 Hello, everybody. This is David Zuckerman, your Lieutenant Governor, working remotely from home as many people are, and I'm on with my 3D time a week, FaceTime live conversation or presentation, I guess, around issues and questions that folks have been reaching out to my office, as well as things I hear from some reps and senators that folks are concerned about and trying to figure out and understand. So, I'm going to jump right into a few thoughts and then also, after I address a lot of these constituent questions and information, I just want to talk a little bit about. What's next, you know, we have to be addressing the present, but we also have to be thinking about what are we learning from this for future situations and also what do we want to do to rebuild the economy. When we get over the hump of reducing the surge and flattening the peak and so forth. And just want to put that into people's minds to think about. So, I've got a lot of different constituent concerns about a range of things. I'm not going to be able to address all of them, but I thought I would start talking about the ones that I've heard more concerns about. The first one on the list is around the farmers markets. When the governor created the stay home, stay safe. They said that grocery stores are open, but farmers markets would not be allowed to be open. There are a lot of folks working on this issue all over the state. And the one thing that we know from Vermont is the umbrella organization for the farmers market association and they're working with farmers market managers, as well as many vendors to try to figure out maybe how to see if there's a way to set up our farmers markets that would meet some of the requirements of the health questions that maybe the governor and the health department are thinking about, but also be able to maintain the opportunity for folks to buy local food from their farmers. And buy food, some would argue in an open space that might be less dense than grocery stores. So that conversation is ongoing. I know that folks are working hard and discussing the possibilities of how to make sure the farmer market workers, whether they be the owners or their employees can also be safe with respect to exposure to others. There's a lot of grocery stores now, although not all are putting up plexiglass between the customer and the checkout. And so maybe there's some provision that could be put up for that for farmers as well. But there's issues like how do people take two cucumbers from the bin and not touch a third or fourth cucumber with their fingers. So how do we make sure anything that's on people's hands is not transferred to other people on that produce. So there are legitimate concerns on all sides, but I think there are also really smart creative minds and we're going to be able to hopefully get to where farmers markets will be able to be open and available across the state. Like I said, it's a way for people to get their local food and it's also a way for farmers as well as others to often make their living. I can speak honestly to that as someone who's also a farmer. We sell through the farmers market, but we also sell through a CSA. We're trying to figure out how to make sure that can be done safely and properly for our members. And then also farmers are selling wholesale to the stores and delivering and meeting with the back stock crew and the managers. And so there's a lot of points where there's contact and we are all working hard to make sure we keep supply going, but also keep it safe for all employees and the farmers and the grocery workers and the customers. So it's a really important conversation and it's ongoing and I really appreciate how many people want to see the farmers markets continue. Please know that's on the front burner. There's been a lot of outreach about health, healthcare safety and clearly we are all really pulling for and thanking our healthcare providers and working to make sure they can stay safe. My understanding is a couple of days ago, seven tractor trailer loads of FEMA or maybe it was six came in with hundreds of thousands of masks to extend the supply beyond the three week supply that we had. And so that supply being more robust and hopefully more in the pipeline now that at the federal level they're starting to recognize that this actually is a pandemic. And that work needs to be done to get supplies that more healthcare workers will have access to more supplies. But also some of those places that weren't I got a call from someone at the Brattleboro retreat concerned about the folks working there and the proximity to their clients. And the issue of making sure those folks also have proper masks if needed and deliberated by CDC and others. A big question around testing and why healthcare workers aren't getting tested and why more people aren't getting tested. And the bottom line is there weren't enough kits and I asked the Department of Health Commissioner I said, is the protocol to do minimal testing and only those who are exhibiting serious symptoms. Because that's the right thing to do from a medical practice perspective or because of limited supplies and he was quite clear that unfortunately it's due to limited supplies and they would like that far more people. We now have more testing kits and the state has expanded who's tested, but there's still only have enough kits to really test people who are starting to exhibit symptoms. I would hope that we can get to a place to be able to test everybody who may be exposed folks who may be for instance at the senior center or senior living facility in Essex Junction where one of the workers husbands was passed away. They've ended up getting sick. They were in proximity to people that live there. They are quarantining and testing the I think nine people that came in close contact with that work. But the problem is other people may also have been in contact with asymptomatic folks in the building. And right now those folks are not being tested. Now the statement from the administration is that the chance of false negatives. You don't want to test people who aren't exhibiting symptoms because then people will be falsely reassured they aren't carrying it when they may be. But I think when you look at the countries and the places that have really put this this issue into more of a box and not had it spread it much as much for testing everybody. And certainly we need to tell folks if you test negative it is not an absolute you may still be a carrier. But we could then find more of those asymptomatic positive people and we could make sure they get quarantined and stop spreading to others. So that's a hope in my opinion in the long run of why we need to be advocating and pushing hard for more testing kits more testing capacity so we can stop this spread. Not only by doing the right thing as many Vermonters have been asked to do and work from home as I am and many are you right now. But but actually do the testing of anybody so that we can start to find those people who are asymptomatic but our carriers who may well be either infecting their families or infecting coworkers even in those places where we're practicing the proper CDC guidelines of six foot spacing. I want to make sure people now know there is more testing happening around the state as the commissioner of health mentioned and has told everybody a new site opened and put me for instance. These are some drive through sites but it's really important to note you're not allowed to just go to a drives through site and get tested. You still have to get that recommendation from your doctor and or the approval of the health care professionals in the system that they're using in order to have access. So you still have to be symptomatic and you still have to get that permission from your doctor and that request from your doctor so don't just go to a drive through thinking you're going to get a test yet. Hopefully, in my opinion, that will change. There's also some questions about unemployment, particularly from an elderly services group in Middlebury, but I know folks are concerned about this all across the state. It's really important for people to know that the federal government bill has a $600 a week unemployment check to augment the state unemployment system. That's going to last for four months. And so if you are unemployed because the business has been required to close or they feel they have to close out of safety or they lay people off out of numbers and density. You are eligible for both the federal and state unemployment system. So please do utilize that and and between those two you should be actually made relatively whole because the state unemployment system. It gives you, I think it's a maximum of either 53 or 57% of your prior wages. But then on top of that, the federal government is $600 a week for up to four months. So you should be able to meet your bills, which leads me to another question someone asked, which was a landlord reached out and said there are tenants who are claiming they don't need to pay rent because of this. And we do need to clear up that rents are still do mortgages are still do what people really ought to do is reach out to their landlords or reach out to their bankers. Communication is key because everyone is trying to be flexible. A lot of landlords are willing to accept payment coming in a little bit late. For instance, if you're on applying for unemployment today, you're not going to get that money tomorrow and tomorrow rent is due and your mortgage is due. But if you tell them you're applying for those resources, you're going to get those resources. Could you pay them in six days or 10 days or 15 days? Most landlords are more than happy to work with you, but your rent is due your mortgage is due. But some of the penalties may be abated, but the fundamentals are still do and please communicate with your landlord or your mortgage lender to figure out how to make that work. But they also have to pay their bills. The landlords have to pay their mortgages have to pay the maintenance on the buildings. And some have a bigger buffer than others, but not paying for the next two months, four months or six months is actually not an option legally or from a housing perspective. I've also heard some landlords are threatening to evict health care workers for fear for the landlord of their property being contaminated. I don't believe that is allowed either. Health care workers right now are the last people that need to have their lives completely disrupted and be evicted from rental situations. When they're trying to put when they are putting their lives on the line trying to care for sick Vermonters. So we need to make sure that, you know, renters are protected and landlords are properly paid, but there's there's folks on each side that need to make sure they're following the law. I got a contact from folks about from a UPS facility, wondering why shipments are still being made from businesses that are non essential businesses or non critical businesses. It's important to understand, at least my understanding is that essential businesses are the places where in person activities can still happen. So medical providers, automobile repair shops, places where you're going to bring your car to leave it to get fixed. There's going to be an in person interaction. You still have to maintain the safe spacing. You still have to be smart about social distancing, but other businesses that manufacture things or sell things, they just can't sell in person. So you can't go to the counter at, say, one example, this is not to pick on them, but the teddy bear factory in Charlotte or Shelburne, they can't sell teddy bears at their front retail store anymore. But they can still make them and they can still ship them so long as the working conditions for those employees or our safe CDC guideline distancing. And so these are some of the nuanced questions that people are asking because these folks at UPS were wondering, how are these things still being shipped? Well, you can still order things online and they can still be shipped as long as the workplace conditions are safe and proper for the employees. And that's really important for employees and employers to be working together with those guidelines, those distancing, the cleaning of bathroom door knobs. All of those different factors need to be being addressed. And if they're not, if you're an employee that has a concern, reach out to your legislator or to my office. If you're an employer, an employer who's not sure what you're supposed to do, reach out to your legislator or my office or both of you can also whoever's in those situations can reach out to the Department of Labor. I know that right now, they're quite overloaded on the phones, but they're doing the best, but all of us are folks that are supposed to be able to help you with your answers. So please feel free to reach out. There is some requests for the Health Commissioner and the Department of Labor to give out more guidance for those employers and I know they're working on it. There have been some questions about healthcare workers and empty hotel rooms and whether hotel rooms could be made available for healthcare workers. Actually under the addendum that was put out a couple of days ago and the discussion that the governor just had with the Department of Public Safety with respect to hotels and so forth. They can be open for health uses as well as healthcare workers. They may need special permission to do that, but that is a possibility. So this person who reached out around healthcare workers not wanting to be going home potentially infecting their families and or other healthcare workers who might feel they should be isolated. Hotel rooms I believe are a possibility, but you should work with your employer and the health department and the owner of those accommodations to see what is possible. We have had a number of folks expressed concern about the relationship of children and foster care and that they're supposed to have in person meetings with their biological parents. That my understanding is there was still a court order that the request to not have those in person meetings has been denied in the courts. So currently those family meetings do need to occur. They need to follow those. But I'm pretty sure that the, let's say I'm reading it as we go here a little bit, that you can work to set up safe or safer situations. But certainly if a kid then runs to be with their biological parents while you're in that same space with them, that is contact that currently is still allowed. And we, I believe the Department of Children and Families is certainly trying to work with foster parents on this. But I know it is a grave concern for a lot of people that they may be practicing proper social distancing and they don't have any control over the family of the biological parents of the kid that they're or kids that they're caring for. And that's a very legitimate concern. And we are trying to figure out how to make that work better. We being the broad world of state government and people who are looking at a lot of these concerns and issues. So right the court order is that those biological meetings do have to continue unless there's an event as an event that arises where the child's health is immediately threatened. In which course case again there is the opportunity to petition the court for relief from that. So you should probably speak to attorneys about that. I want to briefly also talk about now what are some things we can be thinking about as we are experiencing this living at home situation and experiencing what's working and what isn't for how do we rebuild in the future. There's bound to be an economic stimulus package just like there was after Tropical Storm Irene just like they're rebuilding maybe it's not a stimulus package but the rebuilding package just like there was after the Great Recession in 2008. Big stimulus package from the federal government. So think about what things the state can be planning for and let your legislators know. Let me know. Let the governor's administration know. So that when the time comes to start thinking forward we have those ideas and opportunities. Right now one thing people could do I think thinking forward for the whole summer because this may go on for a bit is if you have land that you can grow a garden on and you haven't grown one before. I would suggest now that spring is coming I know down in the southern eastern part of the state it's probably a bit warmer up to Connecticut Valley over here in Chittenden County it's starting to warm up a bit we're starting to be able to work the fields a little bit. But over these next month or so maybe six weeks folks are going to have the opportunity to start turning over your yard or your garden. Almost like the victory gardens from World War Two. Think about growing some food both for yourself or for a neighbor who you don't have the land or maybe economically strained under this time. It's a great opportunity to take your kids if you have kids and teach them and learn yourself how to grow some food. It's an opportunity for folks to talk across fences to each other again with proper spatial distancing about tips and ideas. But now's the time to plan to grow a garden to help augment your own food or maybe a neighbor in need. How about friends or neighbors or yourselves who don't have good broadband service maybe this is coming through not very well or if you're supposed to be working from home and you're using zoom or other technologies and you've got broadband. Well now's the time to remind ourselves as policymakers how important expanded broadband is all across this state. You can't get health alerts. You can't get do your business through good broadband. How are we supposed to manage in times like this. So let's think about those opportunities and what we can do to expand broadband across the state. And you know what is what are you experiencing in terms of where the mistakes are happening as we're trying to resolve these issues all across the state Vermont state workers and state administrators are all working their tails off to address folks questions and concerns but maybe what if we had a landlord list for the state. Well then landlords could be informed of their rights as this one landlord asked me to make sure tenants are paying but also be informed of the things they can't do like threatening to those traveler nurses that they need to move out. What if we had statewide lists of certain types of professions so we could give better guidance that might mean more government it might mean more lists but it also might mean quicker response in times like this. So we need to be thinking about all of these issues. There's many issues that that I've cared about over time in terms of the minimum wage or paid family leave. How would those have helped solve or at least mitigate some of the challenges people are facing today. But we should be having those conversations so that in the future we are better situated hopefully for this never to happen again. But if even something close to this happens we would be better situated to address it. So that's my message for today. Please feel free to comment in with questions that you want answered next time. Always feel free to reach out to the Lieutenant Governor office at the Deb dot wolf at Vermont dot gov is the email address you can go to the website LT gov dot Vermont dot gov to send in an email and we will do our best to try to get back to you. Deb's doing an amazing job both getting me this kind of information while I'm trying to answer constituent calls. She's answering folks calls and emails. We're trying to look at all of the online communications. But please do reach out to us. Email is best for us to be able to respond. But we will do our best to look up any questions and answers you have and help you get through these difficult. Stay safe with your family. Try to find joy in the time you have together. If sometimes you're getting a little bit on each other's skin. Take a break. But go out for a walk if you can if there's a space for you to be able to do that and be in touch with family friends through the phone and really touch base with folks and try to be healthy and safe. Thank you so much for joining me today. We will see you on Thursday at 1030 and Saturday at 1030 and next Tuesday at 1030 trying to give these updates. Thank you.