 Well, good morning, everyone. As many of you know, we have a special guest today, so we're going to get started. On Friday, Commissioner Pichek presented our latest data and modeling, which showed Vermont continued to have the lowest positivity rate in the country at about 2-tenths of 1%. We also have the lowest number of cases per capita, and our growth rates have remained around 1% per month. These low numbers are thanks to the hard work of Vermonters who have stayed informed, continue to be vigilant, and followed health guidance since the very beginning. And as a result of keeping each other safe, we've been able to put large numbers of Vermonters back to work in manufacturing, retail, health care, childcare, construction, and those in salons, restaurants, hotels, and more joining essential workers who never left the front lines. Through this reopening, our numbers have remained low, and we've consistently been able to move forward while many other states have had to backtrack and close down sectors after they had opened. After health professionals advised us it was safe for in-person instruction, we reopened schools last week. While about 70% of the schools are currently remote for three or more days per week, as we've heard from pediatricians and other health experts, having some level of in-person instruction is so valuable for our kids. I know many are worried about the three student cases announced yesterday, but as Dr. Levine will cover, the health department epi-team has a proven record of containing spread, and we have strong protocols at schools to limit risk. As we talked about in these press conferences, we knew there would be cases in schools, but we're fully prepared to contain them, and so in-person instruction can quickly, but most importantly, safely resume. We'll work through this just as we have when the case have popped up in businesses and childcare centers, and we'll do it hand in hand with the public health experts supporting these schools, communities, every step of the way. As you've heard me say many times, my decisions throughout this pandemic, from the closures and other mitigation steps in March and April, to the methodical reopening of our economy, hospitals, and schools has been based on the data, the science, and the recommendations of our health experts. We have to remember this is a once-in-a-century challenge with a virus that was not known to human beings before now, but Dr. Kelso and our epi-experts have managed diseases before and have been learning and adapting to this new virus quickly. That's why each decision we've made has gone through Dr. Levine and our team of the Department of Health, and we often draw on outside experts like Dr. Bell, Dr. Lee, and Dr. Raskha, because I know how important it is to put health first in our response. So the team at BDH, alongside Vermont Emergency Management, the Agency of Human Services, our National Guard, and many local partners have helped us build a strong testing and tracing system that has been critical to our reopening strategy. But it's important to know we're not doing this work alone. We have incredible federal partners at the CDC and beyond who are also working hard to keep Americans safe. Whether it's providing reliable research and health recommendations, providing much-needed supplies for the trusted guidance of our next guests, we rely on our federal partners for help. That's why I'm pleased to have Dr. Anthony Fauci joining us by video today. I'm a big fan and he's someone I've been so impressed with over the last six months. He tells it like it is and in a way that most of us can understand, much like Dr. Levine. For most, he probably needs no introduction, but I'll give one anyway. Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease where he's led our understanding of HIV, AIDS, Ebola, and Zika. And he's advised six presidents on these global public health issues. He sits on the White House Coronavirus Task Force and I'm sure many of you have seen Dr. Fauci sharing his wisdom on many national programs. And as I alluded to before, I know I've really appreciated his leadership and expertise during these difficult times. Dr. Fauci, if you were here in person, we typically would try and sweeten you up with our world-class maple syrup or maybe even a maple creamy, which you probably know as a soft-serve ice cream. But I appreciate you being here with us today and we'll turn it over to you to say a few words and then hopefully take a few questions. Dr. Fauci. Thank you very much, Governor Scott. It's a real pleasure to be with you today, even be it virtually, but I do appreciate you're giving me the opportunity to join you today in this briefing. I'm particularly pleased about being here because what you just mentioned in your introduction is what I have been trying very hard over the last several weeks to months to communicate to the nation about how we can actually open up our economy, get our children back to school, get people back to work in a safe, measured, prudent way. And there were certain parameters that would make that easy. And I was sitting here listening to the numbers that you said, and I would wonder if I could bottle that and take it with me when I go around talking to other parts of the country. I think one of the things you said in the beginning that's absolutely critical that I have been emphasizing now for some weeks in that the success of being able to prudently open is the baseline from which you start. In other words, you were trying to open up, you're getting your children back, you're getting people back to work. When you have a test positivity of 0.2%, you are starting the game on your side. And when you do that, you also mentioned things about school. You wanna have some in-person instruction. And when a child gets infected, which inevitably will happen, you have a plan how to respond to that. So it isn't an all or nothing phenomenon where when you get a minor setback, you don't have to turn the clock back. So I wanna congratulate you and all of the officials in your state who have been responsible for this plan and the implementation of it in a very prudent way. I believe strongly that if we do what you've been doing in Vermont in the rest of the country, although it's different as you well know better than anyone, that Vermont is different than other regions and sections of the country, but nonetheless, there are some commonalities. And if we adopt the commonalities that you've done, I believe that as we enter the fall and the winter, which will be a challenge because there'll be much more indoor activity as opposed to outdoor activity that we can not only get through the fall and the winter, but we can come out on the other end better off than we went in. So again, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to make these few comments and I'd be happy to join you in answering questions. Thank you very much, Dr. Palsche. We'll start with Calvin from WCAX. All right, thank you Dr. Palsche for coming in today virtually. I wanted to ask you about rapid result testing. I'm wondering if you believe that rapid result testing is reliable and if it has a place in a state like Vermont where we have such a low COVID positivity rate and also a low COVID case count. But yeah, thank you very much for that question. Yes, the rapid result has a place, particularly when you're trying to do screening of opening up whatever or screening a nursing home or screening a prison or a meatpacking plant or a place where you need to know something that might not necessarily have a 99% sensitivity, but if you do it enough, then you have a degree of certainty that you are gonna ultimately pick up individual cases within a group. Let me give you an example of what that would be. We have a rapid result testing whenever we walk into the White House. So about, let me look at my watch, about two hours from now, I'm gonna be going down to the White House and before I enter, we need to know generally whether I'm infected or not. It isn't like I have a risk, I've not been exposed to anyone, but in order to find that out, we can't wait 24 to 48 hours. So when you're dealing with screening, it is a very, very good test. As you mentioned, Vermont with such a low test positivity likely does not necessarily need that in a critical way, but if they do want to do broad general statements, it could be a good mechanism to use, particularly the most recent tests which have a higher degree of sensitivity and specificity than the first generation tests. Thank you. Thank you. I'll lose from NBC5. Hi, Dr. Fauci. As you know, cases have remained pretty slow here in Vermont, but I'm wondering if you have any advice for Vermonters as we anticipate a potential second wave of the virus in the winter? Yeah. Well, yeah, my recommendation would be to do the kinds of things that you are doing. One of the important lessons, and I'm glad you raised the question that way, that even when you are in as good shape as Vermont is, you got into good shape by certain things that you've done. Don't get careless, and I don't expect that you will because there's no indication that you've done that, but be prudent and careful in your interaction in the community because if you let your guard down, they're unquestionably because people come in and out and will be coming into Vermont from states and regions that have a higher degree of test positivity. I don't think you inevitably are gonna have a second wave, and this really relates to what I said a moment ago. It's gonna be challenging as you get into the fall and the winter, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna have a problem if you do the kind of prudent public health measures that you've been doing. We'll now go to Steve from Local 22. Oh, sorry. Julie from Local 22. Okay, we'll come back. Oh, go ahead. Oh, thank you so much. Hi, Dr. Fauci. Thank you so much for your time. With the seasons changing and it being a popular time to travel to Vermont, how should the hospitality industry like businesses and hotels continue to operate safely? Well, very good question. I mean, Vermont is certainly a very popular place to visit, particularly in the fall and also winter with skiing and a variety of sports that you have. I think that the hospitality industry should do the kinds of things that I've been saying. Essentially, in a very courteous way, the way Vermontans do, is demand the kind of care to public health measures that you have. For example, for someone to come in from a place where there may be a high degree of infection, I think mask-wearing should be something that's quite consistent, particularly when you're in a situation where you don't really have any idea of the test positivity of people who are coming into your community. So obviously you want to be courteous and welcoming, but you also want to have a degree of protocol that I think safeguards, not only the people who visit, but certainly the inhabitants and the people who do live in Vermont. So I think a good degree of caution without being over restrictive would be the way to go. And I'll go to Wilson from the AP. Thank you. Hi, Dr. Fauci, welcome to Vermont virtually. You talked earlier and we here in Vermont are accustomed to small numbers on everything because we're such a small space. Do you think Vermont's, what the practices and procedures and protocols that Vermont has been using to keep these numbers so low, do you think those can be translated into larger states? Yes, absolutely so. I mean, some of the fundamental principles regardless of your size are things that would hold true because these public health principles don't really change. I mean, you can apply them to a different degree, but I've been speaking about the four or five fundamental principles when you're in a situation where there's active infection in the community, universal wearing of masks, keeping physical distance, six feet being the parameter with some variation, avoiding crowds, doing things outdoor as much as you can do indoor and washing hands as frequently as possible. Whether you are in Vermont or in New York City downtown, those things work. They work in states with small numbers, like Vermont, and they work in states with big numbers like New York and Texas and California. So that's the reason why as I was mentioning to Governor Scott a few minutes ago that this should be the model for the country of how you've done it. Not withstanding that you're a small state, but it should be the model of how you get to such a low test positivity that you can actually start opening up the economy in a safe and prudent way. Okay, thank you very much. We'll now go to Kevin for seven days. Thank you, doctor, can you hear me? Yep. I appreciate you being here. On the subject of Vermont being a model for the rest of the nation, Governor Scott imposed a mandatory mask requirement on August 1st. And he did so after much reflection and a hesitation about doing so out of a concern that perhaps education was a better path forward. Do you think there should be a national mandate? And if so, do you think Vermont's experience with a mask mandate would be instructive? Well, obviously the experience, a successful experience, which is what we have here, could be a model for the country. One of the issues that has been discussed, and we've discussed this in great detail at the level of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, is that there is such a degree of variability of accepting mandates throughout the country that the question is the rise of how would you enforce the mandate if you had an awful lot of pushback for it? If the citizens of a particular state, a city, a county or what have you, are really in lockstep with the authority that does it. There's not a big problem, as you've seen with the success in Vermont. However, there is a great deal of variability throughout our country. And in some areas, anything that smacks of an authoritative statement to the citizenry often is met with a considerable amount of pushback. So I think you'd have to say, you have to take it on a case-by-case basis, which means the bottom line answer to your question is that a national mandate probably would not work. And I'll go to Greg from the Bennington Biennium. Hello, and thank you for being here, Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci, you've served under six presidents and through significant public health challenges. In your experience, what does a healthy relationship between government politics and science look like? Well, there's a great deal of variability and a great deal of difference from administration to administration because the challenges were really quite different. And it really depends in fairness to any given administration to the level of divisiveness that there is in the society. And divisiveness, I mean political divisiveness. When you have everyone pulling together and you leave the kinds of decisions that we're talking about to the scientist, and there's very little disagreement on whatever side of the political spectrum you're on, things work very well. However, when you have a situation of a combination of inherent divisiveness in society, a lot of politicalization during a climate such as an election year where it really brings out differences among group, it makes it much more difficult than in other situations that I have found myself in when we were challenged, such as with the anthrax attacks following 9-11. There was total unanimity in the country about what needed to be done. The same thing holds true with HIV. Although there was some conflict of stigmatization, there was a universal push that ultimately led to a very, very successful approach, particularly in the arena of therapeutics for HIV. So again, the short answer to your question is that it really differs from administration to administration, but in fairness to any given administration, it also refers to the climate, the political climate that you happen to be in whenever you're in a particular situation like a public health challenge. Go to Gordon from the Rutland Herald. Good morning. So building a little bit on Wilson's question from the AP, well, a lot of people want to attribute our low infection rates to our population density, but we don't rank nearly as low in population density as we do in infection rates. Are we an outlier or is there no real correlation between the two? Well, there is some correlation, but as I mentioned in the beginning of this briefing when I followed Governor Scott's delineation of the numbers, this is success because of what you did and not success only because of the low density in Vermont. You correctly pointed out that the degree of success is greater than the degree of low density. And we've seen some places of high density succeed. I mean, for example, although New York City has gotten hit really very hard. And as you remember, there was a period of time back then when more than 50% of all the infections and all the hospitalizations and even the deaths were focused around the metropolitan area of New York City. Now in New York City, they've got it right. They have their percent positivity, not quite as low as you all in Vermont, but really quite low to around 1%, which is that low baseline that I'm talking about. So it isn't a question of density or not. It's the question of what you did or did not do correctly. And from the numbers that I've seen, Vermont has done it correctly. We'll now move on to John from VPR. Thank you. Dr. Fauci, do you think lives would have been saved if Bob Woodward had gone public back in February or March about what he had learned about the president's thinking about the severity of the pandemic or if the president had sounded the alarm earlier? You know, obviously that's a very politically charged question. I really don't think that you can make those kinds of direct extrapolations because on every public health crisis that I've ever been involved with, and as the governor says, it goes back, you know, to six administrations back to the early 1980s, you could always say what would have happened should have happened or could have happened. And I think that is not productive because all it does, I think is intensified divisiveness. So my feeling is always when I got asked that question and I don't wanna be waffling away from it, but is it's best now to look forward about what we know now and what we've been through and how we could best address it. So rather than looking backward and counting the number of hospitalizations or deaths that could have been saved, I actually prefer to look forward and say, we're entering into the fall and the winter. I really wanna see as many states as possible do that with as low a test positivity as possible, similar to Vermont, because if we do that, we can come out at the other end of this because when we get a vaccine, and let me get to that point because we haven't mentioned it yet, which I think we'll be, you know, knowing that we have a safe and effective vaccine by November or December with availability of doses by January, February, if you combine a low rate the way Vermont has with a vaccine that has a reasonable degree of effectiveness, i.e., you know, 70, 75%. I think as we get into 2021, we are gonna be in good shape and that's what I'm hoping for. It's aspirational, but I think we can do it. Thank you. Now go to Andrew from the Caledonia record. Yes, good morning, Dr. Fauci. My newspaper covers what we call the Northeast Kingdom, which is the most rural corner of Vermont and has some of the lowest total cases as well as cases per capita in the state. So first, if you need to get away from it all, please consider this a standing invitation. I'm wondering though, what message do you have for people in low case regions like ours that may become complacent about sustaining safety protocols and do rural regions have any unique vulnerabilities when it comes to the virus? Well, you know, I'm glad you brought that up because you gave me the entry to try and say something that I didn't want this briefing to go by without my emphasizing it. At the same time that I'm giving kudos to Vermont for doing so well, the message that I'd like all of the citizens of the state to hear is that this virus is a formidable foe. You give it an opportunity to reemerge its ugly head. Whether you're in the beautiful rural area of Vermont or in the middle of Manhattan or the Bronx, that virus is gonna take advantage of that. So please, you've done so well, don't let your God down because if we do, we are gonna see surges that are gonna put us back to where we were months and months ago. This becomes particularly important as we enter the colder season of the fall and the winter. So good question. Let's everybody keep our God up and not be complacent. I'm gonna use my moderator, Paragative, to allow another big fan, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Levine, an opportunity to ask a question or two. Good morning. Thanks for reinforcing a message that I've been trying to reinforce over many, many press conferences. And thanks from myself personally and from Vermonters for all the qualities you've just shown us during this short time with you, your leadership, your replacement of science over politics, and your staunch focus on protecting the health of everybody in the country. I'd like to pick up on the vaccine theme a little bit. Frankly, I'm surprised I get to ask this question because I thought you would have had five or six already about vaccines. But clearly the buzz around the country is confidence in the safety and efficacy and in the scientific process regarding vaccines. Can you help Vermonters understand the research and the process of vaccine development and take them through this process at the federal level and tell them why they should trust the eventual vaccine that comes out of these trials? Yeah, thank you very much Dr. Levine. That's very important. And I'm glad you're giving me the opportunity to talk briefly about this. So the process of vaccine development is a scientific process that's ultimately decided at the end by a regulatory decision. We right now have six candidate vaccines that are in various stages of clinical trial in the United States. We're not the only country that's testing but we have a number of candidates. They have gone into trial quickly but I wanna emphasize to you all that the speed was because of very sophisticated technological advances that have allowed us to get a vaccine from the sequence of the virus which was published on January 10th by the Chinese into a phase one trial within a period of months rather than years and into a phase three trial that started on July 27th with two of the candidates and mid to end of August for the third candidate. The fourth will go into phase three trial at the end of September and the fifth and the sixth as we get into the fall. So getting to Dr. Levine's question, what about safety? There are multiple layers of checkpoints regarding both safety and efficacy. So the first of all, every trial has what's called a data and safety monitoring board that intermittently at predetermined points looks at the data carefully. They do it independently of the government, independently of the company and independent of the regulatory authorities. They are a group of scientists, statisticians, ethicists and others. And what they do is they say there's four possibilities. You look at what's going on in the trial and you say, we don't have enough data for a decision, keep the trial going. Second possibility, the data looks so even between the placebo and the experimental that you're never gonna get an answer. So you might as well just stop the trial. The third possibility is that there's a safety signal here. So wait a minute, be careful. We're either gonna stop the trial or delay it. And then the third, the fourth is the data are so good that we don't even need to go any further. Let's just get this thing approved. So you have an independent body. I think a good example than Dr. Levine is very familiar with this recently, there was a serious adverse event in one of the trials. Immediately the trial was put on pause, which I think is one concerning that there was a serious adverse event, but encouraging to know that we were looking at it really carefully and we stopped the trial to look at that. Now, as we proceed, the question that I think underlies Dr. Levine's concern is that will there be political pressure to push a vaccine through that might not be proven to be truly safe and truly effective? In addition to the data and safety monitoring board, you have advisory committees to the FDA and the FDA's pledge that they will not put a vaccine for approval unless it's clearly shown to be safe and effective. And the final thing you put on there is you have the scientific community, like myself and Dr. Collins, who's the director of NIH, who very carefully look at that and are not shy about giving our scientific opinions. So I would think that we trust the FDA. They have pledged that they will do what the science tells them to do. So I can tell you based on my experience and what I'm seeing, if there's a vaccine, which I'm fairly certain there will be, that safe and effective, I for one would not hesitate to take it, nor would I recommend, nor would I hesitate to recommend that my entire family do it. So I feel good about it. Thank you. Thank you. Well, again, Dr. Fauci, we know you have a hard stop at 11.30. We could keep you here for the next couple of hours asking you questions, but we're grateful for your taking the time to speak to Vermonters, reinforce what we're doing, what Dr. Levine, entire team is doing, as well as what Vermonters have accepted. And I give all the credit to Vermont and the people of Vermont for our success, but I thank you for reinforcing that. And we look forward to you coming up here to visit and explore the Northeast Kingdom and we'll give you one of those maple creamies when you do come up. And if you need a place to bring your family that's safe, you know our numbers. All right, thank you very much, Governor. I appreciate that. I appreciate your office of hospitality. I am an avid ice cream fan and I look forward to putting syrup on there. Thank you and congratulations on doing a terrific job with your state. And thank you for the opportunity of joining you today. Yeah, thank you again. Have a great day. You too. So with that, and I apologize to all of those who are on the phone who didn't have an opportunity to ask questions, but the time was limited. But again, worthwhile for Vermont and for all of us. So with that, we're going to start with phase two, part two of the program. And I'm going to ask Secretary French to come up and give an update on schools. Thank you, Governor. Good morning. I was concerned like all of our monitors to learn positive first positive cases of COVID-19 in our schools over the weekend. Although we anticipated having positive cases in our schools is still very concerning. Both school districts are taking necessary precautions. However, the preparations and plans these school systems made over the summer to manage cases of the virus are being followed. And I expect these schools will quickly return to their normal operations. Of course, normal operations is not what it used to be. Schools are now required to follow stringent guidelines when implementing in-person instruction and have the flexibility to shift among hybrid learning options. I think this planned flexibility is probably the most important feature of our new normal in education, but it will take some time for all of us to get used to. This flexibility can explain why the response to these positive cases played out differently in these districts and underscores why some measure of local flexibility is necessary in responding to the dynamics of this unprecedented emergency. Both districts applied our mandatory state-level health guidance and created plans to implement that guidance within the specific operational considerations of their school districts. Both superintendents consulted with the health department as required to report the positive cases. The districts then provided additional information to enable the health department to begin the essential and necessary work of contact tracing. Both superintendents also responded with effective communications using information provided by the state to alert parents and the communities to the situation and describe the next steps. The superintendents, however, ultimately made different decisions based on a consideration of their specific operational situation. Hartford High School is a regional high school with an integrated technical center serving students in two states. CrossFit Brook Middle School, on the other hand, is a self-contained middle school of about half the size. The Hartford superintendent decided that the high school could return to its hybrid schedule essentially immediately. At CrossFit Brook, however, the superintendent was faced with staffing availability issues that directly impacted the school's ability to return to in-person instruction. This necessitated a decision to move to remote learning for the remainder of this week. The point I would make about our guidance for reopening schools is that, firstly, it's comprehensive and prescriptive, but how the guidance is implemented at the local level requires a consideration of the specific operational conditions of each school district, and these conditions vary significantly across the state. Positive cases in our schools should remind us all, however, that even though we are all excited for the start of the new school year, we have to remain vigilant and follow the health guidance to control the spread of the virus. I thought I'd also provide a quick update on our work through the Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperatives, or what we call VTVLC. VTVLC has seen tremendous growth in the last few weeks and is now experiencing some logistical challenges with the start of school. VTLVC was originally organized about 10 years ago under a cooperative model. If the district wanted to enroll students, it would first have to contribute a teacher to teach a course on the system. For every teacher who agreed to teach a course on the system, a school would receive a certain number of course hours that it could be used to be enrolling at students. In response to the pandemic, we supported the expansion of VTVLC's programs to meet the growing needs for remote learning. For example, VTVLC created a new to-go option, which allows teachers to teach their own students using VTVLC infrastructure and course content. There are currently now about 860 Vermont teachers teaching courses under this to-go option. Curriculum provided under this option largely comes from Florida Virtual School, which provides a variety of courses, including advanced placement and honors courses. Additionally, VTVLC now offers a complete elementary school curriculum. The expansion of VTVLC has been very helpful to meet the remote learning needs of our students, but its ability to scale is still somewhat limited based on this original cooperative model. In the last couple of weeks, there have been many additional requests for student re-enrollments, but these requests have not been necessarily matched by new teachers coming into the system, which has led to some of the bottlenecks that we're now seeing. I'm confident these issues will be addressed in the coming weeks, but it does require everyone to work together. It's not a simple fee-for-service model. And I would say that using VTVLC is just one option for school districts. Many school districts have other remote learning options. I do think that how we use remote learning in Vermont will be one of the most lasting impacts of this emergency honor educational system. All in all, I think the reopening of our K-12 schools is going well, in spite of the small number of positive cases and the logistical challenges with provisioning online learning. It's been tremendous effort on the part of our school personnel, and I'm very proud of their work. In the last few days, I've had been in frequent contact with superintendents and principals to understand how it was going, both positives and negatives. As you would expect, the positives are largely associated with seeing students and teachers working together again. It's important to remember that they have not been together since March, not just the summer vacation, almost six months. The negatives were largely focused on logistics or frankly just being tired after all the hard work and preparations that were necessary over the summer. I thought I would read a quote from one principal when she was asked, how did the opening of school go? I think it summarizes the thinking of many educators pretty well. It was nearly six months since we last had our school filled with students. We changed nearly everything to meet the full set of expectations, both required and recommended. We sent home a two page letter with new routines and provided multiple videos to support the changes that were necessary. At the end of our letter, we added, we know from our experience this summer that when our children are back, they will feel safe, loved and happy to be here. The changes will become the norm and the joy of being together will be a focus. That was so true, she said. The anxiety gave way to pure joy as the children got off the bus, walked or were dropped off. We worked as a full school community to make the smooth, smart to the ear happen. Now our focus will shift to maintaining these new routines so that we remain safe and hopefully our greater community does as well. That will allow us to continue to provide in-person instruction which is something we all need. That concludes my update. I'll now turn it over to Dr. Levine. Thank you. Most of my comments this morning will be restricted to the school reopening. Knowing that we've spent a fair amount of time already. Well worth it time with Dr. Fauci. Just in terms of a general update, there were seven new cases reported yesterday, total in the state. That brings us just over the threshold of 1,700 cases to 1,702. Number of deaths still has remained stable at 58 as has our percent positivity rate remain quite stable. The only other piece of news is I had my weekly call with all of the colleges in the state earlier this morning and if I could characterize that, it was tremendously upbeat. I felt like I was talking to proud parents who had chaperoned their students through the beginning of their school year successfully. Getting to the topic at hand. As you've already heard, the health department was informed earlier this week on a small number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 associated with two schools in Vermont. Because these were the first cases reported since the start of the school year, I want to take a few moments to share with you the actions being taken. While we obviously hope to avoid cases once schools reopened, as we've said all along, this is not unexpected. First and foremost, I want the parents, families, students, teachers, staff and administrators at these and all of Vermont schools to know that I've been preparing for this since schools first closed at the start of the pandemic that we are ready. The health department was informed of the cases through laboratory test reporting on Saturday, Sunday. That day, our epidemiology team reached out to school officials and have been working closely with them since to identify anyone who may have been affected or exposed. The contact tracing team has been reaching out to close contacts to provide the guidance they need and to identify anyone who may need to quarantine. As I've said before, Vermont's contact tracers have been leading the nation by reaching 96% of people within 24 hours. Everyone who may need to take action to protect themselves or others will hear from us quickly. As of this morning, of the 23 people identified thus far as close contacts that cross at Brooke, we've reached out to all of them, providing recommendations and quarantining guidance. The investigation at Hartford is continuing, but thus far, there have been no associated close contacts. As you know, this is a key part of protecting Vermonters and containing the spread of the virus. And I again ask all Vermonters, if they get a call from us, please answer the call. At this time, there are fewer than six confirmed cases associated with the two schools, whose names have already been made public across at Brooke Middle School in Duxbury and Hartford High School. I wanna pause for a moment. I know that people want to know exactly how many cases there are and among who. And let me assure everyone that people will have all of the information they need to protect themselves and their loved ones and for communities and schools to take all the necessary actions. Well, please understand, we have an obligation to protect the health privacy of individuals, which we've exercised in all other types of outbreaks, whether they were community outbreaks, whether they were at healthcare establishments, whether they were in childcare or what have you. So while we will err on the side of providing as much information as possible, when there are fewer than 25 people at a school or other facility, cases that number from one to five will be referenced as fewer than six cases. We'll continue to work closely with schools and their communities, keeping people informed. In addition, we're working on sharing school data in a manner that is both transparent and protects the privacy of individual students and teachers. School level data will be made available in the coming days. As I've said before, this is the work of public health. In any situation, especially involving our schools and our children, we'll ensure everyone has the information they need with the goal of keeping schools healthy and open. And as a reminder for everyone, we have to continue to think of this unfortunately as the new normal at least for a while longer, which means an essential part of reducing the chance of outbreaks and illness in all of us is keeping up and building into our everyday lives the key steps to staying healthy and preventing the spread of virus, just like Dr. Fauci reinforced, and we've stated here quite frequently, wear a mask, be physically distanced by six feet or more, avoid crowded spaces, wash your hands a lot, stay home when you're sick. Thank you and we'll return this back to the governor. Thank you, Dr. Levine, and I'll have Rebecca take the wheel here. Beginning with Lisa from the Waterbury Roundabout. Good morning. Thank you, Dr. Levine, for talking about our school here and our district, the Harwood District where Waterbury is. I had one quick question on the way you described the approach that was taken and the fact that you said the 23 people that were close contacts had reached out to all already. Does that mean that you actually contacted them or that you just left messages? I'm wondering if that means that you've actually had conversations with all of those people. Yes, not I, but the contact traces have conversations with all 23. Right, right, of course. Okay, my main question has to do with basically in the situation where you have the staffing affected to the point where they had to decide not to open for in-person instruction this week, will the health department help out in a situation like this to try to streamline the testing for the teachers and the staff so that they're not on their own to try to schedule their testing and so they can get information back as soon as possible that would affect whether the school would be able to move ahead with reopening again soon. Sure, so you raise a lot of important points that we need to cover. First of all, there are public health reasons to not open the school or to keep the school closed and public health guidance regarding that. In this particular instance, public health guidance was not necessarily to close the school. Second, there are numerous other reasons that a school may not be able to operate under these conditions. Some may have to do with staffing and other facility issues. So it's completely within the school and the superintendent's priority to make a decision regarding the school that isn't actually dictated by public health, that is part of the public health problem that they are confronted with. Thirdly, there is actually no need for abundant members of the school community to be tested. Once the contact tracing is over, the people who have been identified as contacts and per CDC recommendations that we are reinforcing here in Vermont may have the opportunity to get tested, but they are already quarantined. So they are out of any opportunity to transmit the disease to others in the school environment. One point we've been trying to make very clear all along is that quite often in a school environment, it may be isolated to a specific cohort of students that may be isolated to a specific classroom. It does not mean it is a school-wide phenomenon. And in fact, with the public health guidance that opened the schools, it's common to have what we would call potting or cohorting of students who actually aren't cross-reacting with other students, teachers who are with a group of students and not necessarily migrating to numerous other groups of students. So it really facilitates the ability to isolate those who might be at risk from the rest of the broader population. So though testing opportunities are actually being made available to these communities, and I think that's very appropriate, that there is no reason that a teacher would not be able to return back to school if they have not been identified as a close contact, and a test would not be the requirement for them to get that. So I hope I've been clear on that. I don't know if Secretary French has any other comments to make, but. No, I think he's hearing something different. Does that answer your question well enough? Yes, thank you. So I'm happy to hear that because I know our schools have been trying to follow all those steps to group students in small groups so that they're not mixing very much in anticipation of something like this. Yeah, we can also. We can also publicly right now announce exactly where testing is available to our knowledge on this day. It's all been assembled in the last days. So hang on one sec. Thanks for the question. This is Mike Smith, the Secretary of Human Services, just so that everyone knows, there is a Vermont Department of Health pop-up on Thursday at the BOR Arena in Barrie. That will be going from nine to three. Also, there'll be a pop-up for those who are listening there in the White River Junction area. There'll be a Vermont Department of Health pop-up in the White River District office from nine a.m. to three a.m. You have to register for these pop-ups. You can go on to the registration site at vermont.force.com forward slash events and you can find the self registration form there. In addition, we are just finalizing a testing opportunity in Waterbury for tomorrow from eight to 12 that Central Vermont Medical Center is going to be facilitating. That will be at the Waterbury State Complex. There'll be more details to follow in a little while. We're just putting that together. So there are plenty of opportunities. Plus, if somebody is symptomatic or is not feeling well, please call your physician. There's the Central Vermont Medical Center Family Practice in Waitsfield. There's one also in Waterbury. Please call your primary care provider as well. They can arrange a test as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Tom V.T. Digger? Question. In the spring when the coronavirus surfaced, the Department of Health was very quick to develop a dashboard so that people could track the patterns of the spread of the virus around the state. It's six months from there. And the agency of education has yet to do the same with it for a dashboard for schools around Vermont. Why is that? And when can we expect it? Secretary French. Yeah, schools just opened, obviously. We've created a reporting map in cooperation with Department of Financial Regulation on the status of school reopening plans. As I've indicated previously, we're gonna do a data collection every month to monitor to what extent districts are implementing remote in-person and so forth. In terms of the COVID cases, that information would be on the Department of Health's website as well, along with their other COVID information. And we're still in the process of finalizing with the Department of Health team our approach. You heard Dr. Levine mention counting the cases in 25 and six in cases and so forth and under. So we're very close to finalizing that approach now, but that would be on the Department of Health's website. Also Tom? Is there a plan in there? When is it available? And how come it's taken six months? We've just recently started working on it with the advent of reopening schools last week. I think we're very close to finalizing our approach to that and hopefully very soon. Okay, we'll move to Lisa at the Valley Reporter. Good morning, thank you for taking my call. My questions are both about the related to masking. And at the CrossFit Book Middle School outbreak, Dr. Levine mentioned there were 23 close contacts. And I'm curious if masks and adequate social distancing protocols are followed in schools, it would seem that, well, I guess I'm curious why two student COVID cases would require 13 staff, including six core teachers and multiple students to quarantine. Dr. Levine. Thanks for that question. I think when Dr. Fauci mentions not letting our guard down and trying to adhere to all the things we adhere to, it's because all of these things are synergistic. They're all additive, they work together, but none of them is absolute. And especially when you take away the one, meaning try to be outdoors as much as you can and not indoors. And you are for prolonged periods in an indoor environment. Everything else is essential to adhere to, to maximize your protection. But nothing is a hundred percent. So we still operate by those rules when we're doing the contact tracing and try to err on the side of safety more than anything else. So it just happens that people are for more prolonged periods of time together. And we have to just take that into account more so than more casual interactions outside of the outdoor environment. Hope everything's okay on the other end of the line. The dog's got excited. And my other masking question is about state guidelines requiring masks for students in school but only recommending them for students in these off-site learning hubs. Especially given that there's students mixing in these hubs that are out of their population. Secretary Smith's gonna address that. I know I did get a question about that recently that I've referred to my school and maternal child section just to make sure that our guidance is as explicit as it needs to be. It should be masking in these child care hubs unless they're under two years old. Do you have a specific example that you, you don't have to give it to the world here but if you could email me the specific child care hub that you're talking about, we can follow up on that. Yes, I will do that. Thank you. To both of you. Thank you. Joe, the Barton Chronicle. Question I guess is for Dr. Levine. On Friday I asked about your sense of how the group of cases in Orleans County might or might not be related is that you were going to be discussing it with your team. I'm just curious as to what the results of that discussion were. Yeah, thank you. You know, you're asking the question actually precipitated an email from a citizen if you will a tip, asking us to incorporate with, it wasn't asking us to do this, but it ended up in us incorporating an additional question regarding attendance at an event for those cases that we learned about in Orleans. We have not yet found again any linkage or anything that would tie that all together and in the last, I would say at least four days we've not seen any Orleans County cases additionally either because we were kind of intrigued as you were with the fact there had been a number of them. So I can't report to you any again specific preceding commonality that you should know about. I think this is something that you'll keep an eye on in the event that another case or more might pop up which of course we wish it wasn't. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm heartened by the fact no more have popped up but at the same time, I do need to let you know that over the course of six months we do occasionally see a number of cases from somewhere that peaks our curiosity a little bit and we look into that each time but there are times that I think just from a statistical standpoint this happens and we just accept that where we can't actually make any leaks. But thanks for the question. Thank you. I have one other question which is also a follow-up. I'm wondering how war progress has gone in distributing the $300 additional payment I guess for the month of August is going for unemployment. Yeah, thank you, Joe. My Carrington is probably on the line but I understand that we're getting very close and we'll possibly be issuing those payments within the next few days. Have I got that right, Commissioner? Thank you, Governor. You are correct. So we have begun and are collecting the required COVID qualifying reason certification and right now we are working with both our IT staff as well as our check issuer and the Treasurer's Office to finalize the payment process. Our goal is still to get at least the first round of checks out this week. Thank you very much. All right. Before I go to the next caller I do just want to remind folks that it is 12 and we still have 15 in the queue. So just clear that in mind. Kat, WCAS? Hi, a couple questions for the Governor. Climate resolution bill. Are you going to veto, pass that your signature, sign it? I know the deadline on that one's coming up. Yeah, the deadline's until tomorrow at midnight and you'll know within the next 24 hours. All right, so no decision yet? You'll just know in the next 24 hours. Okay. Senate is voting on Act 250 reforms. What are your thoughts on their latest proposal? As I understand it, and I may ask Secretary Moore to add her insight, but I don't believe that the last version of the Senate bill is all that we'd hoped for. So we're a bit discouraged, but hopeful that we'll be able to see some improvement when there, if there is agreement or no agreement between the House and the Senate and there may be a conference committee and then we'll be able to get further along than we see in the Senate at this point. Do I have that right, Secretary? Yes, yes, Governor, you do. The bill that the Senate is looking at this week is very narrow compared to the original intent of the legislation, which was to be a fairly significant review in overhaul of Act 250 at 50. At this point, we're down to just two pieces and we have both some concerns about the pieces that are in there, but more to the point, some really significant concerns about what's no longer in the bill. So, Secretary Moore, could you just really quickly outline what are some of the things you would need to see in that bill, have it meet the goal that you were looking at? So, the draft that the Senate is looking at includes provisions related to forest fragmentation and recreational trails. Other pieces that we felt were really core to any Act 250 bill would also include looking at forest-based processing and other businesses related to forest products, as well as providing some incentives for compact development in our downtown village centers and other designated areas. Both of those pieces are essential to a balanced package and no longer part of the bill. Thank you. You're welcome. Mike Donahue, the Islander. Thanks, Rebecca. I was just wondering if there was an update from last week's unanswered question on the breakdown of colleges and universities that were tested and positive cases reported on each. We thought we were going to get the state numbers that afternoon. Instead, we were told those checking individual websites for the colleges turns out those numbers don't add up to the numbers that the state is offering. So, readers remain interested in the actual reports from each institution much like you provide for each individual town. I was just wondering if those are going to be a regular presentation each week as we suggested five times or two seconds ago? A couple of things, Mike. I believe Commissioner Pichek is trying to put that information together for you as we speak. I'm not sure if he's on the line right now. He's not, but we'll get that to you and we'll present it on Friday as well. But from our standpoint, we don't know where the different number came from, but then we went back through, I believe, and the numbers do add up to what we said they were. So, I'm not sure where the abnormal number came from, but our numbers add up to what we said. I understand, but we don't know what institutions do have and what numbers freeze one as well as before. Again, we'll get that for you, Mike, but I'm just disputing. You said that there was another number that doesn't add up to hours, and you're saying that hours must be wrong, and I'm saying our number, we believe our number's right. Well, if I said that you were wrong, I'm not saying anybody's wrong. I'm saying the two numbers don't match. It reminds me of the state troopers that got arrested for whether they ate 900 tickets or nine tickets. The numbers don't match. They do match, Mike. They do match. We went and checked. They match. Well, maybe you're looking at other institutions that I'm not. We'll get that for you, Mike, because we think it's important to be as transparent as possible, and Mike Pichek will provide that information, and he'll get it to you, but I think we'll provide it on Friday as well. Okay, great. Thanks very much. Thank you. Tim, Vermont Business Magazine? Hi, Dr. Levine. I'm listening to Dr. Fauci. His confidence in the vaccine is pretty strong, but there's been some surveys suggesting that Americans aren't going to, you know, a certain percentage aren't going to get a vaccine, and China has suggested that not everyone there will require a lot, even when there is. Is there a certain percentage of people that would need to be either vaccinated or have antibodies previously to achieve herd immunity, which you feel confident that we're in a safe place? You know, that number keeps changing, and I believe no one has settled on the exact number yet. Originally, I think it really was in the 60 to 70 percent range. I've heard that forecast go down towards the 50 percent range, so I'm going to hedge it because I'm not sure science understands in a way that the scientific community can agree on. But I will say, and this was part of my rationale for asking Dr. Fauci the question, when someone with his experience and stature in candor can stand up there and say, Americans can trust what we will provide them and having gone through an appropriate, rigorous scientific process, having gone through validated measures of efficacy and safety, Americans should have more confidence in that. I can understand why more of the recent surveys have shown lower levels of confidence because of perhaps politicization of that process, but I think Dr. Fauci's comments should really be respected regarding the low likelihood that politics could play the role here and that science will trump politics. Commissioner Levine, who's going to ask Dr. Fauci what he thought about a mandatory vaccination? And I guess I'll ask you, if you're moving any closer to saying, based on what you understand about the, as he says, the quality, safety and effectiveness of the vaccine that's coming our way, are you moving towards embracing the idea of mandatory vaccination? I think we have a long ways to go before we come to that conclusion, but I'll let Dr. Levine answer. I like the conciseness of that answer, and I'd like to echo that. Clearly, anything is on the table. We talk about all kinds of things, but there is no serious consideration at this point in time to mandating any vaccine. And I would hope that words of encouragement that we've heard this morning would increase the potential uptake of a good vaccine without anyone in the country, state, the country itself, or what have you, needing to take such a measure. Newport Daily Express? As soon as in reference to the unemployment, the weekly work search question, if there's to be confusion, if a person follows a claim, that if they claim no, they're not looking for work, if they're not supposed to or don't have to look for work, that their claim is not crossed up. As he said, if confusion is whether or not you have to look, if there is a work requirement or not. Commissioner Harrington. Sure. Thank you, Governor. The question has been on the application since pre-COVID and to minimize the confusion of removing it and then having to add it back. It has been on the application, both PUA and traditional UI. There is an automatic flag that goes up if someone says they haven't been doing their required work search. However, we've been monitoring those and if an issue pops up, we've been able to clear those to my understanding. I'll certainly go back to the team here and make sure that's the case, but to my knowledge, we are tracking that and if someone gets stuck in the process, we are able to still process the claim. We just have to do a manual clear on the issue. Is it happening frequently? Not to my knowledge. I was made aware of one just last week, but that, to be honest, is the first one I've been made aware of. You know, we went into this knowing that there wasn't a work search requirement in there and I believe we made some changes within the system. There are a lot of things that we're able to autoclear. I believe it's maybe one of them, but we're also talking about 50-year-old technology. So even the things that we set up in autoclear can sometimes get hung up and when they come to our attention, we're able to manually clear them. And like I said, in this case, I've only been made aware of one and that was just at the end of last week. Great, thank you very much. Thank you. Erin, BT Digger. We published an article yesterday reviewing different countries and states travel restrictions and pointed to various success models of countries that have successfully closed their borders and within states and were able to occur after April. But did not, on the whole, have a lot of night things to say about state-level travel restrictions in the U.S. Data seems to show that for the most part, you might think in Alabama, but they haven't said that. For the most part, people do not follow these travel restrictions well enough to truly prevent cases from spreading from state to state. They gave the example of remote areas like Las Vegas and Hawaii that didn't pose these restrictions, but nevertheless had outbreak and after a couple of months. So these pieces of evidence indicate anything about potential drawbacks of Vermont's travel model and if so, is there any discussion about rethinking the way that we currently implement it? I think Commissioner Pichek can speak more eloquently about our process, but ours is a little bit safer than most, I believe, more stringent than most. He showed, I think it was last week, the three different models, the European model, our model and a model used by other states. And ours isn't as stringent as the European model, but it's close. But we are, you know, closer to ahead of most other states. So what we've been doing, I think it's not foolproof by any means, but it does provide a level of guidance that I believe provides for the protection of Vermonters and all that we can do is go back to our own number of cases and the low positivity rate that we have here in this state and say that something is working and it's not perfect, but it's better than most. But I think, Commissioner Pichek isn't here today, but on Friday, that might be a good question for him to answer. Thank you. Thanks, Aaron. Greg, the county courier. Hi, Governor, if I can start with a follow-up on Friday's question about the raffle that the Zuckman campaign was running, you referred us to the Attorney General's office to say neither one has gotten back to us with the legality of that. The Attorney General's office referred us to Secretary of State. Are you aware of anybody looking into that and are you going to ask that anybody look into that? Yeah, we are not. We're not asking anybody to look into it. I think if you're referring it to the attention of the Attorney General and the Secretary of State, I think they can handle it. And then for today, we're hearing frustrations from community members attending public meetings. We're unable to hear or understand speakers that are wearing masks. I'm wondering what the state guidance is, either from municipalities or administration officials when they're out speaking to the public. If they're allowed to remove their mask, I'm wondering if there's enough social distance inside, much like you and others are doing today. Yeah, I think it comes down to common sense. I might ask Dr. Levine to add to this, but from my standpoint, it really is about common sense. If you're going to be inside and you need to speak, make sure you're distance from others and make sure that it's very difficult for us a few months when you're at a podium like this. It's easy to touch the podium as you're speaking and we're trying to make sure that doesn't happen, but it's hard to keep yourself from doing that. But if you do have a podium or one common place for everyone to speak, I would say if you could wipe it off every now and then, even in between speakers that probably would be best. But just taking the proper safeguards and adhering to the guidance, staying six feet apart, don't have any symptoms if you're six, stay at home and wear your mask as much as you can. And it's taken some getting used to, but when I move away from the podium, I try and put on my mask as well. So just taking and hearing those guidelines and using your common sense, I think we can get through this, but I understand the difficulty of some people in hearing through a mask as well. I don't mean anything else to hear. So there's no strict guidance for state employees if they're out speaking to the public, but if they feel like they're out of safe distance and they couldn't take that mask off. Yeah, that would be my guidance, but I don't think there's been anything not put in writing on that. Okay, thank you, Governor. E3, WCAX? Governor Scott, there is currently a Change.org petition as opposed to your mask mandate and calling for wearing a mask to be a choice. I know you've addressed this somewhat, well, a lot actually, but have you seen this petition and what is your response to it? I have not. First, I've heard of this petition. Maybe you could tell me a little bit more about it or where it originated from. Two Vermont residents started it. It's on Change.org now. It has about exactly 145 signatures pretty simply just saying to oppose the mask mandate. You know, I heard Dr. Fauci talk about this. I think the question earlier was why not a mandate throughout the country and his answer I thought was appropriate. There are different areas of the country that would just resist doing anything like this. There was that's why we did what we did or what I thought was right. It was a while before we implemented the mask mandate but at a certain point where I thought it was going to be effective and I thought there was going to be more acceptance and looking at the numbers in other states increasing. I just thought it was the right time to implement. So we've been successful here in Vermont and I know it's thought 100%. But I've been really pleased with the results. I think people are doing a great job wearing the mask and we are going to get everyone. But from my standpoint it's been essential to continue the numbers that we have even as we've opened up the economy even as we've had more people coming into the state our case numbers have stayed the same. So if we want to continue to open up the economy if we want to have more interaction, if we want to travel more wear your mask. It's pretty simple and it's a prevention tool that I think is proven to be essential. So again from my standpoint we're going to continue until we have that vaccine that Dr. Fauci has spoken about and then we get over the tipping point so that we can get back to some sort of normal. But until then we'll continue to have the mask mandate. Thank you. Her WVMT WVMT we'll go to Steve N-E-K-T-B You there Steve? Hello? Yeah I'm right here can you hear me? Well we can, we've missed you for the last week or so. I wondered if you were okay. Yeah sure I had a dog emergency thank you very much for your kind consideration. Quickly all this talk about creamies made me wonder I've seen these things being made and they're made from a powdery substance and I think they're called creamies because they have no ice cream in them. But anyways when I hear about the mass of the vaccine mandate questions Dr. LaBean I guess this question would be for him my mom was in a Nazi labor camp, my dad was an MP at the Nuremberg trials. Aren't mandatory vaccines wouldn't they run a file of the Nuremberg laws doctor? I'll have Dr. LaBean try and answer that. I have an MD and not a JD after my name so I really have no idea to be honest. But again we are not choosing to mandate a vaccine at this time in Vermont. Sure the question seems to keep coming up and I was wondering if maybe we should investigate it before we get to that point. Interesting thought I'm just not sure we're going to get to that point. That would be great I think it would be fine if it were voluntary for the governor. We have learned from other vaccine experiences that sometimes the uptake of vaccine will be greater if you don't mandate it. You may create resistance that you didn't anticipate. So it won't be our prime strategy to encourage the population to receive a vaccine that's safe and efficacious. Proceed on with your other question. Yeah, thanks this is for the governor Governor I've seen that obviously you've extended your executive order again and some people have asked me if this is a moving target what is the criteria that you're looking for of what specifically is the criteria you're looking for that would cause you to not extend the executive order again? Well again when we can get everything back to normal we can open up our capacities to 100% and we don't have to worry about positivity rates and the rate of the number of infections coming into the state and throughout the region and throughout the country I believe that most other states are continuing with their state of emergencies as well. It's a vehicle for us to open up and release and get back again to normal I said before get to a place where we had a safe vaccine and we were able to get back to normal, open up the economy I'm not I don't relish the fact that we have a state of emergency at all I would prefer not to but it's the only mechanism we have to make sure that we're keeping Vermont safe at this point. Sure, but I mean is there a number on that? Is there a case positivity rate or because there's so many other different factors, other regional factors and other states and so forth that lead us to just who knows opening up the border might trigger another outbreak so we have a ways to go but the sooner we get there the better as far as I'm concerned. Obviously I had a this question would be for Dr. Fauci but maybe Dr. Levine could answer this one for me I've been Dr. Levine quickly I've been reading a lot about in the earlier days we're talking February, March and April the number of the people in cases that were misdiagnosed it seemed to be due to a lack of the test being available I'm not sure if it was reluctance to test people or if it was because a shortage of tests do you know why there there was a bottleneck or a shortage of tests in the beginning of this outbreak? I think that's almost a national type of inventory for the tests Steve, I mean we didn't nobody had the all the components of the testing that we needed as a country I don't think we were prepared so we did the best we could in the beginning I did a lot but we've increased that testing capacity significantly since those early days when we had the shortages of materials all across the board materials and at one point even thought we were going to run out completely but again we kept moving forward we've increased the inventory and we have maintained that inventory for the last couple of months to get us through the same a month or two down the road so I feel good about where we are today there's not too much to add to that we felt really good when we could do 50 tests a day in the beginning that was like a landmark goal we had set and we got past that and now we're doing so far a thousand tests a day so it's night and day but I think the data you're referring to is truly because there wasn't the testing capability across the country back in those early months and you couldn't be certain about a diagnosis and the very earliest experience which the CDC acknowledges some issue with was the quality of the test that they had they were the only ones who could do the test early on and then they began to allow states to do the same test but there were problems that delayed the delivery of that test to different states which they had to overcome before we could use them for real so you're right it was probably getting well into April and past when states could feel more comfortable about testing but even then we had to be thinking proactively like we have regarding having a diverse set of test platforms that require different kinds of collection kits and different kinds of reagents to do the test with so that you wouldn't be totally dependent on one supply chain and perhaps run out when you most needed it so we've been able to accomplish that thus far thank you all very much and Governor Relay Relay you're concerned to Jack Russell Mack for messaging last week and I'm sure he'll appreciate it so thank you all again Glad he's better Yeah, you're the best I've heard Julie Ross, NBC5 Ross, NBC5 we will move to Lily the Vermont cynic Lily Hi, can you guys hear me? We can Okay, great so this is a question for Dr. Levine as many colleges around the country have seen hundreds of cases and have had to close UVM only reports three new cases last week what do you think is contributing to UVM success and do you think we should remain helpful? Thanks for that question I definitely think that big part of UVM success is the fact that we had an aggressive testing and quarantine protocol upon the arrival of all of the students and through that we're able to pick out what few cases there were and predominantly but not exclusively students coming from other higher risk areas and then have the entire campus start if you will, on a level playing field the real goal and the real issue with why the semester has been designed the way it is where it's very compressed and there are no vacations no opportunities for students to return to their home states it's compressed between now and Thanksgiving is that these students will begin, if they haven't already to look like Vermont there are now students who presumably are free of COVID from where they arrived from and they're coming into a state that has a lower prevalence of COVID so they will assume that same level of risk that all Vermonters have but again that's no reason to sit back and let their guard down because they are involved in classrooms, they are involved in dormitories they need to be very respectful of the fact that all of the distancing and masking and other rules that we've really provided, the guidance is adhered to so they can maintain that success but I do think people should feel optimistic and that's why on the phone call with the colleges this morning there was quite a bit of optimism and real sense of accomplishment by those who were on the call because they felt that they really launched the process very well. Thank you April Burlington Free Press April Burlington Free Press okay sorry about that it didn't work the first time my question is for Dr. Levine and it's about flu season in California could you talk about when should Vermonters get the flu shot and when they can based on the availability of the shot and then also could you also talk about the differentiation between the symptoms of flu versus COVID-19 these were questions that if we had more time with Dr. Fauci we were going to present as well because these are really important points to reinforce point one is the flu vaccine is here it's not here in large numbers yet because it's just coming in but there are a number of practices that already have it a number of pharmacies that already have it so it's available at this time a good time to get the flu shot would be any time in the rest of the month of September or during October I wouldn't want people to wait too much each year this should be a year to err on the side of getting the flu shot earlier or not later the we hope that the experience of hand washing staying away when you're sick physically distancing and masking will reduce the level of flu in the community but we haven't tested that theory yet we hope that that's true and Australia's experience if it's weren't something to us in this hemisphere is that they had less of a flu season than usual it's really hard to differentiate the flu from COVID sometimes which is why companies are developing new tests that could test for both diagnoses at the same time and that would be our goal and that's rolling out very quickly so more to come on that when we have more information symptoms of the flu often people who get the flu feel like it hits them really abruptly high fever cough can have some chest discomfort with that usual viral symptoms of body aches et cetera can be runny nose to start but not the most prominent symptom unfortunately all of those things can happen with COVID as well so it's very hard often to differentiate and when you look at the list of symptoms that we talk about when somebody wants to get tested for COVID it includes things like the cough the fever shortness of breath the gastrointestinal symptoms which could be a little more prominent in COVID than the flu but it can happen muscle aches happen in both so this is why we are really encouraging people to get the flu shot so at least their chance of getting one of those two diseases is lessened and hopefully they won't get the other one as well so it's it's a challenge to differentiate the illness clinically I think the challenge is a little less if you're in a flu season where pretty much everybody has got the flu they come in with the same set of symptoms you make an assumption after a point in time that this next person has the flu in this era it's going to be a little hard to make assumptions like that if there's still a reasonable amount of COVID circulating in the community so it'll become very very challenging I would want people to know that there is a treatment for the flu and it would be important if one thinks they have the flu to be tested for the flu or to at least have their clinician evaluate them because there's a prescription for a pill that they can receive that will lessen the intensity and duration of that illness it won't just take it away magically but it will help ameliorate some of those symptoms with COVID we don't have such a magical pill that people can get just by calling the doctor and saying I've got COVID but for the people who are the sickest who are in the hospital we do have a number of treatments that will help lessen their illness as well as perhaps reduce mortality from the illness so it's important to at least connect with healthcare whether you think you have one or the other or can't tell the difference just so you can evaluate yourself of what opportunities there are for testing and potential treatment would I answer everything? you did it, thank you very much news 7 news 7 on mute well thank you all very much for tuning in today I thought it was an interesting program having Dr. Fauci reinforce everything that we're doing here it's been for the public good and we'll continue to do the good work and I hope all of you do as well thank you very much