 Good morning, everyone. Once again, thanks for tuning in. Today, we'll be providing our weekly modeling and data and give an update on our from-up-forward progress in addition to our usual vaccination update from Secretary Smith and a health update from Dr. Levine. I'll be joining the White House call, as I usually do, on Tuesdays in a few minutes and then come back to give an update on what we hear. As you may know, as of yesterday, Vermont has vaccinated 79.4 percent of the eligible population, leaving us just 3,139 more to go before we hit 80 percent. And at that point, all remaining restrictions will be dropped. There's still dozens of free walking opportunities available every day across the state. No appointment needed, which Secretary Smith will talk about, and it's never been easier to get your vaccination. So please help us get to 80 percent as fast as possible. Over the weekend, I went to a few pop-up locations myself, including Thunder Road on Friday and the Car Show in St. Albans on Saturday. So I want to, again, once again, thank our EMS teams who have been doing an incredible job at all these locations, all these clinics. We wouldn't be leaving the nation in vaccinations if not for them. We're now at the stage where, instead of mass vaccination sites with hundreds of doses being administered each day, we're relying on pop-ups with a handful at a time. And that's okay. We're going to keep pushing because every single dose could save a life and every vaccination counts. And we continue to see the impacts of vaccinations with just two people in the entire state hospitalized with COVID-19. Cases are also at the lowest levels in eight months. So we need to keep this up, keep pushing, and keep leaving the nation. So with that, I'll turn it over to Commissioner Pichek for this week's modeling presentation, and I'll be back shortly with an update from the White House. Thank you. Thank you very much, Governor, and good morning, everyone. I'm happy to report that for the second week in a row, we can say that Vermont is the safest state in the country from the risks of COVID-19. New COVID-19 cases have continued to fall in Vermont. This week, we're only reporting 61 new cases, 33 fewer than last week's already low total. And since our new case peak on April 1st, our seven-day case average has fallen 94%, and we've fallen another 17% over the past week. Also this past week, we only had three cases among those 65 or older, and cases are also falling uniformly across all of our age groups. With each age group seeing their cases lower than at any point over the past eight months. Further, cases are falling across Vermont, with 11 counties seeing a decrease this week, and with those counties seeing an increase, it was with very, very small numbers. And also for the second week in a row, Franklin County has not reported a single COVID-19 case. New cases continue to closely follow our April 26th forecast, and our new extended forecast anticipates that the cases will stay very low, and even get lower throughout the rest of the month and into July. Further hospitalizations due to COVID-19 remain very, very low, and they continue to fall, declining 38% over the past week, and 52% over the past 14 days, resulting in Vermont maintaining the lowest hospitalization rate in the country. In fact, this week, we frequently reported zero patients in our ICUs across the state. The first time we've seen such few people requiring critical care in nearly eight months, and we forecast that hospitalization rates will remain low for the foreseeable future. Further, we now estimate that the vaccine has saved 260 lives in Vermont, more than the number of COVID-19 deaths that Vermont has experienced to date, again highlighting the power of this life-saving vaccine. And although our fatality rate continues to be very low, we unfortunately did have a COVID-19 death reported this week, making it our only COVID-19 death reported in the last three weeks. And with very, very few new COVID-19 cases, especially among our most vulnerable populations, we continue to forecast that Vermont will have five or fewer deaths in the month of June, a remarkable improvement from where we were just four short months ago. Further, we're seeing these favorable trends even while mobility data shows that Vermonters are continuing to move around at pre-pandemic levels. Further, we have our first glance at mobility data associated with Memorial Day weekend, and the number of hotel visitors increased substantially this year compared to last, up 278%. However, hotel visits were still down about 21% compared to 2019 before the pandemic. This should, however, certainly be an encouraging sign for the summer tourism season. Turning to our vaccination progress, Vermont continues to lead the nation across almost every vaccine category. We now have the most doses administered generally, and also among the 65 and older population. We have the highest percentage of our residents having started vaccination. And new as of this week, we also have the highest percentage of our population that is fully vaccinated as well. Taking a look at the last two weeks, we can see that new vaccinations were falling a little bit following Memorial Day weekend. However, over the last three days, our numbers have rebounded nicely. And as the governor said, we're making good progress toward our goal of 80%. Again, as you can see, we stand at 79.4% of eligible Vermonters having started vaccination, needing just 3,139 more to hit our goal. Something that we think is likely this week if the current pace holds. And since we're on the cusp of reopening fully and knowing that this might cause some anxiety for those out there, we wanted to analyze the COVID-19 trends in three other New England states that have recently fully reopened. First with New Hampshire, which fully reopened on May 7th, we see that they have continued to see a steady downward trend in their cases over the last four weeks. Similarly, the same story holds for Connecticut, which reopened on May 19th and has continued to see a similar downward trend in their cases over the past three weeks. And finally, this holds true also for Rhode Island that reopened on May 21st, and they've continued to see their cases drop over the past few weeks as well. And for each of these three states that we mentioned, each of them reopened at a time when their vaccination rates were lower and their case rates were higher than compared to Vermont. And further even here in Vermont, we see that our cases continued to fall after each of the steps of the Vermont Forward Plan. All of this should certainly give us confidence that we can safely take the final step and reopen Vermont safely when we hit 80%. Finally, taking a look at the region for the ninth straight week, cases are falling across the Northeast. Cases this week totaled 8,400, the first time we've reported fewer than 10,000 cases over the last nine months. Over the last nine weeks, cases have fallen 91% in the Northeast and hospitalizations and deaths continue to fall as well. We're also seeing nice improvements in Canada and specifically in Quebec, where cases have fallen over 30% this week and their vaccination rates continue to climb with 66% of its population having started vaccination, a rate that rivals Vermont's. This should all spell good news for the reopening of the US Canadian border, hopefully in the near future. And at this time, I would like to turn it over to Secretary Smith. Thank you, Commissioner Pitchek and good morning, everyone. I'll start off this morning with an update on our progress with the vaccination program as well as announce more convenient locations where you can walk in and get your shot this week. And then I'll end with a preview of what is expected, expected this upcoming weekend with more details to come later in the week. We are inching forward, as everyone has mentioned, toward our goal of vaccinating 80% of eligible Vermonters. Over the weekend, many Vermonters stepped up to get vaccinated. As of this morning, as has been previously mentioned, 74.4% of eligible Vermonters, those 12 years old and above, have been vaccinated with at least one dose. We need just 3,139 more Vermonters to get their shot. As you can see, we are really close. I wanted to thank all those Vermonters who stepped up to get vaccinated this week. And I urge all eligible unvaccinated Vermonters to take advantage of the many convenient opportunities statewide to get your shot. Please do your part to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community. In terms of overall progress, as of today, as mentioned Vermonters 12 plus with at least one dose, 79.4%. Vermonters 18 plus with at least one dose using CDC data. This uses metric because the White House uses this metric in measuring their progress towards their July 4th goal of over 70% of Americans vaccinated 18 plus with one dose. We're way past that right now. We're at 82.9% of the White House goal. All Vermonters with at least one dose, 70.1% as Commissioner Pechak had pointed out. Moving on to vaccine clinics, you can walk in and get your shot at a variety of locations, including CVS, Hannaford Food and Drugs, Walmart, Walgreens, Price Chopper Market 32, Rite Aid, Shaw's Market, Costco, or UVMMC pharmacies. You can also make an appointment with Kenny Drugs or Northfield Pharmacy. And there are many more pop-up clinics today through Thursday. Today, June 8th, you can go to Northwestern Medical Center, Trey Amigos in Stowe, North Country Hospital in Newport, Barton Fairground Drive-Thru in Barton. Tomorrow Northwestern Medical Center, Okimo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, Nolanto GW in Royalton. The American Legion with Porter Medical Center in Middlebury. And then on Thursday, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, Northwestern Medical Center, Smugglers Notch Resort and Waterbury Farmers Market. There are also opportunities at our healthcare, our health partner clinics throughout the state. Please visit the website at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine or call 855-722-7878. Stay tuned later in the week for another update with the new walk-in opportunities, including clinics at over 20 Vermont State Parks. This is exciting, along with the free admission to the Vermont State Parks this weekend, we will have vaccination crews at many of the state parks to offer COVID-19 vaccine. We will also be back at the Jazzfest this weekend as well. I'll wrap it up, but I do want to first thank all our EMS, healthcare, pharmacy, health department and National Guard partners who have supported us to lead the nation in vaccinating our population. That's only the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds, literally too many to highlight, that are behind the scenes handling the logistics to make our efforts a success. I wish to thank them as well. It has been an amazing team effort. I also want to thank Vermonters, especially Vermonters, for stepping up and making this all possible. However, we still have a bit to go and I urge everyone to consider getting vaccinated this week so we can reach our goal and get back to normal. I'll now turn it over to Commissioner Shirley. With our progress on COVID-19 vaccinations and the move toward normalcy in many activities around Vermont, the recent weather has many looking for a way to cool down and Vermont lakes and swimming areas and swimming holes are popular with Vermonters and visitors and create a great respite from the heat. Those spots have been incredibly busy in the last few days. As you venture out to spend time in Vermont's abundant parks, playgrounds, trails and beaches, it's important to take time to think about safety. We want to take a couple of minutes just to remind folks that natural swimming areas like rivers and gorges impose dangerous conditions, especially if you don't know the area. Last weekend, our SWIFT water rescue team was called to the Huntington Gorge to assist the Richmond Fire Department with a rescue of two people who suddenly found themselves in danger and couldn't exit the water on their own. Fortunately, they helped arrive and they only suffered minor injuries. Unfortunately, with that gorge and a few others around Vermont, that's not always the case as they've seen a number of tragedies over the years. There are a number of things you can do to mitigate the risk when swimming, especially in those types of areas. First, never swim alone. Whether you're in a lake or river, swimming pool or pond, even if you're an expert swimmer, there's always the potential for something unforeseen to happen. Medical emergency or something else could strike at any time. So have someone with you who can call for help in an emergency. Fortunately for the folks in the gorge over the weekend, they had a third party with them who was able to call for help and help facilitate their rescue really swiftly. Next, know the body of water before you go in. The water depth, the temperature, prevailing currents, the location of hidden rocks and other hazards are all important factors in staying safe. Talk with someone who has been there before, do some research before you swim there and remember heavy rains and weather conditions can dramatically impact currents, water depth and the conditions. Water is incredibly powerful even when it's moving in small, what appears to be small amounts, a small amount of moving water can easily overwhelm a person and may even be able to push a car or something larger. Next, be realistic about your abilities. In a pool, you can always grab for the side that on a river or a lake, you can get into some significant trouble if you don't have something in proximity or some kind of location device to assist you. Always swim sober, drugs and alcohol can dull your senses, they can impair your judgment, they can slow your response and they can impair your ability to swim. And finally, respect property postings. If an area is posted for no trespassing or no swimming, please be respectful of that. Those postings are there for a reason, often that reason is for underlying safety concerns about that particular swimming location. For more information about swimming safety, you can visit the Vermont Emergency Management site, VEM.vermont.gov slash Swim Safety. There are many outdoor places to enjoy around our state. Having a little bit of safety in mind will make your visit to those places the best it can be. And while you might enjoy meeting Dr. Levine or one of his many colleagues, it would be far better to do so at one of the long list of vaccine clinics that Secretary Smith just mentioned, rather than doing so in an emergency room. Dad, I will turn it over to Dr. Levine. I'll echo those last sentiments. And I hope many of you are enjoying the warm weather and summer activities taking in all that Vermont has to offer and reconnecting with family and friends as more and more of us are protected by the COVID vaccine every day. The vaccine is the reason we've gotten to where we are today. It's how we can live once again with fewer restrictions than ultimately end the pandemic. So if you're not yet vaccinated, I ask you to stay as healthy as possible this summer and beyond by protecting yourself from this disease. Do the same for your family and friends. Remember, the vaccine is free. You can get it almost anywhere in your community and it's been proven to be both safe and effective. In fact, there are a number of real world experience studies from this year, including a large one I've discussed here previously involving high risk frontline healthcare workers and other frontline workers that have documented vaccine safety and over 90% effectiveness. These results mirror the original clinical trial results from the original studies. Though you might have some side effects after getting vaccinated, they are normal signs that your body is building protection. Some people may feel a bit off for a day, but people don't have side effects at all in many cases. And now at the one year mark, since the original trials began, long-term adverse effects are just not being seen. And to speak directly to anyone who may have questions or doubts. First, that's totally fine. You should have the information you need. I urge you to get your answers from trusted sources. It's easy to fall prey to misinformation and we simply can't afford to let those who spread it set us back in our efforts to keep us all safe and healthy. Start if you will by checking our frequently asked questions at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. We have a lot of information there that was inspired by questions we get every day from other Vermonters. I think you'll find them helpful and you're being comfortable and confident in getting vaccinated. Right now, Vermont enjoys the greatest degree of protection for its population among all 50 states and we continue to build on this success. The fact is, public health experts are getting increasingly concerned about a summer surge in the South, where many states have vaccination rates half of Vermont's. They're calling these states sitting ducks. Well, I don't really wish an outcome like that on anyone, but I too am concerned because the large numbers of unvaccinated people in those states will transmit the virus to one another and there will be no such thing as community immunity whether they are variant strains or not. We have good evidence that our vaccination rate is producing the desired results here in Vermont. First, with dramatic fall off in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in our older citizens, several months ago that began. Next, in the sudden major cases that we've seen. And of course, our overall case numbers and percent positivity rates. We know the virus does not respect state borders, so our vaccination and testing successes are our protection now and for the future. For parents and caregivers of a child over age 12, I hope you'll also seek out a convenient location that offers the Pfizer vaccine, which has been approved for the 12 to 17 age group. You can find walk-in clinics on our website or check with your local pharmacies. I know the approval for this age group is more recent, but let me assure the parents, caregivers and these young Vermonters, clinical studies show the vaccines are also safe and effective for 12 to 17 year olds. Any short-term side effects from the vaccine appear to be similar to what adults may experience. And we have the benefit of data from millions of adults that have now been fully vaccinated. Hundreds of millions. Now, we know hospitalization rates for adolescents are much lower than for adults, but severe disease can occur in any age group as the CDC just reinforced for us in published experience from 14 states during the recent spring surge. Among hospitalized adolescents, nearly one-third required intensive care unit admission and 5% had to be placed on a ventilator. No associated deaths occurred. This report reinforces the importance of continuing COVID-19 prevention measures, which include vaccination and correct and consistent max-quaring among persons who are not fully vaccinated. We know how much kids have missed out this past year and a half and how ready they are to finish school strong, get back to their friends, sports, camps, vacations, without having to worry about being exposed to the virus or having to quarantine and to be protected at the beginning of the next school year. Simply put, we use vaccines to keep our children safe from so many diseases. And the COVID-19 vaccine is really no different. It keeps them from getting sick from coronavirus. It means we don't need to worry about the rare but real threat of a severe or serious hospitalization, multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or long COVID. And it means there's less chance of it spreading to others, including younger family members who can't yet be vaccinated. Vaccines give them the immunity they need without the disease. As well as we're doing in Vermont, COVID-19 is not going to disappear. It can and will continue to find its way among people who do not have that wall of protection to stop it in its tracks. So we still need your help to get as many Vermonters protected as possible. Your decision to get vaccinated still matters. With that, we can start with the questions. Yeah, so the governor's just wrapping up his call with the White House and fellow governors and he'll be down in a couple of minutes for the readout. So we'll move to the Q and A and for those up at the front, if you have a question for the governor, just let me know and we can come back to you. But I'd just like to remind folks per my email when I sent out the queue, we've got a longer queue today. So we're hoping we can limit to two questions. And if you have another one, just send me a text or an email we can come back to you for a follow-up at the end time allowing. So we'll start with Calvin Cutler, channel three. Thanks, I'll wait for the governor. All set. Stuart Lutbetter, NBC five. You there, Stuart? I would like to wait for the governor as well, please. Wilson Ray, associate press. Hi, I'll be interested to hear what the governor says when he comes back too, but I have another question. I think this is for commissioner Harrington. And I'm curious in the, I don't know how many weeks it's been since you restarted the work search requirement and unemployment. Has that affected anything at all? Any changes in more people going back to work or has it changed anything at all? Thanks, Wilson. We have seen a reduction in the number of weekly claims or continued claims since the work search has gone back into place. We've also seen the amount of claims that we're paying out. The dollar amounts go down week after week. So those numbers continue to come down pretty drastically. I think some of it is a combination of turning the work search back on. But I also think there's a component in there in some of our numbers that we've shared previously. There was a steep decline in new claims and continued claims as we begin and have started to put in fraud mitigation efforts. So we saw the number of claims being filed, new claims being filed on a weekly basis dropped by 90%. And we've been able to also make drastic changes in the number of weekly claims being filed through our fraud mitigation efforts. So I think it's a combination of both, but we do know there are people who are looking for work and have gone back to work. So we do see weekly claims coming down as well as the total amount being paid out and benefits each week going down as well. Is it helping to ease the labor crunch? I think it's too soon to tell. We know that the labor shortage that we're on experience with their prior to the pandemic. So it certainly is helping. But I would say that our employers are still struggling to find talented workers. And so we're gonna keep encouraging folks to continue looking for work and go back to work. But I don't think that's going to resolve the total issue will still be in a need in a position of needing to expand our workforce even after the additional folks who are on unemployment due to COVID go back to work. Okay, great. Thank you. Honahue, the Islander. Thanks, Jason. I've got two for the governor. So I'll wait, thanks. Lisa Loomis, the Valley Reporter. Good morning. I've got one for the governor and one for commissioner P-check. So commissioner P-check, can you provide us with the average age of people being diagnosed with COVID in the last four weeks? And it's not today, perhaps next week. Yeah, for sure. I'm happy to give you the average age, but I know the median age has been for weeks, not just the last four weeks, but maybe the last eight weeks has been under 30 years old. It's been around 25 years old. It bounced back a little bit to about 30 years old recently. So that's the median age, not the average age, but you can get a sense that the cases are much younger now and can certainly include that in next week's presentation. And of those who are being diagnosed with COVID, do you have a sense of the median age of hospitalization? Yeah, so that's trended down as well. You know, back in January, it was well above 60 years old. It was like 65 years old was the average age. Last month, it got down to like 51 years old, I believe. In June, we haven't had a case that's been reported that's yet ended up in the hospital. So the most recent month, full month of data that we have is May, which was just about 51 years old was the average age. So that's come down quite a bit too. Great, thank you. And Jason, I'll come back when the governor's here and I'll meet myself. Perfect, thank you. Greg Lambert. Thanks, Jason. I think both of mine are for the governor. Wallace Allen, seven days. Pete Hirschfeld, VPR. Tom Davis, Compass Vermont. Thanks, Jason. I have one for the governor, but I also have one for Commissioner Schirling. Commissioner, the information about that incident that the Huntington Gorge was helpful to see. However, there wasn't enough information to understand did they actually go over the falls to get injured or were they injured prior to that? Thanks for the question. I actually don't know the whole lineage of the event, but we can get back to you with that. Yeah, I'm sort of curious about how they got themselves in that position in the first place, knowing the danger and the number of fatalities that have been reported over the years there. Yeah, I agree. And it is one of those areas that's posted that I referenced as well. So important to note that we're not endorsing going to Huntington Gorge to swim, but I will check with the Swift Water Team and see if we can get some additional detail for you. Okay, much appreciated. That's it for now, Jason. Thank you. Thank you. And I just got word that the governor is on his way down, he shouldn't be here any second. So I'll go to Kat from WCX if you have one for anyone here now and then we can come right back to you if the governor comes halfway through. I'll wait a moment to hear what the governor has to say from the national side. He's walking in the room right now. Looks or something, so he came just in time. Well, thanks again, just off the call with the White House. Today, Dr. Walensky reflected on the country's continued progress, including the 300 million dose milestone. And also the case counts lower than they have been since March of 2020 in the clear impact of vaccines and reducing hospitalizations and deaths. The CDC is encouraging teens and youth, 12 and over, to get vaccinated. So for those parents who aren't quite sure at this point, please know the country's top doctors are confident in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for our youth. They also talked about concerns with misinformation, which is keeping some people from getting the vaccine. So I want to remind folks, if you have questions, if you've seen rumors or claims online about the vaccine being unsafe, think about reaching out to your family doctor, who you trust, and ask those questions, because vaccines are safe. And if you're reading something on Facebook, you haven't seen anywhere else, it's probably not true. Finally, our allocations of Pfizer and Moderna doses remain the same, and there are no new allocations for J&J, but with what we've been getting each week, we can meet our needs here in Vermont, meaning with the steady stream, we can continue to move forward towards our goal, which is the site is close. So with that. Kat, because we were at you, I'll go back to you, and I'm going to go back to the top of the list and work my way back down. I'm curious, how are keeping the data about how many travel and tourism bookings are returning? Are there other forms of data that you are keeping that you're going to be presenting at these to show us how the economy is recovering this year in comparison to last year and then the pandemic? Well, I think we can use a few different metrics. Obviously, hearing right from those on the ground, right on the front lines is important, but also watching some of the revenue data on a monthly and quarterly basis is going to inform us as to how the economy is doing. So I might ask Secretary Curley if there's anything else she might be looking at within the ACCD agency. Yeah, Governor, I think I'm happy to look with our team at what metrics we might share, data that we can share to show people what's happening. I think my first thought with what yours was was kind of looking at the revenue, the meals, tax, and seeing what the trends are. But I think there are a variety of other reports that we can pull to be transparent about what's happening on the ground here as we come out of this crisis. Happy to do that. Kat, we're also monitoring the traffic in and out of the state on a weekly basis. So that's another metric that we keep an eye on so that's important as well as the labor situation. We've reduced the number of people on unemployment. So that's good news, but we have a ways to go. And then I happen to notice from last week's data, it looked like while we had seen travel and kind of the recreation side rebound to all the pre-pandemic levels and other metrics had hit pre-pandemic levels, people growing grocery shopping, things like that. But I noticed that workplaces were still about 30% or so where people had not gone back to work yet. Do you envision that number coming up anymore or do you think that that is probably where it's going to land because companies have decided not to go back and send their workers back to an office? I think it's good. Give them remote work. Yeah, I believe it'll be a combination of the two. It'll be interesting to watch, certainly putting more people back to work. I think that's going to be important. The more people get vaccinated, the more normal we get and with schools finishing off their year as well. And some of the summer matters programs coming into play, I think we'll see more people going back to work as well. Commissioner Pichek, anything else you wanna add to that? Yeah, thank you, Governor. And Cat, you're right that on the mobility data, the only one that really has not returned back to a more normal level is the workplace. And as the governor said, some of that is childcare. Some of that is just being able to work remotely and people wanting to stay remote. Some of it might be a reduction in the workforce as well if there's fewer people traveling to work sites across the board than the mobility data won't bounce back to the same degree. So I think it's a combination of all of those things, certainly. Thank you. Back to the top and work our way back through the order, starting with Calvin Cutler. Governor, so Commissioner Pichek at the beginning mentioned that the new data or vaccination data in Canada could spell good news in the weeks and months ahead. I'm wondering if you have any update on that front and if you have any response from the letter to the Biden administration. Yeah, we have not received any word back from the Biden administration at this point in time, but we anxiously await the border reopening when it's safe. And I really don't have any more information than you do. We can all speculate. I think it's good news when the Prime Minister today has talked about getting to a certain point. It's either 70% or 75%. And it looks like then things will be relaxing and they've made terrific gains, particularly in Quebec. And that's where we, of course, share our border with and they're exceeding expectations. And really the first dose vaccination rate is much higher than the US at this point, much higher than the UK. So they are heading towards, I think, Israel's benchmark. So it's all good news. Hopefully this means that they will negotiate something between the US government and the Canadian government and be able to open up the borders as soon as possible. And then a second question, I'm sure you've seen, you're getting some national attention for signing the mail-in ballot, or vote-by-mail, bill into law. I'm wondering if you can reflect on your action on that bill given the context of other Republican governors, putting restrictions on voting, and also how it will potentially change our elections going forward. Well, we had a chance and opportunity to try this out last year during the general election. And I think it was worthwhile for Vermont. I think that from my perspective, I think more people getting to the polls to exercise their right to vote and offering their voice in that respect is important. And I think we just need to continue to work on this. This will evolve. I'd like to see it expanded in some ways. It was to just focus on the general election alone when we see the lowest percentage of participation in our state is in the local elections and school budgets and so forth. So I'd like to see it somewhere down around 20%, I believe. So we should be focusing on that area. We get somewhat decent participation pre-pandemic in the general elections. Obviously that could be better. And we showed that it proved to be better once there was a mail-in ballot. So I said after we tried that out, it was worthwhile and we decided to move forward with that. But we'll have to continue to monitor and make sure that we improve and put in any safeguards that we might need. Thanks. Stuart Lundbetter, NBC5. Good morning. Can you hear me? We can. We could hear you, Stuart. We could. This muting thing is gonna be the death of me. Do you have any update on the Motel Voucher program ending this month? We've had a couple of questions about that. One, I got this morning asked if you'd comment on the morality of what they've described as the throwing people out. And secondly, given that Vermont did get some money from the Sackler family in the opioid settlement, and so many of these folks have struggled with opioid addiction should some of that money be used for transitional housing. Secretary Smith. Stuart, Mike Smith here. Thank you for the question. We've looked, you know, what we did during the pandemic was we took all restrictions off a program that was designed for a specific group and that was emergency housing. Somebody that didn't have housing for the night, for example, and opened it up to anybody and everybody without restrictions. That program with all the associated cost to it, that includes meals, that includes rooms, could have ballooned to over $100 million coming up in FY 22. What we looked at was the best way, and we reached out and collaborated with advocates the best way to sort of wind down this program in a compassionate way, recognizing that ultimately the solution would be permanent housing. As you know, the governor put forth a permanent housing solution, and we are moving in that, I think it's $120 million moving into that area of permanent housing in this regard. We are not moving out people that are vulnerable in this population. For example, you know, those with disability, those with children, we've actually expanded the eligibility requirements to keep into this program. We have put some restrictions back into the program that started June 1st for new applicants and we'll start July 1st for existing applicants, but we've also extended the deadline for those that are in the program as well. So we've done it in the most judicious, compassionate measure that we possibly can. We also have expanded shelter capacity, and shelter capacity will continue to increase as the pandemic winds down here. So the other thing is that we are offering stipends to people that are leaving the program to help them transition to other places as well. Many people during the pandemic were staying with relatives or friends, and because of the pandemic, it became a little bit, people became a little bit worry of congregating. So we took them into the motel program. Those avenues are available now that people are getting vaccinated. So there are all these opportunities now that we're doing, including keeping the program at a level that we have never done before, keeping the program running as we move forward. So do you know how many people then will be left in motel rooms in light of what you just said about extending the deadline and trying to be as compassionate as you can be and the exclusions for people with kids and that sort of thing. How many will you have left? I think 900 to 1,000 is what we're estimating. From a total of a couple of months ago, what? 2,600. 2,600? Yes. Thanks, Secretary. And do we know how many school districts have sent kids into remote learning because of this very warm weather we've had the last couple of days? And is that, does that prevent, sorry, is that a health risk? Secretary French, are you on? Yes, I am, Governor. Stewart, I'm unaware of any schools that have gone to remote learning as a result of the weather. This is pretty typical weather this time of year. Though it is definitely warm and classroom right now. Okay, well, 96 is not pretty normal. But okay, thank you very much. The Islander. Thanks, Jason. Governor, I heard a local government board recently discussing reopening public meetings to in-person attendance. And however, there was discussion about seeking proof of vaccination shots from the audience, I guess, or otherwise limiting town hall to only board members that had the vaccine shots. Just wondering, as far as the state is concerned, what is the latest advice you're giving local governments about asking for proof of vaccination in order to attend public meetings or going into town halls? And can somebody be legally blocked from a public government meeting based on maybe not disclosing whether they have a shot or not? Well, again, Mike, within the next week we're hoping to hit the 80% mark and all restrictions will be lifted. The emergency order will be allowed to be discontinued. And so things will be back to normal. So the best protection for anyone, and I think Dr. Levine can comment further on this, is to get vaccinated. You can protect yourself at that point and you don't have to worry about that. But when the save emergency is over and all restrictions are lifted, that means for those communities as well. Commissioner Levine. So once it's lifted, a local town can't say we don't wanna see your vaccination or you've gotta wear a mask or they're not allowed to put any restrictions on. Not unless they declare some sort of targeted health emergency within their community. So no, I guess the answer from my perspective and maybe our attorneys will have a difference of opinion, but from my perspective, no, they won't be able to do that unless they declare some sort of health emergency. Okay, thanks, because I'm sure a lot of towns are gonna be facing that same question, so that's good. My other question, Governor, any update on the report that the Department of Public Safety fired a state trooper apparently over some flap over a mask with a private citizen in a store? I know they haven't been forthcoming and just wondering if you made a way in the last 10 days to get anything out of the public safety department. Mike, this is Dr. Levine. Before the governor goes to that question, we just wanted to finish on the previous one. So obviously vaccination is the most optimal way to get rid of the problem that you were talking about in the first place, but though there will be no requirements after we reach the 80%, we will still be recommending that people who are unvaccinated continue to mask, especially in an indoor setting like you described where there'd be a large number of people gathered. This is to protect themselves. The best protection overall will be if we continue to have such small case numbers, we will have very little virus in our communities that could be transmitted from person to person, and that would be the ultimate goal. So if there are some people who can't be vaccinated for whatever reason, they may still benefit from the fact that so many of the rest of the community have been vaccinated, allowing the virus to essentially not become a factor in most decision-making. I'll let the governor come back for the other question. Mike, what I can tell you is, I did look into that. What I can tell you is that the trooper was not released due to a mask restriction from my perspective. That's what I've learned, but I can't comment further. It's a personnel matter, so it can't get into the details, but it was not because of the mask issue. So he was not involved in any sort of mask episode or anything dealing with a mask? I think what you're questioning- Is it before he got suspended or anything? Yeah. What I had understood your question to be was for failure, he was discharged for failure to wear a mask, and I'm commenting at this point that I just made the reason. Yeah, no, I'm not sure with failure to wear a mask, or it was some sort of confrontation over a mask, whether the other private citizen wasn't wearing it and they got into some sort of ordeal at a store. And it was on, apparently maybe off duty and later that the person finally realized who he was when he saw him later in uniform in a cruiser and made a complaint to the Department of Public Safety. Yeah, I can't confirm that at this point, Mike. Well, we've asked for the dismissal letter and they still look in sort of stonewalling that. That was due some time ago. Let me look into that. I guess we'll keep chipping away. Yep. Lisa Lomis, the Valley Reporter. Good morning again. This question is from a reader who wants to know if those who are unable to find suitable childcare can they reject employment offers or can they fail to complete the job search requirement and still be eligible to receive unemployment benefits? I believe that it would have to be somehow associated with COVID for that to be the reason, but I'll let Mr. Harrington answer. Yes, Governor, you're correct. So the very specific eligibility criteria are specific to COVID specific events. So if someone had their place of childcare closed and no longer available due to COVID and they were not able to find childcare elsewhere due to COVID, then that potentially could be a reason why they don't have to perform the work search and to continue filing. But it's going to be very specific. So it's hard to say that all circumstances would result that way. The individual would have to show that their childcare that they had prior to COVID was no longer available due to some specific COVID reason. Again, maybe they're closed due to an outbreak of some kind or an exposure concern. You know, but again, they would have to be able to show that they could not due to COVID-19. Okay, thank you. So then the state general shortage of childcare is not, it has to be COVID specific. So the general lack of childcare in the state is no excuse. I believe I heard you say that. That's correct. They would have to show a good faith effort that they have again tried to find childcare and that it was not available. And there would have to be some direct nexus to COVID-19. Again, it's hard to say that there's one circumstance that fits all or one requirement that fits all circumstances. So it's really case specific, but there does have to be a direct connection to a loss of childcare due to COVID-19. Okay, thank you very much. Greg Lamero, the County Courier. Good afternoon, Governor. Apparently, most of us want to talk to you today and not your cabinet. So we all love you too. But Governor, I wanted to start out with your 80% threshold set for reopening. Obviously this number is, we're not getting there as quickly as many of us expected. Some believe that your 80% threshold is somewhat arbitrary in noting that, you know, a couple of pence of 1% is statistically minute. As I remember, when you announced that it would be 80% as a goal that we're looking to reach, you clarified the part of that was because that would mean that 70% of Vermonters overall would then be vaccinated. And we've reached that 70%. I wonder what you would tell people who are questioning that 80% number as being a little bit arbitrary, what you would tell them to defend that now that we've reached a 70% threshold for partially vaccinated Vermonters? Yeah, well, I would say the 70%, 70% goal is arbitrary as well, right? So from my standpoint, there's a difference between, you know, 70 and 80%, obviously. The more work we do right now, it's like prevention. The more work we do now, the better off we're going to be in the fall and the winter. We're, you know, leading the country in this regard. If we can hit the 80%, it will be a goal, a milestone that we can all be proud of. And in fact, it will designate us as maybe the only state to have hit that or will hit that, which in itself would be, I think an attraction to many, whether it's for tourism or for people to come and move here, being the safest, healthiest state in the nation is something that we could utilize. So I just think it's a, again, I said we were going to open up, remove all restrictions by the 4th of July, regardless. But we all need goals in life. And this was one that I thought was attainable, which I believe, still believe it is. And if we reach it when I think we will, we'll be more than two weeks ahead of schedule. So for those who are resistant in some respects, maybe they can dig a little bit deeper, go to their friends, their neighbors, their family, and get them to get their vaccination so we can reach it sooner. We're just 3,129 people away from accomplishing that. And if we continue at a rate of a thousand a day, we could hit that within the week. So again, we set the 4th of July as the final step towards normalcy. And we're still, I'm still committed to that, but I think this 80% goal has been advantageous. It made us work a little harder. And sometimes, again, there's a difference between being average, being good, being okay, and being great. And I think that we have a lot to be proud of in that respect. Lastly, Apple announced in just the last few days that they'd be unveiling part of their Apple wallet would be the ability to scan one's photo ID into their phone and they can truly use that as an in-replace of a conventional wallet. This voluntary feature, both from a state and an individual point of view, obviously it's geared more towards the younger generations, but I wondered, especially with your initiatives to attract younger Vermonters to the state to keep people here that are younger, that are in the working age group, if Vermont would be participating in that program with Apple? Yeah, this is, you're probably asking the wrong person about this. This is the first I've heard of it. Obviously a lot of us traditionalists still carry a wallet with us and still carry cash on us. So we'll see what happens. Obviously we want to do whatever we can to keep up with what's on the horizon and to react accordingly, but I'm not sure that I don't know what would preclude us from utilizing that new technology. Okay, perhaps somebody that DMV would know. Okay, thank you, Governor, and I suppose we'll talk next week, thank you. And next we'll go to Anualis Allen's seven days. There was some technical issues, so she just emailed me her question, which I will read. Is there anything the state can do about the fact that Flowers Foods, the Georgia-based company that is buying coffee cup foods, assets doesn't plan to reopen the bakeries? Does the state have any kind of program that can lessen the chances that those towns will end up with empty buildings sitting there? Yeah, that's a great question. And this was a situation that surprised many of us, but I think if you get into the details, the receiver of coffee cup is, I believe, we'll find that it's their obligation to get the best deal they possibly can to take care of those who are in line that for some of the debt obligations that need to be made. So this last minute deal obviously came to fruition and they made a decision to pay money for the rights to coffee cup. So again, as frustrating as that might be, I'd rather see the facilities open back up and people going back to work, but this is within the receivership. Again, they have an obligation to get the best deal they can. So I'm still hopeful when we'll see how this all works out over the week. I know that there's a comment period for a week and we'll see if this continues to hold. And at that point, we will be engaging with this new, if they're successful, we'll be engaging with them to see what we can do to open these facilities back up. So it's an iconic brand and something that we're very proud of and hopefully they can work that back in and utilize it in their overall business plan. Move to Pete Hirschfeld, VPR. Thank you, Jason. Governor, I don't know if this question is for you or somebody on your team, but the eviction moratorium will lift 30 days after you rescind the emergency order in the state. And I'm wondering what the administration has been doing to try to quantify the number of the monitors will be displaced as a result of that moratorium going away and what sort of supports, if any, your contemplating to help folks who will be displaced as a result? Yeah, I might ask our commissioner of housing if he could comment. I don't believe he's on today. Commissioner Hanford, no. We'll get an answer to you, Peter, but obviously this has gone on for quite some time. I think that there is, we have some safety nets in place that can be utilized, but there are also some out there. And I know from what I'm hearing from some of the landlords that some people are taking advantage of this situation and not paying rent because they don't have to. So we'll see how this all sugars off, but we will continue to do whatever we can for those who legitimately can't pay their rent and we'll make sure that they have some place to go. Thank you. And Commissioner Levine, it looks like we're gonna get a new vaccine on the market that might be safer for immunocompromised remontures. I wonder if you have any estimate of how many immunocompromised remontures we have who have not gotten the vaccines that are available now because of their medical situation? Yeah, that's a good question. I don't have a good estimate of that. It's not data that we would normally have collected. The fact of the matter is most people who are immunocompromised are still eligible for the vaccines that are out there now. And if they've elected to not be vaccinated, it's often because of the counsel of their own personal or specialty physician who believes that the risks of stopping the kind of therapy that the person's on that could have impacted their immune system is greater than the risk of getting COVID. So we just have to understand that and balance that no matter what kind of vaccine we're talking about because many have very fragile conditions that require ongoing strong therapies. The other part of that though is many people who are immunocompromised have received vaccine and are still wondering how well protected they are. And we do hope by the end of this year, hopefully sooner, there'll be some blood testing that can be done to really quantitate for them their level of protection so they can go about life either more freely or be as stringent with protections like masking and avoiding crowds as they are now. But I don't really have a number to give you on either category. Thank you all. Devin Bates, local 22, local 44. You can. Yeah, question for Dr. Levine. Research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology shows that millions of cancer screenings were missed across the US last year due to the pandemic. It's caused decreases in delays in identifying people with cancer and treating them and then data from the National Cancer Institute is actually suggesting this could result in an additional 10,000 cancer deaths over the next decade. What's your message to people who may have missed the screening last year due to the pandemic? And is there a broader concern about people just not being as in touch with their own health because we kind of, you know, we're going into the doctor's office the past year. What's the message here as we get back to normal that, you know, getting healthcare back to normal too for people? Yeah, thank you for this question. Now, all of the above is true that there were cancer screenings missed. There were other types of preventive medicine missed in terms of, you know, checking kinds of labs you would check in a routine health visit in terms of cholesterol, blood sugar, et cetera, blood pressure checking. And then, of course, there was a concern regarding people failing to present with emergency type symptoms because they were fearing an encounter with the healthcare system and maybe catching COVID because of that. So a lot of things escalating on the concern level that could indicate that there may be more disease out there that could have been prevented that will come to light and that will be very unfortunate. I do believe that the research, and it's probably pretty intuitive to realize that when people were really staying home for long periods of time and were concerned, even though the concerns turned out to be less than appropriate about the safety of the healthcare system, because the healthcare system, at least in Vermont, truly proved to be quite safe. But the reality was a lot of people were doing telemedicine, et cetera, not being seen in person. So it really was a disruptive time. So as we get to our 80% and get to enjoy the summer more, et cetera, we are gonna be giving more messaging regarding the kinds of traditional things we do in public health. So not only would it be alerting people about screenings that are needed, but probably more importantly, sort of the lifestyle changes that we're always talking about that people may have been doing a good job on, but then when the pandemic hit, kind of everything fell apart, related to stress, related to disruption of routines, related to being home more and not doing as much and being less active, all of those things. So there'll be a lot more for us to be talking about in coming weeks and months regarding that. And you're gonna start seeing more publications that do actually try to dig into the damage, if you will, that might have been done in people's health, just like the study that you quoted. Thank you. And then I had a question for Secretary Smith as well. Just about the walk-in clinics, as the weeks have gone on, the types of places that these clinics are happening is getting more and more diverse. You have the state parks, the mobile home parks, Jazz Fest in Burlington. I'm just curious what the turnout has been like at these. I know it's hard to kind of compare each one. You have different crowds of people, different amounts of people at each one, but what are you seeing from all of these different events? And was there anything that really stood out to you when it comes to the past couple of weeks with these? Yeah, thanks for the question. You forgot the dumps. We're looking at dumps as well, going to dumps on weekends. As the governor had mentioned, we're not expecting the mass vacs turnouts that we originally sort of brought up and brought online, where we had thousands of people a day going through these mass vac sites. We're down to the point where if we've got two, three, 10, 20, we're happy. That is something that we are striving for now, and it's been successful in doing this broad approach, and maybe on a daily basis, getting 100 to 200 people vaccinated. That's what it's gonna take as well as our pharmacy partners. I can't say enough about our pharmacy partners. They have made themselves available and open to people coming into their clinic. So in combination with these sort of pop-up events, including dumps, we will get there, and with the combination of the pharmacy partners, the mass vac sites, these mass vaccination sites that are starting to change and more into these outreach efforts, I think is what you're gonna see in the future, and what will stand up permanently throughout Vermont, because 80% isn't, we're not stopping there. We're keeping going over the next few weeks and months and through the fall. So this is what Vermonters can expect to see. The only thing we haven't done is gone door to door, and maybe we'll do that. All right, I'll be awaiting a knock. Thank you. Thank you. Go, Vermont Digger. In the state of emergency when exactly it will be dropped, and if there are any complications from the issues that you kind of mentioned last week with funding and other things like that, is it coming on the day that 80% of the time is it coming on the day when you would normally renew the state of emergency? Are there any more specifics about that? Yeah, we've been working our way through how we unwind the state of emergency to make sure that we haven't, anything unanticipated comes up. So we've taken care of a number of those issues. We believe that if we, when we get to 80%, we will be able to lift the state of emergency within days of that. Hopefully we'll have some good news a week from now, and it'll all happen somewhat naturally, but we'll see. But if we think we have all the situations, we've contemplated everything, we have some workarounds, we wanna make sure that we can still continue to utilize the funding that's coming to us and be able to use like a regular executive order if necessary rather than a state of emergency to do so. We think we've gotta cover it at this point, I guess, is the bottom line. So the COVID restrictions that you're listing are in the executive order, though, right? You'll just kind of be removing them from the emergency order, and then maybe afterwards with the emergency order itself. Yeah, we could do it one of two ways. Again, it all depends on the timing, and that all depends on Vermonters getting their vaccinations. But if we do it before, let's say the natural, the 15th of June is when the state of emergency ends in some respects, and then we would have to extend it beyond that. But if it came, let's say we hit 80% three days, four days from now, we could just amend the executive order and just lift those restrictions, and then let the state of emergency end on the 15th. But it all depends, again, if we're not there quite yet, we may have to extend the state of emergency a little bit further before we lift all the restrictions. So we'd need that still to be in place. So it will evolve, we'll just have to see where we're at on a day-to-day basis. So I have a question for Dr. Levine. I'm looking at the vaccine data on that dashboard, and it looks like 12 to 15-year-olds are now in the lowest category of vaccine sign-ups or vaccine doses put out. Is that why you're kind of discussing like the parents getting their vaccines for their kids today? And is there anything else specific that you want to do to address this problem? Yes, so the answer is yes, that's one of the reasons I am discussing that. I don't wanna make it sound like they are miles behind everyone because they've really come up very nicely and they're in the 50 plus a little percent range at this point in time. And they are the newest group, the most recently eligible, and obviously they don't make the decision that their parents do. And their parents in some cases are being very reserved about it and taking their time and really being thoughtful. But by the same token, the numbers are increasing. So I would like the message to be that we're encouraged by the progress considering they're the newest group. But obviously we wanna see even better results because really as the governor has alluded to in his overall comments, when we're talking about 80%, we're really looking to the fall and winter and making Vermont so safe now and really being able to establish that level of safety and protection that will be durable and get us through in case the fall and winter bring more virus activity. For the adolescents, the same thing is true, not only in protecting themselves, protecting their younger siblings, but also protecting their school year. And once again, our goal is to have them all back in class and to have schools operating at a very high level. And the best way to do that is to make sure that teachers, staff and students, those eligible students who are currently over age 12 have as high a vaccination rate as possible. And we're seeing the impact of that even now where our 12-year-olds could still be at a higher rate, but we're already seeing dramatic drop-offs in the number of school cases and on the impact on schools in general. And so we'd love to see that continue and to build on that success. Tim McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine. Thank you, Jason. Governor, I wanted to ask Secretary Curley about the CopyCup situation. I'm sure the story is not over. Is, I assume, Secretary Curley, that flowers foods did not apply for a veggie award? They did not. And I'm not sure if you know that's off the top of your head, but they bought the brands and the thought is that they're going to produce these out of state. But they still use the Vermont bread brand if it's not made in Vermont. I don't know the answer to all this. As the governor mentioned, we were taught by surprise on this and as he articulated, the first order of businesses to the creditors. So right now our team is just trying to understand the intentions of flower foods. Economic Development Commissioner, Joan Goldstein, has reached out to connect with them as of 10 30 this morning. She still hadn't connected, but there's a lot that we still need to learn. And so I don't have the answer to, you know, whether they can use the, that's Vermont brand as a name. I imagine that in buying this, they probably have that right, but we truly don't know that at this point. I know there's, you know, what Vermont has been pretty protective of the Vermont brand over the years. And there's been a lot of legal issues around that as well. And the other question for Commissioner Harrington is, did anything come from the possible Warn Act violation concerning the original closure of Coffee Cup in Vermont bread? And if, you know, does it even matter at this point? Thanks for the question. We did receive a response to our inquiry about Warn. The department hasn't made a formal determination on that. As to your point though, I think the ultimate goal is to ensure that the employees receive the benefits and the pay that they believe they're entitled to. And so it sounds like there may be that opportunity through the purchasing of the company. So we haven't responded with a formal followup yet. And it's with our legal team, but they did respond and they did cite that, you know, the work that they were doing right up to the day of closure was all around trying to secure financing and keep the doors open. So it's likely it would fall under the exemption for the timeliness portion of the Warn Act requirement. We just haven't come to a final determination on that. All right, great. That's all I have. Thank you. Tom Davis, Compass Vermont. Thanks, Jason. Governor, you probably saw where by July, Claremont, New Hampshire is going to open up a new 10,300 square foot liquor and wine outlet. And they've been sort of going across the state along the Vermont border, putting these very large and robust liquor stores in. And a lot of the liquor store owners in Vermont are concerned as this continues to happen, particularly if they're close to the border, that it's going to be very hard for them to continue doing business if they can keep them go across the border and buy liquor at lower prices and tax free. Has, have you and your team been watching this? Obviously it's always been a concern in terms of New Hampshire and their involvement in the liquor wholesale business and without tax, as you mentioned. So we've made great strides, I believe, in competing with New Hampshire. I think we've narrowed the gap significantly, but we're going to have to work a little bit harder and we'll do whatever we can to make sure that we compete, but it's difficult as you mentioned. It's not so difficult when, you know, on the other side of the state or on the southern border, but certainly to our east it's been difficult. Okay, thank you. Ed Barber, Newport Daily Express. How are you today? I really turned to the issue of people who are working at home, there are, of course, some tremendous advantages of not wasting commuting time, commuting expense, air pollution, traffic congestion. Does the Department of Labor keep track of businesses and whether or not the people who work at home are productive? Is there a way of checking that, measuring it? Yeah, I'm happy to jump in on that. Okay, there are measurements, obviously, that each company would be responsible for. It's their business, they have to determine that, but if you're asking about state employees, might ask Commissioner Harrington to comment, but also Secretary Young if she has any comments either, as well. Thank you. To the specific question about the Department of Labor, we don't necessarily track which employers allow their employees to work from home and in terms of the same line, not we don't follow their productivity, as the governor mentioned, each employer would have to determine what production looks like through remote work. I'm assuming more information and there'll be plenty more studies coming out of the pandemic because this seems to be more of a national conversation, but in terms of the Vermont Department of Labor, we don't distinguish in terms of employees, whether or not they work remotely or they work in an office setting, just not a data point that we capture. Thank you for the answer. Yeah, Secretary Young, do you have any comments on this? Yeah, for the state employees, Governor, we have asked all of the departments and agencies over the next 60 days or so to come up with productivity measures, how we're going to measure productivity for those who employees who decide that they would like to apply to work remotely after September 1st. So we are going to start measuring productivity by program by program. We have not finalized that work yet. And then we also will have a better idea once the application process under our current policy kicks back in in September to account for the number of employees who are in some version of remote work. Thank you very much. Calvin, the Stowe reporter. My question is kind of a follow-up to Stuart and Peters about the eviction moratorium ending and the number of homeless currently being housed in hotels being reduced. I'm just curious. I know that there is money currently being set aside or being allocated towards building more housing. But I think anyone who's been looking for an apartment or any kind of rental housing in Vermont right now can see that there is very little available. And as I understand it, I'm talking to different organizations. Their affordable housing is already very overtaxed and has a huge weight list. So I'm just curious, understanding that these two events are going to put even further pressure on already very stressed housing market. I'm just curious if there are any specifics on what the exact plan is for providing these people who might be kicked out of their homes or are leaving the hotels with safe housing? Well, again, to reiterate what Secretary Smith had said before, and I'll ask him to comment as well. But when we received word that we were going to receive funding, there was somewhat flexible billion dollars of ARPA money that was going to be available to us. I thought it was necessary to look at what we could do with this money in the future to solve some of the problems that existed pre-pandemic. So one of those, obviously, was housing, broadband housing, water, sewer, climate change mitigation, and so forth. So we put forth a plan for utilizing 250 million of that towards housing for the workforce, housing for the homeless in particular, the first tranche of money, so that we could hit the ground running. So we are continuing to move in that direction. We know there's need here in the state of Vermont. We knew it before the pandemic, and the pandemic has just exacerbated the situation. So we, again, wanted to take and carve out $250 million for housing, because we know that there's tremendous need. As we saw during the pandemic, we spent with FEMA dollars around $70 million for temporary housing. And the answer from our perspective is trying to find permanent housing for those instead of temporary housing. And we know the $70 million a year was going to climb, as Secretary Smith had said, to maybe over $100 million. And that's just unsustainable to us as a state. So the answer is permanent housing, and that's why we're moving forward. Secretary Smith. Yeah, I just want to mention where we were in the hotel-motel voucher system, where we went and where we're trying to get back to as we move forward here. We were spending about $5 to $7 million pre-pandemic on the hotel-motel program. And as I said, it was a very, very different program than it exists today. During when the pandemic hit, we decided to lift all eligibility requirements and open it up to a wide variety of people that may have been experiencing dislocation or homelessness. In doing that, we went from a program that was around $5 to $7 million to all-in inclusive to the end of the year, about $96 million on a fiscal year basis. We were looking at this increasing to $106 million in FY22. So something definitely had to be done. It was unsustainable. So what we did is we met with advocates. We met with legislators. And we came to an agreement that permanent housing is the only way to resolve this issue. And as the governor said, the governor put forth over $250 million of money for housing, 130, 120 of which has been appropriated in this upcoming fiscal year for housing for this displaced population, the homeless, as well as others that are involved in that need housing. In addition, there's rental subsidies that have been made available through the ERAP program. And just to reiterate, we're spending almost $38 million on the Hotel Motel program this year to make sure that we ease into the permanent solutions in terms of housing, permanent housing, and in terms of rental subsidies, $38 million, as opposed to pre-pandemic, which was $5 to $7 million. Also, we are providing, as I had mentioned earlier, different eligibility requirements that really focus on those that are housing households with children, people with disabilities, and older Vermonters. And this is a more expanded criteria than we had before. And then, also, we are providing a subsidy for those that are leaving the Hotel Motel program with a subsidy in order, a $2,500 subsidy, in order to help them transition back to, in many cases, like I had mentioned, friends and family, maybe in an apartment, maybe other things that they could do as we're moving forward. So a lot of money still is being done to transition this Hotel Motel program. It's been done carefully over the course of the last several months in terms of what we're doing. And then we have to look forward to 2023 and look at how we even transition it and step it down more to get it more sustainable. And back to the program where, all of a sudden, you're homeless for a night and then the program takes over. That's the original intent of the program. That's where we need to get back to. And I think in 2023, we have to transition to that size of a program. So a lot's going on here. Okay, I appreciate the response. Guy Page, Chronicle of the Vermont State House. Guy Page. Governor, picking up on Ed Barber's question, parking rides are being expanded across the state and the transportation bill as a pilot program for big employers to reduce commuter traffic, all for carbon emission reduction. Should these, perhaps be paused while the state assesses just how many former commuters won't be driving to work anymore? I think we're going to continue to see the need for the parking rides that we have and the expansion that we're putting into place at this point. I think the biggest game we're going to see in terms of reduction of carbon emissions will be electric vehicles. And we've seen and heard a lot of news over the last couple of years on this issue and certainly over the last couple of weeks with the Ford F-150 coming out, the F-150 Lightning, which is going to be, I think, a game changer for many. So this is going to escalate. I don't know as we're going to eliminate the need for, especially in a rural state like Vermont, for the need for a vehicle. I think we're still going to have that. But I think electric vehicles are the answer. Thank you. Governor, Commissioner Levine said at the beginning of this press conference about vaccination that I think his words were long-term adverse effects are just not being seen. Yet anecdotally, and on the CDC website, they are being seen or at least recorded. And what I'm sort of sensing is like this unhealthy polarization and mistrust. And I wonder if either you or he could give a brief but definitive scientific summary about the relative risk of illness or death as a result of vaccination. I might ask Commissioner Levine to comment on that. But I do want us to consider as a country, we've now hit the 300 million vaccine mark, which is remarkable. So again, there is risk in everything that we do. And I'm sure there's some risk here as well. But, Commissioner Levine. I think you've got to differentiate the risk at the time of vaccination within the first couple weeks versus what we would term long-term risk. Obviously, the two biggest things in the news have been from the messenger RNA vaccines, anaphylaxis, which occurs at a very, very low rate and is usually medically manageable. And then with the Johnson and Johnson, the very rare occurrence of the blood clotting disorder. So we can't ignore these things, but again, we need to put them in the context of hundreds of millions of doses. And the fact that they occur at all, the fact that we can actually say they occur at all shows that the surveillance systems are actually working well. We have a vaccine adverse event reporting system, which is a treasure trove of reports, but most of the reports are self-reported or observer-reported and occasionally by the healthcare system reported. And they need to be sorted through by the CDC and the FDA. And that's a very time-consuming, lengthy process because they want to encourage reports and the numbers that they get are more than they can process in a real-time, rapid fashion. So we still have to learn from that. But the reality is, we're not hearing about what I'm calling long-term effects of vaccine. And that would mean things that didn't just occur at the time you got the shot and are expected and show that you're reacting to the vaccine and building up an immune response, but things that are going to be present months and months later. We do know for a fact that there's a good cohort of people who have had COVID who have symptoms months and months later. So we need to sort of balance things with the risk of the illness itself versus the risk of the vaccine. And currently it's hard to give you a full assessment of that because we just don't have the full richness of the reporting system's results based on the fact that there are just so many reports that they have to sort through, most of which are acute reports from the time they got the vaccine as opposed to long-term reports. We just don't have that level of data to provide you with. But I would still look at it as a risk-benefit kind of enterprise and the risk of the vaccine is proving to be very, very, very small. And the risk of getting COVID we're learning more and more about is for many people, not so much fun and can have very enduring effects. So I'll leave it at that for now. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Good afternoon. This is probably for Secretary French. Heard some lengthy comments recently from a local school board member that said he was fairly well exhausted and finished with remote meetings and thought it was high time for the board to begin in-person meetings again. Similar to Mike Donahue's question earlier, when restrictions get lifted and in-person meetings begin, will school boards not have to concern themselves with limited use of school facilities and monitoring masks and vaccinations and things like that? Yeah, I think that's true. I think Dr. Levine will share with you. I think the general recommendation will be that anyone who's unvaccinated should continue to be wearing a mask. But other than that, I don't anticipate any restrictions on use at school facilities. So from a school board's obligation and that scenario, do they need to do more than just say, post-assign on the school board meeting room door or do they actually have to try to enforce unvaccinated people and determine who is and who's not? No, we'll certainly work through that with a school board association. But I think what I'm thinking about in terms of post-emergency orders that the onus and responsibility shifts to the individual as opposed to the school or the school board. So I think you don't have to notice, to put that notice out there is going to be useful, but it's really up to individuals to do what's right. And then while I have few, I see at least, I believe last week was the deadline for schools to be submitting their recovery plans to AOE. I'm just curious what the next steps are from AOE's perspective, is there a review process, a feedback, an approval of the plans or how does that work for each student? Yeah, we're certainly reviewing the plans. I will say, you know, our process will be articulated to be the recovery process was co-opted to a certain extent by a new federal planning requirement. When the American Rescue Plan Act was passed and school districts received another tranche of federal funding, they attached a new federal planning requirement with those funds. So a lot of what's been going on, certainly managing the pandemic, but in terms of planning is helping districts, you know, use that recovery planning process, which is essentially a Vermont planning process to support the federal requirements under the ARC program. So we've been working, basically holding weekly meetings with school districts to help them pull those things together. We think our planning process, our Vermont planning, recovery planning process will be extremely useful for them in accomplishing that federal requirement. Thank you for your time. Julie, we're now at the Wall Street Journal. Good afternoon. Hi, thanks for taking my question. This is for Commissioner Levine. So when we hit this 80% mark, can Vermont declare third immunity and how should Vermonters expect daily life to change as a result? And if not, what metric would you use to declare third immunity in Vermont? Welcome to our queue. I've been trying to train. Thank you. I've been trying to train most of our Vermont journalists to avoid the word herd immunity and community immunity and try to use example instead, because I don't think you'll find anyone in the country yet who will give you the number that equates with that immunity, but it could be in the 60 to 70% range, which means we left it in the dust long ago, or it could be in the 80 to 90% range, which means we're still getting closer and need to achieve it. But if we look at the country's experience right now with averaging out the country, they're at a much lower level than we are in Vermont, and we're seeing less cases everywhere, less hospitalizations, statistics are looking much more favorable at this point in time. The belief I have is that this concept of immunity for the community, at the community level, we all contribute to it, and rather than focus on the number, we should focus on the results, because the fact is, what we've seen so far, even when we had only the most vulnerable in Vermont vaccinated, we saw a dramatic impact on that over 65 and especially nursing home population. That's persisted with less cases, less deaths, and those people. We're now at the level where we can't vaccinate people under 12, but we can certainly vaccinate the teenagers and the teachers, and already we're seeing vanishing numbers of cases in schools. And that's without actually picking a number of what level of immunity we may or may not be at. 80% is certainly a great place to be. Something higher than that would be even a better place to be, because the reality is, we want to make sure that there's so many people that are vaccinated that what little virus might encounter them in Vermont just won't be transmitted from one person to another. And we're finding that unvaccinated people are somewhat protected by the fact that so many people are vaccinated as well, because of the fact that there's less virus circulating. But they're not totally protected, and that's why it's important for them that if they are eligible for vaccine, they seek the vaccine and consider themselves amongst those protected, because certainly virus can be transmitted between unvaccinated people any time. And those are the kinds of cases we're going to see in the future. So, in addition to the lifting of the few remaining restrictions when we reach the 80% level, that essentially tells Vermonters their life is really going to be much closer to what they considered normal and pre-pandemic before, because there's not going to be restrictions on gathering size, there's not going to be restrictions on where they choose or not choose to eat or drink or anything of that sort. And we very incrementally have been opening up all aspects of Vermont over time in a very phased and gradual way. So, I don't think they have some number that they're going to associate some new freedom with at this point in time, because they know what to expect at 80% and they're already seeing the benefits of a high level of vaccine. My goal is, though, again, to keep Vermont as the safest state to live in, to come to want to live in and work in and et cetera and recreate in, and a very high vaccine rate will help us accomplish that very effectively. All right. Thank you. Move to Greg, the Bennington Banner. Hello, and good afternoon. This question might be for Secretary Harrington, or excuse me, Commissioner Harrington, or Secretary Curley. In the event that Flourish Foods does not decide it's going to continue operations of Coffee Cop or Vermont Bread Company, I'm just wondering what the thought is about whether to pursue another baking or similar operation or an owner who might be able to build a facility or come up or find an existing facility it can purchase or otherwise repurpose to try to continue with those workers in that same industry, or whether to start pursuing sort of a transferable skills model and start seeing if those employee skills can be transitioned into other fields or whether training and reskilling is the way to go. I was wondering if you're thinking about those options as we're approaching trying to find out what Flourish Foods is going to do. Greg, maybe before they add to that, I just want to say that this is all new, the Flourish Food coming into the picture. They have commented that they don't intend to open up right now, but that doesn't preclude them from opening up in the future or maybe even contemplating what they're going to do with the brands. So I still have hopes that they will see the merit in opening up the facilities in some capacity right here in Vermont. In terms of the short, in the short term, there is a lot of opportunity in Vermont. We have a workforce shortage, we had a workforce shortage pre-pandemic, and the pandemic has exacerbated that. And so we are in a situation where we certainly could use each and every employee that's been displaced as a result of a coffee cup. So again, we'll continue to try and do whatever we can for the individual employees to make sure that they find a place to go and be able to stay right here in Vermont. But on the other side of the coin, we want to welcome if Flower Foods is the apparent high bidder, if we want to welcome them into the state and find a pathway for them to do business here and manufacture here and to process here. So with that, maybe Commissioner Curley or Secretary Curley or Commissioner Harrington might be able to add more to that. All right, you did great. You know, our teams, the labor and the commerce and community development teams have been working together this morning to talk about, as the governor said, certainly we want to get an understanding from Flower Foods. We don't want to make any assumptions that they're not planning to be here. And so if they're planning to be here, we want to do everything we can to welcome them here and bring those jobs back. We know that there are employees who took other jobs that really wanted to be back doing what they were doing before and thought that there was hope for that. So certainly from this appointment there, but again, if Flower Foods has no intention of coming back into Vermont, we will do everything we can to try to repurpose those facilities or invite other new businesses into our state and as well, Commissioner Harrington can speak to this a little bit more, but we are certainly hearing from employers who are looking to hire those impacted employees now. They need them now and they give us the skills that they need. So we have a lot of hope that things will turn out okay, but certainly do, we're all feeling a bit of disappointment at the thought that maybe, you know, this is not going to come back in the way we thought it was over the last couple of weeks, but again, we're going to deploy all of our resources to try to make this outcome be the best that it can possibly be for all of Vermont. Mike, do you have anything to add? Thank you. No, I think you really hit on all the high points. Obviously we're continuing to work with the impacted employees, those that haven't been able to find other employment yet to help them either build skills or just continue searching for a job that or a career change that they're interested in. Obviously as we learn more over the coming days, you know, we'll know better as to whether or not we're helping them find other employment or whether there may be opportunities with this new development. So with that, I think both Secretary Curley and the governor certainly hit on all the key points. Can you happen to know what percentage of coffee cups slash Vermont bread company workers have found? Team and pulling numbers from our system. So I'll see if I can get back to that. I know a lot of them have been able to find other work, but let me see if I can get a number and get that back to you, Greg. One last question perhaps for the governor, perhaps for Secretary French or maybe both of you. I did see that you signed S13 yesterday, which establishes a task force for addressing new waiting, new per pupil waiting. Obviously this is a legislative task force, so it's still part in front of the horse a little bit, but eventually what they produce will you have any sense of what you're looking for out of moving forward with per pupil implement them since he did sign the bell? Yeah, I think we'll have to wait for the results of the study to see what they find and what they're contemplating. And as you know, with the legislative process, this will have a lot of twists and turns before it's over. So probably way too soon for me to comment. We do have obviously throughout, you know, I've talked about this over the last four or five years with a declining population of in the workforce as well as the declining population in our schools. We have an issue here in the state that we need to rectify. And I believe bringing more people into the state is part of the answer. But in the meantime, having parity throughout the state in the rural sections of Vermont, I think is important so that everyone's getting an equal and positive, an influential education as possible. Thank you. Avery Powell, WCAX. That's all. Can you all hear me okay? We can. My question is also about that 13, but I just kind of wanted to get your perspective on whether you think the pandemic will change the amount of money going to schools, largely increasing the amount of money taxpayers will spend. I would hope not. We, you know, we invest a lot in education in this state. Probably one of the highest per pupil costs of any state in the country. So I think what we need to do is look at a system that is as efficient as possible while giving us the highest quality. So I think that that's our, you know, our charge. That's going to be our challenge. And but I think it's doable. In fact, I think with the pandemic, we may see opportunities for doing things with more remote learning within the classrooms from one community to another so that we don't replicate some of the education that we have right now. We might be able to utilize again. If you have a program that's happening in another part of Vermont, you might be able to have instruction in a smaller rural community to access that. So I think there's some opportunity here that we need to contemplate and be as nimble as possible. And again, with the bottom line being we want the highest education we can possibly have, the highest quality education we can possibly have at a price we can afford. So I think we're spending enough, we're investing enough in education now. I just think that we need to think about how do we do it better? Is more remote learning than being more broadband access? Which is why we want to invest the 250 million that I had put forth out of the ARPA money was something that I think will virtually maybe solve the entire problem or get us much closer to the goal of having universal access to broadband throughout the state. So yes, it goes hand in hand. Great. And Dr. Levine, just a quick unrelated COVID question. I'm sure you've seen that there's a new Alzheimer's treatment drug, the first one in nearly 20 years. Vermont has a pretty, an older population. What is your take on the drug? I know there's kind of been some disputes over its effectiveness. Yes, thanks, Avery, for that question. I was thinking I'd probably get one on that. And I don't want to weigh in as a definitive authority. Number one, the decision to approve it was fraught with controversy. Number two, though there is evidence that it may be effective, there was also some evidence to the contrary. And number three, it's quite expensive. So we want to make sure that for monitors who might be placed on it, get the value that it could hold. I don't think, except for those involved in the decision-making regarding approval of the drug, that any of us have enough background in the studies yet to really weigh in. I'll be looking at that very, very closely, just so the public knows the value of this, if it actually achieves the value that its promise holds is that it would be a treatment to be delivered early on in Alzheimer's. And make an impact not only then, but hopefully forestalling other things down the road. So that's a heavy lift for a drug to do. It implies you can actually identify the population that would be eligible for it and make sure that the appropriate people get on it as early as possible. And that it would have these long-term impacts. So again, I don't want to suck the wind out of the sails, but I also don't want to over-bill it as the greatest promise that we've ever seen until I have a chance to really evaluate it further and really let the medical and neurology and psychiatric communities all weigh in as well because it's all pretty much new on the scene in the last 24 hours and most don't have as much background in it yet as we need. Thank you. Mike, true North reports, true North reports. Okay. Well, thank you all very much. We'll see you again next Tuesday. Hopefully we'll have some good news for you by then. But if you can all do your part and try and get all those in your circle of friends and family who haven't been vaccinated to be vaccinated, we have all kinds of opportunity, whether it's in our pharmacies or all the pop-up clinics that we have available. So again, thank you all very much for tuning in. Thank you.