 Good afternoon, everyone. I just got off the phone with fellow governors, CDC Director Walensky, Dr. Fauci, and White House officials. We heard an update on the booster rollout, which they feel is going well. Dr. Fauci discussed the real-world data behind this decision, which shows a third dose has increased protection against infection by 11-fold and, in particular, against severe illness, which was increased by 20-fold. And those receiving the third dose were showing similar types of reactions, like soreness in the arm, as they did with the second dose. Both he and Dr. Walensky also noted that, while we get boosters in arms, it is important as ever to focus on getting more people vaccinated with their first and second doses. And this is still a priority for us here in Vermont as well. Next, as I just noted late last week, the FDA and CDC gave the go-ahead for booster shots for certain populations. Secretary Smith and Commissioner Levine will discuss this further, but Vermont became one of the first states, if not the first state, to relaunch mass vaccination clinics for boosters last Friday. We believe restarting our state clinics will increase access and, hopefully, get more shots in arms faster. As a reminder, only those who received the Pfizer vaccine more than six months ago are eligible now, though we expect Moderna and J&J to be approved very soon. Again, Secretary Smith and Dr. Levine will talk more about who's eligible and how to get your third shot, but I want to encourage all those who can to get it. There's no downside, and as Dr. Fauci said, it will give you much more protection. Turning to schools. We have a few announcements today that we hope will help us continue making progress and keep in-person learning going with as little disruption as possible because we know it's what's best for our kids. First, a few weeks ago, we recommended schools keep universal masking in place until October 4th, at which time the 80% vaccination threshold could be applied. However, as we continue to watch the data, we're now recommending that districts delay implementing the threshold and keep the universal masking requirement in place until November 1st. Again, this will give us more time to watch this Delta wave, and fortunately, Pfizer has submitted initial data for kids 5 to 11 to the FDA this morning and expects to formally request its emergency use authorization for that age group very soon. As we've discussed, this will be a game changer for kids, parents, and schools and help limit disruptions caused by the virus. After the application is submitted, the FDA will review for approval, and if that happens, we can begin vaccinating five to 11-year-olds. Vermont will be ready to deploy pop-ups, school-based clinics, and more, including we're working with our pharmacy partners. Next, in a few minutes, Secretary French will go into detail about new testing initiatives we've been working on, including a test-to-stay program. We all know how important it is to keep kids in school, and what we've seen so far is that many students have had to quarantine after possible exposure and then don't ever become a case. This is valuable classroom time that's lost, making it difficult for schools to manage logistically and causing major disruptions for parents who have to scramble for childcare, change their work hours, and make sure their kids don't fall behind in school. Looking at the science of how Delta spreads, our real-life experience with school transmission and considering the well-being of our kids, this test-to-stay approach will help schools get close contacts tested quickly, and if they're negative, they can continue going to school. As Secretary French will discuss, we're still working out some of the details, but this is a program that's worked in Massachusetts, and we've been working on it in consultation with UVM infectious disease experts and pediatricians who are supportive of this approach. Again, the goal here is to make sure as many kids as possible can remain where they belong in school. Finally, although our cases in hospitalization remain higher than we'd like to see, we're beginning to see some improvement in Vermont and New England, and we'll keep a close eye on the data to see if it continues. In the meantime, I want to reiterate the things Vermonters can do to protect themselves and their families. This starts with vaccination. As you'll hear from Commissioner Pichek, Vermonters data continues to show how well vaccines are working. In fact, cases amongst the vaccinated have been going down over the past few days, but cases continue to go up among the unvaccinated, further widening that gap. And this isn't about cases because 86%, and let me repeat, 86% of the people in the ICU due to COVID are unvaccinated adults, meaning those who can be vaccinated have chosen not to. So please, if you're unvaccinated, it's not too late, and it remains very easy to do so by simply walking into a pharmacy today. And if you're still not convinced and you're unvaccinated, we need you to do your part. Wear a mask, wash your hands, stay home when sick, and stay away from those who are compromised. For those who are vaccinated, while you can feel safe doing the things you want to do, you should use what you know about the virus. And right now, while in crowded indoor spaces, consider adding a layer of protection, like wearing a mask, and using the tools, like testing, that we have available. At this point, I'll turn it over to Secretary French for a school update. Thank you, Governor. Good afternoon. Last week, I gave an overview of our pilot program for take-home PCR testing in schools. This is part of an effort to make sure testing is widely available in our schools for both students and staff. Last week, I emphasized testing as an important part of making contact tracing more manageable. This week, I wanna highlight the educational importance of testing as a strategy for reducing the amount of time students spend in quarantine. Making sure our students are in school as much as possible is one of our major goals. Last year's hybrid learning was hard on everyone and we're committed to doing everything we can to keep students in school. In the coming weeks, we'll be expanding our testing program for schools. The goal of these programs is to return students who are close contacts back to the classroom as soon as possible. Each of these testing programs is designed to work in concert with the others to keep our schools safe. While we're still working on the details and the exact protocols, I thought I'd give a broad overview of these programs today so that students and families would know what to expect in the coming weeks. First of these programs, as the governor mentioned, is test to stay. It uses antigen tests. Antigen tests are screening tests which give results more or less immediately. This will be the first time we've used antigen tests in schools as part of a testing strategy. Similar programs, however, have been used successfully in schools in other states, including Massachusetts and Utah. The focus of test to stay is on individuals who are identified as close contacts to a case, who are asymptomatic and unvaccinated and who otherwise would be required to quarantine. Their voluntary participation in test to stay can alleviate their need to quarantine. Under test to stay, these individuals would still be allowed to attend school, but they would take an antigen test each day before entering the school building. They would do this each day for seven days after their last possible exposure. We're still working on the specific logistics of test to stay, but I do wanna thank our pediatrician community and our infectious disease experts at UVM who've been very helpful in giving their support in designing our test to stay program. Also wanted to mention that it's likely that test to stay will play an important role in our winter sports programs and we're still expecting to produce some recommendations for winter sports in October. We're also rolling out response testing for schools using PCR tests. Response testing is just that, testing that is done in response to either a positive case or a symptomatic person in a school. With response testing, a testing event can be scheduled at a school in response to a specific case situation. This would be in addition to participation in surveillance testing, which occurs on a regular weekly schedule. PCR response testing on site in schools can be used to test students out of quarantine or to test symptomatic individuals prior to sending them home. It is a flexible tool that utilizes systems that are already in place and will alleviate some of the need to travel to our testing centers. We're currently working on specific recommendations for an in school response testing should be used in conjunction with test to stay. We're also working on a way to streamline parental consent to allow students who are not participating in surveillance testing to participate in the response testing. In addition to these other testing programs, we are continuing our work to pilot take home PCR tests. Our pilot districts are in the process of receiving their take home test kits and we'll be partnering with them to troubleshoot and address any concerns before making this tool more widely available to schools across the state. Our thinking is that it would be useful for all our schools to have a stock of these take home kits on hand to respond to a range of scenarios that might emerge. All of these testing programs will be voluntary. Families do not wish their student to participate in test to stay. They're welcome to keep their student home and get a PCR test instead. And if a family would prefer the student not be tested at all, there's no obligation to do so. But they would need to keep their student home in quarantine as recommended by the health department. We're hopeful that most students, staff and families will consent to participate in these testing programs because testing is emerging as one of the best strategies we have to keep our students in school while at the same time keeping them safe from COVID-19. That concludes my update. I'll now turn it over to Commissioner Pichek for a data update. Thank you very much, Secretary French and good afternoon everyone. So taking a look first at the national picture compared to last week, we see that things continue to improve across the country. Cases are down 12% compared to last week. The seven day average now down to under 118,000 a day. This is now about two weeks in a row of an improvement in the United States. Supporting that improvement also is the decrease in hospitalizations that we've seen down about 7%. Again, that's been trending down for about two weeks as well. And then again further supporting the downward trend is the death rate across the country which has slowed and is actually down a percent over the last seven days. So deaths and hospitalizations being a lagging indicator it's good to see that those numbers are slowing across the country as well. When we look at the next slide, this is really looking at the trends on a county by county basis. So it's not the overall case numbers in these counties but just are these counties improving or are things getting worse? And you can see across much of the South those areas that were hit the hardest, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama. Many of those counties are seeing improvements and improvements in the sort of 25% range week over week. Similarly out West in California, they have seen a great deal of improvement. Other parts of the country like the Midwest and the Great Plains have not yet seen the same level of improvement. And as we'll talk about in a minute, we are starting to see some signs of improvement here in New England as well this week. Looking at the next slide, I just mentioned that that was a trend of how cases are moving. This is looking at the trends throughout the Delta wave of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. And again, we've shown this in the past but it is looking at the states that are the most vaccinated, the states that are in the middle column in terms of vaccination and the states that are the least vaccinated. And we put Vermont on there as its own line as well. And you can clearly see first that the states that have the lowest vaccination rates have had considerably more cases, hospitalizations and deaths than the other states that have higher vaccination rates, including Vermont. You can also see that the states with the lower vaccination rates that saw a more significant uptick in cases and hospitalizations and deaths saw those numbers start to improve before those states in the middle category and before the states that were the most vaccinated. So again, we talked a little bit about this last week but the Delta variant and its transmissibility seems to be able to move much more quickly through these states that have very low vaccination rates. That results in a much more intense Delta wave but it has resulted in their cases trending down more quickly than in places like New England and Vermont that are highly vaccinated. But again, an encouraging sign when you look both in these highly vaccinated states on the case numbers and on the hospital numbers and very clearly on the hospital numbers, you can see that there is a downward trajectory even in these very highly vaccinated states. So getting to the Northeast region, we mentioned that there were signs of improvement. This week, cases are down in every jurisdiction in the Northeast, down overall by 8%. And again, when you look more closely at what is happening at the county level, you can see clear trends of improvement in Connecticut and Massachusetts first and foremost but states like New Hampshire and parts of New Jersey and New York also improving as well. Again, Connecticut and Massachusetts have seen their cases come down but they've also seen their hospitalizations trend down as well giving more confidence that they are seeing a clear sign of improvement. So as we talked about last week, certainly one of the things we wanna see for Vermont, obviously the country doing better is helpful to us but the region doing better is of most consequence and we're starting to see some evidence of that which is encouraging. Looking at the Vermont data, you can see that the seven day average has ticked down a bit over the past week. We'll just mention that note that we still have on there that the data delay from last week still impacts the reporting from last week. So just a note of caution one more week and we'll have worked our way out of that completely but you can see that the seven day average has shown some signs of improvement. Now, as the governor mentioned, the other continuation in our trends that we've seen is that the unvaccinated rate continues to increase more quickly and be much higher than the fully vaccinated rate. That difference is now 4.3 times higher for those that are not fully vaccinated and then over the last five or six days you can see that that trend has ticked down in that fully vaccinated rate as well. So again, strong evidence that the vaccinations in Vermont continue to protect the vast majority of Vermonters who are fully vaccinated and another reason for those who are not yet fully vaccinated to go and get the vaccine. Looking at the hospital admission data, you can see some improvements here on the hospitalizations for both of those who are fully vaccinated and those who are not fully vaccinated as well, which is certainly a good sign. There's still a much bigger difference there for those who are not fully vaccinated about 3.1 times greater in terms of hospital admissions. And again, as the governor mentioned, our own data here in Vermont suggests that when there is a breakthrough case that results in a hospitalization, although rare, it does happen in those that are elderly on average 69 years old. So all the more reason for those who are eligible to go out and get their booster shot. Similarly, looking at Vermont fatalities for the month, you can see that we have had 33 fatalities and it's a similar message and importance that when we do have a breakthrough death, again, those are rare occurrences, but when they do occur, they happen in the elderly population consistent with national data. On average in Vermont, those deaths that occur, that are breakthrough are about 79 years old. So again, all the more reason for those who are eligible to go and make an appointment and get their booster shot to get that added level of protection. Looking across the region of Vermont, you can see that parts of the state that did have cases increase last week remain elevated, most notably in the Northeast Kingdom. Orleans County stays at a very high case level. Essex County is up a bit as well, although there was some improvement in Caledonia. And the other county of note is Rutland County, which saw their cases increase this week. So when we look at the regional breakdown, you can see that the Northeast Kingdom is still high. The Southern of Vermont is a little bit higher driven by Rutland County and Central Vermont and Chittenden County area have stayed pretty steady over the last a week or two weeks. One point of certainly bright news is college campus. And I think it also is a testament to the effectiveness of the vaccine, particularly when you have really high vaccination numbers. So college campuses across Vermont are now at 95% in terms of those who are fully vaccinated. A very small percent are still waiting to get vaccinated. And then another very small percent, 2.4 have been granted an exemption. But when we look at the cases on campus over the first five weeks of the semester, we can see that we've had 217. But when you compare that to spring of 2021, when there were 419 cases during the first five weeks of the semester, that's about a 48% decline this semester, even though the cases across Vermont generally are about 28% higher these first five weeks compared to the spring of 2021. There are also more students on campus doing in-person education as well, close to eight or 9,000 more students physically on campus in Vermont doing learning. Testing a little bit lower this semester because they have the ability to obviously rely on vaccination status. But overall, definitely a success story so far in the 2021 fall semester for higher education institutions. Looking at the outbreak data, we can see that we added an additional outbreak compared to last week. So there are now 11 active long-term care facility outbreaks compared to 10 last week. And the total outbreak number currently stands at 177 up 41 cases from last week. Looking at the modeling forecasting, we talked last week about how there was some uncertainty because of the trends. Well, the CDC Ensemble that shows again all of the different states and collectively the United States is now only projecting out one week, which really just speaks to the uncertainty that the CDC sees in the current trends even nationally where there is improvement, they're only projecting out one week. So basically at this point for Vermont, we'll just need a little bit more information about our trends. Again, good news is that it's improving in the region around us. We'll wanna see that continue. And then of course we'll wanna see that carry over into Northern New England and Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Looking at the vaccination status for Vermont, we're up to 87.8% of those who are eligible who have gotten vaccinated. That brings us to 2,239 new people this week, up about 4.4% over last week. And then when we look at the vaccination scorecard, you can see in most of the categories, Vermont remains near the top. Number one in those who are fully vaccinated across the full population, those who are over 65. And then number three behind some of our counterparts here in New England, Massachusetts. And then number two on the fully vaccinated number behind Connecticut. So even the states that are ahead of us on those vaccination numbers are close to us, are the states of New England, which ultimately is a good news for Vermont overall. So with that, I will now turn it over to Secretary Smith. Thank you, commissioner. And good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin by discussing the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination booster shots. As many of you know, starting last Friday, we opened registration for Vermonters 80 years of age and older, hours after the ACIP, that's the advisory committee on immunization practices, made their recommendation to the CDC. Yesterday, Vermonters 75 years of age and older, we're able to begin making appointments to get a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine. And starting tomorrow, the eligibility expands to any Vermonters 70 years and older. Then on Friday, booster appointments are available to those 65 and older. At this time, the booster shots are only approved for those who've got Pfizer, the Pfizer vaccine, and six months or more have passed since they completed their second dose. Additionally, starting on Friday, we expect others to be able to start making appointments for boosters beyond the folks in the age ranges that I just mentioned. These are people age 18 to 64 who have certain underlying conditions. In Vermont, the list will be the same as the high-risk conditions we used last fall. I think Dr. Levine will go over some of those conditions, but this time, we'll also include obesity as well as those who currently or in the past used tobacco on a regular basis. Second, those who work where they are more likely to be exposed to or spread COVID, generally this means healthcare and long-term care workers, law enforcement, first responders and correction staff, grocery store, food service and restaurant workers, education staff, public transit workers, and those working in manufacturing. But this is not an all-inclusive list. In Vermont, anyone in a profession that puts them at higher risk of exposure to COVID can get a booster if they meet the criteria of having gone six months after having received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Essentially, this means people who work indoors where they are exposed to the public and other workers as well. And third are those who live in congregate settings. This would include long-term care facilities, homeless shelters and correctional facilities. When you are eligible for your booster dose, you can get it anywhere that offers the Pfizer vaccine, the health department clinics, pharmacies, or healthcare providers. We anticipate Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters to be recommended by the CDC in the coming weeks. At the state-run clinics, you do need an appointment to get... Let me start again on that one. At the state-run clinics, you do need an appointment to get a booster. So it is important to go online to register or call first. And by making an appointment, you also ensure that the site you visit carries the Pfizer vaccine and they have enough vaccine for your appointment. You can find options to make an appointment at healthvermont.gov.slashmyvaccine. You can also call 8-5-722-7878. As of today, we have registered 2048 for the boosters that's as of this morning, earlier this morning. This week, we have 72 vaccination clinics statewide, all accepting appointments for first, second, and booster doses. We'll be sending out a press release later today with the further information. Turning to the pandemic more broadly, as we continue to grapple with the Delta variant, we must keep urging people to get vaccinated and to get a booster dose when it's your time. And follow the basic guidance that is posted on the health department's website. Stay at home if you feel sick and wear a mask in a public indoor setting. In addition, if you travel or end up in a large group of people, go get tested. It's easy and unlike some states here in the United States, in Vermont, it's free. Over the last seven days, nearly 50,000 tests have been performed in Vermont. As you know from Secretary French, all of our schools in Vermont with literally just one exception are following the state's recommendation to have students, teachers, and staff wear masks. And as the governor announced, the recommendation has been extended. As you also heard through the test to stay effort, testing is being expanded in schools so that those who are close contacts get rapid tests. As Commissioner Pichek pointed out, over the last seven days, the unvaccinated case rate has increased 21%, whereas the vaccinated rate has increased 5% over the same period. You are 4.3 times more likely to get COVID-19 if you're unvaccinated. So please get vaccinated at your local pharmacy or at the state's sites. You can find these locations at healthvermont.gov slash COVID-19 slash vaccine. Now I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for a health update. Good afternoon. I'm going to start by talking a little more in depth about what's happening in our long-term care facilities. From the beginning, our oldest Vermonters, especially those with underlying health conditions, have faced the greatest risk of COVID-19's worst effects. And people living in congregate settings are even more vulnerable to the spread of virus, making it all the more dangerous to residents of long-term care facilities. Each and every death due to COVID-19 has been a deep loss for friends, families, and our communities. But although this virus has taken a tragic toll, we are fortunate we now have vaccines to protect more of these residents. I'll show some visual data on how that's working. In this first slide, you'll see a peak in incidence of the virus in long-term care facilities in April of 2020, nearly 108 cases per 10,000. An even higher peak during the surge last winter, 360 per 10,000, and the current Delta surge at about 116 per 10,000. Looking at the second slide, you now can see these cases as gray dots in a cluster during each surge, with the red dots representing deaths. The Y-axis represents age. During our winter surge, pre-vaccine, we can see that there were many more cases, and unfortunately many more people who died across the age spectrum of 60 to 100 plus. For the current surge on the right side of the slide, and I need to caution this data is still preliminary is where in that surge, you can see more cases in gray and fewer red dots. The red dots representing deaths that you do see tend to be among the older end of the age spectrum. On the next slide, our case fatality rate, keep in mind that means the proportion of people who died from a disease among all individuals diagnosed with the disease has decreased dramatically since the first surge where it wasn't a 31% range to currently where it is under 10%. So we can see that once residents were fully vaccinated, there were fewer deaths. Vaccines have a strong protective effect and long-term care facilities are experienced in preventing spread. However, we do know that even people who are vaccinated in these facilities are still vulnerable to COVID-19, especially the much more contagious Delta variant. These residents were the first people eligible for vaccination and their immunity may be waning, which is why they're now among the first to be eligible for booster shots. As Secretary Smith has mentioned, we've been vaccinating older Vermonters who received their second dose of Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago since Friday, right after federal regulators and advisors issued guidance. In addition to approving a Pfizer booster for people aged 65 and older, they also said people aged 18 to 64 with underlying medical conditions should also be eligible. In Vermont, we'll follow our augmented list of CDC's list of conditions that can make people more likely to become severely ill from COVID. Just to remind all of you, these include, and it's a very expansive list, cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic lung disease, heart conditions, dementia, and other neurological conditions. Type one and type two diabetes, Down syndrome, HIV, liver disease, obesity, formerly we were only using severe end of obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking, current or past, stroke or cerebral vascular disease, substance use disorders, and then of course all those who are in the immunocompromised group or have had a solid organ or stem cell transplant should have already been able to receive their third dose of their three dose series. Since I've now read you the list, I wanted to talk about the fact that the health department recently analyzed data related to the 26 Fermaners who tested positive for COVID-19 and who died between July 1st and September 9th of this year. 13 or 50% of them were hospitalized at the time of death. Eight or 30% were residents of a long-term care facility and five or 20% died at a private residence and two of those were in hospice care. Almost every one of these patients developed cough and or shortness of breath and a majority experienced what we term hypoxia, low oxygen levels in their blood during the course of illness. The overwhelming majority had won and usually more than one of the conditions that put people at high risk of death for COVID that I just detailed for you. Unfortunately, this fact has not changed throughout the pandemic, which is why I have continued to spend so much time on the importance of protecting the most vulnerable. So if you're eligible, I urge you to seek out a booster whether through a state clinic, pharmacy or your healthcare provider to increase your protection from COVID-19, especially while the Delta variant is circulating. And it is not complicated. Don't make all of the words complicated. Number one, did you get Pfizer? You are eligible if the answer is yes. Number two, when did you get it? Has it been six months or longer? If the answer is yes, you are eligible. Then there's your age and the very large list of conditions I mentioned and some of the occupations that Secretary Smith had mentioned earlier. Again, the goal unlike earlier in the vaccine effort when there wasn't much vaccine around is to enable you to get vaccine, not prevent you from getting vaccine. So don't make it a challenging decision. I hope we will have more news on boosters in the coming weeks for Vermonters who received Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. I anticipate the answer will be yes for both. It's just a matter of the timing. In the meantime, I urge you all to continue to take precautions during this Delta surge and look out for one another. Right now the virus is something to remain concerned about. It is still spreading within our communities and your actions will still make a difference. Besides the most important thing which is staying home if you're sick, the other most important thing you can do whether you're vaccinated or not is wear a mask indoors to protect yourself and others. This goes for customers and employees and goes along with avoiding crowded indoor spaces and get tested if you have any symptoms or if you've taken part in activities that could put you at risk such as a large gathering. The way we get to less illness in our nursing homes, our care facilities and prisons and fewer cases of kids coming to school or childcare with infection is to drive down transmission in our communities. To reduce the rate of people who harbor the virus meeting other people who may be susceptible. Because although the EPI teams are now monitoring around 70 outbreaks, the vast majority of cases in Vermont are not part of an outbreak. Only one in every five people who test positive are traced to part of an outbreak. The rest are due to community transmission. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus is one we'll likely have to live with in the long term eventually becoming just another one of those viruses that leads to annoying symptoms for most people. But we're not there quite yet and we still need to work together to protect our communities and get more people vaccinated so we can get to a place where COVID is no longer a serious threat to our population. I'll turn it back to the governor. Thank you, Dr. Levine. We'll now open it up to questions. Governor, your reaction to the RNC filing a suit against Montpelier in the city of Winooski over local non-citizen voting? I know Ronan McDaniel's concerns sound different from the reason you had vetoed those measures. What was your reaction to what she had to say? Well, again, we have a difference in terms of why I vetoed the measure and what the RNC has now laid out their suit in some respects. So this is now in the courts, probably appropriately, and we'll come to conclusion on this based on what they say. And then the legislature will react accordingly. And I know you've spoken about this before. What process would you like to see followed when it comes to non-citizen voting and getting all of Vermont on board with that, a statewide approach you had mentioned? Yeah, I just think that we can't do this piecemeal because the approach that Winooski took was different than what Montpelier had taken. So we just need it all the same so there's no confusion. And I think that that can be done very easily. Just really quickly too, any updates on the Afghan refugees thinking early October still? Yeah, we're still waiting word, but we expect some time in this next month. Emergency housing is gonna need to be extended until the end of the year. Yeah, we're working with all the groups. I was in a meeting yesterday with my team and we'll have more information, more news as the 30 days continues. But we're going to do what we think is right and we'll propose different initiatives to get us to our common goal. First we have to get on the same page, to make sure that we have the same goals. What will it depend on? Again, there isn't one single answer. We have to make sure that there's units available. We have to see what the demand is, where we can put different people in different situations in different geographical areas. So we're assessing all that right now. We think we're on a good path and we'll continue to work with all of the players, so to speak, in this area. Is there any update today on the situation in the Springfield School District? I believe they're back in school, but I will ask. They're back in school. Do you think it's appropriate to fire workers who refuse to get vaccinated? I, you know, we've taken a different approach here in Vermont and again, it's up to the employer to determine their own rules. As we did, we laid out with our state employees, we gave options either if you get vaccinated or you get tested weekly and are masked. So I think having options is the best approach and we'll continue to do that as a state, but again, employers have the right and the ability to set their own rules. Any mention of the word Canada today on the White House call? No, no, it's frustrating as it is. We are still working with our other states who had signed on the initial letter and through the NGA and we'll be asking the questions. It's very frustrating for me to hear that they opened up last week to Europe, traveling into the states and 32, I think other countries can travel into the United States, but we can't allow Canada. It just seems counterintuitive from my perspective. So again, we're going to continue to make our case to open the border up so that we can welcome our, our friends from the North into the states, into our state. Starting the new test to state program, clarifying point is this CIC that's doing these tests or is this the state? This is, we are doing the testing. And while there's, there's a couple of different approaches. Maybe I should have secondary friends explain that, but there are a number of different options in doing this. So let's make sure that we get this straight. Yeah, Calvin, we're putting this together with lots of different pieces. You know, so they're not, there's a specific vendor, for example, on the antigen tests, we're looking at multiple different approaches. So that's, that gets to sort of the nitty-gritty on seminal logistics, but we'll still partner with CIC on other efforts that we're working with, particularly with the PCR testing. Didn't just last summer, Dr. Levine, you recommended against using antigen testing in school facilities. What has changed from then to today? Everything. Delta has changed a lot. Level of community transmission of virus has changed a lot. At a time when transmission of virus is high and someone is symptomatic, a positive test is pretty much guaranteed to be a true positive. At a time when you can repetitively, as in this program that was just described, test people one day at a time, day after day for five to seven days in a row, the reliability of a test becoming positive after having been negative and indicating someone has become infected is very, very high. It's much different than in previous circumstances when we were in times of almost no prevalence, nevermind low prevalence, and the test was not as reliable to be viewed. And I guess one last follow up question for the governor. You know, you've mentioned for the past several weeks that the data does not reflect the need for a state of emergency, but what about like a public health order or another avenue that your administration could take to either place restrictions or mandate masks indoors? I know you've said that schools basically have a universal indoor mask mandate, but businesses, grocery stores, other places in the public don't. So could you do that without a state of emergency? Yeah, well, you could, I suppose. We haven't looked into that, but I think it just leads to more. This is, you know, this is here to stay. This pandemic has shown us, this virus has shown us that we need to learn how to mitigate, how to protect ourselves, our families and our coworkers and everyone, both individually and collectively. We aren't in the same place as we were during the state of emergency in all kinds of different ways. We have gotten back to somewhat normal. Entertainment areas have been open, gyms have been open, restaurants are open, bars are open, we're much more mobile, we're allowing people to come into the state, the travel restrictions are over. I mean, we're in just a much different place, but yet we're still being cautious in many ways, and we've learned how to deal with this, again, individually, and that's the future. So we can't be in a perpetual state of emergency, a heightened state of emergency. This is something we have to deal with, and I think we're doing this quite well right now. I mean, we're hoping again to see the number of cases drop, the number of hospitalizations drop. We saw a bit of good news today, but one day doesn't make a trend, so we're going to have to watch this and hopefully replicate this over the next few days in the next few weeks. So Governor, sort of a follow to that question, for months, for months it's done very well with so many different categories, and today seems somewhat optimistic, but yet the numbers are still going up, people are still dying, it just won't go away. I mean, it hasn't for the world though, Wilson. It's not just here in Vermont. I mean, there are very a few states, I think there's just a handful, maybe a half a dozen, states that still have a state of emergency. The vast majority of states have opened up, in which we have, and gotten back to somewhat normal. Again, this Delta variant is something that has been highly transmissible, in something that we have to pay attention to, and we have been, but again, what we're seeing across the country is the number of cases is dropping off, and we'll, in the Northeast, see the same, we believe, very soon, and again, today was some good news, but one day doesn't make a trend. There are some states though, that have put forth policies where they set a certain threshold, and say, if infection and hospitalizations deaths, some specific rate reaches a certain point that some policy will switch on or off. And I wonder, I know you've declined in past weeks to cite a number like that. And my question is why? What would be the harm in signaling to the public that a certain outcome would trigger some policy? Yeah, I think from the very beginning, we've taken a different approach, and it's worked quite well for Vermont, I would argue. We still remain one of the lowest in terms of number of hospitalizations, and deaths, and so forth. So what we're doing is working, and I think the attitude of Vermonters is different, and they are taking responsibility themselves. So setting just one target, and flipping a switch when we don't reach that milestone, whatever it is, doesn't always work. I mean, there isn't just one area. So for those states who are doing that, it may work for their states, but I feel as though with our team, and their approach we're taking, and looking at this holistically, and looking at all different types of numbers, and different areas, and so forth, and then coming to whatever conclusion we come to has worked best for us, and we've been able to do this successfully. It does seem as though perhaps in some kind of signal like that to the public, that there is a faction, both of experts and researchers, as well as just concerned Vermonters, who are looking at the numbers, and it still seems to be driving a lot of anxiety, and a lot of frustration that there's not something else in place to address community spread. And I wonder, what are, what is this faction of businesses? Again, I think initiating, for instance, if we went back into all of a sudden, we flipped the switch and said, we need to stay of emergency tomorrow. We're gonna close down this business. We're going to this sector. We're gonna stop travel. We're going to take all these precautions in order to drive down the cases, which we haven't seen conclusively across some of the states have been doing this, that they've been successful in driving down the cases. So let's just say we do that. We are going to create more panic, more fear, and just more apprehension just by doing that. Staying home to stay safe would be one area that may drive down cases, but it's not healthy. Not healthy for the way we live. It's not healthy for our kids. It's not healthy for our elders. I mean, we have to learn how to mitigate this and not panic, which again, we've been able to do successfully here in Vermont by taking steps that are appropriate at the right time. And we feel that we're at a point where we're continuing to mitigate the effects of this variant. And we'll see the numbers drop off successfully without imposing these measures. Can I ask for one clarification on something you said in response to Calvin, that the administration hasn't looked into other types of measures beyond an emergency order, are there alternatives? Well, we know that there can be a health order. We know that, but it's not something that we're interested in doing at this point. I mean, we think that would just lead to other steps that we're not willing to take right now. We don't think they're necessary. If we did, we'd do it. Demand for booster shots, is that about what you're looking for? Can you put that 2000 into context? Yeah, we weren't sure what to expect to be honest with you. I didn't feel that we would have the demand just personally, but I don't think it, I don't think we're receiving the response that we thought we would, but that could increase in time. I think some people are just taking a step back, watching what's happening across the country. And there isn't that sense of emergency that we had the pent up demand that we had back in the early part of the calendar year when everyone wanted a vaccine. So I think in time that will build and we'll see that when there's some success and we see some numbers and so forth. As Dr. Fauci said, you're much more protected with the third dose. And maybe with Johnson and Johnson and Moderna being approved, that will increase participation as well, but I don't know if Dr. Levine, you have anything to add to that in terms of the demand that could build over time. Starting with Lisa from the Valley Reporter. Thanks, Rebecca. I think my question is probably for Dan French or maybe Commissioner Pitchek. There's been a steady rise in cases in K through 12 from week one with 41 cases and last week with 174 cases. I'm curious why there's no data for this week. How many cases were there this week? So Lisa, the dashboard that is on the Department of Health's website is updated for this week. They updated every Monday. So I think there were 141 or in that range cases this week in K through 12. So, and then it also has the total for the entire semester as well there, which I think was just north of 500 cases. So the data is there. It's just on the Department of Health's website. Okay, thank you very much. I was only using the slides. My second question is for probably Dr. Levine or Commissioner Smith, and it's about eligibility for boosters. I had a reader reach out who is a home healthcare provider and she cares for her mother-in-law who is severely immunocompromised and the mother-in-law cannot be vaccinated. If this person were not a home healthcare provider, if it were me or you, could that person receive a booster? Do you know the age of the person? I do not know the age of the mother-in-law, the person with cancer? No, the person who wants the booster. I've talked her on the phone. I couldn't guess. No problem. No problem. Again, we're trying to be as broad as possible and as simple as possible. If she got Pfizer, she's eligible for Pfizer. If it's been six months or greater, she's eligible for a booster. And she's dealing, we'll call her occupation, an occupation that is of significant risk, especially to her, the person she's caring for. And she's kind of in the healthcare workforce. So she gets check marks in multiple boxes. Great. Thank you very much. That's it for me. Guy Page, Vermont Daily Chronicle. Governor, the Biden administration is pushing for an IRS audit of every transaction over 600, according to $600, according to Bloomberg News and some other national media. Are you aware of this? And do you have any concerns about his potential impact on Vermont's economy? Go ahead, sir. P-Check might be able to answer this better than me. I hadn't heard this. So, Guy, we have been in communication with our Vermont Bankers Association and with the Vermont Credit Union Association to try to understand what is being proposed in Washington and then what that impact would be. The goal of the legislation is to get increased tax compliance so that those that owe taxes pay their taxes, which is certainly obviously a laudable goal. In Vermont, we have small community banks and we try to keep it that way. They're small, independent, responsive to Vermonters. So we are worried about an additional level of burden on them that might force them to become part of a regional or national bank. So that's sort of the balance and the dynamic there. And our national associations have engaged on this issue. We'll see where it comes out. But again, the goal is laudable. I think they just have to figure out the way to get there. Thank you. Governor, the transportation and climate initiative is getting a lot of support in the Vermont Climate Council. What is the Scott administration's official position on the TCI? And will you accept or oppose a join the TCI mandate from the Climate Council and presumably the legislature? Well, again, I think I've been fairly clear on TCI. I don't think it works for Vermont. I don't think it solves the problem in many respects. And I think it just wouldn't have any net benefit to us financially or from an emissions standpoint. So I would be opposed to it, as I've said before. But part of the problem with the Climate Council is that I don't know as we have a choice when that was part of my problem with how it was developed. That if they impose this, then I don't know what the recourse is, to be honest with you. I thought it had to be approved by the legislature. I'm not sure that it does. That was part of my issue. That it does not have to come back to the legislature. So they may take it up. They may decide to insert themselves. But the way that the legislation was written, they don't have to come back and get approval from the legislature. That's why I vetoed it. Peter, VPR. Thanks, Rebecca. Can you share a picture of that given half of the needs for deaths due to COVID among people who are fully vaccinated? Do you have the advocate for folks who are dying due to COVID who have not been vaccinated? So Peter, I think among both groups, both populations, the most vulnerable by age or remain the most vulnerable. Those that are in their 70s, whether vaccinated or not have the highest risk or increased risk, and same as you go up to those in their 80s and so forth and so on. So I don't have the exact age. I believe it's a little bit younger. But again, even if you're not vaccinated, the older you are, the more vulnerable you're gonna be. And Secretary Smith, maybe this question is for you. The 2000 number of people registering for appointments struck me as low too, just given our experience in January when we were seeing 10,000 people sign up in the early hours. But I'm wondering, I'm assuming that that number does not include people who have registered with pharmacies. Is that the case? And if it is, is there any way for you to capture the volume that pharmacies are absorbing and to what extent might that affect your plans for state-run vaccination appointments? Yeah, Peter, we will be capturing that information. They have a certain amount of time where they send us what is called a flat file and then we insert it into our system. So yes, right now the 2000 number does not include the pharmacies. We will include the pharmacy number as soon as we have a good number in terms. These are registration. I think we'll start getting numbers and people that are vaccinated will get a flat file from the pharmacies on that as well. And we'll have more of a comprehensive look. Just remember, we started this on Friday before any other state did. And so we're moving forward with the 70 plus clinics that we have here in the state plus the pharmacies. So there's plenty of opportunity. You brought up the 2000 as with your observation. I would hope that we'll see that number grow with the pharmacy number, with our state clinics that we're having out there. There was a little bit of confusion, I think, nationally about how this sort of rolled out. So I think once the dust clears on this, we'll see a lot more people. And remember, we're gonna be opening this up on Friday to a lot of people that will be eligible, both in terms of underlying conditions and professions, as well as those 65 and above, which some 65 and above are anxiously waiting to get their booster. And one last question for you, Secretary Smith, while I have you, how many folks in long-term care facilities, residents and staff have gotten the third Pfizer shot so far, how many total tests do you estimate will need one and how long it'll take to get through that number? Yeah, I don't have the total, but I'll get that for you. The vaccination program for some of the long-term care facilities starts on October 1st with direct health, that's the Kinnies pharmacies, as I've said before, the pharmacy program is the, excuse me, the long-term care facilities are being handled by pharmacies by and large. We will step in if long-term care facilities need help, but by and large the skilled nursing facilities, residential care and the assisted living are being vaccinated by Walgreens, CVS, and direct health, which is Kinnies as we move forward. Kinnies has scheduled 60, Walgreens is giving us some information today on how much they have scheduled. Kinnies has told us they've scheduled the 60, they expect to be done by the last week in October on having their 60 and maybe plus more done. Thank you very much. Joseph, the Barton Chronicle. Joe Gresser, the Barton Chronicle. Aaron with BT Digger. The initial first and second shots were Vermonters. The state did a lot of outreach efforts specifically to reach BIPOC Vermonters, who continue to have a slightly lower vaccination rate in the state that seems to be masturbated for older BIPOC Vermonters. Are you guys planning any kind of initiative to make sure that BIPOC Vermonters, you know, who may already be struggling with access issues, get their third dose of the Pfizer vaccine? Secretary Smith. Aaron, we're looking at all vulnerable populations and that's why when we say inclusive rather than exclusive, trying to make sure that we include everybody in there. So there will be some outreach both generally and with certain populations, specifically probably around age and occupations as well as vulnerable populations. And that would include the BIPOC population. Dr. Levine, do you have anything? I just wanted to emphasize because of your questionnaire and the dramatic narrowing of the disparity gap between BIPOC vaccination rates and non-Hispanic white rates. It's now under 2% and it was seven times that way back in the beginning. So there's been a lot of progress made and I think it's because of our ability to effectively partner with many groups that are representing the BIPOC population very capably and are very trusted by them. So we'll have to continue those relationships obviously during this booster campaign. Booster clinics planned in partnership with any of those community groups, any outreach with those community groups or any specific BIPOC clinics like you had with the initial shop? Yeah, so I don't know about the number yet and we can get that to you. Those plans are being put into place. I also know that for, I guess it's now called Indigenous People's Day. There are some other activities planned which will include opportunities for boosters for that population. Cation questions, Secretary French. Are surveillance, is it ever going to resume at this point? It's on hold from what I understand, correct? Not really. No, we were just signaling to folks that we were working on a test to stay and school districts have limited capacity to implement all these systems at the same time. So we were signaling to folks that had not yet signed up for surveillance testing that we wanted to hold off a bit but we went forward and implemented surveillance testing this week. We had many districts reach out and say they're ready to go. So we said go ahead and do that. So what is the plan for surveillance testing going forward? Yeah, we see it as a continued and critical part of our public health surveillance of the patterns of the virus in our communities. In schools, the PCR technology is that's behind that. We'll also be employed with the response testing. So it's something we're committed to maintaining and it's been as it was last year, very useful in our decision making. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Governor. A couple of questions. One, the state mandate has been in place for a couple of weeks. So have there been any state workers who refuse to comply and what has been their ramifications of that? Yeah, we have a fairly high compliance rate at this point in time but I might refer to Secretary Young if she's or Deputy Secretary Clouser if she's available. Kristen Clouser. We are at the station rate for employees. All employees is at 81.5%. So there are close to 20% of state employees who have not attested to being vaccinated and those employees have the option of masking and testing or there is negotiated discipline if they refuse to mask and test and similarly refuse to attest to vaccination. So I guess the question is have there been any disciplinary actions at this point? So the requirements, the testing requirements have just been rolled out this week. So I am unaware of discipline that has been enforced based on a refusal to attend or to test or show up for testing. Okay, thanks. So I don't think we're at that stage yet, Tim. We're at this point in time if they haven't attested then the expectation would be that they would be masked and be tested and so if that does not happen then there would be disciplinary actions taken at that point. Okay. And perhaps Secretary Smith could tell us how many, it seems like the groups that are now eligible for a booster has been expanded in the last, you know, since the guidance has come out and wonder how many people are there now if you had mentioned something like 113,000 before. How many for monitors would be eligible? Do you think right now? Yeah, we're going to just to, I mean, we've reflected on this. Well, we're going to be quite lenient in terms of who should be included and if they'd like to have a booster we'd like to find a way for them to have it. So I expect that number is substantially higher at this point. So our interpretation of this will be again, quite broad. I'm all set for today. Thank you. Thank you, Greg. Mike Donahue, the Islander. Thank you, Mike. Go to a DT, VT digger. Go to Tom at Compass Vermont. I'm joining the party. No questions today. Thank you. Thank you, Don. Andrew, Caledonian record. Thanks for Secretary French. The testing programs you've described over the last couple of weeks, when will they be available to all schools and does that list include independent private schools? Yeah, hi. All the testing programs are available to public and independent schools. Surveillance testing has been available since the beginning of August. Many school districts are participating in that now or onboarding or signing it up. We did, as I mentioned, pilot the take-home PCR tests. Those are among five school districts across the state. Those test kits are being delivered as we speak. We are leveraging, the response testing is sort of an augmentation, if you will, of the surveillance testing program, so that's ongoing. The big one where I don't have as much concrete information is on the test this day. We were announcing that today. We're meeting again this afternoon to work out the logistics and I'll be briefing the superintendents this afternoon as well. So that's certainly hoping to launch, but we have a couple of logistical issues that we need to address, and that's in addition to supply chain issues. Okay, thanks. Where are we at in terms of the federal vaccine and they applying to Vermont's larger school districts? Are we still waiting to see what the exact language of the rule looks like? Yeah, last week I was discussing the emergency temporary standard that the president announced he was gonna try to address through OSHA regulation. We're still waiting to hear more from that. We are a department of labor and agency of education staff are gonna be meeting on that in the near future to start understanding the specifics of how that might impact Vermont. But we're really, to a certain extent, in a holding pattern until the federal government release a specific regulatory language. Would you encourage local school boards and administrations to get in front of that and implement local policies with mandates or do you think that that's gonna be coming along shortly enough that everyone locally should just wait until the federal rule lands? Yeah, I think locally, my encouragement would be to have them wait to see if the federal requirements impose. I think that'll politically be easier, but also procedurally allow us to enact that more consistently across the state. Thanks everybody. Harvard, Newport Daily Express, go to Derek at seven days. Yeah, hi, and my question's for Secretary French. I'm wondering if you could describe for me what some of the key logistical issues are for this test-to-state program. Yeah, thanks. One certainly is supply and chain issues that we're working on with Department of Health and our other partners in state government. We have issues of sort of streamlining the parent consent form. We have several different testing platforms in play. We want to streamline as much as possible at the local level so that can be done very easily. We'll have the issue of what we call CLIA waivers for schools, which CLIA governs labs basically having the authority to, in the certification, the process public health specimens, if you will. So we'll need to enable schools having waivers so we're looking at a streamlined process through that. Then we have issues around data reporting and just monitoring the data flowing through that system. So the back office issues are ones that are also very much on our mind. I didn't hear you mention human resources among that list. I know schools have already been feeling pretty crunched to manage contact tracing and surveillance testing. This is kind of a rapidly changing environment in terms of the guidance. But where are the resources coming from to be able to implement this pretty comprehensive testing regime? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I mean, the resources, one of the more critical constraints on testing and also contact tracing are human resources. So as I mentioned last week, I think we're on the path of trying to seek a better balance between these initiatives. And all the testing platforms are voluntary. So as the previous question I received about some districts seeking to pause surveillance testing, others wanted to move forward. Our districts have varying levels of capacity to address these issues. But I think, honestly, I think the issue of the test this day will be a game changer in terms of enabling more students to be in school. So we're gonna have to figure out how to balance these things at the local level. I wish the case counts would come down. That certainly would take some of the pressure off on the constraints from the staffing perspective. But it's gonna be challenging to implement. But again, I think this is gonna be the solution that really enables a lot of more students to stay in the classroom. So we have to try to do what best we can. And last thing I understand, you're obviously still working through a number of issues. But what is there a target date at this point for when you would hope to be able to roll this out? Well, we're hoping to issue, I'll say elaborate guidance, but flow charts and so forth to the school districts this week on test this day. So we wanna get those materials and I'll say from sort of the technical end or the public health end to have those issues around process nailed down this week. So then we can focus more or less exclusively on the communications and the logistical issues. The good news with logistical issues, they are challenges, but they are also problems that we can solve. We know how to do that. So we'll be working hard to get the program articulated this week and out to school districts and then really focus on how to operationalize it in each school district across the state. Okay, so do you think sometime later this month it would be up and running? I'm hoping sooner than that for sure. Great, that's all I have, thank you. Okay, all right, thanks very much. We'll see you again on Tuesday.