 Good morning. I want to thank everyone for taking the time to tune in today. I know many are beginning their holiday festivities today on Christmas Eve. Dr. Levine and I will be somewhat brief, but we thought it was important to keep to our twice weekly schedule. Make sure we update for monitors on the latest number of cases in the vaccine rollout before heading into a holiday weekend for many. Before getting into those updates, I want to continue highlighting acts of kindness, service, and good well happening throughout Vermont. So let me talk a little bit about the Mary Hogan School in Middlebury. After hearing about our Vermont Lights the Way and Rays of Kindness initiative, the students and staff were inspired and wanted to help brighten spirits during the holiday season. The school's pre-K to sixth grade students as well as staff wanted to do their part. So they got creative making art projects with inspiring messages of hope. They worked with the Better Middlebury partnership to connect with local businesses and now on the storefront windows and doors throughout the community you can find these messages from students. They even made a video to highlight their work so now I'd like to show you what they've been up to. This is exactly what Vermont Lights the Way is all about. Encouraging people to get creative in their communities and add a little happiness as we close out this very, very difficult year. I want to thank all the students and staff at the school as well as the small businesses and their partners for helping to make this happen. You set an example for all of us. Now not all of these acts of kindness are as visible but they are meaningful. For instance, I recently learned about a Vermonter who saw their neighbor bringing home five gallons of fuel every couple of days to heat her home. She obviously couldn't afford a bulk delivery so this neighbor anonymously sent her a hundred gallons of fuel and she may never know who it was. The neighbors helping neighbors is what Vermont is all about. Every day I hear or see stories like these and it gives me hope and it's why I've been so confident through these nine long months that we will get through this and in the end will be stronger for it. I hope these stories inspire you as well because this world we live in could certainly use more acts of kindness in order to give us hope and hope for others as well. I know it's been hard. I know the sacrifices needed to stay safe are difficult, especially during the holidays. But Vermont is strong and we're united and we'll get through this as long as we stick together. I want to wish all of those who celebrate a happy and safe Christmas. Please enjoy this time and do so safely and know we'll back together in person in the months ahead. So now I'll turn it over to Dr. Veen for an update on vaccines and some parting guidance for the hall. Thank you. So in terms of some data today we're reporting 92 new cases and unfortunately three additional deaths. As a physician, I'm acutely aware of the fact that the holidays do not always bring good tidings to all and our sympathies do go out to all of the families and friends. There are currently 22 patients hospitalized with six in the ICU. Our epidemiology teams are following 43 active outbreaks and 250 situations. Based on our testing results, the state's seven day positivity rate remains low at around 2.1%. Over the past 10 months, wow, 10 months, I've been up here reporting numbers of people testing positive for COVID, numbers in the hospital, lives lost. We're nearing the end of what has been an exceedingly tough year. I know we're all weary. Our daily lives are strained and we're having difficulty finding joy in the season as the nights grow long. I do hope Vermonters take some solace in knowing Vermont still enjoys the lowest number of new cases rate, the lowest positivity rate and death rate in the continental U.S. What has given me hope throughout this year is the effort by Vermonters to take in and take to heart the nature of what we have been facing and everything we each need to do to end this pandemic. And it's been truly inspiring. I ask you to keep it up and keep in mind masks on faces, six foot spaces, uncrowded places. It's that simple. And with vaccine coming our way, there's even more hope to end this pandemic. Yesterday, Vermont received 11,400 doses of the newly authorized Moderna vaccine. With the anticipated allocation of Pfizer, we're on track to have received 34,000 doses by new years. The total Vermont allocation in weeks one and two of Pfizer and Moderna has been 21,725 doses. There have been 6,382 COVID vaccine doses administered to Vermont residents. If you do the math, that's approximately 30%. I'll point out that nationwide, it's about 10% out of the 10 million doses that have been allocated to states thus far. And as promised, yesterday we did launch our Vermont vaccine dashboard. You'll find it at healthvermont.gov slash COVID-19 dash dash vaccine dash data. The dashboard shows the number of people who've been vaccinated and the total number of doses administered. As the numbers grow, you'll be able to see vaccination rates by sex, age, ethnicity, race and county. And the dashboard will continue to undergo enhancements as more information becomes available. For now, in part because we're in the early stages of vaccine distribution, the dashboard will be updated every Wednesday by noon. But I anticipate over the coming weeks we'll be able to provide more frequent updates. I want to thank our immunization and data teams for their excellent and rapid work in continuing to provide this level of information to Vermonters. As we discussed on Tuesday, immunizations have already been initiated at long term care facilities along with health care workers and others in the phase one a group who also continue to be vaccinated. Earlier this week, the advisory committee on immunization practices made recommendations for populations to be included in phase one B. Yesterday, our own vaccine implementation advisory group met to consider these recommendations to help in finalizing Vermont's plan for phase one B. We expect their final recommendations in one week. We are now solidly on the road to protecting Vermonters and Americans. Please remember, though, that we have only just started on what is a long road. My message for everyone is be patient. This is going to take some time. The time is obviously related to the production rate and distribution of the vaccine from the manufacturers and the number of vaccine platforms that get early use authorization in the coming year. There are nearly 630,000 people in Vermont and a very large number of people to be vaccinated just in priority group one A with another large number expected in group one B. So huge and logistically complex undertaking, perhaps the most complicated nationwide, nevermind statewide immunization effort since the early 20th century. Nonetheless, we will vaccinate Vermont as fast as possible. We're receiving shipments weekly and shares allocated allocated to Vermont in a population proportion basis from the pool that Pfizer and Moderna produce for the country. This effort will be based on a comprehensive approach to fairly and equitably ensure that everyone who can be vaccinated and wishes to be vaccinated has that opportunity. But again, this will take time and for those of you who are in generally good health and not in one of the first phases, it may be several months before you receive your vaccine. But even for those of us who must be patient, every dose being given out right now makes the difference for all of us. For every Vermonter who was vaccinated benefits us all the amount of virus that circulating is a factor in our risk of exposure. And slowly as more vaccine arrives in Vermont and as more people vaccinated, the risk within our own borders will grow smaller and smaller. It'll take time, but it has started. In the meantime, your patients in cooperation are critical to an effective process. You learn when vaccine is available to you and where and when to get it. Please don't call or reach out to hospitals about when it will be available. Hundreds of people are working to make this information process happen. To put it simply hang tight. Vaccine is coming. I'll finish with what may sound like a bit of gloom, but it's actually rooted in the optimism I feel as the day start getting longer and vaccine becomes more plentiful. As I said on Tuesday, the daily number of new COVID cases in Vermont continues to be higher than just a couple of months ago. In fact, we haven't reported fewer than 50 cases since November 27th. But the numbers that they fluctuate are stabilizing. But daily reports of cases in the high double digits is still not good news. And I don't want any of us to consider this to be the new normal that we should expect every day. Each and every case are real people. Nearly 7000 now. People with families, people with stories of their lives. And the loved ones of 120 of them are now people represented by empty seats at the table. I say this in the spirit of reminding myself and all of us to keep that in mind as we work together to get this virus under control. To remember the toll it takes on anyone who gets it, whether they have minor symptoms or find themselves in an ICU and the responsibility we have to each other to prevent its spread. While it's been a tough year, and many of us will still miss one another this holiday season with smaller celebrations that just won't be the same. So as we take time to celebrate the steadily increasing light being together in ways that are different, and perhaps not as we would hope, please stay informed to stay well and stick closely to the guidance. This really does have an end point. One in which we can have. Hope that many more people together around the table will surround us in the year to come. Turn it back to the governor. Thank you, Dr. Levine, and we'll now open it up to questions. All right, so as discussed, we're hoping to get everybody out of here as early as possible to start their holidays. So we're going to have everybody just take one question. If you have a second question, please reach out to Ethan and we'll circle back if there's time. We'll start with Calvin. Thank you, Governor. So Dr. Levine, you mentioned that so far out of all the vaccines that we've received, we've only administered some 6,000 or a little over 6,000 so far. I'm wondering, I guess, why why we haven't administered more, I suppose. I mean, is there something that's holding us back in terms of staffing or people that can administer them? I guess, why not faster? Why not more? So the process of administering it is on two levels. One is that the health care for the health care workers, which involves the hospitals at this point in time, making sure they arrange clinics, making sure that they schedule their employees for those clinics. They can't schedule all the employees from one section at one time, because if they get side effects and have to miss a day or two of work, they can't do that to their workforce. And the complex work of all of the people not employed by the hospital, of who were still healthcare workers in their regions, which includes practices, independent practices, primary care OBGYN includes EMS, etc. The long term care facilities are in the federal pharmacy partnership program, which also has clinic scheduled the first ones which which just occurred on Monday in Vermont was in the first 10 states to actually even use that vaccine for that purpose. So ahead of the head of the game there as well. They are doing it on a nursing home by nursing home basis, obviously, while they want to get all of the residents, we've learned that they still have some challenges in getting the consent for all of those residents, since many of the consents need to come from family members. And the nursing homes have been working with the family members about having achieved that universally yet. Like the hospitals, they also can't vaccinate every employee at a nursing home at the same time, because of the fact that they could get billed again and they're already challenged with staffing issues. But I do want to stress the fact that, you know, where we're actually three times the rate of use of this vaccine, then the national numbers show at this point. So I'd like it to be looked at as good news. But the fact is, all of this will be deployed. None of this has gone to waste. It's not that people didn't freeze it properly, and it couldn't use it. It's just the matter of all of the systems they're putting in play to try to make sure that they can get all the employees and residents of the nursing homes, etc. vaccine. As well, Calvin, it's part of my nature. But we'll get better at this as well. I mean, this is just the first week. And we'll we'll continue to strive to become more efficient, try and get more productive. And thus far, we've done done well. And there is some lag time between when we receive the vaccine and when we can actually get it to those who can administer it. So but I think you'll see some improvement as time moves on. Governor Scott, how do you plan to spend the holiday? Are you planning to take advantage of your new guidance that families can gather with one other household? No, it'll just be my wife and I, my mom was was planning. This was back during the summer. She lives in Florida and was planning to come up. She hasn't been to Vermont in decades. And this was going to be the year she was coming. But that after we saw the increased numbers in September, October, she made the top decision not to come. My daughter have another lives in Providence. And they're under, you know, the same type of conditions we are. So she's not coming either. So it'll just be a very low key, low key Christmas day for us. Thank you. Dr. Levine, when the vaccine becomes more widely distributed, will there be such things as pop up vaccine sites? Yeah, thanks for that question. We've all been talking as a team about when the vaccine is more available. And as these larger priority groups come into play, how to effectively and efficiently and equitably get the vaccine to everyone. So there will be a multi pronged approach. There'll be some things that you would consider traditional, like going to your own physician, their office to get vaccine. We think that will be especially taken advantage of by those who are older and have more chronic diseases who see their physicians very frequently. And we'll want to discuss the vaccine with them and probably have it administered at that office. We also have a great tradition of pharmacies playing a great role. And I can't believe pharmacies won't continue to play a role. They're playing the role at the long term cares now, but they're bringing the vaccine to that population. This will be in the pharmacy for the public. There's also a what we call a pod system, a point of distribution system that involves our district health offices. And they've always been very steady partners in the vaccine distribution process and administration process as well. And then superimposed on that. What we're in the planning stages on and discussing very actively is having sites that one could have more will call it mass vaccination events. So very similar to what goes on in testing, whether that be at one of our new expanded test sites, whether that be at a place like the Champlain Exposition, etc. Where you could get a very large number of people administered vaccine very quickly have to build in all of the appropriate, you know, precautions and safeguards, etc. Because no matter where you administer the vaccine, there are rules about a 15 minute observation period, 30 minutes if you've had any prior reactions, etc. So we have to take all that into account. But there's a tremendous amount of planning going on with regard to all of those. And we've learned a little from the flu vaccine this year, where we've achieved record, you know, numbers so far. Because our medical community has joined with us and partnered with us in being creative about other ways to get vaccine to people, as opposed to people to the vaccine. And I think we have to be very thoughtful about that with the mass vaccine issue I just provided, but other ways as well to get the vaccine where people are so we can effectively get it to them and not make it a challenge. Thank you. Let's start with Aaron VT Digger. Aaron VT Digger. Okay, we'll move to Wilson, the AP. Hi, everybody. Happy holidays to everyone. Dr. Levine, I'm kind of curious when you said a couple of minutes ago. I look back to my notes, but I'm curious. Were you telling people they should not call their doctor's office or or wherever to say when can I get vaccinated? And if that's the case, how should it be? Would doctor's office then reach out to their list of patients and say, oh, it's time for patient X to be vaccinated? And if that is the case, what would how would people be vaccinated who don't have regular healthcare providers? All excellent questions. And I am saying as of December 24th, don't call your doctor's office, don't call your hospital, don't call the health department. Because for the majority of people, vaccination is not in their immediate future. You know, we anticipate getting through Priority Group 1A through the month of January. And then whatever Priority Group 1B looks like, which will almost certainly have an age stratification to it from the older ages down, that will take some time to till it becomes real in terms of the number of doses coming into the state and having already gotten through 1A. So lots of people are feeling the need to reserve a spot on the list. And the list doesn't exist for most of the practices they're calling or the hospitals or for the state for that matter. But it will be very clear when the prioritization scheme comes out, exactly who goes when. And that will be very publicly available information. It'll be communicated through a whole host of conventional as well as social media. It will also be effectively known by the healthcare community at that time. So they'll be able to participate in that communication and scheduling as well. So I'm saying it as of December 24th, just because so many people are already nervous about the fact they need to be on a list or they may be at the end of the line, which is certainly not true, or just feeling like they need to make that connection. It won't change anything for them to do that right now. Okay, so then at the end of when the list 1B is finalized, somebody who is over age 75, presumably they would be in 1B, they would then be able to follow their doctors out to make an appointment. Yes, so there'll be a lot of instructions that we'll be able to provide at that point in time because, as you heard from my answer to the other question, there will be multiple opportunities for them to get vaccine, one of which will be with their doctor if that's the path where they choose. And that's where they'll work with their own healthcare providers to understand that. I just had a conversation with one of the primary care practices in the state who are worried because they may get Pfizer, and Pfizer of course has very strict temperature regulations around the vaccine, but they're already exploring opportunities for them to do that at a more central location. So it wouldn't necessarily be at the practice, but at a more central location where people from other practices will all join them in getting the vaccine. So there's a lot of planning going on at very many levels from the state down to the individual healthcare systems and practices themselves. Okay, thank you very much. All right, and I believe, Aaron? I have just going to add as well to what Dr. Levine said, some of the complexities that we're facing at this point in time with the Pfizer vaccine in particular, sub-zero temperature storage. The Moderna is not, is refrigerated, but not at the same temperatures as the Pfizer. And then we're hearing that possibly in the future, if the Johnson & Johnson comes through, that might even be at room temperature, so in single doses. So it's just all kinds of different procedures in place that we have to contemplate and who gets what, when, in order to make sure that we get the distribution in an expeditious way. All right, we're going to try Aaron from BT Digger again. Thanks for bringing you back around. This week, the Agency of Education issued a memo extending their earlier guidance about schools including a question about multi-household gatherings in the daily health check. Obviously, the governor has relaxed his prohibition on multi-household socialization for the holidays, so this guide doesn't appear to suspend the question or amend it. It says schools may no longer include their questions at all in the daily check. Can you tell us what they think behind that? Secretary French, are you on? Yes, I guess. Good morning, Couser. Yeah, our thinking on that was, you know, we looked, you know, certainly at the condition of our the libraries in our community, and listening to our school districts. This was a very challenging piece of guidance for them. The implementation was probably the most challenging daily aspect to do. And as, you know, at the time when we implemented this part of that statement, we weren't really sure of constantly the trajectory of our pace on the statement. That's a little lot. We felt comfortable saying this guidance was no longer necessary quickly. So that's why we resubmitted it. Did you consider having schools asked if students had been in a triple household or gathering? You know, once again, this has been a very complex piece of guidance implement and it was challenging enough for some of the U.S. and the department previously. So, you know, really where we're having, particularly as the case counts have rolled off, it's not really, particularly at a high level that we're not satisfied with, but still remembering not. Particularly this guidance, we'd like to be more towards simplicity, not more complexity. And I think that was the most complexity in the guidance previously. So that's why we're sending this to be the better approach. Okay, thank you. As well, Aaron, if you recall, about a month ago when we put this into place and took these steps to try and protect Vermonters, we were seeing in our contact tracing in particular that they were multi household gatherings happening, whether the parties or get together with family and so forth or tailgate parties and the like. What we're finding now, since we implemented that, that Vermonters understand and got the message. And so with our contact tracing, we're just not seeing the gathering that we saw previous to this, the restrictions being put into place. So it's somewhat unnecessary. The guidance speaks for itself. And I think Vermonters got the message. All right, Liam. Liam, VPR. Hi. President Trump has been sort of floating and threatening the idea that he's going to reject the aid package that Congress approved earlier. Governor, what's your reaction to sort of this data that's right now in Washington? Yeah, you know, that's really unfortunate. There are so many, as I've highlighted over the last few weeks, and particularly many of the programs that are ending by the end of the year that are going to put Vermonters and Americans at risk. And this is a dangerous game the President is playing. And it's, it's, you know, would have been my hope that if he had concerns about what he wanted to see in the package, that he would have been at the table long before now and not just sit idly by watching the action taken place, them passing, coming to agreement, bipartisan agreement, on the package. And not everybody got what they wanted, but they were satisfied that this was what was best at this point in time for the American people. So, you know, I don't know what he's going to do. He has a few choices, one being just to be to it. But, you know, when you negotiate a piece of legislation, it means everyone's giving up something. And so to take pieces out of it could unravel everything, and that would be unfortunate. But I hope Congress will again stick to their votes and and see this through so that we can get relief on to those in desperate need. I mean, there's obviously only so much that you can do what the state can do, but are you contemplating any sort of contingency plans or actions to try to help the thousands of volunteers you might be now, again, looking at losing unemployment benefits the day after Christmas? Yeah, you know, the problem as I, as I articulated before, is that when you have so many, there could be upwards to 10 to 20,000 of our monitors that would lose their unemployment benefits almost immediately. And when you do the math, that's many, many millions of dollars that we don't have at our disposal. So we'll, I'm still hopeful, I believe that Congress will do the right thing and work their way through this, but until the president gets over his tantrum, we'll have to see what happens. Have you sent any, any letters, any pressure with other Republican governors to the president at this time? I'm not sure that he would be listening to anyone else at this point, and I will have to leave it to Congress to try and work out their way through this. All right, we're going to move to Mike at the Islander. Thanks for back up. Very Christmas, Governor. Thank you. Dr. Lovine, you mentioned 43 outbreaks. What is that top five currently on your list? And do you, please take your staff to maybe send out the full list places and number of cases currently at the one of those 43 outbreaks? Yeah, I would want to say that you can't define an importance of an outbreak by a specific criteria, whether it be where it is or what the number associated with it is. So it's, you know, it's hard to have a top five or a top 10 list, if you will. These are all defined from an epidemiologic standpoint about the number of cases that are involved in the setting that it's involved in and the kinds of epidemiologic linkages that are occurring. I can tell you that we have abundant numbers of cases in our long-term care facilities, as you know, so those are obviously a very high concern because of the fact that when people get sick in those settings they often culminate in hospitalizations and or death. So by that metric alone that's really important. There are other aspects of our health care system that have cases, but not necessarily outbreaks. There are small work site outbreaks that are self-limited and are containable, but they nonetheless may be an outbreak. There are situations that have occurred across society, so it would be hard for me to to really give you the kind of answer you're looking for because they're all important and our knowledge about them is as important as anything else so that we can immediately work with all of them to make sure that containment is the ultimate result. And that's really the bottom line, if you will. Knowing about them, making sure everyone who needs to isolate is isolated, making sure all the contacts have been contacted, and making sure that they are quarantined. And in most cases and hopefully allowing the rest of life to go on for others who may be at the same work site or what have you. But that's really the ultimate goal is containment and identifying them rapidly so we can move on things quickly and keep our ultimate case loads low and our ultimate number of people who get ill. Okay, thank you. I just maybe just can you send a list over and we'll take a look at it and not to ask you to analyze the numbers by number order what you've done in the past to share the list and only get today's list currently. Yeah, we will share what we are able to share based on the usual considerations with numbers etc. Thank you. All right, Lisa, the value reporter. This question is also productive to me. Absolutely, the New York Times reports this morning that Dr. Fauci has been gradually inching up the number of people who have been get vaccinated in order to achieve food immunity with the number rising from 50 to 70 percent to now as high as 90 percent. What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. I'm sure the governor wishes to join me in congratulating and offering our best to Dr. Fauci whose 80th birthday is today. So he's actually given a range and his range is 70 to 90 percent because even he admits we really don't know because we're dealing with a novel virus and we're not actually sure of what number will achieve community or herd immunity but he estimates it's in the 70 to 90 percent range. And the issue here is really not what the exact number is is are there enough Americans who now have trust in vaccines who are not hesitant to receive vaccine and who want to help not only protect themselves but others in their family and in their circles by getting vaccinated and the numbers look promising in that regard with regard to surveys of people asking them if they would take the vaccine or not and having people like Dr. Fauci up here on camera getting the vaccine should help that effort I would hope. But we do know that there's perhaps up to 20 percent of people that might not want to get the vaccine and if that's true we hope that the number that is needed for herd immunity is 80 percent or less because that's what it will require but as I've said before it's not just the number who get the vaccine it's also the number who continue to abide by all the usual guidance that helps prevent us transmit virus from one person to another because our ultimate goal is to suppress this virus to a sufficient level knowing we can never make it disappear and vanish off the planet but suppress it to a level that will allow us to get back to the kind of lives we all want to lead again. So that's my answer to your question. Thank you very much. Guy Page. Guy. Yes governor and commissioner as you look back on these unprecedented 10 months and you analyze your leadership in fighting the pandemic is there anything you would have done differently looking back. Yeah from my perspective Guy maybe a little too early to look back too much we're still looking forward but we'll certainly take all of that into account so that we're ready if and when there's some other crisis of this magnitude in the future but at this point in time we're just doing everything we think is right we know that there are times when we don't make the right decisions but we're learning from others and others are learning from us and we as a country are trying to do whatever we can to protect Americans and I think we've done a pretty good job here in Vermont but it's due to Vermonters just being compliant following the guidelines the simple procedures so if we'll let the pundits decide what we could have done better but at this point I'm satisfied with what we've done but again we know that we could if there are always ways to do things better in retrospect Dr. Levine I just echo what the governor said certainly most of the evaluations we get from the outside are not partially critical of the approach but at the same time we recognize that there are 50 states plus a number of territories and all of them have their own version of what they're doing to combat this pandemic some are kind of in lockstep with the approach we've taken many others are very different than the approach we've taken so part of that evaluation will be in the end when people look back comparing the relative performances of states and what they may have done to either achieve that great performance or achieve a poor performance either way and what they could have done to to be better I think if there's one thing we do we approach every day with humility and we certainly as the governor said we're willing to learn from anybody because we don't know everything either and when this pandemic started we were all writing the playbook even though there was a pandemic flu playbook from 2017 that was fairly focused on influenza it provided a little bit of help to the country but there was not much else to go on except good public health practice and knowledge and how to implement programs across large populations so we've tried to do our best in that regard and even thinking about Calvin's first question today about you know what accounts for how we've gotten to the number of people vaccinated or not you have to realize that it's only two weeks ago that that vaccine appeared to any state and at that time not only did the vaccine logistics have to be taken care of in terms of getting it to the right places at the right time but there were all the issues about what do we know about this vaccine how do we educate people about it quickly and the people not just meaning the people getting it but the people administering it the healthcare community and all of those playbooks were literally being written in a 72-hour period so we've come this far in two weeks and some people will say well only 30% and others will say wow that's pretty impressive considering there was no vaccine on the planet two weeks ago and nobody knew what to do with it and understood it so it's that kind of process I'll stop there Chris Roy Newport Daily Express Yeah good morning no questions I just hope you will have a great holiday Thank you Chris All right Tim McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine Hi Governor I'm looking at the news feeds and there's no news from the President but presumably he does find that current bill as Pat with that it was unclear to me on whether it would be retroactively to the current here the current at CARES Act or the current UI trust fund if it would apply to that or whether it's only going forward in 2021 Yeah as currently written I believe that is the case that it would go back to this this calendar year to this month but I might ask Commissioner Herrington if he has any different information than that Yeah I might add could you just repeat the question I don't think I caught the whole It was about Commissioner it was about whether this this new package that was passed by Congress whether it be retroactive back to the end date you know there's been one at least one program I believe that has ended at this point in time a week ago is it retroactive to that date or is it starting whenever it's in effect thank you sir my understanding and based on feedback we've received early from the U.S. Department of Labor is that based on their initial interpretation of the language in the bill it would start the first full week following the approval or authorization of the bill so you can't go back in time but if you are in a program that got an extension you could still be eligible for those 11 weeks it just wouldn't be 11 weeks back from the date you maybe triggered off of your benefits it would be 11 weeks from the start or the authorization of the bill so not back into December possibly into January is that what you're saying correct it yeah correct there is a provision in the bill that said the week will commence following the authorization of the bill so just be clear Michael it sounds like people might still even if it gets passed that they still might lose a full week of benefits so they may be a break in their benefits but it's hard to I don't want to say lose a week because again the extension really talks about the maximum number of weeks an individual can receive so they could still receive the maximum number of weeks but it would be counted going forward so they would have to remain unemployed for the next 11 weeks following the passing of the bill as opposed to counting maybe a few weeks prior to the bill authorization so again there's still that that understanding that they could receive the maximum number of weeks they just wouldn't go backwards okay all right thank you and we'll try and clarify that for you Tim and others as we receive more information Greg the county courier good morning governor given the time constraints today I'm just going to wish you a Merry Christmas to your staff and the Vermonters who've worked really hard to keep the state going over the last 10 months so I'll hold off hopefully after next requested on Tuesday but Merry Christmas all right thank you very much Merry Christmas to you as well Tom the Vermont standard the Vermont standard okay we'll go to Andrew Caledonian record yes thank you good morning everyone wondering if there's any additional information on the outbreak at the Craftsbury Community Care Center beyond just the baseline number that was reported on the data site and it makes me wonder if there is an outbreak in a facility like this are you able to to do vaccinations when when folks maybe have already been exposed and are waiting for onset of symptoms Dr. Levine so I don't have a specific update on what you mentioned but in answer to your question there are guidelines that have been put out by the CDC regarding vaccination in settings where there are outbreaks and we're using that guidance actually as we start with the long-term care facilities because obviously a number of them do have outbreaks that are of concern I want people to understand that vaccination at that time in that setting is not necessarily a strategy because it does not it takes enough time for that to build up antibodies etc that most of the people who would have been exposed to the virus have already been exposed that even if they aren't testing positive they may subsequently test positive they're incubating if you will but there are guidelines that allow you to do vaccinations at those times the time that you more frequently are going to be delaying vaccination have to do with someone who has already tested positive and been ill we want those people vaccinated but probably not at that point in time several months later we also have to be careful with people who have received antibody therapy monoclonal antibody therapy because that could interfere with the immune response otherwise pretty much anyone can get vaccinated when the vaccine's available to them okay thank you okay for WCIS Governor we ran a story the other morning talking with stores who said they were having a hard time keeping Christmas lights on the shelves or wondering do you get your reaction to that whether you think you can take any credit for the life away and causing that or whether it's maybe just general holiday or purchasing yeah I can't take credit for it because I didn't buy them all but certainly Vermonters stepped up in all kinds of ways I think it's the mood that people want to show that there is some bright spots here and that we're all in this together and and they reacted accordingly there were a number of communities that were planning this type of thing before I I mentioned it our initiative but but it's been really I think helpful in many respects as we we see many of these communities individuals and so forth trying to just bring just a little bit of happiness into to someone's life and sometimes all the all that is is just decorate a decoration of their home or their facility and and now their organizations as we saw the other day the National Guard coming from St. Albans down here into Washington County I think drew a lot of attention and I know it was appreciated by many so we've seen many instances like that that but it's not my it's not my credit from for me it's credit to Vermont for doing what we can to help others thank you I'm Rebecca and Ethan this is Tom Erickson the standard oh go ahead Tom yes sorry I was having some issues with my phone a few moments ago I had a follow-up question regarding the rollout of the vaccine to skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities I'm not clear who will actually be administering the vaccine at those facilities will it be local hospital personnel will it be the staff of the facilities and cells or will it be records will it be represented in the the center providing it I believe it's the pharmacies but I'll let Dr. Levine answer that yeah it's primarily the pharmacies themselves I believe that there's there may be times that personnel from one of our local health offices might be and as listed or an aid or what have you but the primary of vaccinators are the pharmacies and that's part of their contract and do you anticipate given the relative ease of storing the Moderna vaccine versus the Pfizer vaccine do you anticipate that most of the skilled nursing facilities and the assisted living facilities will utilize the Moderna vaccine actually it's the contract they're all being given the Pfizer vaccine because they've all demonstrated they have the ability to store it appropriately and because these clinics are all pre-scheduled at each facility they know exactly what day they're going to what facility and the approximate number of doses they need to have so they have preferentially gotten the Pfizer vaccine and that was actually something that most I should say all of the New England states agreed on together as a strategy and it simplified the process of that as well thank you very much and happy holidays to all of you thank you Tom all right we're through our first round and I believe we have one follow-up question from Mike Donoghue actually I just I don't know I appreciate your comment about the the light the you not being the primary source or much like what you said at Thanksgiving time I know you like the past but share the share the response and that is all part of your team but the reality is somebody's got to drive the box and you're driving the box on this thing and like I said at Thanksgiving time thank you for what you're doing you know you are leading the thing and yet you've got three people around you well yeah thanks thanks very much as as you might might know I do like to drive so driving the bus is fine with me but as I learned my years of racing all the success that I had again I got all the accolades for winning a race but the real reason I won is because of the team you know putting together a good car having all all the ingredients to getting that win so it's not all the driver it's the it's the team behind it and the equipment you have so I'm again blessed to be surrounded by really really talented people and talented Vermonters as well willing to do whatever is necessary to help their neighbors and the story that I told during my remarks about the one neighbor seeing another coming home with five gallons of fuel to get through the day or the next couple of days and then purchasing a hundred gallons of fuel for them anonymously I think speaks volumes about who we are as Vermonters and that inspires me inspires I'm sure each and every one of you to do what you can to help one another regardless of whether you agree with them or even like them you tend to to help them out thank you that's it well again record time but I thank you all very much for tuning in and again I wish you a very very peaceful safe and small celebration for those who celebrate Christmas the next couple of days so but we'll see you back on Tuesday hopefully we'll have more information for you and we'll have the modeling as well but but again thank you very much for tuning in