 Good afternoon everyone. Just got off the phone with fellow governors in the White House and here's what we heard. Dr. Walensky talked about the CDC and the FDA's decision to approve boosters for anyone 18 and older, which Vermont had already moved forward on. Dr. Fauci stressed the importance of getting boosters because of some waning immunity. He pointed to a study in Israel that suggested that protection for those who got boosted is 11-fold higher against infection and 20-fold against severe illness. The chair of the NGA, Governor Hutchinson from Arkansas, along with a number of other governors, asked about the supply of rapid tests and the White House indicated they were putting millions into purchasing more, which they hoped to quadruple supply by December. They also reported that Merck and Pfizer antiviral pills could be approved by the FDA within the next couple of weeks. Next, as you know, yesterday I brought the legislature back for a special session in order to consider a bill, which I signed this morning, by the way, as a compromise between our extreme differences of opinion regarding COVID strategy. Legislative leaders believe we need to return to a state of emergency, impose a statewide mass mandate and a host of other restrictions. I don't. But as you've heard me say repeatedly, masking when inside in public spaces is a good idea right now because mass work. But at this point in the pandemic, mandates won't. And I think they'll be divisive and counterproductive. That's why I've been clear at this point. I see no reason to reimplement broad mandates on Vermonters. We have the highest vaccination rate in one of the lowest hospitalization rates in the nation. At the request of the league of cities and towns, I offered a compromise to the legislature to give municipalities the authority if they choose to pass their own mass rule. As a reminder, we gave municipalities the same option last year. Several took advantage without any major issues arising. If they choose to again, it's their choice. If they don't want to, they don't have to. That doesn't change the fact that as we've done for the last several weeks along with the CDC will continue to encourage wearing a mask indoors and especially around people who don't know. I also saw along with the all the branch I offered, the Senate passed a resolution calling on me to take quote all possible public health measures to reduce COVID-19 spread. As a reminder, all measures means doing some of the things we did a year ago, like banning gatherings, closing businesses, requiring remote learning and more. Think about that. Vermont, the state with the highest vaccination and booster rates, the state that has the highest rate of testing in the country, the state that has the lowest hospitalizations and deaths throughout the pandemic and still has maintained among the lowest rates during Delta. With all that data, 17 senators think we should go back to mandates that almost no other states have in place. So to be clear, I'm not willing to move us backwards. And frankly, I think it sends the wrong message about how effective vaccines are and snatches hope from the hands of Vermonters. We know so much more about this virus today than we did months ago and whose most risk. We're in a different place, leading the nation in many categories, which remains the most important mitigation tool we have. That's why my team continues to make vaccines and boosters as accessible as possible. And like I said, we're seeing Vermonters step up and lead the nation. And as we go into Thanksgiving, don't forget, take the steps we've talked about to keep your loved ones safe. First, make sure your group is vaccinated and boost it. As Dr Fauci said yesterday, if everyone around your table is vaccinated, you shouldn't have to worry. Second, use testing as a tool. We've been promoting this ahead of the holidays. This is a staggering number in the last week. We conducted 69,000 tests. That's over 10% of our population. This is a great way to ensure you don't spread the virus to more vulnerable family members at Thanksgiving. And most importantly, if you're sick, stay home. I know you want to see your family and friends, but if you have symptoms, please don't take the risk of spreading to vulnerable family members. Now I want to be honest with you. As a result of Thanksgiving, we will probably see a higher number of cases next week and the week after. So we're asking you to help us keep that spike as low as we can and especially focus on protecting the elderly. Lastly, I want to express my thanks to Vermonters who continue to do the right thing. We'd be in a much different place if you hadn't stepped up and done your part. And thank you to all those who serve your community through your work or by volunteering. I know everyone is tired of dealing with COVID. But unfortunately, it's going to be with us for quite some time, just like other viruses like the flu. But doing your part and getting vaccinated has made a huge difference. And we'll continue to help Vermont from going through what many other states and nations have. So again, I wish you and your families a healthy and happy holiday. And I'll turn it over to Commissioner P check for the modeling update. Thank you very much, Governor. And good afternoon, everybody. So looking around the country in the region, we can see that COVID-19 cases are on the rise up about 15% across the board in the U. S. And up about 27% in New England here in Vermont, you'll see that the cases have remained steady this past week. They are elevated at that higher level than we've seen, but up only about 4% over the week. So good that they remain stable after seeing those two weeks previously of case growth here in Vermont. Looking a little bit deeper into those numbers, you can see on the next slide, although cases are up 4%. As the governor said, testing is up quite a bit this week up about 16%. So that has actually driven down our positivity rate over the last week or so. That, as you know, is something that we've been looking at closely. What's the amount of testing that's occurring? What's the amount of what's the positivity rate to try to get a sense of if infections and if the virus is more or less prevalent in our community. So that is certainly a good indication there that we're not seeing the positivity rate go up as testing increases. So again, we'll keep a close eye on that. But some some good signs there in our data. When we look at the next slide, you'll see that rates among those that are not fully vaccinated and those who are fully vaccinated continue to be quite wide. Right now it's 4.4 times greater. So 4.4 times greater for those who are not fully vaccinated in terms of those who are fully vaccinated. And you'll see that their rates went up about 11% this week, while the fully vaccinated rate declined slightly down a little bit more than a percent. Again, looking a little bit more closely at our case data by age, you can see that the age group that has been leading in terms of the highest case rates for much of the Delta wave continues to do so that five to 11 year old age group, their rates are about double all of those other age groups that we have here on the chart. So they continue to be high, although you do see that they as well have been flat for this past week as well. So really critical as you can see to get that age group vaccinated as quickly as we can. And as you'll see on the next slide, we are off to a good start when we look to ourselves compared to the rest of the country. Vermont as of today per the CDC is number one in terms of five to 11 year old vaccinations at about 30% of the eligible population. You can see that much of New England is doing very well to in terms of the uptake of the vaccine among that age group. So very critical to get that population vaccinated. They're seeing the highest case rates still. And hopefully once they are fully vaccinated, that will have a favorable impact on our cases. Another important age group to take a look at is that 65 and older group. So you can see here over the last seven days, the 65 and older cases have actually gone down 14% while all of the other age groups have gone up by varying degrees. Again, that 65 and older rate is really important. They are the most vulnerable of our population, most vulnerable to the worst outcomes of COVID ICU usage, fatalities and the like. So seeing that age group stay stable and even decrease a bit, certainly encouraging. And as we've said before, not a coincidence. When you look at the booster rates among that population, as you'll see on the next chart, Vermont has been leading the nation in those 65 and older getting their booster shot right now a little bit over 61% of those who are 65 and older who are fully vaccinated have received their booster. And that rate has been pretty consistent there as you see on the slide and has continued to be higher than the national average outpacing the national national average and continues at a steady state. So encouraging sign there as well in terms of getting the most vulnerable their booster shot. Looking around Vermont in terms of geography, you can see that the areas of the state that have had higher case counts remain higher as particularly the northeast kingdom, although there has been some improvement in Orleans County week over week. And then the southwestern part of the state with Rutland and Bennington County cases still remain elevated there. Looking across at our higher education campuses, things are pretty quiet or least consistent with what they have been about 55 cases reported this week down from 60 cases last week. And good to see that those have leveled out after there was a little bit of trouble. A couple of weeks ago on campus were reported over 100 cases. So things pretty stable across the college campuses. And again, with their 95% vaccination rate, not all that surprising. Looking at our long term care facilities, you'll see that the numbers are down overall when you look at the active outbreaks. So 181 down from 218 last week. The number of active outbreaks are 12 down from 15 last week. But again, many of these cases appear to be among staff. When you look at the next slide, you'll see that the rates among residents of long term care facilities have continued to remain low and are trending down over the last week and two weeks. So again, good news there consistent with our 65 and older data that those that are the most vulnerable continue to have the rates stay steady or both of these cases this week actually go down. Looking at statewide hospitalizations, you'll see that they are up. The seven day average is up about 17%. And then similarly, the vast majority this week 69% of those in the hospital were among those that were not fully vaccinated. Looking at our ICU numbers, you can see that they are up likewise 12%. Even greater percentage of those taking up ICU beds are not fully vaccinated about 78%. But again, when you look over the last six or seven weeks, you can see the ICU numbers have fluctuated up and down, but they remain in that sort of constant area, which is good. And again, we think attributable to that 65 and older group having a really steady rate during this period of time as well. Looking at the next slide, this is looking at the availability of ICU beds across the state looking at the number of COVID patients in the ICU and then looking at the number of non COVID patients in the ICU. So availability on the trend side has ticked up a bit over the last seven days, which is certainly good news. You can see the COVID numbers have remained pretty steady. And then you'll see that the vast majority of people in the ICU are being treated for something other than COVID. And those numbers have increased over the last three or four months as more and more people are requiring hospitalization for things other than COVID. And that includes the ICU as well. Looking at the fatality numbers to date, we did unfortunately lose another 11 people this week, seven of which were date of death, what did occur in the last seven days, four of which were from a previous week. But that does move our number up to a 30 deaths for the month of November four of Vermont. And then turning to our forecast, you'll see that as it relates to last week, we're actually we're trending right sort of in the lower end kind of in the middle of the forecast. So that was certainly good to see last week. If you remember, we trended on the higher side of our forecast. So again, consistent with some good news here in the data that things are consistent. But again, we're at a high level of cases. So as the governor said, important to be careful this week with Thanksgiving upon us. And as you'll see from the current forecast for the week, still not anticipating cases to go down. And Thanksgiving does provide a lot of uncertainty in terms of its direct impact that we'll have on our cases here in Vermont and around the region as well. And finally, turning to our vaccination scorecards, you can see that on vaccinations, we continue to be at the top or near the top. And many of these metrics we mentioned also among five to 11 year olds. We are at the top in Vermont in terms of first dose. So good news. And then finally on the booster doses, we mentioned how we're number one on 65 and older. But uptake across the population is nation leading, which certainly is a good sign. But again, as we've clarified, anyone 18 and older, six months out, eligible for a booster and important for everyone across the population to get one, not just those who are the most vulnerable. So with that, I'll now turn it over to a Secretary Smith. Thank you, Commissioner Pichek. Good afternoon, everyone. As of today, 17,598 children ages five to 11 have received either their first dose of COVID vaccine or they have an appointment. That's just over 40% of all Vermont children ages five to 11 years old. In addition to doctor's offices, the vaccine is available through pharmacies, schools and community based clinics. You can make an appointment for your child by going online at healthvermont.gov slash kids vaccine or by contacting your local pharmacy or doctor's office. You can also call the call center at 855-722-7878. Now I want to turn to booster doses and Dr. Levine will talk about why boosters are important and the encouraging results as Commissioner Pichek had pointed out, the encouraging results we are seeing with boosters. So far nearly 152,600 people have received boosters in Vermont. As Commissioner Pichek has pointed out, Vermont leads the nation in the percent of state's population receiving boosters along a variety of categories. Remember, you're eligible for a booster if you're 18 or over and it's been six months since your last shot of Moderna or Pfizer or two months in the case of J&J. So please make an appointment. You can call 855-722-7878 or go online at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. Now I want to provide an update on our efforts to reduce the stress on Vermont's health care system. Recently 80 additional subacute beds were staffed and filled at three locations throughout the state to alleviate the stress on hospitals. This helped people who were ready to move out of the hospital to other facilities and freed up hospital capacity for those who need it. There is still a need for additional subacute beds and we're working with more long-term care and rehabilitation facilities to bring an additional 47 beds online over the next two weeks and possibly more to follow as they are needed. We're also meeting with the VA Medical Center in White River Junction to discuss extending the agreement which allows them to serve civilians. Up to 10 mental health beds have been available to serve civilians as capacity at the VA center allows. As I mentioned last week we're also working with hospitals to open 10 additional ICU beds. I'd like to thank our hospitals for their efforts to look at ways to improve the ability for patients to move through the health care system as well as to increase capacity. We are supporting their efforts by providing financial assistance to help staff additional ICU beds at Central Vermont Medical Center, Northwestern Medical Center, and Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. Now let's turn to testing. Vermont tests more than any other state on a per capita basis. We lead the nation in testing and have maintained throughout the pandemic a robust testing system. As you can see on the slide as the governor had mentioned over the last seven days 69,072 tests were performed for a daily average of 9,867 tests. On average we provide Vermonters with 32 testing sites per week and many of them offer testing on multiple days. During this holiday season we are increasing the number of COVID testing sites and we will continue to review the data on a regular basis to determine where more testing capacity may be needed. You may have already gotten your COVID test to prepare for the Thanksgiving holidays but if you haven't it's not too late. Here's some information that may help. Just yesterday we added more than 1,700 additional testing appointments at various locations throughout the state. We will offer COVID testing, we will offer COVID tests this Wednesday through state testing sites or at local hospitals. If you get tested on Wednesday our goal is to get your results before Thanksgiving. In addition to Wednesday testing we have test targeted specific areas where sites were already full including adding more than 400 testing appointments in Chittenden County and 200 self-serve walk-in appointments in Rutland. We will continue to monitor and add testing where necessary. Holiday testing has given us a perfect opportunity to incorporate advancements in testing technology. Adding additional types of testing technology will make testing more accessible and get results faster. For example for many of the testing sites on Wednesday we are using LAMP tests at locations throughout the state. LAMP tests offer the same accuracy as PCR tests but have a quicker turnaround time. As I mentioned last week this transition in our testing strategy is ongoing and when a reliable supply chain develops you will see us moving to testing platforms that have more rapid turnaround capability. In addition you may see that some testing sites are piloting self-service tests when they exceed their normal number of appointments. More than 1500 self-service kits have been distributed to 10 testing sites to be used over the next two weeks. We also encourage Vermonters to use rapid at home antigen tests which are available at local pharmacies or online. We are confident that with careful monitoring and by adopting new testing options Vermonters will be able to get a test this holiday season so they can gather safely with their family and friends. Also if you're looking for a test this week remember to check out your local pharmacy or hospital. Many hospitals now consistently offer testing including Copley and Morrisville, Gifford in Randolph and SVMC in Bennington. Please make an appointment to get tested by contacting the hospital directly. You can also go to healthvermont.gov slash covid-19 slash testing to find their contact information or to register for a test at one of the state's sites. Again please make sure you get vaccinated, get your booster if eligible and plan to get tested before Thanksgiving if you're gathering with others. Now I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for a health update. I likewise am going to start off today with boosters. As you know Vermon expanded booster eligibility last week to everyone 18 and over who met the time requirements. Two or more months after the J&J shot or six or more months since your second shot of Moderna or Pfizer. This was done to make it as easy as possible to get boosted without any barriers. The FDA and CDC followed suit late last week and I'm glad to reaffirm that the data shows booster shots are working. Vermont has the highest uptake of booster shots among those 65 and older. When we look at our case rates that population now represents a smaller percentage of cases only 10 to 12 percent on a given day. Remember this older population is higher risk so we are protecting those who most need it. And this is in turn also protecting the capacity of our health care system to be able to serve us all without having a cope with overwhelming numbers of patients with COVID. Now the need for a booster does not mean the COVID-19 vaccines have failed to do their job. Do not let anyone try to convince you of that. They are highly protective against the worst effects of COVID but the protection we get from a vaccine can start to wear off over time. Booster shots are incredibly common for many vaccines and can increase our protection against those viruses. Indeed a number of vaccines through the ages have consisted of a three dose initial series. For COVID-19 booster shots are especially important for those at higher risk who got vaccinated early on. Like the majority of Vermonters who fall into this category and were vaccinated very early in this year and at a time when COVID transmission is high when we're indoors more and getting together over the holidays boosters really do benefit us all. The shots are free safe and widely available so if it's time for your booster get the most protection possible against COVID-19 and make your appointment today visit healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. We're also excited that nearly 40 percent of kids age five to 11 in Vermont have had or are signed up for their vaccine. I hope that parents and caregivers who have not yet made an appointment see the experience of others who are embracing the vaccine to give kids more freedom and keep them healthy and the vaccine allows them to interact safely with those older adults in their lives. Something so many of us have sorely missed over the past two years in which may be occurring in the next couple of days. Being vaccinated also improves the safety and functioning of these children's schools and communities as an extra benefit. I encourage you to take time to get any questions answered so you can feel ready to get your own child vaccinated. You can join a Zoom conversation with Vermont pediatricians from your region to learn more visit aapvermont.org To make a vaccine appointment visit healthvermont.gov slash kids vaccine. You all know Thanksgiving is on Thursday and I certainly want to add my wishes to all Vermonters to have a happy and healthy holiday. Enjoy your time celebrating with others again this year while taking precautions to protect friends and loved ones around your dinner table. Remember the smaller and more vaccinated your gathering is the safer it is. Pretty simple and straightforward advice and if you have access to the at-home antigen tests those can also provide some extra reassurance around your gathering. It's a good idea to schedule a test afterward as well about five to seven days later. If people at higher risk are coming to your Thanksgiving table consider wearing a mask when you're not eating to lower the risk of transmission and most importantly as always if you feel sick even with mild symptoms please stay home. I know how difficult it can be to change plans and miss out on festivities but with the high levels of COVID in our communities right now this means you could possibly have a chance that you have the virus and getting your friends or family sick and maybe seriously ill is just not worth the risk. Now this guidance is not only for Thanksgiving. I encourage everyone to keep it in mind as the holiday season continues. If you're considering planning or attending any holiday social or workplace gathering or other event the more vaccination and testing you insist upon and do the better. The smaller the group the lower the risk. If you're getting a group together consider finding a bigger space to allow people to spread out and encourage people to wear masks where appropriate and employers should take similar steps to ensure the safety of their staff especially those who will be in close contact with the public. Unfortunately as the governor said we do expect to see more cases after Thanksgiving so the more we can plan ahead for keeping the holidays safe the healthier we will all be. My final note is on the flu speaking of steps to stay healthy. We're already seeing cases of flu in Vermont. Not a lot but we've already seen some. So it seems that unlike last year we will have a flu season. We are well behind last year's record-setting uptake of flu vaccinations so if you haven't already get your flu shot. This year is actually similar to 2019 with about 193,000 shots by this date. Just to compare last year at this time there were 255,000 doses administered. The largest gap seems to be in those ages 18 to 64. Getting a flu shot will help you avoid having to miss school work or your favorite winter activities. You can even get the shot when you get a COVID vaccine if you want. Please do this as soon as possible. The very last thing our health care system needs is the surge of flu on top of COVID. I'll turn it back to the governor now. Thank you Dr. Levine. I'll now open it up to questions. Sorry the folks in the room. I don't know if this is for the governor or Dr. Dean or whoever you'd like to answer it. Given how much COVID transmission there is right now do you know how many people in Vermont are yet to be infected and will it take getting them all infected or vaccinated to end this thing? That's an interesting question. I asked the same one not long ago because I kept wondering how much wood is left to fuel this fire and the answer was higher than I expected because there are still a number of people unvaccinated at this point in time so upwards to 100,000 maybe unvaccinated maybe a little less. That might be a Mike Commissioner Pichett question and there are some of those who have not been infected as of yet. So I would say somewhere around 50,000 but Dr. Levine might have that number. Just just keep in mind we've probably had in the 40 to 50,000 range of people who have been infected throughout the whole pandemic. Then we have this huge number half a million people who have been vaccinated and many of them never had an infection that they were aware of. We have 50,000 unvaccinated adults and we have whatever percentage of the 44,000 60 percent of the 44,000 kids that are not yet vaccinated and then a smaller group of kids under age five. So there still is as the governor kind of alluded to plenty of fresh uninfected people who have never been vaccinated that this virus can still find and it is very adept at finding them. We know that for a fact but the reality is even if we think about 40 to 50,000 people in Vermont having been infected that's not a high percentage of the state. Very low and we think before Delta it was three or four percent of the state had actually had an infection. So vaccination is protecting a heck of a lot of people from that. For Dr. Levine you mentioned lamp tests. I'd imagine some people might be questioning what those are and how they work and how that's different than an antigen test but also having the same accuracy as a PCR test. Yes, great question. So there's this category of tests called NAAT, nucleic acid amplification tests. The PCR is the one we all recognize and that's the one we've used to rely on throughout the pandemic. Turns out though there are several other more progressive now technologies that include lamp that still go under the rubric of nucleic acid amplification tests. So they share the same sensitivity and accuracy for diagnosis and if you will they can be a substitute for the PCR which is our gold standard test. So these are not antigen tests. These are nucleic acid amplification tests and so the lamp is another variety and the thing that differentiates it for the purpose we've been talking is you can get the result back the same day. Now there are PCR tests that several of our hospitals can get results back on the same day with special equipment that will do that but the lamp can do that in a very user friendly way. So if you want to know what the LAMP stands for it's loop mediated isothermal amplification but it's again same nasal swab nothing different than what you do to get the test it's just a difference in the ability of us to get a quicker result. These are not widely available and as the secretary alluded to these are tests that if the supply chain were different perhaps every state in the country would just convert to doing them especially if the cost came down as well but at this point in time they're not part of a great supply chain. Production and booster shots right before Thanksgiving because people are worried about side effects. No I don't have my eye on that completely. Do you have any data? I would hope not because you know when side effects occur we're talking 24 hours 48 hours so I'm sure most people wouldn't want to do it the day before Thanksgiving you know that's probably a rational thought but other than that have you seen any data? It's been pretty consistent over the last few days so it's a little bit of a delay but yeah I'm getting my booster shot this afternoon. Here's our role model for the state you know but I wouldn't be surprised if Wednesday we saw a reduction. What would you advise? Go for it if you have a Wednesday appointment. Oh absolutely. Yeah I mean again most people are not totally debilitated by side effects and we're finding that the third dose the so-called booster dose does not have any increase in frequency of any side effects compared to the primary series so the real concern is people getting that booster dose in a timely way and if timely is the day before Thanksgiving I wouldn't discourage that. The capacity be consistent through this week and Friday Saturday? Yeah the only day that we won't be testing is going to be Thursday. We will be testing on Wednesday we will be testing on Friday. Like I said we are looking at this technology this LAMP technology on Wednesday and using that as a sort of a test run on Wednesday on the LAMP technology. So you know everything will sort of return to normal on Friday starting on Friday again. I want to ask about the session yesterday as you mentioned in your opening comments it seems like there is a core philosophical difference between where you are and where the legislature is right now. It helped us to respond to the coronavirus. As you may have heard granted we were still a couple months away from the session but lawmakers are potentially thinking about depending on where we are maybe drafting more COVID policies or taking a harder stance as you mentioned such as in the resolution in the Senate. What do you see the next session looking like? Well hard to say. Again I think you have to look at our team of experts. We've been at this for 20 months now. I think that we've led Vermont well and I think that there are many others the White House in particular that looks at us as being a gold standard. I don't think the legislature has as many of those experts advising them as I do. But I'm very confident in my team and the approach we've taken and will continue to do what we think is best for Vermont. Having said that I understand that they feel overwhelmed when they hear from constituents particularly a very vocal number of constituents. But from my standpoint when you look at the broad approach broadly over Vermont I think they'd see what I see is that there is a resistance to mandates and I think it's counterproductive. I you know I wanted to to mention this as well. It gives me an opportunity but Reuters had an article today maybe you've seen it but the headline is no more COVID lockdowns in U.S. White House says and this is by Jeff Zients who speaks for the White House. He's the coordinator for the pandemic and this was in in regards to imposing a lockdown or shutdown of the economy or anything else that other than what we're doing today and here's what he said. Jeff Zients speaking for the White House full support of the president said we are not headed in that direction. We have the tools to accelerate the path out of this pandemic widely available vaccinations booster shots kid shots therapeutics. We can curb the spread of the virus without having to do to in any way shut down our economy. This is what the White House press secretary said in the same article. The U.S. health officials are not currently recommending lockdowns or economic restrictions to curb rising COVID-19 cases. It appears to me the White House feels has the same approach that we do and and we've seen some success. So it's just a difference of opinion and again I am confident with our experts our team and the approach we're taking but that doesn't mean that they won't attempt to do something in January. Hearing from in my discussions with lawmakers nobody's calling for economic shutdowns or lockdowns they've been calling for for localized. I have to ask you then Calvin when you asked them the follow-up question to what did they mean when they in their resolution it said an emergency they wanted a state of emergency correct okay state of emergency they wanted mass mandates correct and all other measures to curb this all other measures what did they mean by all other measures other than what we've done over the last 20 months which has been reducing the size of gatherings closing businesses and so forth so I don't know what else they mean other than that but maybe maybe you've asked them that and I'd be curious what their answer was. Senator Layton's reelection isn't going to do that. Do you support Peter Welch's campaign for the Senate and if not why not? Well I've worked with Congressman Welch when he was in the Senate as you know we served the Senate together have a great deal of respect for him but we have a long ways to go before the election. I would expect there'll be a number of other candidates stepping up for this possibly once in a lifetime opportunity after 46 years and so I wouldn't be surprised to see I know there'll be a Republican candidate I don't know who that's going to be or number of Republican candidates I don't I would expect that we might see more Democrats as well stepping up we might even see an independent maybe a moderate centrist business person who knows so I think it's a little early to talk about whether I support someone or not but I've had a good relationship with Congress from Welch and we'll we'll see what happens. Are you helping to recruit or talking with anybody to encourage? I have not at this point no. There are these at-home tests talking with people who might be traveling for the holidays are they a good option and why are we adding them to testing sites around Vermont? Yeah I think the antigen tests are a good method at this point not as effective and accurate as PCR tests but certainly it's her around time is much quicker and I think it's the wave of the future. Well we talked about this a bit with the White House I think they're on the same page our concern right now is we need more of them and hearing other governors on the call this morning particularly from the northeast we're all suffering from that Governor Governor Mills from Maine Governor Baker amongst others have said we could use more of the inventory the White House believes this geographic there isn't a need in some other parts of the country that we're seeing here they also said that there are now Abbott was the early manufacturer of these antigen tests and now there are 13 manufacturers and so the production will increase they said that they would help us out in obtaining more of my concern is you know they're still off the shelf they're $15-$20 so we want to make sure that they're widely available and that we can get them so that we can disperse this supply because it's any test is good you know and we're certainly doing more testing as has been reported by many today doing more testing than any other state anything you want to add to that Dr. Lee just a quick word about how to use these appropriately because you're talking antigen tests correct so usually they come in a two pack and just a good reason for that while doing one and never doing another one is probably better than nothing it's not a great strategy they're not as sensitive as the PCR tests that we've talked about before so we've recommended especially for Thanksgiving you do one either today or tomorrow and then do the second one on the holiday that will increase the sensitivity and give you greater reassurance if it's truly negative on both occasions last couple of weeks in the political spectrum and as the political fire heats up a little bit are you concerned going into the legislative session that you know we're going to hit gridlock again that you know the the posturing that might occur are you talking locally or nationally because probably will happen on both of both ends of the spectrum yeah I'm a bit concerned there's so many we'll learn more about who's going to run out of the legislature for instance but it does this a lot of political posturing that happens along the way and that could hurt our ability to do the things we need to do we're in a position right now with receiving so so much federal money that we need to act as quickly and as efficiently and effectively as possible so I think we need to put politics aside put the campaign aside regardless of what position you're vying for and try and just do what's right I mean here here we are we we took one day yesterday we passed one bill one day through both chambers so when I do the math on that and we passed 82 bills in the last session we should be able to get through this in 90 days which is something that I've been talking about for a number of years so hopefully that's the benchmark and then they can go to campaigning after that if we can adjourn the session they can go on to campaigning across the state I would think that that would be an incentive to raise money and to to get out there all right we'll move to the phones beginning with Mike Donahue the Islander thank you Jason hi governor the special legislative session yesterday apparently was sparked in part by claims on behalf of leaders of thousand cities wanting mandatory masks and some legislators said the Vermont League of Cities in town pushed on that claim that their members wanted it and I know you mentioned the league was today in your opening remarks that the league was sort of behind it yet the legislators say they've since learned that there never was any foal by the BLCT of its members that there was no survey apparently it was a wish of a few members out of their 246 cities and towns throughout the state plus I think they also have some villages and water districts but there was no survey and some legislators were miffed at being misled I know Senator Dick Laza was among those that was local about the misrepresentation and as dean of the senate he flipped his vote he was going to vote for the local mandate but in the end changed his vote uh I'm just wondering what was your understanding from the league as to certainly how many towns and cities were screaming for this and what steps they had taken or wanted to take for a local local mask mandate all this because maybe a half dozen towns wanted it yeah to be honest uh Mike I never we never asked them how many towns supported it we just assumed but because they they represent all 251 towns and villages that they had pulled their members I was a bit surprised at the number of towns that pushed back and said that they did not want this through the legislator legislators but you know I saw it on tv I saw the I think it was Karen Horn on on one interview that said that they wanted this and that sparked my interest and thought that's when I began to think that maybe this was the compromise that we needed to get through into the next session and and then we also received a letter from BLCT as well asking for this so I just assumed that that their membership wanted this but that's probably a better question for them okay and I may have missed it but uh what is the latest numbers as to on this latest up-check uh on positive tests of is there any numbers or what are the numbers as to how many of those people weren't vaccinated did not get their shots I mean what percent it's usually around 70 percent um that are unvaccinated and it hovers it sometimes it's 65 sometimes it's 75 but it it averages out around 70 of those that were recently tested positive correct didn't it never got the shots correct it's the same with the hospitalizations about the same same rate although again as I've said before if you do the math you take the number of people who have been vaccinated who are now infected versus the number low number of people in some respects as compared you know if there's 50 000 that are unvaccinated versus the 500 000 that are and the and they have three times the number of people that are infected on a daily basis or test positive the percentage is much higher so I mean you think about that it's like 10 11 times um more likely if you're unvaccinated it's 10 or 11 times more likely you'll end up either in the hospital or uh infected sure okay very good thank you very much hope you have a good day for you too please salumas the value of quarter good afternoon um I've heard you guys today talking about rapid testing in the White House is speaking more what's actually going to happen when there are more rapid tests available how will people access them can you clarify what Secretary Smith said about take-home tests being available for Thanksgiving will there be regular access for the public to free rapid tests yeah we're we're hoping so but there are some on the shelves but again I think it's in short supply right now in the northeast for whatever reason but but again on the call with the White House today it appears it's geographic many areas in the country don't have that problem but they said that they would help us out in that regard I'll let Secretary Smith answer the rest Lisa just to avoid any confusion testing is rapidly becoming many sort of different tests as uh as Commissioner Levine talked about as Dr Levine talked about we are test driving lamp tests which are PCR like tests but have a fairly significant shorter short turnaround this week on Wednesday at multiple testing sites across the state the take-home tests are PCR tests you basically what you do is you you get a test kit you swab yourself you put your swab into a vial and then that vial is collected and sent to a lab so it's it's a self-administered test the engine and tests as they come in I think we'll start seeing them at the various sites across the state as you remember I talked about last week that we're progressing our we're really evolving our testing capabilities to be faster with faster results as we move with the different technologies that are evolving as well we we see a lot of promise with lamp tests with engine tests as well and we'll try to introduce those as soon as there's a supply chain that's reliable we don't really have a supply chain that's reliable the governor has mentioned that the White House wants to help out on that and that's something that we're very very thankful for is that supply chain firming up so that we can move in the direction that we want to move into these rapid tests whether it's a lamp test or an engine test thank you and while you're at the podium any progress or updates on a mad river valley sugar bush warren weight field sure facility as we move into winter yeah I talked to various people within the agency and we're we would be excited to add a testing opportunity into that area it we're going to look at it right after Thanksgiving Lisa okay thanks very much I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving Tim McQuiston from on business magazine hi governor I just bought an antigen test and it's the first COVID related thing I had to buy and it wasn't cheap it was $25 is there a thought of bringing that into the you know the states and picking up the federal government picking up all the the code related cost and that's you know $25 would be significant if you had to do it several times any any thought about how that how the cost could be rolled into that for the antigen test yeah I mean we we a number of governors this morning had spoken about that and and the cost associated with that and we we're looking at all different options but we need the inventory first I think the more the capacity is built the the more inventory there'll be the the less expensive it'll be as well so there'll be many many different options available whether it's the this PCI PCI PCI like lamp test that that would be the most accurate and give us the results much quicker but the antigen tests are viable as well and they're getting better as time moves on so this is the future and we're going to have to figure out how we do this I'm not sure that we're going to be able to the federal government is going to be able to pay for every test for and then in eternity but but we'll see as they the change in technology the advancement in and different testing procedures where this lands it's going to be lucrative for someone to to come up with new ways to have an instant test that's accurate so again I don't have any answers for you but we are looking at this from the National Governance Association standpoint and trying to work with the White House okay as far as the local mask mandate are you concerned at all here you know we're entering a very important economic season for the state that it could in some way crimp economic activity at all I don't see that as a problem we went through this again before we gave this option a year ago to municipalities and there were probably a dozen or so maybe more who took advantage of that and I'm you know just anecdotally I don't I just don't see that it's going to be widespread you may see a number of the larger communities taking advantage of this but I don't see that it would prevent anything any economic loss as a result it's just a it's a mass it's a mass mandate right there's nothing else they can do yeah and just to be crystal crystal clear you've been adamant about not running for U.S. Senate but how about the the open congressional seat now which is the same answer follow-up same answer same answer yeah all right thank you governor Andrew McGregor cowdowning record it's still going to the same place right thanks good afternoon governor you said in your opening remarks that you were thankful for all the vermonters that have stepped up and done their part to help put us in the position we're in I'm wondering though how much of this delta surge could have been avoided and do you have any frustration or disappointment that you know vaccination rates weren't higher and and we might have been in an even better spot yeah well obviously and I think it's very unfortunate that this turned political early on and I think that that started the hesitancy not that we wouldn't have seen some hesitancy to vaccines and trying to do the right thing but but it turned political early on and it's been a constant challenge we've we've been fortunate here in Vermont again vermoners have risen above that and done the right thing for the most part so I'm thankful for that again we're leading in a number of different categories but as a nation I think this continues to plague us and and and that is a result of just this being turned into a a political tool in the early stages and and that's just been unfortunate because we could have gotten through this a lot quicker and any concern about what's happening in Europe these days with rising cases and new lockdowns in mandate yeah and and we're seeing this more and more Austria for instance I think they've they've enacted a stay home stay safe for those who are unvaccinated Brussels Germany those are the hot spots right now in fact I think Senator Rahm was Rahm Hinsdale was there last week and that's a hot spot so yeah it's concerning what we're seeing in Europe and one local question then for Secretary Smith the cases we've seen the last few weeks in prisons with the declared outbreaks in St. Shea and Newport how would you characterize these cases are they a reflection of Delta's transmissibility and just the presence of the virus in the community or are they pointing to signs of something that's problematic whether it be the effectiveness of vaccines or or protocols and prisons that maybe need to be modified I'll let Secretary Smith answer this but I will note that the those in the north northeast northwest and I think brotland as well have the a lower vaccination rate of the offenders of any of the correctional facilities across the state so that that doesn't help and probably as well I'm not sure about the numbers in terms of the boosters in in the correctional facilities but we're trying to get people boosted as well I think to answer your question directly I think it really does reflect you know the virus comes into the facilities the facilities have been doing a great job probably the best in the country in trying to curb the transmission within the facilities but it does enter through the facilities and it does enter you know at at locations where there's high sort of trans whether it's high infection rates or leans with northern obviously it has been a particular one that we've been looking at I think you know one of the things that one of the things that vaccines have done for us is to contain the spread you know earlier we would see you know an infection rate then we'd have 180 that would be affected right away we're seeing you know we're seeing pockets of infection but we're seeing really a containment of that infection as we move forward we still do the isolation techniques we still do the the separation techniques that we've always used and they seem to have a good impact on it in terms of boosters you got to remember most of our population is younger so they're boosters are in accordance with the CDC guideline six months after Pfizer and and Moderna and two months after J&J I spoke with the commissioner on Monday saying we need to look at the boosters and he has assured me that we're going to be boostering that those facilities as soon as the inmates are eligible and I expect that to happen within the next few days a few weeks in terms of trying to get anybody that's eligible boosted in the in those facilities okay thank you very much p. Hirschfeld vpr am i muted jason can you hear me you gotcha uh governor secretary smith referenced yeah 17 plus thousand five to 11 year olds who've been by the receipt of vaccine or have been registered for a vaccine the vast majority of those kids were signed up in the first week and registration update or volume has flowed pretty dramatically since then and i'm wondering how worried you are at this point that vaccination rates in that age group are going to be what you would hope they would become February March yeah well again um this is an unexpected uh although we lead the nation in the number of five to 11 year olds receiving vaccinations we knew that this was going to be a difficult category and i think that the pediatricians have stepped up they're trying to counsel parents to do what they feel is right but it's a tremendous responsibility being a parent and deciding for your kids what what is best for them so i think some are just taking a little bit of time wanting to see you know those early in the early stages a number of people a number of kids have received their vaccinations and i think i think we'll see that they give them more comfort after they see the results of that over a couple of two three weeks and we'll see more gradually receiving vaccinations as a result but yeah i mean it's we want to get that category as we've seen as uh commissioner p check had shown on a graph that's where we see the highest level of infection at this point in time so it's uh incumbent upon us to try and get them vaccinated i feel being anything you want to add to that just to reiterate that it is a big decision for parents to make so we had a third of the country surveyed said they would go right away to get the vaccine for their kids we've already exceeded that in vermont so that's wonderful um but there is that middle group that wants to wait a little bit longer and survey things and make sure that the safety is what it was touted to be and all of that so on the one hand i get it completely but on the other hand every day i look at our reports of our cases and 20 sometimes more than 20 percent of our cases every day of the week are in that age group below 12 years of age so um i just hate for those parents to wait so long that their kid ended up becoming one of those cases um and then had all the disruptions in their life that being a case you know leads to so again the pediatricians are really doing a great job if you missed their forum in your region of the state they're all on the aap website so you can watch it uh at your leisure and um i'm sure that the questions you have as a parent are answered there because so many parents have so many of the same questions so just keep that in mind and watch the video of what went on during the town forum to get a real good acquaintance with how effective and safe the vaccine is in this age group and how well the concerns that parents uh we know have uh can be responded to thank you thank you all very much Aaron Botanko from Montdigger health recently put out new action levels for pcb testing in schools i was wondering um if Dr. Levine could comment on what went into that decision and um what that kind of means for schools going forward particularly Burlington High School which we've seen has action levels well beyond that hundred um i think it's nanograms per milligram or something limit sure um i wouldn't use the word new action levels these are newly created action levels this is a entire legislatively determined program of testing schools and keeping kids safe that is just being unveiled um i know the situation has been you know very challenging for all concerned especially the Burlington school community and obviously what happened in Burlington was made especially hard because we were in the middle of a pandemic as well but whether it's COVID whether it involves lead whether it involves PCBs our interests are first and foremost in the health and safety of our children and the teachers and the staff who work in our schools and our goal throughout the process is to work with school districts and communities to find the best and most safe way for our children to have their best school experience possible which they all deserve that memorandum that we put on our website really lays out the PCB action levels and the contributing science behind them and they're part of a larger department of health and department of environmental conservation um action to really develop state policies to support schools in achieving the lowest level of PCBs in their buildings as possible and this material was that we put out was really the foundation for the regulatory framework that is just being developed uh per the legislation and the testing requirements that were established to go along with it remember that PCBs are a chemical of concern with both state and federal regulatory responsibility so the state action levels are for the air in the school Burlington wasn't part of a comprehensive testing policy at the time they were considering doing construction work and so they had their building materials tested and those are regulated by the environmental protection agency the EPA so Burlington wants to consider using their existing buildings which are all known to contain PCB materials in them they obviously have more work to do with the EPA and to gather more data to understand what their options might be i want to make sure that everyone understands that there are screening levels which just are what the testing program will all produce and that those screening levels are to enable us to know where there may be a problem the action levels were used and developed using science and data by some of our most experienced colleagues at the health department and around the country and let me be clear i stand by their work and believe that it is quite valuable and will in the end prove to be quite protective for our youth i also have a question about the department of health data summary that comes out every other week i i saw this week that it has now been kind of paired back to just the kind of a handful of data points on breakthrough cases and like you know the total number of cases in the state based on the fact that we are doing much less contact tracing now does it concern you that we have less data now on things like outbreaks you know demographics of new cases and other factors that used to be tracked through contact tracing is some of that data being collected by the department but just no longer being released that's something else that i'm not there about yeah so to be clear most of what was in the data summary will still be available there are clearly outbreaks being followed because we talk about them frequently and so that data is still available the case by case data which has been in aggregate since the very beginning of the pandemic much of that requires some of the results of what occurs in those phone calls that the contact tracers do so at a time when we couldn't add to that data because of the reduction in the direct contact tracing we didn't want to publish anything new in those areas that would have been impacted by that so it's really a small proportion actually and even in the current caseloads the amount of data that would have come in that would have markedly changed any of the data that you were used to looking at was probably not going to be very impactful but the data that you need to go forward is still going to be there on an every other week basis thank you and barbara new for daily express return to the issue about the outbreaks in the car show facility you did uh the judge tell her that if involved the vaccination rate among inmates um how does the nation staff compared to the other curts of the city i think we got most of that i believe here i think the question is the staff what the percentage of staff is uh and then maybe the percentage of uh of inmates as well do you have that number secretary yes what is the uh vaccination rate for the staff that's more than from a personal facility yeah i'll we have that information i i just don't have it right here in front of me but we do have that information i'll get it i'll get it to you by the end of today okay perfect you're that's the only thing i have okay okay thank you governor thank you greg lamberell the county courier good afternoon governor um starting in just a couple weeks uh vermont's gonna have winter sports and high schools uh i know you're leaving a lot of the rules up to high schools and and uh supervisor reunions but i'm wondering if if you think that um those who want to attend should have to uh show proof of vaccine uh you know after all it may be protecting the student athletes it may even be uh a way to encourage some people to get vaccinated i'm wondering what your take is on that yeah obviously i think being vaccinated having your boosters is the best approach to getting through this uh having said that we are we don't have a state of emergency don't think we need one uh and that would be the only means of us uh exerting our authority all we can do is provide guidelines uh i don't know if secretary moore is on today i am governor okay and maybe you could just clarify what our guidance is to the bpa on this yes absolutely uh so we have been recommending masking for athletes but also for uh officials and spectators at all indoor winter sports events this year um we've also made those same recommendations to recreational sports league recognizing youth athletes often participate in both um so i i guess i'm just wondering is i know you can't order it you can't request it but would would you like to see schools do that you can ask that that schools require such a thing and and the north south football game uh all media was required to be vaccinated in order to attend and i just wondered if that's something you would like to see happen yeah i think again i think it's a it's good for people to do that i think it is the the path forward especially indoors uh i have heard in fact i heard the associate general contractors having their annual meeting this year and they're requiring anyone attending to have to be vaccinated which i thought was uh interesting and i applaud their effort but this is really a decision that they need to make locally and uh and again um we have given a path forward for our state employees uh that i think is uh is reasonable we believe that they should be vaccinated but there is a an exit ramp so to speak and that is uh testing and uh regular testing and masking so again that's the path we've taken we haven't made it mandatory okay and uh lastly governor uh as you know longtime state rep brian savage announced his resignation yesterday on the house floor i'm told he i'm i've been told that he notified your office prior to that i'm wondering how the search for replacements going and if you wanted to comment a little bit on brian's departure yeah brian i've served with brian he did a lot of work for his community sorry to see him go but but i think that he has a another opportunity ahead of him in terms of a replacement that will be forwarded from will request the local republican organization to forward three names to us for our consideration to replace replace brian that's the way it normally works whatever uh whatever political affiliation uh that member was we we will uh we'll ask that organization local organization to send us three names for us to consider okay thank you governor happy thanksgiving you too tom davis compass vermont tom davis right we'll try joseph dresser martin chronicle move to court knee lambden seven days hi governor can you hear me we can okay i actually have a question for dr levine um another follow-up question about the guidance regarding pcb levels in schools um just another follow-up for you uh dr levine when did that when did the state's review of these new standards began or you know the action levels began and when did the health department realize that this guidance might be changed it's been going on for many months i can't give you an exact date of when it began um probably began when the legislation was passed to be honest but in earnest certainly over the last several months and what was the second part of your question uh when the health department realized that that the guidance would be changed okay so again i have to be very clear that right now we obviously provide guidance regarding health protective levels and there is now a regulatory process in place uh that the agency of natural resources through the department of environmental conservation provides but that was not the case prior to the legislation so all we had was what the screening levels were if they were detected in air at any location so we actually have been working in earnest work with the department of environmental conservation um to create the entire framework that has been called for so it's not as if we changed a lot of things we've evolved to be able to provide what's needed for this regulatory process okay and i guess i guess another follow-up would be just i might i might also add i might also add that i believe we're the only state in the country that has this program for testing of schools so we're certainly leading the curve in this arena and i've been working with experts around the country and i've worked with our colleagues in the agency natural resources and with the EPA as well because a lot of this is breaking new ground and making sure that we do the most for safety with something that is contaminating our environment very pervasively in every every part of our environment and where you can if you test detect PCBs consistently across so we have to be able to set levels that take into account what i would call this background level of PCBs in the environment that we're all unfortunately subject to because of what's happened to the environment right okay and so during this uh month you know months long review that the state was doing uh at any time did the state kind of reach out to burlington knowing that they're they were dealing with this problem that that's the guidelines you know that this review was happening that the numbers could shift is there anything the state could have done to kind of give burlington a heads up uh that this might occur which could then maybe have prevented them from spending millions of dollars to retrofit a department store for high school and you know give up their plans to spend 70 million dollars on renovating a school and build a new one like they've kind of gone down this path there anything the state could have done to kind of head that off or give them any guidance along the way actually the state i won't use the word the state but the department of health uh has worked with burlington very consistently for many many many months and our teams continue to meet with them with with their consultants with the epa uh uh regarding the situation um and the implication of your question is that the action level set would have changed the whole equation for what's going on in burlington and i would just have to dispute that um they have a number of buildings on the campus that all have levels of contamination that they are dealing with epa and others with and made their own decisions on our our publication is only regarding the screening and action levels for health that are protective for health so i wouldn't want the thesis to be that what we did all of a sudden should make burlington uh change everything they did and they wasted millions of dollars and caused lots of distress to kids who couldn't be in their school because that's actually not an accurate reflection of the process okay so what so i know that there are parents though that have um brought up those exact concerns what would you say in response to that well i would i would have them continue to engage with their school community and um have a great understanding of exactly why decisions were made on what basis all of the input that they've gotten from various consultants uh in the environmental arena and in the epa so that they can get a complete story because i do think it's being misportrait at this point in time are there any other misconceptions that you want to clear up now uh no again i i've said before our experts have used science and data to develop these protective levels and um their expertise is really unquestioned okay thank you chris maize brettelboro farmer good afternoon um i was just i'm just um at this point with vermont leading in vaccination metrics um with the cdc i was just wondering what what you think the most the strategies um that have been most effective for your administration in getting people vaccinated well again it has to you know i go back to the people of vermont and their willingness to uh to accept the vaccine and some of the guide guidelines and advice that we're giving them without their willingness we wouldn't be able to be successful as successful as we've been um but you know i i believe having um a team of experts and communicating with vermonters on a daily basis certainly on a weekly basis sometimes two to three times a week um in this setting um has been advantageous um trying to give them the honest news um you know both good and bad and uh and trying to reason with people has been helpful but but again i i go back to it's the people of vermont that have done the right thing we've just been trying to guide them right and my next question is for dr levine uh yesterday we had the brettelboro police department report that they had a case where someone's marijuana tested positive for fentanyl and uh the police department had received um communication from connecticut officials i believe or other police departments in new england that that they're seeing arise in this kind of situation and i saw some reports from connecticut i'm wondering if dr levine has heard from from uh public health officials in connecticut about this issue and if we're seeing this in other areas of vermont right now so i am aware of the report from connecticut though um have not heard from public health officials uh from either connecticut or in our uh several times a week meetings as health officials across the country this hasn't come up but we were aware of that and i believe the brettelboro instance is the only one that's been at least reported to us in vermont again the message to the public should be um much like the harm reduction messages we send about opioid use because of course we're talking fentanyl being mixed in with the marijuana uh just like it's been mixed in with heroin and other narcotic substances so uh again if buying products on a um from a marketplace that's not part of a um a legalized market uh is what an individual is doing they should always be careful with the substance that they've purchased and certainly don't use a lot at once titrate it use it very small amounts make sure it's safe make sure you're in the company of others so that if there are problems that arise you can be assisted this is just now unfortunately an example in a in a substance that's much more common than the illicit narcotics uh that people have to be careful so it's a little bit of a wake-up call hopefully it's only a very random event and it's not going to be seen very frequently but just the fact that we now have a report of it and it seems like a very credible report people should be careful and i just want to one one quick follow up i can somebody are you aware if someone can overdose from just smoking a little bit of fentanyl with marijuana without like free basing it because that question came into us and i wasn't sure if they're yeah that's a that's a really good question um and i don't know if we have the science behind that yet to answer that question certainly you can ingest fentanyl orally and people often bake marrow you know marijuana into brownies and cookies and other substances so i would still worry about it but i can't directly say that smoking it might have the same impact but i could predict it probably would thanks a lot lisa the water very roundabout we can okay great i have a data question and a testing question data has to do with the school information which during Courtney's questions a few minutes ago the new update for this week with the cases and schools was updated on the state website i've got a question about just i can appreciate how this is a bit of an exercise in herding cats trying to get all these numbers and trying to make them be similar and comparable but in our school district here that we cover in the harwood district this past week the update that we received from the schools about our current cases had a caveat on it telling families to basically disregard the state chart because it's so far off and i'm wondering if other reporters even on this call are noticing this but it seems like that the case numbers that are being reported on the state chart are really not keeping up with the numbers of cases that are coming in right now i'm wondering if the problem is you know more of a more expansive than what people appreciate at this point for example right now the state's reporting that our school district has 15 cases when in fact the schools have reported 27 cases i think 26 of those in the time period that the data on the state website is purportedly accurate through so that's that's about 40 45 percent off just in one school district so just kind of makes me wonder you know how how does the data match up with all the other school districts around the state right now i'm looking over at the commissioners conferring on this so i i can't tell you which number is correct and which number is not some of it may be timing some of it may be contact tracing that's been done within the school that we weren't yet aware of some of it may be related to the fact that we count cases that present in a school and are transmitted within the school and maybe there were cases that were in the community that we would not have included in the school outbreak even though we include them in the case count i can think of abundant reasons but if you could send our communications folk the exact information in the exact district we can at least try to chase it down and get an understanding of it that would be great i would i would love to just pass just a good comparison that might be a good exercise to try to drill down on this a little bit because i've talked with the school officials who say that they're using the same threshold as far as contagious in schools as far as reporting cases so that's one box that they're checking and i see on our on our list that there's schools in our district that had cases back in early october and in september that still are not showing up on the state on the state chart yeah so please let us know so we can get to the bottom of it because there probably is a reason for it because i think trying to understand that a little better would be would actually be helpful and that may be helpful in other places as well one other question for you dr levine has to do with testing and thinking about Thanksgiving coming up so schools pretty much are going to be out now tomorrow through the weekend if there's gatherings that families are at say thursday um friday what's your recommendation as far as you know kids will be back in school on monday how long should people wait i know there's a bit of a time period right a lack of from when you have a gathering to win it's a viable thing to take a test and have it be meaningful um how what's your recommendation as far as you know getting kids tested before they go back into their classroom settings next week right so we generally say testing on day five to day seven would be advisable obviously symptoms test immediately and don't go to school you know no matter how trivial the symptoms but otherwise probably five days after the gathering event which would be five days from thursday have a nice thanksgiving everyone guide page vermont daily chronicle governor there's a news report that the first grader in the academy school in brattle borough was vaccinated against the expressed wishes of his parents have you or anyone in your administration heard about this and if so what steps are you taking to prevent it from happening again i have not heard that and i don't know how that slips by because you have to have your parents permission to do so so i don't know the circumstances um is secretary french on i don't know if you've heard of this or not secretary french yes good afternoon thanks for the question um yeah actually the new hampshire commissioner of education called me to discuss this issue um i haven't been able to confirm it and i think it's still being investigated well what did he say he just wanted to alert me that he had heard uh i'll say a rumor of this as well and he was hearing from people in new hampshire about what was he going to do about it basically um but again i haven't been able to confirm that so it's actually what took place okay thank you um governor on the mass mandate bill yesterday uh the legislature had an opportunity to remove any possibility of criminal penalties which could be up to a year in jail for a violation of a municipal ordinance and they didn't uh does that give you a reason for concern you know i i understand why it was presented technically but again we went through this before we went through this a year ago with the municipalities gave them the ability to put these mass mandates in place um and there was no um issue at that point in time so i i'm not expecting that we'll have any problem of that nature but but i understand why they they put it forward but but i personally don't have any concern over this thank you captain huffy wcax hello can you hear me we can great governor i believe this is for dr levine um you have mentioned that verman is now a countrywide leader in developing these new pcb standards um and action levels uh were these developed in light of potentially two restrictive levels in burlington situation and in the face of coming statewide testing um that the legislature ordered for schools these were really developed independent of any of the concerns regarding burlington for messaging i guess for parents who who just are really concerned about what their kids are going through going to school in amesis going to school what oh i'm in a macy's department store yeah um i i really don't um i think the city of burlington did what they thought was best regarding protecting the health of their kids they needed an alternate location they came up with one um i think it's again everything our team here in the stage has been saying all along is our kids need to be in school so even if they're in a building that isn't the school they remembered being in but it is their school that is far preferable than not being in school thank you all right thank you very much and um we'll see you again next tuesday have a very happy thanksgiving and reflect on the the good things that are happening in the world because there are good things happening thank you