 Good morning, everyone. I'm going to reverse things a little today and start out by sharing another raise of kindness story. Today I want to talk about Renita Marshall of Barrie, who works for the state at the Department of Environmental Conservation. Renita has a passion for helping others. And several years ago, she came across her friend who said they wouldn't be able to afford a tree or gifts that year. So she asked members of her community to help the family through the holidays, which included a gift drive. For the past decade, she's done similar projects for other families. And this year, decided to make an official charity, the Renita Marshall Helping Hands Foundation, to make sure kids get presents during the holiday season, as well as food and school supplies. Renita is certainly another great example of how Vermont lights the way. So I want to thank her, as well as Vermonters, who have supported her efforts. In a few moments, Mr. Petschek will show you our latest data and modeling. As you'll see, while cases are higher than we'd like, they're better than we've seen in weeks. To start, there's been a decline in regional case growth over the last week. And while that doesn't necessarily make a trend, there's something to note. In Vermont, we've stabilized, seeing several days with fewer than 100 cases, which, again, is higher than we'd like to see, but shows a vast improvement. I want to thank Vermonters for their work and their sacrifices, which helped get us to this point. It's been a little over a month since we took significant steps to slow the rising spread of the virus, and it's clearly working. As a reminder, this included shutting down bars and clubs, closing restaurants at 10 PM, and making sure there's only one household at a table at 50% occupancy and tables spaced apart. We also required quarantine for all non-essential travel, pause recreational and school sports, and, of course, prohibited social and recreational gatherings of all sizes between multiple households. Now, I know this has been hard, especially not being able to gather with family, but it's made a difference. In the meantime, our team has been playing offense, significantly expanding testing capacity by opening on-demand testing sites at 19 locations across the state, and adding 140 new contact traces to our tracing team and tools to reach contacts faster, which helps us find and contain cases. Based on all these factors, which improved our numbers in Vermont and the strict measures that will remain in place and with an understanding that mental health has to be considered alongside physical health, we're announcing some small changes to our guidance today. First, we're making a small, short-term modification to our gathering policy. But before I get into those details, I want to stress there's a risk of COVID transmission when people gather, especially indoors and without masking. Staying smart, using common sense and following our guidance is the best way to limit risks for yourself and others. However, given our virus case numbers have leveled out and that the other stringent measures will remain in place, gathering with one other trusted household will be allowed from December 23rd through January 2nd. What this means is that small gatherings between two trusted households will be allowed for the holiday season. And then we'll take a break to collect data. And once we get the data collected, we'll see where we go from there. To be clear, households may choose one trusted household to gather during this period. Gathering with more than one household, even if it's on different days, is not permitted. Again, while we're providing a narrow path, it's a very small holiday gatherings. You really need to think about whether it fits your family or your situation, especially if you're over 65, have pre-existing conditions, or work with vulnerable populations, such as in health care. As well, if you do gather, we strongly encourage everyone to get tested seven days afterwards. Testing is free and much easier than ever before. You can pre-register for a test at healthvermont.gov. Now, it's also important to know that if the one other household you choose to gather with is from outside Vermont, everyone from both households must quarantine for seven days and get a test, or quarantine for 14 days. Again, our travel policy has not changed. So anyone traveling in or out of Vermont must follow the quarantine requirements for our state and the state you're traveling to. Next, for outdoor recreation, like sliding, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, ice fishing, hiking, and other outdoor activities, we are returning to prior guidance, which means as long as you can physically distance and wear a mask, you can participate in these activities with others outside your household. But you've got to follow the arrive, play, leave approach, meaning mingling afterwards is not allowed. You don't have to look any further than the hockey outbreak in South Vermont to see how dangerous one tailgate party can be. This outdoor recreation guidance can be found under section 4.1 of ACCD's WorkSafe Guidance. Finally, we'll be moving into a phase restart of youth recreational and school sports. So beginning December 26, school-based and youth recreational sports teams may begin practices with individual skills, strength, and conditioning drills. This means no contact, physically distance, and wearing a mask at all times. And with schools on winter break, it's likely many will wait until they return in January. But that's up to the schools. This does not include adult rec leads. And spectators continue to be prohibited. I'm grateful for the work for monitors had done to level out our number of cases and to start to see a decrease. And I believe these are the right steps at this time. But it's important to remember that the gains we've made are fragile. And we'll only hold them if we remain smart. And again, all other mitigation measures, including bar and social club closures, as well as restaurant closures at 10 PM, occupancy limits, and others will remain in place, which brings me to my next topic and our next guest. While the vaccine distribution continues, and we see light at the end of the tunnel, we know we'll still be managing this virus over the months ahead, and that many Vermonis will continue to be impacted. Now, I hope we'll be able to roll back restrictions further, but the financial impact on our businesses and those still unemployed has been significant. That's why I was relieved to see Congress pass a combined $1.4 trillion budget bill and a $900 billion stimulus bill this week. This will help us continue to provide unemployment benefits, stimulus money to help families with basic needs, and more support for small businesses across Vermont. Before I turn it over to Congressman Welch, I'd also like to remind Vermonis that if able to support our Vermont businesses by buying local for the holidays and beyond. If you need ideas, go to buyvermontmade.com, where the Department of Tourism and Marketing has created a great resource to help you shop local. And don't forget, a gift card to your favorite restaurant will go a long way to helping our restaurants stay open in the weeks and months ahead. Now, I'll turn it over to our great friend, Congressman Peter Welch. Thank you very much, Governor. I've been watching and listening to many of your press conferences, and I just want to say as a citizen, and as one Vermonner, I'm very grateful. And I think all Vermonners are very grateful to the leadership that you've provided, that your team has provided to make Vermont really the envy of the country. My colleagues in Washington are always asking me how it is that we have kept our infection rate so low, mostly the lowest in the country. And I think it's been clear consistent leadership in commitment on the part of our governor and his team. And I think it's been a real sense of community and solidarity among Vermont citizens who understand that taking the precautions that are recommended are not just about their own health, it's their contribution to try to assure the health of fellow Vermonners who they care about and love. So I want to thank you, Governor Mark and Commissioner. Governor was alluding to the reality of the pandemic and its economic consequences, and we know that. And there's disparate impacts depending on where you are. Some sectors of the economy are doing well. But every day Vermonners, folks who work in restaurants, folks who have kids at home, and they're trying to juggle homeschooling along with whatever is allowed at school, folks who have small businesses where they're really devoted to their employees and they're wondering how they're gonna hang on, they need financial relief. And the obligation of the federal government is to be that fiscal backstop to help our individual citizens, our families, our small businesses in our state to get from here to there. And we had that first relief package, $2.2 trillion back in March. All economists, conservative, liberal orientation believed that that was a lifeline for our states and our citizens and our businesses to hang on. When we passed that back in early April, I think there was a hope that COVID would be in the rear of the mirror by December, and it's not. The infection rate is the highest it's been. And the good news, of course, is we have a vaccine and there is an aggressive effort to distribute the vaccine and to get it injected into every citizen. That's gonna take a while. And it took us a while in Washington to supplement the aid package that is absolutely essential so that folks in businesses, now that the end is in sight with the vaccine can hang on and get from here to there. And Governor, you mentioned stimulus, but in fact, it's survival for a lot of our businesses. The economic situation we have is not a function of a downturn in the economy or bad management among businesses or a sector. It's really a function of businesses having to take steps to comply with health requirements that's caused them to have revenue hemorrhages. So this is about hanging on. And it's like we're on one side of the bridge, we can see the other side, the vaccines there. But as we make that journey, we've gotta make sure that those businesses, the businesses like our restaurants and others that have been hanging on by the fingernails can make it. And I think that's ultimately what brought Congress together over what had been a long and prolonged negotiation. And among the provisions that are in this $900 billion package that have been reported are $300 and weekly expanded unemployment. And that's down from the 600 that was originally in the CARES package, but that supplement at the expense of the federal government will continue for 10 weeks. And I remember Governor, you talking about those 12,000 Vermonters who were looking at the cliff of losing unemployment right by the new year and how dire that would be for them. So there's additional time, 10 weeks, to help folks with that unemployment. There's direct payments in this bill. And the original bill was $1,200 per individual, up to $75,000. This one is $600, but that means that if you're a family of four, that's a $2,400 check that you'll be getting very soon. There's a 15% increase in supplemental nutritional assistance at three squares Vermont, as we know it. That is so important. You know, a lot of the anxiety and a lot of the suffering that some Vermonters are experiencing is largely invisible to others. But I was up in Newport last week where there was a food distribution program that was run by the Vermont Food Bank. The guard was helping and the Abbey Group. And the cars were lined up for a mile to get this food. It's real in the fact that there's 15% bump in that nutrition assistance is really gonna make the difference in food security for a lot of our families. $284 billion in additional payroll protection plan funds. Now, this is gonna continue to be very important for all of our small businesses, particularly our restaurants. And we didn't get a specific restaurant bill in that I supported, but we got supplemental money in the payroll protection plan that can be of benefit to our restaurants. We have to help them make it to the other side. $25 billion in rental assistance and including in another month extension of the eviction moratorium. $20 billion to purchase vaccine doses and $9 billion for vaccine distribution. This is really, really important for every single state. But this is gonna mean that the state will have the resources to provide free vaccination to all of our citizens. So on the health side, that's gonna be really important to every Vermonner. There's $22 billion for states to institute as we've been doing, testing, tracing, and mitigation practices. Education is getting significant aid. $54 billion is available to K through 12 public schools. And that is to help with the challenge and expense of reopening under different circumstances to that require the social distancing. Also $22 billion for nonprofit, public, and private colleges and universities. This has been brutal on our higher education system as well because they've had to make huge accommodations incur significant expenses. And this aid will be available to help those colleges and institutions. $10 billion in childcare assistance. And one area that's been really important here in Vermont that are all around the country is broadband. The whole debate in Washington about broadband and its importance in rural America has changed since March. I was the head of the broadband caucus. In pre-COVID, I was having to make the case to my colleagues that rural America needed broadband because they thought we had it. Well now with COVID, you can't not only do your homework, you can't go to school without broadband. You can't have telehealth without broadband. And many people can't work without broadband. So there's total consensus about the absolute existential requirement that rural America have city style, city speed broadband. And there's $7 billion in this. 3.2 billion is to help lower income people pay for access to service. 300 million for rural broadband buildup and 250 million for telehealth. And 65 million to properly map. And by the way, it was Vermont, the mapping. I don't know if you remember this. But the FCC was telling us in Vermont in other rural areas that we had great broadband because their map said that if one person in a quadrant had high speed internet, it meant everybody had it. Well of course we know that's not true, but it was proven when the public service department did a survey by driving around and actually getting the real data. And we've successfully focused on the absolute essential necessity of getting good maps. Now there's a couple of things that are in the bill that we've been working on for a long time and the governor's been advocating. But one of them, governor, it's late in the game, but we did get an extension to December 31 of next year for the use of the CARES money. It would have been helpful if we'd gotten that extension long ago. But as I understand it is gonna allow some reprogramming of some money to make that go a little bit further. And then the final thing that I wanna highlight is a bill that I introduced in the House along with a Republican colleague from Austin, Texas, Roger Williams, and it was called Save Our Stages. And incorporated into this legislation, the relief package, is $15 billion, which was in my legislation, to essentially provide financial assistance to independent venues where there are performances. And Senator Schumer got very excited about it in the Senate and this now is part of the package. I wanna say why I think that's so important. When we get to the other side of COVID, all of those wonderful organizations and small businesses, nonprofits, all those ones that we haven't buried, that we have in White River Junction, that we have in Burlington, we have in Rutland Paramount Theater, we need those to be there when we get to the other side because they are so essential in the quality of local community life. So having aid to help those folks hang on until we get to that other side of COVID is really important so that when we get there, we haven't left them behind. So that's the broad outline. There's gonna be a lot of details that have to be worked out as has been the case. And I'm pledging to work with the governor as guidance comes down from treasury, as guidance comes down from small business or the USDA to make certain that if there are problems, we get on it as quickly as possible to try to make certain that whatever guidance emerges, we saw this with the CARES package, we're able to try to address it very quickly and in a way that maximizes the benefit to Vermont citizens, families, and state government. The final thing, Governor, you've been pushing with many of your fellow governors to get state aid. I totally support that. We were not successful in getting a direct aid to the states in municipalities. I believe that is something that President-elect Biden is committed to. I think it's absolutely essential. And one of the reasons I think it's essential is that the flexibility that Vermont had and the decisions that were made by the governor and our legislature that allowed them to provide some help to hospitality, to tailor things to what we need here in the state of Vermont is really essential. So this will be something that we continue to pursue and Governor, I'm glad that you'll be continuing to play a leadership role in that. I would say that the letters that you sent with some of your fellow governors and Republican governors, outlining the need to get a package together, have Congress act was very helpful because it created additional pressure on Republicans and Democrats in Congress to do what we all know had to be done. And that was provide additional aid to our states and communities and families to help us get through the financial pressure that's imposed by COVID. So thank you all very much. And it's a good day that we can say the bill is on the way to the president to be signed and help us on the way to Vermonters to help to get us through the holidays in the winter. Thank you. Now, Commissioner Pichek. I have the honor of introducing Commissioner Pichek who's been doing a great job. Thank you, Commissioner, come on up. Well, thank you very much, Congressman Welch and thank you very much for your excellent work in DC and the excellent news that you brought here to Vermont today. Yesterday on the first day of what is predicted to be a long winter in the United States, our country crossed yet another grim milestone recording our 18 millionth case with four and a half million of those cases coming so far just in the month of December. Not only are COVID cases rising more quickly than at any other time during the pandemic, but today a record number of Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19 and our seven day fatality rate is higher than at any previous point during the pandemic. However, as parts of our country, including our own, have real reason for optimism. First, while cases remain high across the US, some hard hit states like Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota are finally seeing some improvement in their cases. While other hot spots have emerged, particularly in California, Tennessee and Texas, and just to give you a sense of how significant the increase is in California, had you removed those cases from the US count, our cases as a country would actually have gone down week over week. This week in the Northeast, we saw a 4% decrease in cases, totaling 145,000 this week. This is a sign of improvement, as the governor mentioned, for this is the first time in 16 weeks that our regional week over week case count has actually decreased. Further, over the past five days, hospitalizations across the region have also stabilized. However, as we can see from the heat map, we must remain cautious as cases continue to surround our state and the regional positivity rate remains high as well. There are 521 counties in our travel region. Of the 10 counties with the lowest active case number throughout the region, eight of those counties are now located in Vermont. Again, making Vermont stand out in the region for its response to this pandemic. This past week, Vermont also crossed the 6,000 case mark, adding an additional 1,000 cases at a constant 10-day rate. Turning to our weekly numbers, we reported 685 cases this week, a reduction of 89 cases from the week before, and most importantly, our positivity rate continues to trend down with the seven-day average below 2% for the first time in December. Additional good news, our Vermont forecast is also trending better. While cases are expected to rise over the next four weeks, there has been a significant reduction in the rate of that increase. And I am still optimistic that Vermonters will be able to beat even this improved forecast. There are a couple of notes of caution in our numbers, as you may have noticed from the heat map, both Chittenden County and Bennington County stand out for the number of active cases in those two counties. And in fact, cases in those counties have been going up over the last few weeks with a positivity rate that has been going up as well. And if you remove those counties from our total statewide count, the state of Vermont has actually been trending down for a few weeks. So it's a note of caution for anyone in Vermont because cases can be anywhere, but particularly for those that live in those counties that they should pay particular attention to public health and guidance. Similarly, looking at last year's travel trends, there's another reason for caution. Over the ski season, over the Christmas to New Year's period, more people visited Vermont during that week than any other time in that previous year. A significant increase even over Thanksgiving, Labor Day, Fourth of July. Many traveled for the holidays, many more traveled to ski at our great ski mountains. So while fresh snow is now landed in Vermont and across the region, attracting skiers from across the area, it's all the more important for us in Vermont and for all of our guests and visitors to be mindful of our guidance and to follow it completely to ensure that cases stay low here in Vermont. Regarding some updates on long-term care in our K through 12 system, this week the outbreak at Valley Vista in Bradford was officially deemed closed, but we did add three new outbreaks in long-term care facilities. In total, we're reporting 121 new cases in long-term care facilities totaling 485 today. As we can see from this chart, cases in long-term care facilities account for only a small percentage of Vermont's overall case count, about 6%. Tragically, however, residents in these facilities make up over 70% of our deaths in Vermont. Again, really emphasizing how critical it is to get this population vaccinated and also how critical it is for all of us as a community to follow the public health guidance to keep our case rates low so that these facilities can protect their residents. Just under 500 new K through 12 cases were reported across the region with 288 of those cases reported in the state of Maine, 162 reported in New Hampshire and just 37 here in Vermont. In closing, I'd like to highlight another optimistic tone about our upcoming or current flu season. Among the challenges this winter will bring include successfully managing the current flu season along with the COVID-19 resurgence. It's critical that we keep our seasonal flu numbers down so that our hospitals are free to treat that increase that we might see in COVID-19 patients. This fall we studied recent flu seasons in Vermont to help forecast how many Vermonters might need hospital care and developed a range of possible outcomes from more pessimistic to more optimistic. We took a close look at the countries in the Southern Hemisphere as well that just closed out their flu season to see what might be in store for us in the United States. Again, good news, countries like Argentina and Australia, the flu was virtually non-existent this year, signaling very good news for us up here in the Northeast and making us confident that our more optimistic outcome will come into play. Further, the increased rate of flu vaccination by Vermonters provides additional hope. We currently stand at about 80% of our goal for the current flu season and are 11% ahead of where we stood at this time last year. Additionally, now about 10 weeks or so into the flu season here in the United States, the early results are similarly encouraging. With hospital visits for flu-like symptoms down, considerably compared to previous flu seasons. All of this adds up to the fact that in Vermont, we are in a very strong position to treat all of those Vermonters who need hospitalization, whether it's for flu or for COVID. You'll see from our modeling forecast that for medical surgical beds, even in a pessimistic flu season scenario, which we do not believe will happen, we have much greater capacity than we need to treat Vermonters that would likely need care. Similarly, regarding ICU units, the same story plays out that we have sufficient care to treat those Vermonters, again, who might be sick with the flu or might contract COVID. And as the peak of the flu season here in Vermont generally lands in January, at least in terms of hospitalizations. This is certainly very welcomed news. And at this time, I would like to introduce Dr. Levine. Thank you very much. I think I'll go off script for a second, recognizing that the majority of the Vermont population will not receive COVID vaccine in the next several months. So I encourage all those who have yet to obtain their flu vaccine to take advantage of that time right now. Thank you much. So after three consecutive days where case counts for new cases were in the low 90s, last evening brought only 63 new cases, but unfortunately one additional death. There are currently 36 patients in the hospital, nine in the ICU. The EPI teams are following 293 situations and following 41 outbreaks, 19 of which are in healthcare settings. And as you saw in one of the last slides, 11 of which are in long-term care facility settings. It's very obvious that Vermonters are indeed accessing a sufficient amount of testing as our percent positivity rate remains low and has been equal or less than 2.2%. On the vaccine front, by the end of today, Vermont will have received 11,400 doses of the newly emergency use authorized Moderna vaccine. We'll also receive some more Pfizer this week and as announced last Friday, a slightly lower than anticipated allocation of 3,900 doses. Over the two-week period that will have elapsed by the end of this week, that will make 18,725 doses total, well on our way to the 34,000 doses expected by the end of the month. Long-term care facilities will have received 3,400 doses of Pfizer over the two weeks. And yesterday marked the first day of the contracted pharmacies vaccinating our nursing home residents. The number of vaccine doses provided thus far to Vermonters is 3,141. Remember that's from about 3,900 doses that we received last week. Hospitals are now mobilized to vaccinate their own healthcare workforce and also mobilizing and actively vaccinating healthcare workers at higher risk in their regions, which include primary care, OBGYN, dental practices, EMS, and others. I'm not gonna repeat everything I said on Friday regarding the Moderna vaccine. However, in response to abundant Vermonters questions and concerns, I'd like to help dispel some miscommunications about mRNA vaccine. Recall mRNA vaccine is where a tiny piece of genetic material, the nucleic acid, which codes for the instructions to make the viral spike protein is introduced into our muscle cells leading to our immune system developing antibodies against this viral protein. First misconception, there is no live virus in this vaccine so you cannot get COVID from it. Second, the mRNA never enters the nucleus of ourselves, the place where our own DNA is stored. So it cannot interact with this DNA and in fact, our cell breaks down the mRNA soon after it does its job making the spike protein. Third, though you will probably test positive on an antibody blood test after you receive the vaccine, you will not test positive on the kind of test we do for active disease from nasal swabs. Fourth, even though these two mRNA vaccines are the first out of the starting block, this does not mean they were rushed into production. They're actually being held to the same rigorous safety and effectiveness standards as all other types of vaccines are. Finally, even people who may have had or may think they have had COVID-19 should still get the vaccine as it can still benefit them and we don't know how long natural immunity will protect them. Moving to another vaccine topic, the advisory committee on immunization practices voted on Sunday to recommend that the next priority group to get the vaccine be people age 75 or older and what they termed frontline essential workers which include first responders, teachers and food service workers among others. Our own vaccine implementation advisory group is meeting tomorrow to consider these recommendations and come up with their own conclusions and help finalize Vermont's plan for 1B. Because everyone is now asking about it, I'm just gonna say a word about the new SARS-CoV-2 virus strain found in Great Britain. This is a genetically distinct variant that's now been labeled B117 that many scientists believe is 70% more contagious than previous strains and probably more infectious in children. It does not seem to cause more severe disease. Investigators are still working to determine if the vaccine is effective against it but there are no reasons to believe that it would not be. This process of mutation is not unusual in the virus world. Continuing to do all the same mitigation measures we always use every day to prevent ourselves from getting COVID-19 is still in order. Finally, I also want to just acknowledge an important situation that arose in conjunction with surveillance testing. Last week, Barry and Milton School Surveillance Test never made it to the broad site in Boston on time due to shipping delays. It is a self-administered test that's then collected at the school from teachers and school staff and then shipped directly from the schools to Broad using UPS. For Milton, we are going to be retesting those staff today and for Barry, because they are already on break, we will retest upon their return from break. Now, I'm really happy to join Governor Scott in giving Vermonters a bit of good news today. Indeed, your work preventing COVID-19 has been so important throughout the pandemic, but it has been especially critical in the past month or so when we really had to act fast to slow a sudden surge in cases. We have thus far continued to lead New England in this effort, as Commissioner Pichak has shown you, but do not forget the higher prevalence of the virus among us, its ability to infect colleagues at work, students and teachers, and its impact on a healthcare system and importantly, our skilled nursing facilities. The number of people with COVID-19 in Vermont is still higher than we were once used to, but our cases are quite stable right now, as I've told you. We have regular testing available on many parts of Vermont and have made new strides in the area of contact tracing. Our data shows us we're in a better position with regards to new cases than our hospitals are coping well with demand, but despite our holiday season pause in our guidance on multi-household gatherings and new adherents to gather with one other trusted household, this really doesn't change anything I've said before about COVID-19 prevention, and I will say it again. As the CDC has said, the safest thing is still to celebrate the holidays at home with the people you already live with. But for those of us who do choose to gather with that single trusted household, remember there are always ways to keep it safe. Keep it as small as possible, wear masks, try to avoid eating and drinking when you can as the data we collected before the ban on multi-household gatherings clearly implicated circumstances like sharing meals and being without masks as instrumental to our increase in cases. Keep a six-foot distance, yes, even indoors, and go outside whenever you can. And always stay away from others if you're sick, no matter how minor your symptoms may be. We strongly encourage everyone to plan ahead to get tested seven days after such a gathering. And if you gather with anyone outside of Vermont, everyone involved should plan to quarantine. Stay home and away from others either for 14 days or seven days with a negative test result as long as you have no symptoms. Our travel policy has not changed. Any travel to or from Vermont still requires quarantine. We still do not recommend any gathering that involves a person over age 65, a person with underlying medical conditions, or those who work with higher-risk populations such as healthcare centers. Many of our recent deaths have been in long-term care facilities, but these group living facilities are not the only risk. And anyone with a high-risk medical condition is also at risk of severe illness with COVID. I know it isn't easy for these Vermonters to continue to be isolated after all this time, but we still need to keep them all safe until they can get vaccinated. We hope that day will not be too far off into the future now. 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, but if we do spend a little time with just one other person or family safely, I hope it will give us the mental and emotional boost many of us need right now. In just the same way, our youth will benefit from time spent in the outdoors, pursuing the winter sports they love, and can train in safely. Everyone's mental health benefits from such activities, and we want to encourage them as they mean so much to both mental and physical health. And as the days now officially start to get a bit longer, I encourage you to get outside as much as possible. Enjoy the snow and all that Vermont has to offer. This is what always helps Vermonters get through the winter, and this year should be no different. We can do this, and still protect our communities from further spread. We just need to be constantly vigilant and thoughtful, and always adapt our activities in ways that keep us all safe and protect the most susceptible amongst us. We'll turn it back to the government. Thank you, Dr. Levine, Commissioner Pitchek, and Congressman Welch. Congressman Welch will be here for those on the phone, so any questions you might have can be directed to him. With that, we'll open up to questions. Thank you for the questions, and any additional we can always help you get answered afterwards. We'll start in the room with Calvin. So I guess a kind of two-pronged question for you and the congressman. So maybe for the congressman first, when all is said and done, how much money are we receiving from this package? And also, Governor, as the congressman mentioned, and you previously expressed concerns, this doesn't include any money for state and municipal budgets. So I'm wondering as we enter this next legislative session that's going to be, of course, dominated by discussions about financial relief, what sort of policies are you thinking about for fiscal relief going forward? We don't know exactly what each state allocation will be. Vermont has generally done well with the small state minimum. Something goes back to when Senator Jeffords was in the Senate and has been safeguarded by Senator Leahy. So we don't know the specific amounts, but we will get our share. Secondly, the governor will be answering this on state aid, which I agree with him, we absolutely need, but there is money in here that helps the state meet obligations. All that money that is gonna be available for administering the vaccine, for getting the vaccine, all that money that's available for the payroll protection plan, the housing money. So there's some in the education money that alleviates some of the burden that would be on the state, but we will need more. Yeah, Kelvin, the details do matter. And I was speaking with first Senator Sanders last week, but Senator Leahy yesterday, and the combined bill was about 24 inches high, over 5,000 pages. So within the $1.4 trillion budget bill, there's some good news in there for Vermont. And Senator Leahy will be talking about those, bits of good information for our financial picture. That will be helpful, but we'll be presenting, you know, we are going to play the cards with DELT. As I've said, we'll be presenting a budget that will be balanced, and we'll be continuing to do whatever we can to focus on the fundamentals to try and grow the economy, make Vermont more affordable, protect the most vulnerable, and we'll continue to do that in this next budget cycle. But again, well, we could use some help. And I know other states are in different situations, mainly because of their fiscal years. You know, we're in the middle of our fiscal year. So we're all set until the 1st of July. It's fiscal year 22 that we'll be developing the budget for. And again, as Congressman Walsh has said, I believe the President DELT Biden has talked about maybe more financial aid for the states, so we'll see what happens. But our budget will be balanced and we'll deal with the reality. And then one last follow-up question for Dr. Levine. A few weeks ago, leading up to Thanksgiving, we said that 70% of cases about more or less were traced back to gatherings. Where does that number stand right now? Where are we seeing the most spread? Just to clarify what you said, Kalman, it's 70% of cases that are associated with an outbreak. But that number is now in the 60-ish percent range. So still significant. But what we saw with Halloween and with a number of social events that occurred around that time was an increase in cases. We did not see that same thing happen after Thanksgiving. It was very heartening to continue to follow the data. And really, we were not seeing abundant examples of large gatherings of people at Thanksgiving leading to new cases and significant outbreaks. So that data has continued to well pass the 14 days post Thanksgiving to be true. And you've seen our most recent data. So we feel very comfortable with the way the data has. Evolved, and I frankly trust Vermonters to do the right things in this next period of time because they've kind of told us by their behaviors all along that safety is priority for them and health is a priority. So we hope that will continue. No questions from a viewer today. With some testing sites being closed around the holidays, how was the state making sure all Vermonters have access to adequate testing after Christmas? Well, we've done a tremendous amount of work with some of these on-demand testing centers. We have, as I mentioned in my remarks, there's 19 that we have today, which probably a month, month and a half ago was in the single digits. So we've made great strides in that area. I don't know the holiday schedule. I don't know if Secretary Smith might be on the line and might be able to give us some insight. And if not, maybe we come back to that. Secretary Smith? Yeah, yes, Governor. We do have testing capability happening over the holidays. I think there's, the state lab will be open on the 24th, for example, will be closed on the 25th, but the testing capability will have testing capability over the holidays. I think the only time that we won't have testing capabilities is Christmas Eve, but Christmas and there on, we will. Now, I wanted to distinguish here for a minute. That is asymptomatic testing. If you have symptoms, call your provider. There'll be immediate testing for anybody that has symptoms. We will make sure that either through the health network, and other facilities, that there are testing for those with symptoms, but asymptomatic testing, it looks like on the 24th is the only date that we will have no on-demand testing. And then just one more question. Given that it takes about a week for people to develop symptoms and get a test, what are you doing to make sure that schools are safe to open on January 4th, since some people may be developing symptoms if they gathered for Christmas about a week later? Dr. Levine. So again, we're asking people for a one week period after having a gathering with another household to follow our guidance that we've had all along regarding quarantining and getting a test. So I think that should be in itself protective of all of our workplaces, schools, and other sites. I'd like to just add to what Secretary Smith said also. That differentiation between symptomatic and asymptomatic is critical, because obviously sick people need care even on Christmas day. The health care system has capacity to do on-demand testing when it's a critical part of the evaluation of a patient, whether it's in their own four walls, or whether it's at an urgent care center if that happens to be open. People probably won't need asymptomatic testing on Christmas day in terms of the day seven testing out policy or having been to a gathering a week before. So that's not something that should be urgent. So any Vermater who needs a test will usually need it because they're ill during that time period. In between the two holidays, Christmas and New Year's, it's pretty much business as usual. And all of the test sites will be open. And in fact, on the 26th, three of the test sites are actually having extended hours. Thank you. Jolie, I hear about Dr. Troy Bennett who's the chief medical officer from CVS Health. He says he is coming to Northern Vermont with the team in the middle of the week to oversee vaccinations of the Pfizer version to see it set in action in rural settings. Is that true? This may be breaking news for us as well. I have not had any word on that. Dr. Levine, anything you may have heard? Secretary Smith, Commissioner Scherling either. Anybody heard of someone from? Yes. Governor, I could not hear the question. What was the organization? What, Pharmacy? Yeah, the chief medical officer of CVS. Chief medical officer at CVS is coming, or apparently allegedly coming to Vermont next week to oversee some of the rural operations. Anything we've heard about? Nothing that I've heard, Governor. Nothing from public safety, Governor. Jolie, if you hear anything more, maybe you could let us know. Yeah. And if I could ask one more question. Now that we are able to gather with a single trusted household over the holidays, I wanted to know what's making it possible to do that? Well, really it's about our case counts. And if you recall back when we had to implement all of this, when we had the outbreak at the hockey, at the skating facility in Washington County, we had a number of large parties, Halloween parties at that point, and that furthered the problem. So in between that time, we put these measures into place. We're seeing now a finally, a reduction plateaued, maybe a little bit of a reduction, even since yesterday, which is great news for us. And so we thought it was time, we've paid, you know, for monitor paid, Jolie had to be in a position we're in today. And we thought that this was a step forward back to where we were pre-Halloween in some respects and thought we could start mitigating our way back out of this. So one small, very, very small step at a time to make sure that we don't impact an incremental way anybody in the future. But we think we feel good about what we're doing and we think that it's good for mental health in terms of outdoor recreation and youth sports as well. So again, very incremental changes, but we'll pay attention, watch the data and then make changes as necessary. Thank you. All right, moving to the phone lines, we'll start with Andrea, seven days. The vaccination numbers, and it looks like we've actually did many fewer people than we got doses last week. And I'm wondering why that is, and I will sort of pick up that. Yeah, I think actually the number might be, I don't know what the number is that you have, but we'll let Dr. Levine update you on that. So where you're probably questioning, if you look at the doses allocated to the healthcare system, that adds up to approximately 38 to 3,900. And over 3,100 of those doses were used. Additional doses went to long-term care, directly shipped to the pharmacies that are administering the vaccine in the federal pharmacy partnership that's been set up. The first doses of that would have been administered yesterday, which is probably the first day that that program went into being. So Vermont is one of the first states to actually even administer the vaccine in that setting on the 21st yesterday. So there was a 1,950 dose allocation last week of the Pfizer to that program. So that really couldn't have been touched last week at all because it wasn't even slated to be used until yesterday. Is that clear, Lineth? Okay. Yeah, and so does that 3,141 number include the long-term care vaccinations that happened yesterday? No, that's healthcare system, hospitals. Okay, so that's only, got it. And as far as the Moderna shipment, is any of that going to be allocated to the long-term care streamer? Will that all go to the healthcare system? That's completely going to the healthcare system. The long-term care is plugged in to Pfizer regular shipments. And then will you be able to report those long-term care numbers that are happening, the vaccinations happening through the pharmacy system, or will the state be reporting just the healthcare track numbers? No, we will report each independently and in aggregate. And will that reporting be something that happens at pressers or will there be a way to get those numbers online? That will be presented at pressers and there is going to be an online way to access that as well. It will be on the health department's website. Okay, and what can we expect to see that? This week, I believe. Great, thank you. And just to keep in mind the Moderna vaccines came in to those hospitals yesterday during the day. And the rest of the hospitals will get some, I think some today. So not everyone received them yesterday. And there will be just a forewarn. Everyone, when you have a second, third, or fourth party involved, there could be a bit of a lag time in getting the results back. So it won't be instantaneous numbers from, I don't believe we'll be able to be accomplished, I guess, until we get some, everything in a regular fashion. Tim, Mike Donoghue, the Islander? Good to hear from you. I was wondering, the leadership on both sides of the U.S. House always used to be feuding and not much that you're getting done in a timely fashion. Obviously, the law belated exactly shows that the House could probably benefit from new leadership on both sides with people that could work across the wild. Knowing you've got a long time there at presentation or working across the aisle at both the House in Vermont and in Washington. What would it take for you to run for Speaker of the House? Next question. I don't have any plans to do that. But you make a point, Mike. We're not gonna get through this unless we do it together. And the argument I'm making to my colleagues is that this COVID crisis affects universally all of us with a threat to our health. It's not a red state, blue state deal. Every single one of us is threatened by COVID. Every single one of us have people we love who are threatened by COVID. And the financial impact affects everybody. Every one of us, Republican or Democrat, is impacted by what has happened in our economy to accommodate the health requirements to protect ourselves from COVID. So the argument I'm making is that what is a better moment in our history to try to come together to do something that needs to be done for every single American? That's the argument that I'm making day in and day out. And I think a lot of my Republican colleagues see that. In a broadband, I mentioned earlier, Mike, there is now a consensus that we have to have rural broadband as essential to any opportunity for rural America to be in the game. Also, in this legislation, just because you're at the Islander, there is access to the PPP for our nonprofits and our small newspapers and media companies. They were cut out last time. But all around America, there is enormous pressure on local news. So the point you make in your question is really the broader point of why it is absolutely essential that if we're gonna address the wellbeing of people who elected us and we serve, whether you're a Democrat who's serving Vermont or Republican who's serving somewhere in Indiana, we have to do the same thing to help the people we represent. Well, clearly you get it, but I think there's some numbers down there that don't concern about it. Well, it's the challenge, but I'll do my part to try to bring the Vermont way to Washington. I think it works. So just to be clear, you would never ever run for Speaker of the House? Right, that's correct. I'm not running for Speaker of the House now or next year. You don't want to use the note. Would you take it if it was accurate? You know, you've gone from speculation to fantasy, Mike. That kind of thing doesn't happen. Don't you want the best of the top? Speaker Welch just left the podium, I'm sorry. Thank you. All right, Lisa, the AAP. Hi, Mike. So how does the state plan to notify sort of the next priority group who will be eligible for the vaccine? Hi, Dr. Levine here. So first of all, we need to define the next priority group, but I would say that with a very high degree of certainty, it will be defined by age, and because it will be defined by age, there'll be a variety of ways to communicate when that place has opened up, whether it be through traditional or other types of social media, et cetera. We also anticipate that many in the oldest age groups, because they may actually have very close and enduring relationships with their own healthcare providers, and often see them fairly frequently, will be always addressing that with their healthcare provider in general. Okay, thanks. It's just one clear. Is Vermont followed the CDC advisory committee plan for the phase one allocation? Yeah, for priority group one A, we're in lockstep with that. So the next group is priority group one B. Okay. Okay, thank you very much. Greg, the county courier. Greg? Good morning, Governor. Good morning. Good morning, Governor. In your introduction, you talked about contact tracing as one of the big reasons we see the success of Vermont. I told the contractor working on the capital city in Manusia, laid off many of the contact tracers that they had employed yesterday. Why are we laying off contact tracers in the midst of a pandemic, and as we expect at least a bit of a spike with holiday visits approaching? Yeah, I'm not aware that we laid anyone off. Greg, where did you say that came from? I was told that it was a contractor called DataBand USA, contracting with the state of Vermont and possibly some other states. Definitely people that we're working from the state of Vermont. That doesn't ring a bell at all. Secretary Smith, are you aware of anything of that nature? This is not ringing a bell at all with me, Governor. We have a, for contact tracing, we have individuals that are brought in from various state agencies, as well as a contractor of Maximus, but not anything that I heard of from this company. Yeah, because we've actually, Greg, we've actually, we've added 140 contact tracers to our existing team. So we've been building capacity. I appreciate that. I will look into that a little more. Yeah, if you find out anything, please send us an email so we can chase that down. Certainly will, I'll reach out to Rebecca on that. Moving on. Wanted to ask you about a criminal case in Highgate recently where two individuals impersonated your game wardens at an elderly couple's home. When the justice system releases an individual into partner corrections custody indirectly under your control, one of these individuals was sentenced less than a year ago to three years in prison to serve and obviously was released well before that for years. So I guess I'm wondering, from your point of view, is the partner corrections releasing people too early? Is there too much pressure to release inmates early? Yeah, I don't know the specifics of that case, not in particular, but as you probably know, since the pandemic hit, we have been releasing as necessary, the number of offenders in the system at this point is, I believe, a little over 300 fewer than a year ago. So we have been successful in reducing the population trying to do it in a face and equitable manner, but I don't know the particulars of that case. It might be a Jim Baker question. Okay, I can reach out to him. And lastly here, Governor, and I'll let you go and others, other people online. With another delay in delivery by UPS, we obviously have gone through this with the very tests. I know it's early on in these latest tests, but what have you learned from the investigation into the various tests being lost and has UPS ever tried to reach out to the state, make it right? I don't know if these packages are assured, but... Yeah, let me just go back to the original, the UPS case previous to this. And that was the one I think you're pointing to was the one that we had overnighted and then didn't end up getting to the road testing facility on time. But that wasn't their fault. That was a mistake on our part. There was a box that needed to be checked when it was shipped. If you have an overnight delivery on a weekend, there's a secondary box that needs to be checked to have Saturday delivery. That box was not checked. An error on our part, not UPS. So they did what they were supposed to do. It was not delivered to the facility because that box wasn't checked and arrived too late on and tainted the specimens on Monday. So again, that's our fault. I don't know about the specifics on this latest case and who, where that's at? What's that? Yeah, Governor, this is, you know, Governor Mike Smith here. We conducted teacher testing on December 15th and the 16th. There were 14 districts that were completed testing on those days. About 2,300 teachers and staff were tested. 1,300 on the 15th and just under 1,000 on the 16th. 200 teachers and staff of Milton District High School were tested but their results didn't make it to Broad or didn't make it to time on Broad. And about 95 teachers at the Berry School District, Milton shipped their samples via UPS, excuse me, U.S. Postal Service and Berry shipped theirs UPS for overnight shipping. We're trying to figure out what happened with those results, obviously, as Commissioner Levine had talked about, we are looking at that right now. Those go directly from the school to the facility and we'll see what transpired. We are retesting Milton today and we will be retesting Berry when they come back off break. So that's the latest from what Dr. Levine had reported earlier. Okay, thank you. Sean, the Chester Telegraph. Thank you. One of our readers has asked us how much of Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody treatment the modern has received to date. How many treatments have actually been administered where in Vermont they can be administered? Dr. Levine? I'm going to interpret Eli Lilly as potentially Moderna, but I'm not a, I don't think so. So, you know, we have a Pfizer and we have a Moderna that have had emergency use authorization. I'm not familiar with either of those being connected to Eli Lilly. So, and there is no other vaccine that's received emergency use authorization. This is the monoclonal antibody treatment. Ah, got you. Okay, so the monoclonal antibody, there are two treatments. One is called Regeneron and the other, I only know it by the generic name, but they've both actually come into Vermont. We were receiving approximately 20 doses per week. And I believe last week we actually got 40 doses. All of these have been distributed to hospitals around the state. I have to say the uptake of actually use of this has not been huge and that's a problem not just unique to Vermont, but it's nationwide because the medical community is not 100% sold on its efficacy. There have been a small number of studies that do show great promise, but some of the guidance panels, including the NIH and the Infectious Disease Society of America have not come out saying that this should be a standard of practice and they have left it more to what we call shared decision-making between a healthcare professional and their patient. I do think these show significant promise. I wanna go on the record as saying that. Their goal is to take moderately ill patients who are outpatients living at home, still able to cope at home with their illness, treat them early enough in their illness course and prevent them from having to be hospitalized. It's a complicated therapy in some ways because it requires an infusion center where people can sit for over an hour and have an intravenous infusion of the medication. Many, if not most of our hospitals have the ability to do infusions. However, the risk to the hospital that they perceive as real is one of their infusion centers or rooms will then be COVID positive because by definition it's a COVID patient getting the treatment. And that would take away from people who are getting chemotherapy and other infusions at that infusion site. So there's been a reluctance to do that and with the lack of uniform acclimation by the academic community and these guidance panels it has slowed down the uptake. Again, not just in Vermont but nationwide. But we have had it used in Vermont. I'm aware of several cases where it has been used. We don't have enough cases or data to share with anybody about any conclusive results about how it did or did not work. Anecdotally it's what the President of the United States received as part of the cocktail of things he received when he became ill. So all I can tell you is we have plenty of it available. The medical community is aware of it. Working with colleagues at UVM Medical Center they put out a statement about it that I thought was quite balanced acknowledging the issues with it and the lack of enthusiasm but also providing a pathway for people to use it and that's where we stand. Joe, the Barton Chronicle. I'm not sure what this question should go to. I was hoping to get a little clarification on unemployment benefits. I know that extended benefits expired. I am not clear on whether in addition to the $300 supplemental benefit the regular benefits have been extended for the 10 weeks as well. Do you still want to explain to me? Yeah, I believe, Joe, that all the programs have been extended for that 11 weeks. I don't know if Speaker Welch wants to add anything to that. Thank you. Thank you, Governor. All the unemployment benefits have been extended for 10 or 11 weeks. By the way, that's going to be a looming issue because this is brutal. If you are not able to go return to work, if we don't have food and not back at unemployment, we're going to face this issue soon again. And Governor, I remember you talking at one of your earlier press conferences about these 12,000 Vermonters who had no way to pay their bills and thank goodness we were able to extend unemployment. But that's not a long time and it's not a lot of security so that I think is a task that is going to weigh this again in D.C. Yeah, I'd like to offer my congratulations and condolences to the new speaker. And I'll also ask whether he has confidence that Congress in the new administration, where the new administration comes in, is going to be able to work together to vote through support for the economy given the problems with COVID or whether after the election in Georgia is done there will be a lack of interest in that. Yeah, in all Canada, it's really going to be tough. I mean, you've saw the history here. Senator McConnell was very resistant to doing anything. Eventually there were a number of Republican senators, I think, and also Republican governors who made the case that we really have to have another supplemental package and he accommodated that. But you've got a new president and he is going to make his effort to reach out because we're going to need to work together to be successful but there'll be an immense decision, frankly, that Senator McConnell has to make depending on the outcome in Georgia but even whatever the outcome is in Georgia because it's knife edge. I mean, if the Democrats went two seats, it's 50-50 and that's not much of a margin, especially in the Senate. So I do think that a lot of the outside advocacy from Republican governors that Governor Scott's been working with from some of those Republican senators and from some of my Republican colleagues in the house to say, hey, we are all in this together and let's assess where we're at two months from now. And again, I go back to this point. The vaccine is there. We are within reach of a self-sustaining recovery. We are in reach of a self-sustaining recovery but if we don't help those restaurants, those performance venues, those families, make it to that other side, we're going to have hollowed out communities in a deep hole that would be a big recession. So that logic applies universally but we'll see, it's tough in the current climate in DC. Good afternoon. Both of my questions I think are for Dr. Levine. First one is you mentioned that the allotment this week is still the reduced number that you had announced on Friday. Do you expect, or for the Pfizer vaccine in particular, do you expect that it's going to be the new weekly allotment that Vermont is going to get or do you think that number will go back up to the 5,000 range that we have seen before? What we've been told is they're going to make it good so we'll eventually get what we were promised initially but I think they're being a bit circumspect right now and not going out on a limb to say when you will have what just because of the concerns that occurred last time and the doses weren't ready to be shipped out when they thought they would be. But I do fully expect we will get the 5,850 doses each week that we're supposed to get. It just may not come when we expect it. Okay, great. And the second question I have is you said that the Vermont advisory group is going to be reviewing the National Advisory Group's decision on the 1B priority group. Do you expect that Vermont is going to stray much from this recommendation or are there any differences that you expect will occur? Well, I don't want to be speaking for the group because they're independent of me and that's the way it should be. I know that they're obviously going to pay attention to what the advisory committee on immunization practice has advised the CDC. It doesn't mean they have to be in complete lockstep with that by any means, but we'll see what they have to say. I'm sure it will be close or a variation on that. Keep in mind that any state can really do what it wants to and even in priority group 1A, I'm aware of at least one or two governors who made a decision to go one pathway that wasn't exactly the way it was prescribed by the advisory committee in Washington and that's completely their prerogative. So these are called advisory for a reason and they don't necessarily make the entire decision but obviously these are people who have expertise and especially in the area of ethics which is really first and foremost one of the concerns and considerations when you design a priority group around a scarce resource which vaccine should be considered a scarce resource for the next several months actually, okay? Yeah, just to follow up on that, when do you think Vermont's advisory group will make its final decision or recommendation? I believe this week. Thank you. Andrew, Caledonian record? Yes, good afternoon, thank you. Governor, my question comes from the pages of if you give a mouse a cookie with the return of limited sports activities, what are you envision as a timeline for games and will maintaining current case levels be enough to resume playing games or would you need to see further reduction in cases? Yeah, we just want to make sure, Andrew, that we're not going in the other direction if we can continue to see the case levels sustained and the levels we are now or hopefully go down but certainly not become elevated. That would be a concern from our standpoint. And so what kind of duration at least the sustained level would you need to see in the January, mid-January? Yeah, no, I would say I certainly want to watch what happens over the holiday Christmas and New Year's. So you take seven to 14 days after both of those days will give us a good indication of what's going on. So that's what we'll be watching. So I would anticipate we would be able to make some decisions by mid-January. We'll see what's happening by that point. And for, I guess, speaker in waiting, Wilch, you mentioned some of the... That's just a rumor, Andrew, that's just a rumor. Yeah, you mentioned some provisions of the stimulus package designed to benefit local news outlets. Do you outline some of what that is and is it different than what other types of businesses are eligible for? Well, what it does in the previous CARES package, the PPP program was not available to news organizations and that's changed in this organization, in this legislation. So those independent news organizations would be able to make application to get the PPP benefits under this legislation. And again, you guys are under such pressure. We know that. All the advertising is going to the big platforms. But you are now at a moment where what you provide, the service you provide is incredibly important. There's never been a greater demand for local news than right now. But the economic model doesn't support you because those restaurants, those local organizations that would buy advertising in your publications are hammered. So your readers want the news, but you don't have the advertising base. So I think it was a big oversight not to include you in the CARES package, but you are now included in this legislation we just passed. Thank you, everyone. Andrew, from what I understand as well, and maybe Congressman Waltz can substantiate this if he knows, but I believe that anyone, there are a couple of banks already willing to enable if you had not made application before, had not received a PPP previous to this, that you could actually make out an application now. But if you've made an application previous to this and have been awarded, there's another form that we are going to have to receive in order to forward your application. Now, the other part that I don't know is this first come, first serve like it was before. And Vermont did very well and came to the table early and often. And I think that that should be the case this time if we can. That's my understanding, Governor. I mean, don't waste any time on seeing what your eligibility is, get your applications in. Our banks do have, of course, a lot of experience. And my understanding is that our businesses that used our banks were really happy. Also, we had a record in Vermont and not only of top line success that the governor mentioned, but we really had a lot of smaller companies that didn't get crowded out as did happen in some of the bigger states. And I think that's a function of our banks having relationships with a lot of our smaller entities. We'll move to Lisa, the Valley Reporter. Hello. Not going to be an end result community across the state. There are many second home owners who've been here since March, she'll turn in Vermont for the duration of the pandemic. Will those people be able to get vaccinated here or will they have to return to their home state for a vaccine? That's a good question, Seth. Many of those, I assume, might even have health care in the state. So I think we've taken the tact that people can get vaccinated in the state. For instance, we have a number of people in priority group 1A who work at Dartmouth and would potentially get their vaccine in New Hampshire, even though they're Vermont residents who work in Dartmouth. Likewise, there are people who will live in New York State who come across to work at some of our hospitals in the western side of Vermont that also will count on those hospitals to provide their vaccine. So I do think that's how it will work in the end. Great, thank you very much. Ed, Newport Daily Express. This package is going to now, but if we're kicking the can down the road, what seems to be the progress it's been doing for almost a generation? As the governor and legislators build their state budgets forward in the future, what can they expect for more health in three months down the road or six months down the road? Will there be more money to be able to continue to try to keep the economy straight or will the Republicans in the Senate turn around and decide they don't want to spend it, they don't want to increase it down to six and the top ones drive? Well, that's, you described the dynamic. I mean, there's, I think a majority of us is certainly in the house who believe strongly that we've got to have financial aid for the states and our municipalities. In fact, many of my Republican colleagues were in agreement with me on that. This is in the Senate, but what will happen down the road? Number one, President Biden or President-elect Biden is committed to state and local aid. He understands how important that is. Number two, my sense, Governor Scott can speak to this, but the Republican governor is by and large our advocates for state and local aid. And number three, the politics are just gonna have to sort themselves out because there is some significant resistance with Senator McConnell, who you remember famously said that the states should consider bankruptcy as an option. And of course that's a catastrophe, it's not an option. So what you're describing awaits us and is a constant battle. But let's put this also in some other perspective. With the pandemic in March, within a week, we had a negotiation between the Speaker Pelosi and Senator McConnell, Majority Leader McConnell and President Trump for the $2.2 trillion cares package. I mean, that is enormous. And then we had this long period of almost eight months trying to get to a second package but ultimately, we passed the bill, it's $900 billion that does provide aid in some areas less than I think we need. But that's a big deal. If you look back when we had the economic crisis of 2008 and the package that Congress passed then with great debate, the American Recovery Act, that was about $750 billion. So even this package, $900 billion, which is a lot less than what we had passed in the House several months ago, is significantly higher than what we had passed before. But the bottom line for me on this is let's remember that the end is in sight and we've gotta get everybody across that bridge to that vaccine intact. That's it, leave nobody behind. And what's it gonna take? In my view, you know, this is borrowed money. Let's be candid. But it's my judgment and I think many economists agree that we're much better off making certain that everybody can get to that other side so that we can then have a self-sustaining recovery and return to life as normal. Governor, you wanna add anything to that if you're looking for your whole thing with the vaccine in place that you can kind of see the finish line? Yeah. But you're still gonna need the finances to get from our process, that finish line. Yeah, again, you know, I think you just have to look at history over the last six months. Had it not been for the aid from Congress, we wouldn't be in that great position we are today. And I think it's essential for us, as Congressman Welch had said, for us to get across the finish line intact to make sure that these businesses survive so that they can thrive in the future, to provide the opportunity, to provide the jobs, provide families the income that they need. It's essential we keep it together. So again, we will do everything we can here in Vermont. We're appreciative of all the aid and all the efforts of our congressional delegation. Senator Leahy's done a great job with the budget bill, 1.4 trillion dollar bill that does have a lot of initiatives for Vermont in that. But these two stimulus package has been essential to us here in Vermont. And we're just gonna need just a little bit more help. So I'm hopeful. And I know the National Governors Association, both Republicans and Democrats, not across the board. I wouldn't say that everyone is in agreement, but Governor Cuomo is the chair of the NGA of New York, Democrat. The vice chair is Governor Hutchinson, Aza Hutchinson from Arkansas. And I would say that we will continue to work and advocate for more financial support and more stimulus as time goes on to get us through, again, the next four or five, six months are going to be a pivotal moment for our country. And thus far, we've done all the right things. We just need a little bit more. Thank you and a happy holidays for everyone. Thank you very much. Tim, Vermont Business Magazine. I'll tell you the questions they got from last night. They're running around and maybe spending cash just to beat the tax here. And then I'm wondering how that rolls out. They get this federal money, and now they I think it's a bit back in taxes, where they think they do. And I'm wondering, it's not clear to me how that is sugared off and this is really just a tax. You know, I'm not sure I understand what your question is. Well, the PPP that small businesses receive are now feeling like they have to pay federal tax on that money. And it was sort of seen as we wouldn't have to pay the tax on it. But now they're small businesses are concerned that they can pay more. Well, you're right, that was sort of funny. Right, let me try to answer that. The Secretary Mnuchin has really been very insistent on this, and his position is that what a business gets, for instance, to use to make payroll is a deduction, but they don't on top of that get a tax credit. And he has been consistently calling that double dipping. So my understanding is that if you have an expense as a business and you deduct that expense, you don't owe taxes on that deduction. And what Secretary Mnuchin has been saying that if you get this money that is used for payroll, you don't have to pay taxes on it, but you do get the deduction. The Secretary might have the answer about sure. Yeah, go ahead. Secretary Curley, do you have any additional information? I don't have anything to add on that. OK. Yeah, if we get more information, Tim, if we get more information, we'll certainly send it your way. Yeah, there's a lot of active conservation out there, Governor, because maybe the deduction on one side and then it leaves you with a profit you weren't expecting on the other. Yeah, I understand the issue. We'll just have to get it clarified, because I'm not sure. All right, great. All right, Erin, BT Digger? Those issues received and people vaccinated in Vermont. When is that data going to start being published? So we can see it on a regular basis. I can do analysis on it. And we don't have to have you repeating every single number every single week. I don't. Are you talking about the vaccinations, Erin? Yes, the vaccinations, like the number of people vaccinated and the doses received by the state. Yeah, yeah. I believe we're developing a platform as we speak. I don't know if Dr. Levine or Secretary Smith? I think Dr. Levine just answered that it was going to be this week, up this week. We hope it will be up. So we hope it will be up this week. You see anything there? Oh, OK, I'm sorry, I missed that part. All right, that's it. Thank you, Erin. Thank you. Matt, NBC5? Thank you. Questions for both Governor Scott and Representative Walsh. There's been a number of members in Congress who have already received the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of those health care workers on the front lines and as well as those in long-term care facilities. First, for Governor Scott, do you agree with members of Congress should get this vaccine ahead of those who are most vulnerable? And Representative Walsh, same question for you would be, have you gotten the vaccine? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I don't want to judge anyone. Certainly the continuity of government is important. From my standpoint, as I said before, it just doesn't sit right with me. Personally, I'm on the ground. We're working 24-7 here. I see all the need. And I've tried to focus our team on the most vulnerable, making sure with everything that we do, whether it's vaccines or testing or contact tracing, anything, we focus on the most vulnerable, those in long-term care facilities, those in assisted living, and so forth. So everything we do is geared towards that. So when I see that, and again, we're an aging state. We have a demographic issue on our hands. We had it before. But that leads to more vulnerable for modders. And I just feel that I can wait my turn here in Vermont. I'm healthy. I'm being careful. But I see those who can be careful. But they're interacting with others every on a daily basis. And it puts them at risk. And I just feel from my standpoint here in the state, dealing this day in and day out that it's important that they receive the vaccine before I do. I have a big question for Mr. Chairman. Yeah, thank you for that. I have not been vaccinated. I expect that I will be getting vaccinated at the Capitol sometime in January. The attending physician is the one that makes the recommendations. And it's also under the Continuity of Government Act. And there's two issues, actually three issues. One is what the governor was just talking about, and getting the vaccine out to everybody. And my view on this is that everybody should get vaccinated as soon as they can, and as soon as their opportunity comes. The second is that the attending physician, he's definitely recommending that everybody in Congress under the Continuity of Government Act get vaccinated. And there's two issues there for me, for everyone, really. One is a vaccination, obviously, is going to protect the person vaccinated. But number two, if we'll be traveling back and forth to Washington on a pretty regular basis come January. And it's also important that I not be in a position to be a spreader to Vermonters. So I expect I'll be getting my vaccinations sometime in January. Great, thank you. A-free, WCAS? Dr. Levine, who is considered a frontline healthcare worker when it comes to home health workers? Home health workers satisfy the criteria for being a frontline health worker. And they are in priority group 1A. Okay. And we've been given a list of their names from the agency that deals with that. Okay. So it doesn't matter what company they work for? Should not. If they are directly interacting with Vermonters in their homes as part of the delivery of healthcare, that is all that it requires. Okay, thank you. Guy Page? Of course you're Welch. If, and I know it's a big F, you were persuaded either before or after Inauguration Day that the 2020 General was the victim of a significant electoral fraud. Would you call for and support health investigation? You know, there's no basis for that. I mean, we just saw Attorney General Barr, Attorney General Barr, the appointee of President Trump state that he would not appoint a special prosecutor because there was absolutely no evidence to support the allegation that there was any significant electoral fraud. It's not there. So the answer is no. We've got to move on. We have a president-elect. The people have spoken and we've got work to do. Thank you. Governor Scott, your office has the powers and burdened people, conviction of crimes. Are you considering any partings and if so, what are the criteria? Well, there is a process and it's very lengthy in some respects, involves the parole board and other entities. At this point in time, over the last four years, I have not pardoned anyone. I have a fairly high bar on that. But I think about some who have applied, still thinking about whether I would move forward with a pardon on some of those. But at this point in time, I have not done anything in terms of pardoning anyone. Thank you. Court me, Local 22. Court me, Local 22. We'll move to John, VPR. Thank you. Governor, just looking back at on 2020 and all the impacts of the pandemic, dairy farmers really, really took it on the channel. We lost, according to the agency's count, 58 during the last year. And I'm just, I wonder if you see a need to sort of pull Vermont as possible out of this commodity dairy market, which for many farmers has become a race to the bottom. We can't compete on price with other regions of the country. Do you see the need for your office and the agency to offer sort of a new vision for dairy beyond this commodity market that we're currently in? Yeah, there's no doubt that our dairy farmers have been struggling for quite some time. We are losing a rapid number of farms pre-pandemic and after the pandemic hit it exacerbated the issue. So we were very fortunate again to utilize some of the CARES funding to help some of them who are struggling and keep them healthy because I think it's vital as part of our DNA in some respects. I know that many farms are diversifying at this point, which is good, not putting all our eggs in one basket. And I think that the good news is from what I've heard and Secretary Tevitz, I'm not sure if he's on or not. He might want to comment, he's not. But things have stabilized a bit of late and hopefully that we see the reduction of the number of farms in Vermont subside. So obviously we want them to be part of the future. We need to feed ourselves. I think that some of the products that are made with Vermont dairy milk and so forth is essential to whether it's butter, whether it's yogurt, whether it's cheese, all of these are value added products. And I think, again, it's vital that we have a dairy industry here. So happy to, again, we're trying to do everything we can. We need the legislature's involvement as well and we'll continue to work towards making sure that they survive as well. Okay, but sort of beyond all that, you see a need for some sort of fundamental change in perhaps a new vision for our dairy farmer economy since we are in this commodity market that we're really not surviving if you look at the long term. Yeah, but I think we are, I think things are leveling out. I think that they may be a little bit healthier at this point in the pandemic and hopefully that when we get out of the pandemic they'll begin to thrive again. But again, we're looking for any opportunity to keep them intact because I think it's essential. I think it's part of who we are and part of our backbone. So I still continue to believe that dairy has a significant place for us here in Vermont and is vital to our economy. Thank you. Steve, any KTV? Hello, can you hear me? We can. Great, thank you. One for Congressman Melton, maybe one for Dr. Labina by May. Congressman, we're about the same age, I might be a couple years older too, but all my life I've watched folks arrive in Washington virtually penniless and yet after a few years of serving the public in DC it seems that either they themselves or their families are both. It just personally enricks themselves way beyond any kind of reason. Would you support a better or closer look through an ethics committee with more teeth that would maybe stop or slow some of this kind of behavior? The answer is yes. Members of Congress have to file financial disclosures. We also have to report every month any stock transactions that may take place. I pledge to not trade in individual stocks. We saw what's going on with Senator Perdue in the investigation there about a lot of transactions that were made around the time of the virus. So I do favor transparency disclosure and strong ethics standards. Steve, do you? With the family too. Yeah, no, I agree with you. Yes, with the families. Yeah, great. Dr. Labine, if I may, I've been looking at the differences with Japan. They've had some restrictions, but they've had no lockdowns in neither of the Mexico. They don't count the likes of COVID deaths and they're not using PCR tests on everyone. And if they have no symptoms, they're not considered sick or isolated. And Tokyo alone has reached a herd immunity of like 50%, which is the same number that Pfizer is hoping for with a vaccine. Japan doing something that we might want to look at. I'm not sure to tell you the truth, Steve. Japan is not one of the countries that comes up a lot when I'm seeing experiences around the world. So it sounds very favorable, although I recall they went through a very hard phase because way earlier in the pandemic. And because their average age is also, it's kind of like Vermont, they have an aging demographic in Japan as well. There were a lot of concerns early on about that. So I'm hopeful that what you're saying, you're making it look like a rosy picture and a rosy outcome and I'm hoping that's true because sometimes the cost of achieving that herd immunity brings with it a lot of casualties who generally are in the more vulnerable groups. But I'd have to research a little bit more about what Japan has done to really answer your question effectively. Yeah, well, their confirmed fatality rate is about 22 per million, where as lockdown states like Italy is 113 per million, Spain is 1046 per million and the U.S. is around 970 per million. So, I mean, the numbers are there. Maybe is it something we could look into? Yeah, and please send me some of your references. We're happy to look at them, okay? Okay, should I send them through Ben? Please do. Okay, great, thank you all very much. Steve, I did want to tell you, I meant to tell you on Friday that we did look into the recycling of the styrofoam packaging and we are sending that back to the manufacturer for reuse. So with that, we'll see you on Thursday, correct? And have more information for you. Governor, I want to do one extra thank you. And I want to thank all of the workers in Vermont. Two of my sons came home. They had a quarantine for a week. Then they got the free test. They tested negative and they're gonna be home for Christmas. And it's like, it works. You guys are doing a good job. So from my wife and I, we say thank you for allowing us to have, because of your good work, a nice family Christmas and everybody have a good holiday. Thank you very much.