in a position until the pandemic and where all federal orders are fulfilled we have rolling a request for for some protective equipment that are being filled on a weekly basis by the federal government. So does that mean you have unfulfilled request from the federal government? I mean it's kind of we're fact checking the president here so I want to be as precise as possible with that. Right now you have a request from the federal government can you tell me what those are? Well I'm not sure and characterize them necessarily as unfulfilled because they're rolling requests for ongoing supply to build the stockpile and in order to tell you what the outstanding requests are we'd have to put together a quick brief for you so I'm going to take the back you on that piece. Okay great thank you very much Kevin McCollum seven days You hear me? We can I guess my first question is can you explain why you favor an educational approach towards the wearing of math given that you were very a willing early on in the pandemic to make travel restrictions for non-essential employees mandatory you didn't show any compunction for hesitation about requiring people to stay home instead of just encouraging them to stay home why that hesitation till now on the math? Yeah it's been it's like a behavior change behavior change is difficult to accomplish those were almost like structural changes when you close down a business it's a structural change behavior change like shaking hands think about six months ago would you have ever thought shaking hands took a while it took probably a couple months before people became accustomed to not doing so the reaction is when you encounter someone is to shake their hand but we've gotten through that wearing math is something that is a little bit more difficult as we've seen again across the country and seen how politically polarized this has become by a number of different factors so that's what I was sensitive to and I've always believed that you get more when you lead rather than drive and trying to force someone to do mandate something you're not always successful but if you can convince somebody to do the right thing by leading by example and educating that you have far better results and I think that's part of why I've been resistant and seeing our data we've been moving in the right direction for quite some time and again I've stated this on a twice weekly basis I'm very proud of where Vermont is and how much we've accomplished even though we're within a five hour driving distance of New York City and New York City had 35,000 deaths and that was the epicenter of the pandemic and Boston another area of great concern almost 9,000 deaths and again that's within a two hour driving period so we've been able to accomplish a great deal by doing the right thing and we've been able to again have high compliance but we need more compliance right now we need to make sure that the more we've learned about this the better off we'll be if we mask up and I believe that timing is everything and again with more data, more science more education as well as making this mandatory I think we'll get a little bit higher compliance and that's what we need right now to prepare ourselves this isn't a time to panic we have time we've been able to look forward to the next generation we're watching this heat map we're watching how it's coming back towards us and it's just the right time to better prepare ourselves for what could happen and to prevent it from happening I appreciated your remark anticipating some conflict potentially in the community but what kinds would you give to a shopper who is out and about and they encounter someone who doesn't wear a mask and they don't know whether that person has a medical condition or not would you counsel them to say something ignore it I would counsel the shop owner I would counsel them to avoid avoid that person not come in within six feet of that person just try and avoid the situation so it seems like there might be some conflict between the shop owners business owners who are requiring people to wear a mask and yet some people who have medical conditions still need to shop what does that person do with a medical condition who walks up to a store that says masks require they call the shop do they knock do they walk in anyway what are they supposed to do I would say that they would walk in anyway they might want to tell the shopkeeper or whoever is there that they have a medical condition if they want to but it's not required obviously privacy is of great concern so it's a delicate balance admittedly Kevin in places where we see I'm sure you've been through the city of Burlington who has had a mask mandate for quite some time now and there are people there who don't adhere to that policy we're going to see the same thing throughout the state but again I'm hoping that the more people who wear them the more people who lead by example the more compliance we'll have okay thank you very much Mike Donahue, the Islander thank you Ethan Governor, I was just wondering what impact do you think your mandatory mask order will have on schools to talk to the superintendents specifically organized sports and obviously the fall season coming up with football and you know other things like drama and other close student activities I was just wondering why like goggles are not being mandated or healed because here does obviously are impacted on someone like this yeah I think if you you know I might ask Dr. Levin to comment but I think the reason goggles are not required because that's where the droplets might come into your system rather than emit from your system so what we're trying to do is make sure everyone masks up in order to prevent that from happening but we don't know what's going to happen at this point in time we're having conversations about fall sports as we speak right now we're trying to focus on in-person instruction first that's the our highest priority in some sort of hybrid system or getting to a point where we have full in-person instruction I think is the best approach for our kids so we'll continue to focus on that but sports are important as well for all kinds of reasons as well as drama and the arts and so forth so we want to get back to normal as quick as possible that's why again implementing this mask mandate might help us get there to prevent the spread in other locations back at home and so forth so Dr. Levine anything that you can add to that Dr. Levine is I think so it's the answer I was going to make a video of a football camp with a blocking drill where the player for blocking can help blocking pads only to ask for holding the pads with a sweating player to just block them and hold it for the next person and they're just passing it down the lines as they're all sweating and breathing and everything like that no mask no nothing and I'm thinking Dr. Levine probably would give him an aid for proper handling it is problematic and again enforcement only goes so far and we said that there are allowances for strenuous activity and sports and athletics and when you're working out and so forth so we just want people to do the right thing and so when we're considering fall sports there's going to be some activities that are not going to happen this year to be perfectly blunt. Thank you very much. Chris Roy Newport Daily Express Yes good morning I'm just wondering what the I realize this is an educational piece primarily but what are the consequences if somebody continuously yeah ignores the mandate if they defy the mask mandate I mean what do you tell those folks and if you can't do anything then why mandate at the first place? Well again trying to lead by example trying to give reasons for people to try enforcement on their own putting up signs in businesses making it a requirement allowing businesses to make decisions on their own about whether they serve or don't serve someone they do have the ability under this executive order to not serve someone who comes in without a reason to who is not wearing a mask so again not a perfect system but we need more compliance we need more people wearing masks and all walks of life so we think this is the right approach and if we have to do something more with enforcement we'll do so but let's try the education piece along with the mask mandate and see how that goes I believe that we'll be successful in that regard with this approach but we'll just have to play it by year this week and take other measures if we have to Okay thank you Erin Pataco DT Digger School districts have been releasing their reopening plans this week and it looks like most if not all are adopting a hybrid schedule with dates in for instruction and dates for note learning many if not most districts appears that students will be receiving more than two days of in-person instruction does the governor support the approach to taking those calls well again I'm hoping that at some point we'll go to full instruction full in-person instruction but we have to start somewhere and I know there's a lot of apprehension across from teachers and administrators and kids and parents so maybe this is the first step so I accept that we again start somewhere and this might be the right approach a hybrid approach is something we're offering we have to prove ourselves and it might again allow us to go to more in-person instruction and more successful we are but it gets back to the district and the schools to make that determination on their own Are you all set Erin? Yeah I'm set Cat, WCAX Hi, so I had a viewer who wanted to know how the increases in cases around our region and in Vermont compared to our increase in testing so I think they would want a little bit of context about whether we're just catching more cases now or whether there are more cases now I'll let Dr. Levine and Commissioner Pichek answer that but we again we still have a very low positivity rate so that's the common denominator here at a different time we would stand to as a trio and say exactly what was just said because that has become a controversial point around the country and it's been in the evening news a lot I know but we're very comfortable that we're testing a combination of people who really feel the need to be tested because they don't feel well or have a specific symptom as well as people who are getting tested because there's a reason they need testing whether they work in a sector that cares for vulnerable people whether they are traveler and want to know if they need to continue a quarantine whether there are Vermont who's left the state that is coming back etc so and then there's people who are being tested who just want to know and they actually have no symptoms at all so testing those diverse populations with good numbers over a thousand a day for sure about eleven thousand a week many weeks allows us to really feel comfortable that we're getting a great sample of Vermont and with our positivity rate as Commissioner Pichak said being by low one percent that has to indicate that there is a low level of virus in our communities not being freely transmitted amongst people all of the time so I think that's very very comforting if you will in that regard I was going to say one other thing and I forgot but do you have a comment to make as well? Thank you Dr. Levine I'm just going to talk about outside of Vermont I think that was part of the question as well and certainly across the country we've seen new cases outpacing increases in testing we keep a close eye on the positivity rates of the states that are around us many in New England have low positivity rates but some of them have seen increases as well which again would lead to indicate that the increases that we're seeing in our region aren't just due to increased testing but greater spread of the virus as well Quick follow up for Dr. Levine probably are we testing too many people? I asked because I was talking with the head of the microbiology clinical lab at University of Vermont Medical Center and they were saying we're we can have 1,300 tests come through our door each day and getting through all of them can be challenging and there's a little bit of a question of are we testing it at this point? Too many people Very understandable Any reaction to that? Yeah very understandable question I remembered what I wanted to say for the previous question which is we just had an experience where we essentially tested a huge sample of Bennington and Wyndham counties to try to figure out if there was something going on down there and tested over 1,600 people and only found 5 positives in that population so that again gives us greater comfort in thinking that we're comfortably testing enough people to know what's going on and what's not going on and are we accurately reflecting what's going on in the population we think we are. Now when it comes to your other question about are we testing too much I would say the answer is no if you look at the most expert guidelines that have been given to states by those not only in the federal government like CDC but Harvard researchers and others who have really tried to analyze this problem closely and we are now slightly exceeding the number of tests that our state should have on a daily basis. It was around 900 something close to a thousand tests a day so we're slightly exceeding that which is fine I think that's right. The only time I would say we should be concerned is if we're in a state where the supply chain has been disrupted as we talked in an earlier question and if all of a sudden we're back to where we were in March where there's a dearth of chemical reagents or collection kits or what have you for testing then we'd have to very strictly reanalyze our policy and our procedures. Right now we are actually looking for those things though. Again, trying to be ahead of the ball making sure that if something's coming our way and if the country is really running into trouble with having adequate testing supplies or adequate turnaround times are there ways we can conserve now to protect ourselves later and I don't mean radically changing what we're doing in testing just modifying some protocols that may have had very little yield so we can look at the data and go very little yield testing this population of people maybe we should do less of that to conserve our supplies but at the moment we're not changing. So we're not concerned that we're creating a backlog in testing with a lot of asymptomatic cases. Not right today but obviously watching that closely for the future. Thank you. Paul Heinz. Hi, Governor. I have a few questions about the death of him named Kenneth Johnson last December at the Oregon State Correctional Facility. The Office of the Defender General has alleged that the Department of Correction and its contractor ignored Mr. Johnson's pleas for help and in fact threatened and restrained him as he was gasping for breath and dying. What do you think is responsible for Mr. Johnson's death? Well first of all anyone in our custody we have a responsibility to take care of and this was a very tragic incident we're trying to get to the bottom of it as we speak we're asking an entity to do a private investigation to see what happened and make sure that doesn't happen again I'm very concerning I don't take this lightly and we're trying to get to the bottom of it I might ask Secretary Smith to expand on that being that he's right here. Paul, thank you for the question obviously we are responsible if in fact that person is in our custody like Mr. Johnson was you know I've sat at this stood at this podium quite challenged I will and I've publicly praised departments in my agency when they do a good job and you'll see it done numerous times I've done it with Dr. Levine in the health department and also the department of corrections in terms of the response to the coronavirus during the pandemic and they really did a great job but I've also been critical publicly when we don't get things right and we didn't get this right there is no excuse in my opinion for someone in our custody to be medically misdiagnosed with a cancerous tumor that grew and was undetected in a man's throat subsequently it killed Mr. Johnson as you had said on December 6th or 7th I believe so this concerns me on several levels could we have provided better medical care and the answer is absolutely yes we are as you know we're changing we've changed our medical providers did the medical people and correction supervisors respond sufficiently and I have my doubts but there are several independent investigations ongoing most of them have concluded but I've asked Trish Coffin and his team to take a look at this incident up in Newport I have also asked Jim Baker to take a close look at ourselves in the mirror on this and ask the question did we do everything we could of in this case and we need to look ourselves in the mirror and make that judgment whether we did I don't think we did and since this prisoner was African-American then we have to ask the hard question and look ourselves in the mirror and say would we have handled this prisoner differently if he was white and so you know those to sort of follow up on your question we are responsible for this and we should take responsibility there is no excuse for this and the other thing that I just want to say is we need to turn these investigations around faster now COVID interfered with this investigation but to go seven months with investigations going on we need both us as an agency and external entities need to turn these around faster so that we can we can expose these sort of instances as quick as we can I answer your question Paul Thank you Mr. Secretary I just would like to re-state the question again to the governor I could answer Secretary Smith but I would like the governor to answer it do you believe the state is responsible for Mr. Johnson's death and I would also add do you believe as Secretary Smith just indicated that Mr. Johnson's race may have played a role in his death I would like to see the results of the investigation before I come to that determination on either counts I would add and maybe Dr. Levine could even expand on this there are misdiagnosis that happens every single day throughout the health care system it's just something that happens it's not perfect and it does happen but we have a responsibility to follow up on this and I would hope the race didn't play a factor in this but I can't say for certain that it did not we know that racism is apparent throughout our country but here in Vermont as well and if so we have to take responsibility for that Governor are you suggesting this was a run of the mill misdiagnosis from the report if I could finish sir the report suggests that this man was banging on the windows yelling for hours and was ignored that seems to go beyond misdiagnosis now I would agree there isn't anything about this case that's run of the mill but I'm just saying I'd like to get through the investigation I'd like to get the information first before I comment further on that and take full responsibility for it but I just want to make sure that we have all the information but certainly from what I've seen thus far it appears that we made a tremendous amount of mistakes along the way the defender general has also alleged that the DOC was quote complicit in covering the contractor's group failure to provide live saving medical care can you Governor respond to that charge again well again I don't know what he's basing that on what investigation that he performed to come to that conclusion but again we'll see what the entity that we have contracted with to give us that independent investigation comes up with and if they come to that conclusion then we'll take responsibility Governor do you have anything to say to Mr. Johnson's family yeah well again it's a tragic tragic situation and obviously we can't let this happen and it's a black eye for us for it to happen at all when someone is in our custody and you know extremely extremely sorry for the loss to the family members of someone who again is in our custody we had a responsibility to take care of this person and it appears we may have failed thank you Governor just one final question for you Secretary Smith and then I'll let you go you said earlier that you believe that investigations need to take place more quickly I understand there is now an external review taking place by Downs-Rackland Martin can you clarify for me to the best of your knowledge the nature of any internal reviews by the Department of Corrections on this matter the defender general appeared to question whether one has taken place at all prior to the Downs-Rackland review can you tell me what you know about any internal review there wasn't one Paul and there should have been but DRM will be looking at why there wasn't one taken place as it should have in corrections and I just want to also share with you I have authorized Downs-Rackland Martin through their contract to share any findings that they have with the U.S. Attorney and the Attorney General if warranted so we are making sure that we are sharing any of the results with the proper proper authorities out there Thank you Mr. Secretary I may have some more questions but I'll call up with you offline and thank you Governor through time Thanks Paul Joe Lee-Shervin local 22 Hi Governor I just wanted to know why now why is the mask mandate set in place for August 1st as opposed to June or even a few weeks ago Well again timing is everything we thought we were on the right track we are on the right track here in Vermont but as I stated weeks ago we can't think of ourselves just as an island here because we're not we are so dependent on a region whether it be New York or Massachusetts New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island New Jersey and so forth we have a lot of visitors coming to our state that they either have second homes here or just love the beauty of our state and want to visit so seeing in the beginning we saw that it was getting safer the travel, trusted traveler portion of our modeling showed that we were actually expanding the area and that we could have more people coming into the state but what we saw again throughout the Sun Belt the South and the West and we're seeing in the Midwest right now this resurgence intensifying of the virus has given me pause and given me some concern and I want to prepare us again this isn't the time to panic we have time to put this into place and prepare just in case this does come to our borders again this is just happening what we're seeing is some increased cases in Ohio in Virginia, Pennsylvania and we just want to make sure that we're on top of this and anticipating this and prevent any resurgence here in Vermont again very proud of what we've done we leave the nation in a number of different areas and I intend to keep it that way and just to clarify there's no fees or fines associated with people who don't comply with the mask wearing policy no, there's none at this time are stores required to have signage of some sort to tell people that there's a mask in order to come in yes, we are requiring entities government entities and private entities to put signage up that tells people that there is a mask requirement thank you Ty Page Governor, Times Argus reported yesterday that banks and retailers are running short of small change in part because people aren't walking in their stores as much was also reported yesterday that the store reporter at the affiliate newspapers have had to lay off their editor several other key news staff due to continued declining advertising given these canaries in the coal mine are you concerned that your mask mandate would drive consumers to buy even more online less in-person visits to Vermont businesses and has your administration discussed if this increased online buying determined to be permanent consumer choice for more Vermonters yeah, no, actually a guy I believe just the opposite I believe that if we put this into place that people will be more comforted in going out that we can continue to open up the economy I still believe that we're going to be able to open the spicket a little bit more every single week but we need people to adhere to the policy keep themselves, keep their families safe and reduce the transmission of the virus so I believe this action that we're taking to be proactive will actually have the opposite effect and we'll be able to have more people again have some faith in going out to some of these stores and do shopping and actually open up the economy more okay, thank you question for commissioner given the false positive on antigen testing in Manchester as a state public health expert are you concerned that some of the increase in large scale positive tests nationwide could be significantly due to a problem similar problem with antigen testing that's a great question not all states report antigen testing so we believe we're a part of at least a third of the states that require confirmation of antigen testing with PCR to be reported so again it wouldn't account for all cases and something very unique may have happened here in our circumstances it's still yet to be determined so I would hate to have it be generalized across all those in the country who are using this particular mode of testing because we just don't know the precise explanation for it just yet so the antigen testing is relatively new so the majority of testing that's been done in the country until the last month or so has been PCR testing so I think if it does account for any percentage it's going to be a very small percentage if there were false positives in the mix so I'm not overly concerned about that at this time what I'm actually more concerned about is that these machines will people will lose faith in them or lose confidence I do think they have a role and I want that role to be evident as they get deployed and when they're used appropriately I think they can be another adjunct to our argumentarium for testing so I really hope that through the investigations that are ongoing both here and actually in Maine in that example I cited as well that we'll get some clarity and definition about that because again I do think these machines will play a role in the future thank you Peter Hirschfeld, CPR Commissioner Levine you referenced the growing body of literature that shows a correlation between facial covering usage and reduced transmission of COVID-19 are you familiar with any research or literature that shows face mask mandates result in higher usage rates of facial covering may have Dr. Levine and Commissioner Sherling I'm sorry, Commissioner Pijek answer that as well that's a really nice question to ask like everything with COVID-19 everything's moving very fast so again precise answers to questions like that are revolving first point that everyone needs to understand there is widespread agreement about the fact that facial coverings will be helpful and doing what we want them to do to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 so that needs to be accepted from the start the more nuanced question is is the mandating of the wearing of the facial covering something that makes even more difference than just using them at all on a more voluntary basis we'll call it and there is some increasing evidence now and actually literally an hour and a half ago I was showing the governor another study that had come out recently in health affairs that looked at the evolving climate and the fact that many states were starting to mandate and estimated that there could be anywhere from 150 to 450,000 cases of transmission of COVID-19 that would be averted by the use of a mandatory facial masking policy they made that estimate based on the data they had looking at the performance of states that had developed a policy to mandate versus those that did not and saw significant evolving changes in all of those states internationally there's been some other data as you know there are countries that actually from a cultural point of view have made the transformation we're trying to have Vermont make and use of masking knowing it is a behavior change that is challenging for everyone as the governor has stated today and so other countries where this has become much more of a cultural norm as opposed to something that we have to start consciously thinking about and doing have shown success when that has been added as well so I'm getting much more comfortable with that field of research though I'm not sure we're done yet with that because the mandating is really so recent I'm going to ask commissioner Pichek to add anything because he's developed some nice models with his department that we've all viewed that actually shed some more light on this thank you Dr. Levin yes so Peter for your first question there is limited surveys or limited research about the mandate and it's increased compliance but there was at least one state that conducted an internal polling through its health department through a third party survey as well and that's Colorado and they did find in both of those surveys that mask compliance was up about 8 to 16 percent in counties in Colorado where there was a mandate compared to counties in Colorado where no mandate had been issued and that was part of the rationale for issuing a statewide mask mandate just last week so there is limited you know research but that's one item to point to as Dr. Levin mentioned in terms of getting universal mask compliance we showed some models earlier one of them was from IHME that showed many of the states in our region forecasted to grow between now and November however each one of the states including Vermont if a mask policy is universally adopted meaning 95 percent of people are wearing masks when they should be in indoor locations and the like each one of those states are going to see a decrease from where we stand now in their case count so that is very encouraging but we do need to get greater compliance not just here but across the region and the country and just a real quick follow up for you Governor this isn't going to be taking effect until August 1 why the 8 day delay between your determination that this is the right policy choice for Vermont actually putting it in place well again for a number of different reasons first of all this isn't a panic situation again as I stated this is trying to be proactive trying to forecast what's happening and trying to prevent some transmission of the virus if we can in the foreseeable foreseeable foreseeable future based on the modeling that we've seen secondly I think we need to give time to some of these businesses and entities to get the signage up to prepare people for this as well as people individually to get them prepared to buy mass get mass acquire mass make mass to make sure that they're fully prepared as well so again this isn't a panic this is just doing the right thing and doing it like we have everything else in a measured way if I thought that this was something that was required tomorrow obviously I would have mandated it today and had it effective today but I just don't see that this is in that vein and again we'll continue with our education program our marketing campaign that will continue and build this week you should see more of it by the time this comes into effect thanks to all of you and Wallace Allen, you today here hi this is a question about the economy as you know the $500 federal unemployment supplement is going away this week so it's going to start not arriving next week and I'm wondering how is the state preparing for example when you guys released your rental and mortgage assistance program officials said then that they know that's not going to be enough money we know a lot of remanders have been using food shelves and food banks so do you expect a rise in homelessness and hundreds as a result of this money going away? well again as I said before earlier in the questioning I believe that Congress will be taking some action this week from everything that I've heard from other governors and from our congressional delegation I think it's just a matter of time it may not be to the same amount that we're seeing today but I believe that there will be something there and again implementing this mass mandate I believe allows us as well to continue to open up the economy here in Vermont so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to make again based on what we see over the next week or so based on the data that might be able to make more announcements on opening up a little bit further to provide for more opportunity for people to go back to work in their regular jobs because I know that there are jobs available at this point as well so I'm hopeful we'll get through this but I believe that Congress will take some action in the next few days okay thank you I had another question too it's about bias incidents according to data from the AG's office Vermont has actually seen an increase in bias incidents over the last two months those include hate crimes civil harassment offenses and bias each is there anyone that is aware of this and is doing anything to deter bias incidents and hate crimes obviously very volatile time for us as a country I don't know if that would be unique to Vermont I would suspect although I have nothing to base us on but I think it would be a lot of this throughout the country this has become again another one of those polarizing issues which shouldn't be polarizing we should all come together as Americans and get through this and do the right thing but at the same time I believe that we are seeing more again volatility in this area Commissioner Scherling anything you could add to this yes Governor I haven't seen the data from the Attorney General's office but we have sporadically seen events being reported of this nature and some of it may be as a result of increased awareness which increases reporting which is good in terms of responding I think having Vermonters embrace this conversation about bias and about all the challenges it presents is the primary way to have communities get engaged in this conversation and find ways to mitigate the impact of bias and ultimately with the goal of eliminating racism is there something you guys are doing that is advancing that goal of having Vermonters embrace the conversation well I think on a community by community basis those conversations are happening I see a snippet of those types of engagement processes that are happening we are about to undertake a public outreach campaign on our modernization strategies for modernizing policing and law enforcement which is a very prominent component of this work so we hope that that effort will create opportunities for folks to engage as well as well we've put into place the racial equity task force who has been meeting just gotten together and we'll look for some approaches there suggestions on what we can do to do better alright, thank you very much Steve Merrill, hello can you hear me Ken thank you, a couple of quick ones for the doctor maybe a couple for the governor if I may how about one for each can we negotiate yeah sure but some like I said some outlets have two or three people from their outlets but regardless you can have two or three from your outlet as well Steve okay if I'm schizophrenic can I just pretend that I'm another person anyways Dr. LaBean what's the latest on FOMI do we were told that the virus could live for a certain time on certain things and it's varied do we know for sure how long to live on different surfaces I don't have that at the top of my head but yes we're learning more and more and you're correct we differentiate like a hard metallic surface from a piece of clothing or cloth there are different times I'm glad you asked the question because I'd actually like to look back at that literature a little again and see if there's any more certainty so I will make a note to myself to report that but what I do want to emphasize as a sort of theme is we know enough about what are called fomites which are just inanimate objects that could transmit the disease we know enough that most authorities feel that the minority of infections are transmitted that way this does not mean stop washing your hands by no means does it mean that but it means that the masking becomes even more important and the social distancing becomes even more important because if so much is transmitted in the air we all breathe the precautions we can take to protect ourselves from the majority of the way infections are transmitted rather than the minority which is from objects okay I believe the CDC told us that if we all complied and we all wore masks that we could stamp this thing out completely in four weeks so if we did all that and after four weeks we didn't stamp it out should we still believe them absolutely because stamping out implies the virus just disappeared from the face of the planet and that's not a realistic outcome measure the outcome measure we should have is at least in Vermont we keep our rates as low as they are which is about as low as we can humanly go it seems it's very challenging to go much lower at a time when too many humans retain susceptibility to this virus because they don't have any immunity so the virus isn't going to disappear off the face of the planet but clearly CDC was trying to I think tell a lot of the states that have had the worst experience recently with the virus that there is hope for them and if they do implement all of the things that we talk about all the time and get good adherence on the part of their population they will actually reverse these processes and they should have faith in that but it does take compliance and it does take recognizing that these are proven policies that will work and again you know in Vermont as the governor just said it's not an emergency for us to have the mandate for masking but for many of the states it's actually been implemented in a desperation move because things have gotten so bad that they need to pull every bit of the armamentarian out that they can it's nice in our case that we can be very proactive and preemptive about it and make sure that we can try to keep what's going well now as well as it is going for the future great thank you doctor governor during the debates this week you expressed surprise at a man named Ted from an outfit called man talking about the kids putting wallets on the dashboard or anything are you aware that did any of all of us who grew up near a major city like we grew up outside of Boston and we got the talk when we got our driver's license that you know you kept your hands on the wheel the officer approached the car you know he tried to be polite spoke one spoke into answered questions stuff like that and even for those of us who had parents who grew up during the depression I mean we were told to like keep money on our wallets so we wouldn't get busted for vagrancy I mean are you aware that this is not just a racial thing well I would just say Steve I have relatives about my same age cousins that live in the Boston area grew up there never experienced what I described so obviously everyone has to be careful but it just hit me that during this conversation that he was when he was teaching his one of his kids to drive that he would have to take it wasn't just about going slow watching the road don't use your phone et cetera et cetera it was the number one issue was putting your wallet on the dashboard so that you wouldn't be reaching for something if you got stopped because he was black and then possibly getting shot as a result I mean so that's something he had to teach his kids it's not something my parents taught me wasn't something that I taught my kids and my cousins and so forth that live in the Boston area it's not something that they had anticipated either so again you may have experienced something different but it was eye-opening for me and it just highlighted the fact that we do treat people differently they haven't been treated equitably and we need to do better in that regard so they don't live in fear we should all be able to but when an officer approaches a car often they can't see you know the color of the driver and what they're looking for and I'm sure Mike Shirley will attest to this what the officers are looking for are called furative movements and that you know no matter any whatever color you are you keep your hands where they can be seen by the approaching officer I mean they can't tell from 30 40 feet away what race you are often I just wanted to Steve that could be debated I'll leave it at that but I'm just saying we need to do better if this is someone who is living in fear and living in fear of their kids being shot and having to take these drastic steps and teaching them how to drive then we have a problem so I just again it was eye-opening for me and something that I thought was powerful and something that I think we can fix yeah well I guess it affected you differently than it would some other people but thank you all very much Greg the county courier Greg the county courier okay we move on from Greg Joe Bresser the Barton Chronicle I'm not exactly sure to whom this question is directed it's about the attribution of cases to towns and I think it may be the reverse of the kinds of questions you've been getting before in our case in Orleans County we've been fortunate enough to have remained in 14 cases during the entire pandemic we've also noticed that some cases do not appear to have been showing up showing up in the listings of for instance we reported on a person in one small town who was asymptomatic but was tested positive for COVID but many cases have been attributed to that town in the listings that the state has put out and the number of cases hasn't bunched and I am curious as to how the attribution is made and confident you are in figures such as 14 cases in Orleans County at the Levine? Hi Joe, I appreciate it if you'd send the information about the town specifically to my communications office so we can look at that specific instance but as you know when there's zero to one case in a particular locale we have to be very careful about publication of public health information as that can in a very small town become attributable and identifying information but rest assured any case that is a positive case in the state is still in the total state number we'll be able to give you the correct reason that I'm trying to read into here on the specific case you're talking about if you'll just send that to our communications office I'm happy to do that but it appears to us also that it never showed up in the county wide numbers so when I send this in I really appreciate being able to speak to someone who can explain in some detail how the attributions are made I may be completely misunderstanding what is going on but I'd love to get straightened out if that's the case thank you no it's a very specific instance so we'll address it that way I understand Greg is back on the line Greg yes can you hear me hello can you hear me we can I got her so I was going to ask about the USCIS furlough however when Steve was on the phone I got an email saying that they have now been cancelled and Vermont USCIS workers are not going to be furloughed that's great news Greg it's breaking news as well I hadn't heard that so in the event that my question is a mute point at this point Governor I'm wondering if you could share with us what your most difficult part of dealing with this pandemic has been in the last few months I would say just anticipating what's going to happen next and making sure that we keep Vermont safe and keep opening up the economy at the same time it's a delicate balancing act difficult keeping up I'm very proud of the team that I've put into place here and it gives me great comfort when I get to talk with each and every one of them almost on a daily basis about their perspectives but it does keep me up at night and what's going to happen next watching other states that have had a resurgence and wanting to make sure that we don't we don't have the same here in Vermont and again trying to open up the economy a little bit at a time as we do this so it's a it's a delicate balance thanks Governor and have a great weekend we'll try to get next week thank you very much yes this might be a question for Commissioner Shirley if this mandate did have say like a $50 fine for people who weren't wearing masks from a law enforcement perspective why would that be difficult to enforce I'll let Commissioner Shirley answer that and I may add to it thanks for the question it's primarily difficult to enforce because there's thousands of locations and hundreds of thousands of providers and not only a finite number of police officers but as the Governor has emphasized time and time again over the last several months education is the first line here to ensure compliance and Vermonters have been I think overwhelmingly compliant with most of the health and safety guidance so falling back to an enforcement posture we don't see if something that would be necessary Greg from the dinner we can greetings from something from us first question just one very quick follow up on the mask mandate Governor you're talking about there being an exemption for exercise indoor exercise correct indoor outdoor as well indoor and outdoor as well okay thank you my main question probably for Dr. Levine just wanted to follow up with you about your conversation with the Centers for Disease Control about the testing discrepancies here in southern Vermont the antigen test in the Center and wanted to know if you can sort of characterize those conversations let me know if there is a leading theory or if there is an area where that investigation is focusing also interested if you discover any commonalities between our experience and the experience in Maine sure I wish I could give you more information than I'm going to but here it is very productive conversation with the Centers for Disease Control who have likewise expressed concerns about what is going on it's not their prime role to do some of that investigation from the natural standpoint of machinery the test platform etc but the FDA was also in on the call they've assigned a research scientist PHD to our case so to speak and if they now have opened an investigation so the reason I don't have information for you is when they open an investigation it's like any other investigation that's opened you don't hear about it until they have something to tell you and they keep things very confidential after that point in time I also am aware that the manufacturer has been involved in trying to understand this better as well but we have no data from them yet or understanding that they've shed on any light they've shed on this problem all I know about our case compared to Maine is that they're very similar circumstances a population of people that we would not have anticipated would have uniformly had positive tests who had positive tests and who subsequently on PCR did not have the same level of positive tests in our case 52 out of 56 were negative in the Maine case 24 out of 24 were negative so that similarity exists but it's too early in both states investigations for us to really be able to tell you you know is there a smoking gun what was it etc we're eagerly awaiting more news you happen to know if the Maine cases were all the guests were intentional symptoms Maine cases were uniformly asymptomatic okay thank you that's my question thanks Craig and finally Lisa Loomis from the Valerie reporter Lisa did you have a question I've got your email I do I decided to ask a question anyway even though I sent the email to Dr. Loomis the governor's math mandate makes this question was prior to today the waitfield select board on June 10th be calling to issue a math mandate and the town health officer two days later issued an emergency health order for the town calling for a math mandate the select board decided he did not have the authority or ruled that he did not have the authority to do so and the town health officer pointed out that he was appointed by Dr. Loomis that his authority flows from Dr. Loomis versus the select board and I'm wondering for future pandemics what is the case sounds like a legal question but again I'll take a I'll take a stab at it I would if Dr. Levine had issued an order from his office as as the chief health officer to mandate mass and I think that would have given the health officer authority to do so but Dr. Levine in his capacity did not issue that order so I don't believe that he would have the authority but that might be a better question for an attorney or maybe even the Vermont League of Cities and Towns we could follow up on it as well we have legal capacity if is there anything else you want to add to that Dr. Levine that's perfect he doesn't have anything to add at this point Lisa he did say that we could have some of our lawyers in the health department take a look and get you a proper answer great thank you very much all right that's everyone with that thanks for tuning in and we'll see you back here on Tuesday