 Good afternoon everyone. I just got off our call with fellow governors and White House officials and here's what we heard First they share the latest on the progress on approving the vaccine for those under 12 Which will be a major step forward when it comes Dr. Fauci reported that clinical trials for vaccines for those 11 and under are going well and That Pfizer will have enough data to submit for an EUA By as soon as early or mid September At that point it would be in the FDA's hands on the regulatory side It's important to note that on the logistical side things will be a bit different There will be a dedicated supply due to The dosage being lower for younger kids than we're using now for those 12 and over But on the other side as well there is plenty of supply available We also heard about the FDA's full approval of the Pfizer vaccine Which governors have been advocating for on these calls for quite some time We know there are many who haven't been vaccinated yet And have said one thing holding them back was that the vaccine was only approved under emergency authorization Now with the FDA's approval of the Pfizer vaccine they've confirmed what we already know that vaccines are safe Effective it can save your life So if you've been on the fence, I hope this news will help inspire you to join well over 400,000 of your fellow Vermonters and get vaccinated It's the single most important thing you can do to protect yourself and your community Next as you'll see in the commissioner p-checks modeling report Although covid cases have increased in vermont the rate of the increase continues to slow Which we believe means that we'll begin to see the same decrease other countries have experienced with delta very soon Only a fraction of a percent of vaccinate Vermonters have gotten covid And despite what you may have read the gap between vaccinated and unvaccinated cases continues to widen Meaning unvaccinated cases are going up at a higher rate than vaccinated cases As well when you're reading about these numbers And they're only broken down by vaccinated versus unvaccinated It's not a fair comparison or analysis As you know the number of people who are vaccinated in vermont Significantly outnumber those that aren't So you can't just compare the total number of vaccinated cases to unvaccinated cases You have to look at the rates Which show you that vaccinated cases are just a very small percentage The evidence is clear Being vaccinated significantly reduces your risk of getting covid And experiencing more severe outcomes in the unlikely event that you do that you do contract it Next we'll be discussing the return to school And we're joined by deputy secretary of education heather boucher As well as state epidemiologist patsy kelso to share some important information But first I want to remind folks how important it is that we're returning to full in-person Instruction five days a week We know that in-person instruction Is important to our to our kids and vermont has had more in-person instruction than most Even over last year That's why earlier this month we issued our recommendations to school districts on how to safely return to class first We believe and strongly recommend That masks be required for all students of all ages at the side of the year Our students under 12 are currently ineligible for the vaccine We are asking districts to mandate masking until they're approved to receive the vaccine and are fully vaccinated as you know Without a state of emergency in place the state cannot Require this unilaterally Which is why weeks ago We issued our recommendations to districts to give them time to implement at the local level We believe this common sense approach will allow our kids to get back on track And make up some of the lost ground in a safe and productive way And we reach and when we reach a time when vaccines are approved for those under 12 I'm confident we can continue to show the nation how it's done Lead on vaccination rates and reduce remaining mitigation measures Again secretary boucher and dr. Kelso will provide more thoughts But next i'll turn it over to commissure p check for the data presentation Thank you very much governor and good afternoon everyone So i want to start where we have for the last couple of weeks of looking at the national trends the regional trends and the vermont trends particularly as it relates to case growth over the last six seven eight weeks Taking a look at the first slide this shows as the governor said that national case growth has risen this week yet again But that rate of growth has slowed down Further the ensemble model from the cdc that puts together dozens and dozens of models from across the country Anticipates that cases nationally will slow down and then start to decrease Looking at the next slide. You can see that rate of decrease nationally Continuing to slow down down from in the 60s 50s 30s Last week the rate of growth was 19 percent and now 14 percent this week And a particular mention that some of the states hit the hardest earlier on Missouri, arkansas, louisiana They're seeing their cases plateau and in louisiana and missouri's case Start to come down as well So that is leading to the sort of national trend that we're seeing a little bit closer to home in new england. We're seeing a similar Story play out where the cases regionally have gone up But that increase about 4 000 cases compared to last week Is the slowest rate of increase that we've seen over the last six or seven weeks Looking at the next chart. You can see similar to the country. We had growth rates into the 60 50 And 40 percent range and then last week the growth rate was 19 percent coming down to 9 percent this week And similarly here in vermont We see that we increased our cases week over week by about 40 So that's the smallest week over week increase that we've seen up from 758 cases last week to 798 cases this week. So again, if we look at what that means for the growth rate We can see here in vermont the same trend where the growth rate increased as cases were increasing more quickly Leveling out and then that rate of growth falling down. So the next week We really want to look at the data closely in anticipation of the case rate Not just slowing down, but cases actually starting to decline as well When you look at the next slide, this is the reproduction rate We talked about this a lot throughout the pandemic But you can see that vermont's reproduction rate was increasing early on during this wave basically For every person that's infected how many other people will that person infect And you can see that that number is now getting down close to zero or to one rather Which basically means that you're starting to spread it to less than a person Meaning that cases will start to fall. So that is certainly a good sign And again, we're right on the cusp of that really important to see How that case data plays out over the next week And that all leads into the vermont forecast where we can see that the ensemble forecast from the cdc again Combining dozens of models from across the country anticipates vermont's cases continuing to slow down And then starting to drop. So that's what we hope and anticipate seeing and we'll spend a good deal of time Looking at in the week ahead Looking a little bit more granularly at the data like we Usually do you can see that the case rates are continuing to be significantly different For those who are unvaccinated compared to those who are vaccinated So in the unvaccinated rates, you can see that that rate of increase is about 28 Percent compared to the 18 percent in the fully vaccinated case rates So the fully vaccinated rates Less cases growing less quickly than those who are unvaccinated. So continues to be You know a situation where our case growth is being driven by those who are not fully vaccinated Again to represent this this is a little bit different than the representation we showed last week This is actually a per, you know, this is actually showing it on a scale on a per You know per per capita scale where you're seeing The amount of people vaccinated fully vaccinated in vermont in that large green box In that yellow box you're seeing the number of breakthrough cases that we've seen again This is in proportion to scale and then in those smaller boxes, which you can't even really see visually here You see the number of hospitalizations and the number of deaths that have resulted from a breakthrough case If we magnify this 100 times on the next slide and blow up that little box You'll see just how infrequent it is for a fully vaccinated person to end up in the hospital And for a fully vaccinated person To succumb to covet 19. So again continue to have strong confidence in the vaccines And the next slide shows that as well Real world data showing the highest vaccinated states to the lowest vaccinated states With vermont on there as well vermont continues to have a lower rate in terms of cases hospitalizations and fatalities Then even those other states that are highly vaccinated like vermont And just want to mention also that vermont has no pediatric hospitalizations at the moment as well And we continue to be even though The hospitalization rate has increased continues to be the lowest hospitalization rate in the country Turning to a more topical subject to higher education restart This is the first snapshot from our higher education institutions about the level of vaccination on campus We don't have all of the institutions reporting yet Not all of them are starting this week some next week some after labor day But we have 13 of the 16 institutions in vermont reporting Some of those institutions are still gathering information from their students But still it paints a pretty encouraging picture Where of the you know 24,500 students that are enrolled in these 13 institutions About 90 percent of them are fully vaccinated Another 5.8 percent or so Have a status that's not vaccinated students that are between shots students that are from foreign countries That are waiting to get vaccinated when they come to vermont Students that are just simply in the process of providing the information to the school And then there's some unknown students as well about three percent and of those exemptions that have been granted from schools That's only about 350 Incidents so About 1.4 percent So again, you can see this is the first snapshot. We'll update this week over week As more of those not vaccinated and unknown statuses move to different categories, but you can see Higher education in a really good position To start the fall semester as it relates to vaccination status Turning to the long-term care facility slide that we mentioned that we put back into the presentation You can see that there are four current outbreaks across vermont totaling 62 cases at this moment Turning to vaccinations want to update here and mention that we had over 3 000 people Start vaccination this week. That's an about an 11 percent increase from last week And you can see that the number of eligible vermonters still Waiting to be vaccinated has dropped below 80 percent. So with the news about the full fda authorization Hope to see those numbers continue to climb In the weeks ahead and you can see on the next chart that they have been on the increase again for about the last six or seven weeks So bringing us to our scoreboard, you know, we see on the vaccine front We see that vermont continues to be number one across the board We often talk about that 85.6 percent number That's the number of vermonters who have received at least one dose But just as important or even more critically important in the face of deltas that fully vaccinated number 76.4 percent which vermont has been a nation leader in for quite some time And if you look at the next slide and dr. Levine will reiterate this You'll see the importance of that second shot of following through and getting the full vaccinated Number of shots that you need to get fully vaccinated Hawaii and vermont have almost identical case vaccination rates when it comes to the first shot But there is quite a bit of deviation when it comes to those in vermont and those in hawaii Who are fully vaccinated who have received all of their doses and you can see that play out in the hawaii case rates the rates You know are at least two and a half times greater than vermont Again by not being fully vaccinated. They're not getting the full protection of the vaccines and it's important for vermonters Who are between doses to follow through and get their dose or even vermonters who are late To make an attempt to get that second dose to get the full protection against the delta variant So with that i'll turn the presentation over to secretary smith Thank you commissioner p check and good afternoon everyone I try to keep these presentations short. I failed miserably On this presentation. There's a lot of data that I want to go over Today in a minute i'm going to cover The various walk-in vaccination sites open at schools and pop-up locations across the state this week But first I want to touch on a couple of other Topics the first topic is patient capacity at our hospitals We look at hospitalization data every day often twice a day. Actually, I looked at it just before I came in here We have seen increasing number of patients in some hospitals But this is also driven by several factors Other than covet as of today there are 34 people with covet 19 that are hospitalized for contacts This is about half of the number of covet hospitalizations We saw earlier in the year and as a commissioner p check had mentioned It's it's the best in the nation in terms of keeping our hospitalization rate low As you will see in today's data our covet As you saw in commissioner p checks data our covet case rate growth numbers are actually starting to plateau Hopefully this trend will continue. Of course We will continue to watch this data to see if there are any changes we have to make along the way Besides covet what we're seeing is that people are seeking care That they may have delayed or couldn't easily access earlier in the pandemic as a result They may be showing up sicker and requiring hospitalization. We're also seeing Uh people sinking mental health services showing up in the emergency departments This is particularly happening happening at UVMMC Mental health capacity has been an issue pre-pandemic and it continues to ebb and flow throughout the year To assist with this the vermont department of mental health is bringing on more staff including Travelers as required to open up nine closed beds at the vermont psychiatric Care hospital in berlin the first five of these beds should be open in mid september in addition The bridal bow retreat has 12 new level one adult beds and four pediatric beds The retreat is actively actively seeking staff to open up those beds We anticipate that six of them will be also becoming online in mid september Next i want to cover additional vaccine doses as well as upcoming booster shots This will occur in two phases the first phase which is already underway involves Those who have weakened immune system and have received the fizer and moderna vaccine the fda recommends an additional dose For these individuals. This is a relatively small group of people nationwide approximately three percent of the population Individuals should talk to their primary health care provider about whether getting an additional dose is appropriate for them Many primary care providers and pharmacies are trained and equipped to give an additional dose to those who are eligible We also are augmenting the primary care and physician and pharmacy capability With our pop-up and school based vaccination sites the sites that i'll cover in a minute Are all equipped to provide an additional dose to eligible individuals These are walk-in only sites and you will have to self attest that you qualify when you go in Between primary care providers pharmacies and our pop-up and school sites the process should go smoothly Now on the second phase that i mentioned the federal government has recommended booster shots for the general population This is tentatively scheduled to begin the week of september 20th Individuals become eligible for a booster shot eight months after they've received their second dose of their vaccine We have been planning for administering boosters and we expect to start out with health care workers And those in long-term care facilities and then expand the effort to the larger population We have the experience the infrastructure and the partnerships Needed to do this phase efficiently As was the case when we had the mass vaccination effort starting back in the spring We'll be leveraging our hospitals pharmacies ems personnel the national guard state employees and health care providers And this time around vermonis will have even more options as primary care offices Join the effort Boosters are currently recommended for those who receive the fizer and maderna vaccines The federal government is gathering more data on johnson and johnson vaccine in the coming weeks If vaccinations are approved for those that are two to eleven age range We may use some of the same infrastructure in addition to our school based clinics And pediatric and other primary care practices to get children vaccinated Turning to the vaccination rates as you saw In commissioner p check's presentation 85.6 Percent of eligible vermoners have received at least one dose of the vaccine 76.4 of all eligible vermoners are fully vaccinated You can walk in and get vaccinated at most local pharmacies including those in grocery stores You can also visit pharmacy locations at uvm medical center the community health centers of burlington Northwestern medical center and the southwestern vermont medical center in addition to those options We continue to offer school based and pop-up clinics each week I want to remind everyone that school is one of the most convenient places for students to get vaccinated Now through october vaccination clinics will be offered At schools among those age 12 to 17 71.2 percent Have already received at least one dose of vaccine. Please get your eligible children vaccinated Finally, here's where you'll find 36 pop-up and school based clinics today green mountain tech center in high park bellows falls academy and fairfax Johnson elementary school in johnson health care and rehabilitation services in brattle borough Tomorrow august 25th brattle borough union high school in brattle borough oxbow High school in bradford the woodstock in in woodstock wells river chevalet in wells river Putney fire department in putney 1113 berry mampilia road in berlin and the waterbury ambulance in waterbury center on thursday august 26 south burlington high school in south burlington berry town ems in berry Rutland the Rutland district health office in 88 merchants row in ruttland health care and rehabilitation services in springfield waterbury farmers market And waterbury on friday the caledonia county fair in lindenville The champlain valley fair in essex junction the bondville fair in bondville The newport waterford plaza in newport middlebury union high school in middlebury blue mountain high school in wells river St. johnsbury academy in st. johnsbury and again 1311 berry mampilia road here in berlin On saturday caledonia county fair in lindenville The chandler center for arts in randall The highland center for arts in greensboro the u32 high school in mampilia the richford high school in richford Again the bondville fair in bondville the champlain valley fair in essex junction the west Fairly old home day in fairly and then on sunday caledonia county fair in lindenville The crossock brook middle school in ductsbury virgin's high school in virgin's champlain valley fair again Please take advantage of the opportunities to get vaccinated as you can see We've provided ample opportunity out there to get vaccinated at very sort of high traffic areas So please take the opportunity to get uh vaccinated You can find information about these covet vaccination sites at the health department's website Which is health vermont dot gov slash my vaccine I'll now turn it over to dr. Levin for I'm not telling you i'm turning it over to heather heather you're up Thank you secretary smith good afternoon Many vermont schools are back to school this week as the governor noted and with that in mind I'll briefly remind us of the state's recommendations for public health and safety measures for back to school this fall In addition to urging all eligible vermont residents who can get vaccinated to do so as we just heard We recommend that districts require students and staff to stay home if they are sick Schools are recommended to use the same resources provided by the health department last year to evaluate health and wellness testing and return to school timelines Please stay home if you show symptoms of covet 19 Have a fever or are currently in quarantine or isolation due to covet 19 In addition if symptoms begin while at school students or staff should be sent home as soon as possible Regarding facial coverings. We recommend that schools require everyone Students and staff alike to wear a mask for the first 10 instructional days of the school year After that time if more than 80 percent of eligible students have received their second dose of vaccine Schools may list mask mandates for both eligible students and staff If the proportion of eligible students vaccinated is less than 80 percent all staff and students should continue to wear mask Students aged 11 and under who are not yet eligible for the vaccine should continue to wear masks while in school Finally students and staff should not have to wear masks outdoors Without a declared state of emergency our recommendations are advisory But the authority of school districts and independent schools is not They have a duty of care to their students and the responsibility and authority to take action to ensure their health and safety We're seeing good things from vermont schools as they set up their local requirements and update their families on the process for the new school year For instance colchester school district just sent home a beautiful clear health and safety guide with information on staying home when sick Mask wearing requirements contact tracing testing and vaccination information all in one place Please know that we will continue to assess the situation and provide updates and additional recommendations as the need arises In terms of surveillance testing the state is again offering this testing for all students and staff as we did in the spring and over the summer Currently school districts are enrolling in the program administered by the health department Several districts are starting this weekend next with the remainder coming online in the next few weeks And it's now recommended that all students and staff get tested often regardless of whether they are vaccinated In terms of contact tracing the health department will again be working directly with school districts and independent schools To conduct contact tracing in response to cases and situations in schools And i believe dr. Kelso will outline more on that in just a few moments Before i close i want to give a bit more detail about the authority of supervisory districts to keep students safe That i referenced a moment ago We released a memo on this to districts last week that briefly stated Under vermont law districts have broad authority and responsibility to soundly administer their uh to soundly administer their schools Including adopting local policies practices and actions to keep their students safe and healthy This includes policies and practices to prevent the transmission of covet 19 in their learning community It is important to know that the details of how districts Choose to address um and prevent the transmission of of covet 19 may vary from district to district Some school boards may set a mask policy themselves Whereas others may delegate covet 19 decisions to the superintendent district nurses and covet 19 coordinators Districts are unlikely to make the same exact decisions or follow the exact same timeframe for mitigation practices across the state That is okay What is important is that local school officials are stepping up and exercising their local authority and responsibility To make the health and safety decisions that work for their community I also want to note that we have been hearing about a few Thankfully not um not in any kind of widespread way But a few contentious conversations regarding masking and covet 19 mitigation measures This is perhaps to be expected given our experience is navigating covet to date Particularly from a national perspective. However, we urge any such conversations to remain civil measured and respectful Again school boards school administrators and educators are working hard and making decisions in the best interests of health and safety for everyone You can disagree with their decisions, but it is not okay to threaten or intimidate them And threats of violence are never acceptable I also ask that folks, please not disrupt the start of school in any way Activities that disrupt the school day or interrupt learning time deprive our students of the stability and connection with their teachers and peers That they all need as we start the new school year Ultimately such activity just isn't fair to our kids Finally, I'd like to add on a note of optimism It is truly great that we're able to start the school year in person with a streamlined set of common sense Safety and health measures It's not something folks can take for granted in other parts of the country And the fact that we're starting from a good place here in vermont is due to our collective efforts over the past 18 months And the fact that so many verminers stepped up and got vaccinated when it was their turn As both an educator and a parent myself I can say that it's incredibly valuable to have kids returning to the classroom To pe and sports to music and drama and all the many other extracurriculars available And also more generally to spending time together with their friends, which we know is incredibly valuable in the context of learning and development for our students We're hearing from educators parents and community members that students are excited to return to school with less worry and restrictions than there were last year And I just want to say that i'm profoundly grateful to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible I will now turn the podium over to dr. Kelso The health department will support schools in their contact tracing efforts in the same way that we did last year Schools will conduct contact tracing when a student or staff was present in school or was at a school event while infectious Schools might learn of these exposures or situations when a family or staff member notifies the school Or when the health department identifies an exposure during our contact tracing process and then lets the school know When schools learn about an exposure, they'll first verify that the student or staff person was at school while they were infectious They'll identify their close contacts in the school setting And then review the situation and close contact decisions with the health department And keep in mind if you're fully vaccinated, even if you're a close contact to a case you do not need to quarantine Schools will also notify close contacts at the school about their exposure Using a quarantine letter and other resources provided by the health department and give testing guidance as needed And then they'll loop back with the health department to share information Schools know their families best and this method was successful last year Also families might be more likely to answer a call from their child's school And that can help speed up the contact tracing process If we want to keep our kids in school and we all agree, that's where they need to be We all need to do our part and you've heard Bits of this before Most importantly get vaccinated if you're eligible Stay home if you're sick, even if you have a mild illness Get tested if you have any symptoms even if you think it's allergies or a cold And even if you're vaccinated And if you're in a household with children who can't be vaccinated yet or someone with a weakened immune system Consider wearing a mask when indoors in public settings Finally, I want to speak to the kids and the parents and caregivers of kids who are involved in group activities They're passionate about doing whether it's sports music theater or anything else Your chances of doing what you love this school year will be much greater if you do one simple thing Get vaccinated getting vaccinated will help you all be successful in reaching your your goals together And i'll turn it over to dr. Lubin Thanks dr. Kelso So the delta variant continues to drive covet activity in the us Including here in vermont. It's high transmissibility is cause for concern But fortunately our most powerful tool against this new version of the virus The vaccine is doing its job Fully vaccinated people that's more than 434,000 vermonas are highly protected from serious illness hospitalization and death Including against the delta variant It's always been our goal to prevent the worst effects of the virus That is our public health mission and we achieve that goal through vaccination We've already seen data both in clinical trials and in the real world Showing the safety and effectiveness of all three vaccines But as you've all heard the Pfizer vaccine reached an important milestone yesterday With full approval from the FDA for people 16 and older It continues to be available under the emergency use authorization For people aged 12 to 15 and for the third dose in certain people with immunocompromising conditions All of the COVID vaccines had to pass rigorous scientific standards to get their emergency use authorization Now I and other public health officials around the country Believe that the FDA's full approval delivers increased confidence that the Pfizer vaccine meets even higher standards Including the empirical evidence and studies from millions of vaccinations worldwide Yesterday's authorization may reassure and I hope does reassure some unvaccinated people awaiting this additional level of review If you are waiting for full approval to get vaccinated, please take the opportunity to find a clinic and protect yourself as soon as you can The FDA's action may also allow for employers to require the vaccine for their employees As I've said many times this is a safe and effective vaccine and I encourage anyone not yet vaccinated to go to healthvermont.gov Slash my vaccine To see where you can get a shot near you And anyone who's had that first dose You're not yet fully protected. So be sure to get your second dose Getting full protection is even more important as the delta variant spreads While effectiveness of the messenger RNA vaccines after both doses can be as high as 94 percent against delta Effectiveness after one dose can be as low as 30 or 40 percent 93 percent of people in Vermont who are eligible for their second shot have had their second shot Leaving only seven percent of those who've had their first shot overdue for the second So if you took the trouble to get your first shot Definitely get your second It's more important in the time of delta than ever before In fact, you saw some of the data that commissioner p check showed about hawaii and vermont And the biggest difference is our rate of people fully vaccinated Not just the rate of one dose but fully vaccinated being ultimately so much more protective for our population If you're still due for your second dose, you should get it as close to the recommended three or four week interval as possible However, it may be given up to six weeks after the first dose if necessary There's currently limited information on the effectiveness of receiving your second dose Either earlier than recommended or later than six weeks after the first shot Now that i've given that important reminder Let me say a few words concerning what everyone is talking about now, which is booster shots for the general population As we said last time these may be available as early as september 20th For people who got their vaccine the earliest way back in december and january I want to mention some research findings today Yet to be peer reviewed from the israeli health ministry panel of vaccine effort experts They're encouraging news about the effectiveness of vaccine boosters in seniors Was that a third dose of the phyzer vaccine provided four times as much protection against infection as two doses did The level of protection was five to six times higher against serious illness and hospitalization Now israel has been administering third doses in those over age 60 for about a month now In a just reduced their age to 40 for those who received their second second shot more than five months ago As we said before anyone who's unvaccinated is at greater risk of getting and spreading the virus This includes children who can't be vaccinated right now those age 11 and under Fortunately in vermont our rates of vaccination among people who are eligible are high enough that that will help reduce the spread But as you've heard we will likely see cases in schools this fall Just as we're seeing cases in other parts of our communities right now Whether that be workplaces child care summer camps health care settings The students and teachers who go to school every day represent the communities they come from and the level of transmission of virus in those communities But there is some good news if the delta variant trends hold We believe as you saw on the slide that this surge may last weeks and not months Once cases do go down They should also become less common in our communities and schools once again In the meantime We all believe it's important for children to have and enjoy as normal and educational experience as possible in school Keeping up social connections and activities Our schools and their staff have been and continue to be Amazing partners with knowledge and experience and keeping their communities safe Fortunately data shows any severe effects from COVID-19 in children continue to be rare in vermont We can all help protect our schools and our communities by doing our part to reduce spread By one getting vaccinated if you're eligible Two staying home if you're sick and getting tested if you have any symptoms Three wearing a mask indoors if you're not fully vaccinated Four if you are fully vaccinated Consider wearing a mask indoors as an extra layer of protection If you have a weakened immune system or are around someone who does If you have children who can't be vaccinated If you're traveling to a place with higher transmission and lower vaccination rates Or if you just feel more comfortable wearing one and want to benefit others By reducing further your already very low risk of transmitting the virus If you or your child are headed back to school soon I recommend you consider skipping travel to a higher risk area and to get tested if you do choose to do so Those of you who've been faithfully watching these press conferences Will recognize I said this one year ago as well It was good advice then and it remains so now In summary the delta variant is not the same virus we dealt with a year ago But we do have layers of protection we can use as we weather this current surge I'll turn it back to the governor Thank you, dr. Levine and the entire team for the presentation today With that we'll open up to questions Has anything shaken your glasses half fault approach to this I mean, have you given any consideration to I know you To any additional measures even if they're just recommendations as opposed to Yeah, I mean we've given a lot of recommendations. We think it's a good idea to To mass where appropriate Be in indoor settings that would where there's a lot of people who we don't know I mean, that's those are just common sense solutions that we've learned a lot about over the last 18 months Over the last 18 months, you know when we started this we we had no playbook whatsoever We're going on the seat of our from the seat of our pants Deciding what to do and addressing things as they came up But again, we've learned a lot about what this virus does and doesn't do and certainly with the new Variant it's changed a bit has become more transmissible But it's the same virus and so we know how to mitigate it or we think we do Um, we're number one in the nation in so many different categories Uh, we're doing something right. Uh, and one of those is The vaccinations and having the highest vaccination rate in the country has given us a certain amount of latitude Am I concerned about what i'm seeing? Of course I am I I watch the data constantly I'm in contact with my team multiple times a day. We meet almost daily So we are ready to pivot. We are ready to do whatever is necessary to keep Vermonters safe when we have to but I watch other states as well and when we see For instance main puts more restrictions in They saw the same thing that we were seeing they put more restrictions in because of the hospitalizations and so forth Well, that didn't change their hospitalization. In fact, they're increasing at a higher rate than ours are The number of positive cases have increased as well. So their mitigation measures have not helped the situation When we see other countries the uk, uh, we see india Israel and others that are starting to fall off they fall off Dramatically after a certain point in time We believe uh, commissioner p check showed that in his presentation That we'll see that peak and then stop start dropping dramatically About the nine week mark. I believe so we've been seven weeks into that And we think in a couple weeks. We'll see that happen But we're asking vermoners to use common sense Be vigilant get your your vaccinations And and continue to use your head and assess your own situation and do the right thing, but If the if that doesn't prove to be the case if the The cases don't peak and and become Much more reduced over the next two or three weeks We may take other measures, but right now we're providing guidance and we I don't believe a state of emergency is appropriate At this point in time and that's our only mechanism to do so What would be inappropriate about the state of emergency? What's the downside to doing that? Well over use of the state of emergency I mean we went through a period of time Where we had a state of emergency longer than any other administration in history that can be Utilized in in a lot of different ways misused in a lot of different ways as well Um, but it should only be used. I mean the constitution lays this out. It should only be used in times of real emergency There's nothing. There's no emergency that we're seeing at this point in time, uh, that would uh, that would Force us to go into one Again, we knew this would happen the cases aren't expanding dramatically the hospitalizations Are half what we saw in early parts of the year so Until such time as there is an emergency. There's no reason to impose one. You don't want to abuse this The leaders at the legislature, uh of just an hour or two ago, uh put out statements that Uh, effectively called on you to to do more invited you to take further measures Saying that this approach was already putting people at risk. Well, what's your response to what they've put forth? I did, uh, you know, I was on the call with the white house before This press briefing so didn't have a lot of time, but I had about 10 minutes before and I did see The letter from the speaker have not reviewed the one from the pro tem, but it follows suit Um, I think it's unfortunate To play politics at this point in time. I think one of the reasons our pandemic response has been the best in the nation Is that we never politicize our response as other states and other ambitious leaders have done throughout the country We're 100 focused on Serving vermoners and doing the right thing playing politics On this issue isn't going to help the situation or help vermoners I did see where the speaker had mentioned That there are five other states who have Imposed further restrictions. In fact, they still have a state of emergency. I believe One of them being louisiana And that is like night and day to where vermont is now In louisiana if if we had the same situation in vermont that they're experiencing in louisiana We would have never lifted our state of emergency. We would have never lifted some of the restrictions We'd still have them today and we would probably impose a mass mandate if that were the case They um They have 14 times The number of cases we do 14 times In their hospital is there the death rates Their death rate is 62 times What vermont says Again, that's like night and day. They should have a state of emergency and they should be putting Restrictions on and if we were experiencing that in vermont, we'd be doing the same thing I asked about breakthrough cases and maybe don't feel me and you can shed some light on this as well From august 1st health department says Data says from august 1st to august 12th the state recorded 187 breakthrough cases, which is more than the previous four weeks combined You know given the fact that a lot of these breakthrough cases really didn't start picking up until mid july or so Why why are we including data? Of vaccination data and breakthrough case data from the beginning of the pandemic when the delta variant or from January when the delta variant wasn't here I'm not sure. I understand the question, but maybe dr. Levine Put the slide back up of the uh graph of the vaccinated versus the So people at home can't see the numbers here, which are cases for a hundred thousand But we're in the 10 for a hundred thousand range on the blue line, which is the vaccinated population and we're in the 35 for so range per hundred thousand For the vaccine For the unvaccinated, which is the cold line. So again Clearly there's been this major uptick late july and early august in these cases don't deny it Very important to recognize that Again, these cases are still out of a denominator That is over 400 000 people In these cases are out of the denominator. That's a hundred or a thousand or less people That's a dramatic difference. So yes If we're going to see cases in Vermont The cases are going to be in the vaccinated people because That's almost everybody in the state and we know this is a transmissible variant That can still impact vaccinated people even in the vaccine. That is 95 to 99 percent It's active So I think that's the perspective you need to look at these cases in Does that help? What's happening with the johnson and johnson people when it comes to boosters Yeah, there's a oh, do you have an update? Well, they they talked about it a bit on the white house called it if you want to Well, all I was going to say is there's Data that's apparently starting to flow in from johnson and johnson regarding their experience Because obviously that's important to support any subsequent policy of administering boosters We also know that it wasn't under e way till a number of months after the mRNA vaccines So that in theory if it behaved the same way People wouldn't even be ready for those boosters at the same time as people who started out in january with the mRNA So it's more just having the company's data get analyzed like everything else But I'll see if the governor has something even more recent Along those same lines as what dr. Levine just described dr. Fauci Had said that they are Working on this the data is coming through. He says it's inevitable. There will be a booster On the second dose of the johnson and johnson but it can't be It can't be advised because they're under the eua at this point. They would have to go to Full author's authorization before doing so or revamping Of the emergency use authorization because that was just for one one dose Um, there's some more good news in some respects They're not seeing any more cases than they are with any any other Of the platforms maderna or fizer with johnson johnson. So there's no concern there And they did say that they have finally cleared up the situation in baltimore So there is plenty of supply millions of doses are going to be available when they do get the data in and a booster is Which he feels is again inevitable comes to be I just I wanted to go back a little bit to the other question as well I watch cnn from time to time and uh, I appreciate As much as I appreciate uh, dr. Levine, uh, dr. Fauci also like dr. Gupta sanjay gupta and he has said He's been talking about this issue about the breakthrough cases and he said it's a term that's misused That that these cases that are coming through aren't necessarily That the vaccine is not working because the vaccine from his perspective Was designed to lessen the The impacts of this virus on some of the organs specifically with lungs and prevent the the Infection from getting to the lungs and he said it's working So these breakthrough cases that are described aren't necessarily what you might think They still are helpful and uh, and are preventing death. So that's in you Probably should look at what he's written And and go back to that because it it was explained well to me and made a lot of sense Dr. Levine, I got an email from a viewer that just gave me an idea for a question He was bringing up the fact that You know some of the people who are unvaccinated may be so because they had coveted and um, You know believe that there's some level of immunity with that I know this is something you've talked about before but Given the delta variant what would be your advice to those people if they have held out on getting vaccinated Believing that they have a good amount of immunity already Yeah, my advice is really unwavering. It's that The data is so strong that shows that even if you've had The kind of immunity you get from having had the infection itself Your immune system gets additional benefits from the vaccine To a much much higher degree and you are much more fully protected for the future By having gotten the vaccine on top of having had the infection already So the data is just uh, very very compelling Once this booster process starts rolling out if somebody has gone, you know Two months after when they were supposed to get the booster Would they still be full considered fully vaccinated? Has the department of health given that any thought when it comes to indoor masking and things like that? So sort of the evolving definition of fully vaccinated Basing it on a third dose of vaccine if you've gotten the two dose vaccines Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't think we've thought of that yet at this point in time I think at this point in time We're happy for all the people who've gotten the second dose I have no reason to believe Vermonters won't step up to the plate when it comes to their Opportunity to get the third dose because again the kind of data that I just recited about Israel We'll find that kind of data Coming in from other locations including this country as well And the whole recommendation is based on data about what impact Another dose has not just on like The antibodies in your bloodstream, but actually on what happens to you over time So it'll be so compelling that I think most Vermonters just like they come back, you know for flu shots the ones who are Already getting flu shots They keep coming back year after year because they know that they're going to get some benefit from that Eventually what's going to happen with the SARS-CoV-2 virus is it's going to be sort of in the background all the time something that's called being endemic And people are going to be accustomed to the fact that there will be a need for getting booster Vaccines at some kind of interval yet to be determined. Would it be annual like the flu shot? Would it be something else? I can't say but that's what will happen How are people in nursing homes supposed to get their third shot? It seems like there's a fairly urgent need for for that population to get these boosts Yeah, and they're going to be the first on the list actually because they were the first on the list We have a strategy which secretary smith is eager to tell you The we are in the planning stages are right now of Reinventing or re establishing how they got their booster shots How they got their shots in the beginning which was through the pharmacy partnership Will probably re institute that process for them those pharmacies that worked in certain Long-term care facilities would go back to that we're in that process right now They will be one of the first More specific well after you know, there's 6,000 of them after sept september 20th will be Going into them right at that point. So We got to get approval It's got to be approved by you know the various federal agencies that need to approve it But as soon as we're approved there are two major Blocks right out of the gate that will get it health care workers in long-term care facilities Thank you School sports guidance Yeah, we have talked about that and I don't believe anything has changed from the school guidance perspective. Is that correct right? To outside outside events No masking outside events And for indoors or intercollegiate that are um High school. So i'm just thinking you know about school from new hampshire comes versus here Sure, I just wanted to add a bit so we are currently considering If any additional guidance will be needed for volleyball Which is inside but governor scott is correct in that Fall sports, which are largely outside the current recommendation stand What can school districts do That school districts that have chosen To impose their own mask requirements with kids and the parents of those kids who refuse to send their kids to school So, uh, I guess technically they would Look to attendance requirements if the family is still Considering that their student is enrolled in that school. So there's nothing that would um There's nothing that would actually Proclude at this point of that as an excuse for missing school again districts have the authority and the responsibility for for making The rules up about how they're actually the the practices and policies about how they're actually going to mitigate Exposure to covet 19 and so we strongly urge Families to to have trust in their local authorities Who we would argue know their community's best But the worst-case scenario, I mean would the district have the ability to Keep the kid the children out of school while this is going on? Um I was thinking of it from the other perspective So you're thinking if um, there's a mandate for masking correct and parents are sending their students without masks Um, I think that would have to be dealt with at the local level. We certainly do have compulsory education Laws on the books. Um, and so I think um, I don't necessarily know if we've thought in detail about that situation But I can certainly get back to you With a legal opinion on that And I apologize. I thought you were talking about it the other way, which is that Yeah, yeah I just from my standpoint and this is an illegal opinion, but I would say that they would have the Authority to keep them out of school I mean, it's a restriction that they're placing and and They wouldn't from my perspective wouldn't be allowed to go to school at that point Um, maybe we go back. Uh, secretary moore. Do you have anything to add on the sports guidance? Uh, no governor But uh, deputy second secretary shea said about the volleyball being the lonely door sport. This all certainly makes it easier I do think it's important to maybe connect it with dr. Kelso's remarks from earlier And remind athletes as well as students that there is a need to quarantine If they are vaccinated, which could be particularly important during the sports season And it won't be long before there will be indoor sports basketball and others. Uh, so we'll have to address this fairly soon Unrelated to covid if you don't mind horizon organic It's going to be terminating contracts with more than two dozen Dairy farms in august of 2022. You know, a lot of them seem desperate for a new buyer now What are your thoughts on this move and what would be your message to farmers who are really nervous about the futures? Yeah, unfortunate situation, obviously The good news is they've given a year Before they are going to stop picking up milk. Um, that gives us some time to reflect on Different strategies. I know I spoke with the secretary tevets this morning They put a team together to look at this And we're already starting to think about what are the possibilities of other Markets and what we can do because we want to make sure that they're viable It's hitting that smaller to medium size Farms dramatically so we're on it. Um, and hopefully we'll have a solution before long That's a great question. We have um a small number of people in vermont who might in fact have gotten covid twice The actual case definition to to clearly say that someone has been infected twice is Requires you to have whole genome sequencing on both of their specimens from the first time They had covet as well as the second time so that you can say It's it's a new infection because it's a different distinct virus um The problem is uh those few people small number of people in vermont who might have had covet twice You know the first time they had it was many months ago And we weren't doing whole genome sequencing then so technically we have no one who meets the official definition And there are very few um such cases nationwide But there there are probably a small number of people in vermont who have been infected twice Is there any um do we have any idea if um Um How immunity breaks down by vaccine type if there's that there have been more breakthrough infections from Yeah, we we've been looking at that. They're relatively equal. There are small differences When you look at the proportion of vermonters who've gotten each of the three types of vaccines and the proportion of Those vermonters who are breakthrough infections. Um, they're relatively similar. We could get you the actual data But there are no distinct differences To the phones now starting with Gregg Lamarro the county courier Good afternoon governor. Um, hoping to start with a non-covid question to begin with uh Governor are any of our vermont national guard troops working On the efforts in afghanistan to evacuate people from kawal Uh, and are there any possibly guardsmen assisting in the effort outside of the border of afghanistan Um, I think I would be better to Point you towards the guard. Um, I don't want to say anything. I shouldn't say So, um, let's uh, I'll let you Contact the guard for that question okay, um And my other question today, um We're seeing parents and at least two of our school districts that are standing up against the school boards Uh, who are implementing your request to to have masks mandated for the beginning of the school year Um, I attended one of those meetings last week Uh, in which one of the parents actually Kind of pointed out that that you've been an advocate for personal liberties Uh, and and said that not wearing a mask should be a personal liberty. I I wondered if you could respond to something like that Well, in this situation, uh, I think it's a it's perfectly appropriate for Kids returning to school to to be masked There's a huge population within the schools That haven't had the ability to be vaccinated. So I think in this situation masking is a good idea as you remember during the pandemic We imposed a mass policy, uh, as well And we thought that I believe in personal liberty, but that was a good idea then For us to impose it on the broad population Um, hopefully there'll be a time, uh, again when we have enough kids vaccinated where they won't have to wear masks But we need kids to get vaccinated as well. We need to uh, To have the FDA uh, and to approve the under under 11 Category so that we can get those kids Eligible so I think there is a personal liberty The the parents who don't have to send their kids to school is homeschooling. They can find another school But um, but in this case, I think it's perfectly legitimate for the school to impose this and we and we We've advocated for that. Uh, we think it's a good idea Okay, thank you governor Sure, absolutely One of the things I wanted to say just to um follow up on that is that in the case back to the original question about schools in the case where A parent sent a student to school without a mask and the operating conditions are requiring masks Schools would very likely have a stockpile of masks to offer to each student And so I think that they would try that first And then as the governor just mentioned, um, there are other options. Um, but it is true that Who who holds the? The right to decide what the school situation looks like is the actual district At this point Good afternoon This is a question about commissioner p-check slide One of the slides showed that 50 percent of the critical care hospital patients are unvaccinated Does that mean that 48 percent are vaccinated? And can you tell us more about this type of patient? Do they have comorbidities? Yeah, lisa. So that is correct. That was an average of You know the last 13 days that we have data on So, you know about 50 52 percent are fully or sorry, sorry are unvaccinated not fully vaccinated the 48 percent on average that are in the hospital in the critical care facilities in particular Our breakthrough cases. We don't have at the moment. Um, you know any demographic data about those Individuals at this time, but we can certainly follow up on that Well, I'd be curious to know I also noticed that one of the slides talked about The hospitalization is increasing in people older over 70 who would have been those who got their shots in December and january did that show the waning efficacy of the vaccine after eight months? Yeah, so certainly so we have in the broader presentation We have a slide today that shows sort of the age breakdown those over 70 You know those 50 to 69 those middle age those younger and what proportion of hospitalizations those make up Those are those are hospitalizations just generally those aren't specific to icu Um, but you know, I think it's the same story that it has been throughout the pandemic that older people are more Vulnerable and we've seen plenty of even with our high case rates. There are high vaccination rates We've seen plenty of cases among vulnerable individuals that aren't vaccinated or aren't fully vaccinated So, you know, I think it's a combination of the fact that you know, maybe you know, maybe the delta's You know, certainly delta's different You know, maybe the immuno response and people that are older is different Maybe the immunity is waning over time But it's also holding true through the entire pandemic that those that are vulnerable by age continue to remain vulnerable Particularly if they're unvaccinated, of course Got it. Thank you. Commissioner Pijic and then I had a follow-up question for dr. Levine about the Israeli data Did the Israeli data demonstrate a drop in vaccine protection at eight months? Or was it earlier in four to five months in those over 70? So the Israeli data unfortunately hasn't been published yet. So I can't fill in all the details This is the high level that the Israeli health ministry released We anticipate it's going to end up in a peer-reviewed Publication so we'll be able to answer more of the detail oriented questions Thanks very much Just to expand on the point I was trying to make in my remarks With the question for commissioner Pijic So if you have 30 cases in the hospital and 15 Are vaccinated 15 are unvaccinated that's 15 Out of over 400,000 Of those who are vaccinated 15 out of four over 400,000 And on the other side the unvaccinated that's 15 Out of about 70,000. So it's just a stark difference between the two Thank you Tim McQuiston Vermont business magazine The report came out last week and uh secretary Uh expressed Maybe a little concern about whether the economy was softening because the personal income tax Oh did not meet expectations and now in september the um federal pandemic stipend is going to end And that those people also were paying an income tax on that personal income tax on that Are you concerned that that maybe we're getting into an economic software period here? Yeah, I mean, I I think In many respects, I'm I'm concerned About inflation I'm concerned about a softening But on the other hand when you see uh, and I believe that the Infrastructure package that was passed by the senate and is now in the house will eventually pass That's an incredible amount of money that will be injected back into the economy And I think we'll supplement anything that might be lost due to the supplemental Siphoned in the unemployment benefit. There are plenty of jobs available For those who are losing their benefits, whether it be PUC or pua I believe that there are enough jobs available and more so Is more supply of jobs than there is demand at this point And and I think that we'll be in we'll be in good shape if we can Work our way through this, but I but I do believe this is still a lot of federal money coming through We haven't even begun in some respects Utilizing the ARPA money. So I I don't think there's a great I'm not concerned, but but wary Thank you very much Peter Hirschfeldt vpr Thank you Jason. I'm coming to Scott. Dr. Levine. We're entering A stretch of time here. I guess no one knows how long it'll be exactly when there's only one available vaccine that does have Full FDA approval um, if the monitors uh, who have not been vaccinated yet decide That's the vaccine they want to get Well, you have enough supply to handle the 90 or so thousand vermoners Poor eligible for a vaccine at this point who who have not yet got vaccinated I'll let dr. Levine weigh on on this weigh in on this as well But during the call with the white house today that that topic came up They feel there is plenty of supply of Pfizer at this point, but they also said It's not going to be long before moderna will be given Full authorization as well and following behind that as I said before Johnson Johnson will be giving given full authorization as well. So I I think all those coupled with the Reduced number of uh, of vaccinations taking place. I think we're in good shape from a supply standpoint Dr. Levine, I think moderna is Weeks to a month or so behind in terms of the approval process. So that won't be a very long time J&J. It's a little harder to pin down We have been for a number of months now at a time when there is Surplus of supply and Not a surplus of demand so Clearly, we're still Ticking up as you saw on the graph with more of our monitors every day still getting vaccinated But the supply is quite available And we don't anticipate any problems Thank you both your angle smith from odd digger Hi, so I have a question about long term care facilities The slide that we have with the 62 total cases. Is that just cases that are in active outbreaks? Or are we like missing? But if you want to do cases that folks have maybe in other facilities Dr. Levine Yeah, those are in outbreaks. There will be Scattered cases in other facilities, but none with the Significant numbers compared to those What's their total number of cases than we have in the nursing homes? Along from care facilities We'll have to get to the total number I don't have it off the top of my head Right, so we don't have the breakdown in those but I can tell you the majority are in residents But there are still staff that are affected as well Um, we do have that information. We just didn't put it on the slide. So we'll get that Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon Staying on the most immediate topic. I'm interested in the in the long-term care facility outbreak data And in particular anything more you might be able to offer on the outbreak in Barton I'm not aware of the outbreak in Barton, but maybe Dr. Levine maybe or dr. Kelso It's in the maple lane nursing home in Barton right in that one actually Has just come to light in the last couple of days. So it did not make the slide But that is a fifth But I don't have any details to give you at this point That's under active investigation Then if I could a question for dr. Kelso You mentioned earlier that close contacts that are fully vaccinated don't need to quarantine Does that suggest that that potential breakthrough cases aren't often spreading the virus to unvaccinated? And is there any guidance for this group of vaccinated close contacts to get tested After they're identified as a contact? Yeah, thanks for that question It is possible that Some asymptomatic breakthrough cases are contributing to spread And we do we stand by the guidance that fully vaccinated people do not need to quarantine if they're a close contact of a case Because the vaccine is highly effective. It's not 100 effective, but it's highly effective We do recommend that those people have a low threshold for getting a test if they have any symptoms and It's not a bad idea to to get a test if they're asymptomatic to go ahead and get a test three to five days after their exposure Okay, and then finally what I hope is a quick one for commissioner pc i um You've referenced the uk as an example of a case pattern that vermont's typically followed And and highlighted the drop from the uk's peak a few weeks ago as Potentially foretelling for what vermont will do. What's your reaction to? So the recent return to increasing cases in the uk the last 10 10 days for two weeks Yeah, and it's a great question I mean, you know, we have maybe 10 examples of jurisdictions both in the u.s. And internationally that we've been following The uk and vietnam have shown their cases slowing down In in the uk's case coming down and then going back up vietnam slowing down and going back up So those are two jurisdictions that we're watching closely, you know in the uk They did have some significant lockdowns, you know up until The point really when when deltas was about to peak in their country and they had freedom day and removed a lot of those and They also had certain gatherings Sports events and things of that nature. So there's certainly a lot of um, you know a lot of uh mobility and interaction with people In the uk in the ensuing weeks when the cases started to drop And that's you know, I think the the best guess at the time and as to why their cases are back on the rise So it's certainly um informative and illustrative for us here in vermont to keep in mind As we watch our cases closely over the next week Okay, thank you everyone Look dr. Weem Added to that it just reinforces the point we made previously Two things happened in the uk more recently they Were in a lockdown and sort of came off of the lockdown all during their delta surge if you will but From the beginning they had a strategy of getting one dose of vaccine into people as quickly as possible And compromising on the second dose Um not to never give it just to give it later So they could get the highest percentage of the full population Vaccinated with one dose Which was a fantastic strategy for all of the strains of coronavirus prior to delta But now with the SARS-CoV-2 delta strain That Strategy doesn't work well because of the data I presented to you showing that one dose just doesn't really cut it if you want to prevent Getting all those infections So that's why I'm very focused on our fully vaccinated rate in vermont where I Haven't done the proper research, but I think we're probably the highest in the world In terms of that number for the eligible population age 12 and over Uh, and I do think that's proving to be very protective for us and I hope that can continue Um, and again a reminder to those who may not have yet gotten their second dose but are overdue Uh, keep this data in mind as you uh plan out your calendar Tom davis compass vermont Thanks jason Governor, I'll let you decide. Uh, we should answer this um A piece came out today talking about a study that was finished in december of 2020 about how effective the backpack food program is This is where schools send food home for the weekends for eligible children So that they continue to have good nutrition throughout the weekend before returning to school on that on day or whichever day um I noticed the vermont food bank has it i'm assuming it's in collaboration with the state That they started in 2008. There's about 30 schools that are enrolled as I could see Uh, if this information seems to be useful, is there a chance that that can be expanded? I'm going to let deputy secretary boucher start off. We'll see where it goes from there Sure. Um, definitely, uh, that is uh, you asked about the state agency and that's the agency of education through our child nutrition program that, um Uh, secures that funding for that summer program Um There are a variety of different grants. Um that are available for child nutrition programs. Um regarding this one I I would have to get back to you about whether we're at the cap already Set by the federal government or there are opportunities to expand that funding We work very closely with the vermont food bank as you mentioned So I will get back with you with some of those specific details in general though, of course if there are ways that we can support more families to Get highly nutritious meals. That's something we want to support The uh, though this particular study was done in north carolina and you mentioned This is a during the school year program as well Where they sent that home food home with them on friday Are we doing that similarly in vermont? Um, correct. Yes. So, uh, my understanding is that much of the existing child nutrition programs that, um required waivers to um, expand services during, um The height of the covet 19 pandemic for vermont. Many of them are still in place Um, and again, I can get more specific details about that particular program But you are correct in that it's both on the weekends and through summer. It's the same program Thank you very much. Uh, no further questions from me. Thanks very much Guy page vermont daily chronicle All right, two questions. Uh, the first is uh, you you once said that you rarely if ever heard from governor Cuomo And i'm wondering if you've communicated with the new new york governor um Did send uh Congratulations to her. I I knew her when I was lieutenant governor She was lieutenant governor and uh, there were a number of us that were Lieutenant governors at the time that are now governors. So, um, I interacted with her On multiple occasions previous to becoming governor So I intend to to reach out with a call as soon as uh, as soon as I find some time Okay, thank you Also, uh, some vaccines skeptics say that the white house and your administration were unwilling to support treatments like ivermectin and monoponal antibodies Because the e ua vaccine couldn't be used legally used while other treatment was available And but now that the vaccine has full approval Will you advocate for the use of ivermectin and maybe open some monoplonal antibody clinics the way governor to san jesson florida had? Again, I'll let dr. Levine answer that one to be honest guy I feel that the monitors are so fortunate that we don't have to open monoclonal antibody clinics Because they have another pathway to avoiding Anything serious happening to them from the sars-cov-2 virus and that is vaccination and they've taken advantage of that unfortunately, the rates in florida are not comparable to vermont and Monoclonal antibodies does rise high up on the list of interventions that you'd want to provide for your population Predominantly for those who are unvaccinated who will have the higher rate of cases and of severe illness And the goal of monoclonal antibody therapy is to keep people out of the hospital Their hospitals as you've seen in the news are You know at capacity It's a very severe situation down there So they need as many monoclonal antibody clinics as possible to handle the demand So that they can keep these people out of the hospital and hopefully improve their clinical condition in a way that's meaningful ivermectin you've asked me about before and The fdh tweet last night only further supports what I said previously and what I said previously was that There is not compelling strong evidence that this animal drug veterinary drug Used to treat a whole variety of parasites and variety of animals Is effective at treating the sars-cov-2 virus And I can't remember the exact wording of what the fdh tweeted. It was something to the effect that It's it's for horses. It's for cows or and and it's not for people you all um It was a very odd tweet coming from a federal agency, but it tried to make the point that Take ivermectin off the table our pathway out of this pandemic is the vaccine Not a drug like ivermectin which would only be used if you were already sick if it actually worked I probably will get out over my skis on this one, but I believe the monoclonal Antibodies and treatment is is available in vermont It is yes Right no no special statewide clinics, but it is available in many of the hospitals in vermont I also wanted to comment again when I talked a little bit about Louisiana before I want to be bipartisan here But florida is in a much different position than we are as well When you there's just just this morning. I looked at their death rate over the last Month as compared to vermont. They had over 4 000 deaths so they are They're in a tough position there and I think what they're doing is Opening up anything that they can possibly open up To treat those in a variety of ways to prevent death. So I think they're just throwing Everything at the wall to see what sticks and they should be Thank you Chris Roy Newport Daily Express Chris Roy. All right, we move to Joe Gresser Barton Chronicle Joseph the Barton Chronicle We will try lisa from the water very around about Jason. Thank you Good afternoon. I have a municipal question and a school related question The municipal one being I read in the brow of our reformer last week a story about their select board Discussing a local mask mandate and it seemed to infer that Should a local government body want to enact a stricter set of recommendations for their community? such as masks in indoor public spaces that they would need state approval Um, and I'm just curious about how that would work As we've got discussions that are happening here in our community after our recent outbreak Um, is that part of the one of the twists involved with their not being a state of emergency right now? Yes, um, that is correct as you might remember during the height of the pandemic We did give authority to municipalities to do what they wanted to do under a state of emergency And giving the authorization to go to a stricter position In the case of Brattleboro What they wanted to do was impose mask mandates and restrictions on local businesses as well as their own entities their own employees their own public spaces that they had oversight on Which we don't believe we can give or should give They have uh city of Montpelier. Just recently. I think it was last week Had to impose restrictions on their own employees and the the public spaces that they have oversight on which is perfectly legitimate and I would advise the Town of Brattleboro to do the same And and we've actually sent them back a letter today that uh that Goes over those points and gives them a path forward much like the city of Montpelier did They're for the spaces that they control their municipal properties But they can't be doing that for individual businesses. Yeah, think of it as a okay At the local government being a business so to speak Businesses have that right as well. They can impose restrictions on their own A place of the business, but they don't have the authority brought authority To put those restrictions on other private uses. So that's correct Being given the fact that the vaccine got the green light yesterday from the FDA with its Full approval. I'm wondering if as this starts to happen now where the COVID vaccines become fully approved Do they now have the get the same status that? Many other vaccines have in terms of schools being able to require certain vaccinations With you know when kids start school We as a parent you always have to update your immunization records that show that's had measles tick apostates, etc Vaccines in the past. So will the COVID vaccine be added to that list once it it's fully approved? so I would answer that it would be eligible to be added to that list Whether it will be added to that list is a decision. I can't make here at the podium today It does. There's a legislative rulemaking process that Incorporates that into the current mix I haven't heard any discussions about that at this point in time, but Obviously approval just occurred yesterday. So the legislature can be in January I can't answer for them particularly And I think there'll be a lot more data to be analyzed before that would actually Be on the plate. Keep in mind. We don't even have authorization yet for under age 11 under age 12 so There's a lot a lot more that has to happen. I would think before You'd get to the outcome you were talking about For the details on the water very outbreak from over the last couple weeks Do you have anything else that you might be able to share past the 31 cases that we had confirmed so far? sure I'm not aware of cases beyond that number first of all The camp is over So I don't think that that's an issue anymore in terms of Returning to something because I think their end date already was arrived at and There were several cases outside of the camp that had to do with exposures to Campers usually in households Right, but That's about the most I can give you for details at this point Did you have any other specific question about the community specific data came out on friday? It showed Based on the previous week and last week's data that the total number of cases in water buries just for the month of August had been 55 cases And at that point we had only understood 31 cases associated with the rec camp outbreak. So it kind of that was sort of an interesting, you know Gap between those i'm wondering how many of those 55 cases the difference might potentially have been part of that outbreak I don't know if there's more data that We can find out in terms of the the ages of the 55 versus the 31 Yeah, so the gap between the 31 and the 55 is accounted for outside of that outbreak The outbreak number is 31. So These would be generally community spread. That's right Not aware of another outbreak in water barrier that Rows to that occasion. So these this would predominantly involve community transmission of virus Okay, that's it. Thank you all very much for tuning in and we'll we'll see you again next tuesday