 All right, I'm going to make Jennifer the host and Jennifer once you're the host you can make Nancy the co-host and you will be able to mute and unmute people and bring people in during public comment. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Wonderful meeting. Thank you. Hey, Maureen's not here yet. What time are we 602. 602. Hi Steve, how's me. Great, beautiful. It's really raining for the first two days but now it's great. The sun has finally come out in Los Gatos. We had a lot of clouds. Is the wedding, is the wedding over yet? Pardon me. It was wonderful. It was outdoors. It was small, beautiful. I'm glad we're just so happy. We were the only East Coast fan of friends that could come other than some of the guys, but so they went out of their way to thank us very much for being there for them and for their parents, for his parents. How are you, Tim? How's your mass? Whoops, I can't hear you. I'm doing well. Oh, good. Sorry, I had to wear sunglasses because I had an eye exam. Oh, okay. I thought you were being cool. Taking after Joe Biden. I've emailed Maureen. I don't have her number. There she is. How are you? Okay, so we're all here. 603. So I will read this first and then open the meeting. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom. No in-person attendance of the public is permitted, but every effort will be made. The public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship, and despite best efforts, we will post on the Board of Health website the audio recording of the proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. Okay, so I'm going to call the meeting to order. I'm going to call 4 on September 27th. And I'm just going to give a little introduction for any attendees. I want to do a roll call. Nancy. Okay. Yeah, I'll do the roll call first. Okay. Attending the meeting. Tim. Hi. Steve George. Maureen Malay. Yeah. Nancy Gilbert. Here. Member of the Health Department, Jen Brown, who is the host. Okay. The Amherst Board of Health is responsible for the protection and promotion of the public health, the control of disease and the promotion of sanitary living conditions for the town of Amherst. The board oversees health regulations for the creation of new regulations, the review of existing regulations and the review and determination on variance requests for existing regulations. The Amherst Board of Health is a five member board that is appointed for a three year term. The board derives its authority from the Massachusetts legislature, and the members are I Nancy Gilbert chair, Stephen George Timothy Rand here, Maureen Malay and there is a vacancy right now for the fifth member. Jennifer Brown is the interim health director for Amherst. She is an employee of Amherst. Her duties are to carry out the wishes of the board, assist in the enforcement of our regulations and to deal with the day to day operations of the health department. With the exception of title five regulations, it is not legally required for the board of health to hold a public hearing on proposed regulations before them. Tonight we are inviting the public to comment on the addition of FDA approved COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of required vaccinations for students to attend public schools in Amherst. Students may be exempt from immunizations for medical reasons and religious beliefs. The purpose of this special Board of Health meeting is to hear from residents and other interested parties. I'm going to express your views for up to two minutes, and at the discretion of the chair, based on the number of people who want to speak. The board will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during the public comment period. After the public comments, the board will discuss and vote on the addition of the COVID FDA approved COVID vaccinations. Because this is a virtual meeting, we will be following these procedures. Nancy Gilbert will be chairing the hearing. Jennifer Brown is the host. She will be muting and unmuting participants in order of their hands raised. And she will be timing participants, remarked two minutes. When addressing the board, please provide your town of residence and state any professional affiliation you may have. In advance, I'd like to thank you for your anticipated cooperation. And the public comment is now to begin. Okay, we have. All right, I'm looking at the attendees and there are no, no hands raised. We wait. That's one though. Okay, okay. Okay. All right, so I'm going to let the first person in. Yes. Hello, Kevin. Hi, thank you. Would you like to address the board? Yeah, it might be pretty quick. It sounds like you're not really going to answer questions. It's just an opportunity for us to comment. Correct. But you're the only one asking questions. Ask. Okay, well, I guess I was just curious. If you had a rough idea of how either percentage or a number of students that are already vaccinated. No, I don't, I don't believe we do and the inflammation implementation of this will be done by the school committee. How many people are vaccinated? How many of the kids are vaccinated? I don't have the number. I don't know if it's on the ARPS website. Okay, it's, it's not, it's not that critical. And has there been any discussion about how soon this would be implemented. That'll be implemented by the school committee. They'll, they'll develop the timeline. And I did, I did hear you mentioned that there would be exemptions for medical and religious reasons. Yes. And will you be developing those protocols or is that up to the school? That's all the school committee. We're just adding it to the list. The school committee is doing the implementation, as they have with all other vaccines. Well, that addresses my major questions at this time. Kevin, if you want to email me tomorrow, I can get you the number of vaccinated students or point you in the right direction. Okay, thank you. Kevin, do you have a child in the school system? I do. Yeah, my son's a junior. So he would be, he would be in the cohort that you're looking at. Okay. Thank you. That is it. All this anticipation for, I don't have anything to add to that. Okay. I think we have to take 10 minutes, five minutes. And if no one else has any comments, move on. We could maybe if we have anything to discuss, we could discuss it and then go back to the public comment just to make sure there's not a leak. Rival or something. I don't believe. We have anything further to discuss on them. The prior motion that we'll just remake that motion. I don't have anything to add to that. I don't have anything to add. It looks good for me. Steve, do you have anything to add? Nothing that would change, you know, my vote or anyone else's vote, but I did spend some time just trying to see, you know, is there any plausible mechanism by which the COVID vaccines, the ones that have had full approval. Could have some very long term, you know, something decades later, you know, because I think that is one of the things that people, you know, might legitimately worry about. And I just cannot find any plausible mechanism. All other vaccines have their effects quite soon within. At most months after the vaccines have been administered. And of course, there's been hundreds of millions of these vaccines have been administered. I just tried to sort of do due diligence and see, is there a possible problem that we would have to acknowledge? And I don't see it. The vaccine seems incredibly safe. I guess I was thinking about this too. I mean, it's not that I haven't thought about it in the last several weeks, but just comparing it to the other vaccine preventable illnesses or diseases. This seems to rise above those in terms of the risks that it poses both to the children themselves and as the community as well. You know, I just feel confident that it's the right move to make and because the requirements do encourage more people to be vaccinated. Yes. And when you look at all the prior vaccines. They've only had positive outcomes going back to, I remember getting vaccinated with polio as a child and everybody just lined up in school and you got it. I don't remember anything. Parents weren't there. You just lined up and got it. And then it moved on to oral polio vaccine for the rest of them for my kids. I don't know if that's the case, but. They all save lives and prevent long-term disabilities. The agenda did say that the comments would begin like at 605, right? The comment period. Six, six, 10. So. Okay. Yeah. I've been very impressed with masks and Amherst. Wherever we walk, people seem to be wearing masks. They're still holding through and in traveling for this family wedding. Masks in Southern and Central California have been everybody's wearing them. As a matter of fact, something very interesting when I, when we arrived in the Burbank airport, they are giving out and their signs all over the airport. If you go to TSA. At bus and such, you can get a vaccine. There's signs all over. No mask, no service. That was just a given. That's not the case in Maine. Definitely not. There's a great surprise. Even in places like, you know, stores and hotels and things like that, the staff are not all that are not all wearing masks indoors. When serving people face to face. Some are, but many are not. There's no mandate here. It's not a mandate. It has a very high incidence rate right now. All of that. Outside at all times. I'd say outside here, maybe 25% of people are wearing masks. It's not all perfect, but landing in Burbank and seeing those two signs, I just was, whoa. Okay. And then also if you didn't want to get your vaccine there, you can go to TSA. And then email address. I believe that you could just contact and find out the place where there was the closest free vaccination clinic to go to. Our attendees are down to two. It's six, 17. I'll wait till six, 20. That's 10 minutes. And then we'll just. If someone will reintroduce the motion. Please vote on it. And close the meeting. How are things that you massed him. Is pretty good. All students are wearing masks indoors. So very good to see that and. In the public spaces like buses and everything. It's really. Yeah. When we've driven up North. Pleasant and we, and we walked through campus. And then the kids are wearing masks and outdoors. They're either wearing it or carrying it, and indoors it looked like a hundred percent bus stops. Everybody had it. I was very impressed with on campus. And around campus. The good news is the positivity rate. Was lowered substantially. So it is good news. It is good news. Yes. Yes. Jen, is there anything you'd like to share with us? to what you were talking about vaccines. And, you know, anecdotally, I can tell you as a nurse for over 30 years, vaccines have been, without a doubt, from my point of view, received the most effective and the safest. Giving a bare aspirin in the ICU was scarier than giving a vaccine because of potential side effects. But vaccines, I just see the benefits. And I want to thank all the board members for coming tonight. You're all volunteers. I know that. And you've rearranged your schedule. And I really appreciate all of you. OK, it is 6.20. So I'd like someone. Yeah, I have the motion. I have the motion from last time. Read the motion. Yeah, I'll make the motion. The Board of Health adds vaccination against COVID-19 using vaccines that have received full FDA approval to the list of vaccinations that are required, except for medical or religious exemptions for students to attend public schools in Amherst. May I have a second on that? I'll second that. OK, all in favor, Maureen? Aye. Tim? Aye. Steve? Aye. Nancy? Aye. Is it's been moved and seconded? Is there any further discussion? OK, so I am going to vote on the motion. All in favor of the motion, Maureen? Did we just do that? Aye. Yes, oh, of the motion. But now we're voting on it. So we voted on the motion. We have no comments on the motion. Does that mean the motion is moved and accepted, or now do we move? Go ahead and vote. Everything's covered. I'll do the roll call. You should do it, just. Yes. OK, I'll do it. The roll call for approving the motion. Yes, on the motion as read as discussed. Maureen? Aye. Tim? Aye. Steve? Aye. Nancy? Aye. So it has been moved, seconded, discussed, and voted positively on. All in favor. So now the COVID, FDA COVID-19 vaccines are on the required list. Amherst schools. OK. I really want to inform Michael Morris. Jen, can you do that, or do you want me to do it? I can do it. I'm able to. I'll do that now. Yeah, thank you. That's a good idea. So our next Board of Health meeting is Thursday, October 14th. And I need a motion to close the meeting. I'll move to close the meeting. Second? I can second it. Second, yeah. OK, all in favor of closing the meeting. Steve? Aye. Maureen? Aye. Nancy? Aye. Tim? I'm looking at you. Aye. OK. So it's been moved, seconded, and now our meeting is closed. And thank you all. Thank you, Jen. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, everyone. Ending. And yeah. OK. All right. I think we're the first town to do this. In Massachusetts, right? This is in other than the Culver City United School District and the LA School District and Puerto Rico, we're the fourth in the nation that I'm aware of. Thank you all. We're trying to protect our public. Yeah. Have a good couple of weeks. See you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Thanks, everybody.