 Good morning everyone. Obviously for those watching, this is in our typical COVID briefing. As you might have heard after our last briefing, we learned someone at both Tuesday and Friday's update attested positive for COVID-19. So myself, Dr. Levine, Secretary Smith and others are following the health department's recommendations and quarantining because we're considered close contacts. Fortunately, at this point, we all tested negative, but we'll be in quarantine until we can be tested again seven days after the last exposure. And for me, that will be this coming Tuesday. Now over the last year, all of us have had to adapt to technology quickly and it's changed life in so many ways. And as I'm sure everyone can relate, it doesn't always go as well as intended. So I appreciate your patience and thank you for bearing with us as we try this new format. Just for this update only though, hopefully we'll be back in person very, very soon. I'd also like to thank specifically WCEX, WPTZ and local 2244 for helping us make this work so we can update you on COVID and share important information about vaccines in particular. On Monday, we'll launch phase two of our vaccine rollout. Secretary Smith and Dr. Levine will go over the details, but as a reminder, this is for anyone who is over 75. The science on this is very clear. The older you are, the more likely you are to die if you get COVID. With our limited supply of vaccines in my world, we have a moral obligation to prioritize saving lives. Now, if we were getting more doses, we'd be able to vaccinate a broader group. But we have to deal with reality. And unfortunately, we're not getting as much vaccine as we want and need. So we must prioritize saving lives. We also believe the strategy will get us out of the state of emergency faster as well. By vaccinating those who are most susceptible to severe illness and death, we hope to reduce our hospitalization rate and the number of deaths we're experiencing more quickly. This will allow us to begin turning the spigot once again and relaxing all those restrictions we placed on everyone. Now, look, we want everyone to have the opportunity to be vaccinated. And if more supply of vaccine becomes available, we can quickly scale up and broaden eligibility. But until then, we will continue to protect those who took care of us over many, many years first. So with that, I'll turn it over to Secretary Smith to begin going over the details. Thank you, Governor, and good morning. Today I'm going to walk through phase two of vaccinations. First, only Vermonters who are 75 years old and older will be eligible to be vaccinated at this time. After we vaccinate everyone over 75, we'll move to everyone 70 and older and then 65 and older. And then as Dr. Levine has talked in previous press conferences, people with certain conditions. We're beginning with the older age groups because the data is clear. The older you are, the higher your overall risk of hospitalization and death. In fact, over 70% of Vermont's COVID-19 deaths have been Vermonters 75 and older. And more than 90% are over age 65. Given these facts and the limited number of doses states are receiving from the federal government, we have a moral obligation to take this age-based approach first. Vaccinating at risk for Vermonters first also helps all of us to get to the end of this faster because this is the fastest way to reduce the number of people who have severe illness. And this positions us to begin to venture down the path to that what we're all looking for is a return to normal much earlier than if we reduced the benefits of a limited amount of vaccine by giving it to people who are at very little risk of severe illness, complications or death. Please know when registration opens on Monday, there will be enough slots for all Vermont residents 75 and older. But again, you'll need to be over 75 to register next week. While we expect some bottlenecks in the first few days of registration, you will be able to get an appointment during the weeks we are scheduled. Now, I want everyone to be real, have realistic expectations. Your appointment may not be immediate or on the day you would prefer, but it will be within the five week period we've designated for everyone 75 or over. And this is very important. When you make an appointment, please keep it. No shows, late cancellations and disruptions to schedules, delays vaccines for others and may cause doses that have been prepared to be spoiled. We're working on plans now to reduce the chances of spoilage, but we need your help to be successful. We are planning 54 vaccine vaccine sites in 39 towns across the state and have made every effort to select sites as we did with testing, wherever monitors can easily access these sites. We'll start taking registrations Monday. Appointments will start on Wednesday. Please register for an appointment site that is close to your home. This is important because we've allocated doses based on the number of people 75 and older in each region. Now, here's some more detail on how registration will work. Starting on Monday, January 25 for monitor 75 years old and older can register to be vaccinated. We will release the website and phone number on Monday morning. Let me repeat that. We will release the website and phone number on Monday morning. We ask that you go online to register if you are able. If you are a relative or a friend or a person who is eligible, please offer assistance. We have a call in option as well with approximately 400 call takers. However, if calls flood in, wait times will be long. We will give out the website address and phone number to register on Monday. Like I said, when it is live and operational, it will be available on the health department website through social media posts and news release. The two ways to register will be through the website and through the call center. Folks should not call anywhere else to register because it just won't work. That includes hospitals, doctors, offices or pharmacies. We have information and resources on the health department's website at healthvermont, all one word, healthvermont.gov forward slash my vaccine to help for monitor through the process. These materials include an informational video that will be available today. Frequently asked questions that will be updated as we go along and a list of tips and do's and don'ts. For example, do register online if you are able and ask your relative and friends for help if you need it. Register close to home. Vaccines will be delivered to locations based on how many Mike, you're muted. I did that on my own governor. I just my computer did it. I apologize and I apologize to everybody else. Do everything you can to keep an appointment so that we maximize our slot usage each day. Be patient. If you can use the call center and you have to wait, please be patient and don't hang up and call and don't hang up and call back multiple times. It will just kick you to the back of the line each time. Don't call 211 or other health care providers or anyone else. Don't be discouraged. We have enough appointments for those who are eligible. The registration system is designed so that we can get all the information that is needed for your vaccines up front so that we can make the process at the vaccine sites much quicker and smoother when you show up. Here's the information you'll need when you register online or by phone. You will be asked for your name, your birthday, your address, your phone number, and an email address if you have one. You will be asked to verify your residency in Vermont. If you are not 75 years old or older, you should not register. You will be asked to answer a series of health questions that are important to know for the vaccination process. You will be asked for insurance information, so have it handy. But you do not have to have insurance or if you do not wish to give your insurance, you can still register. Again, it will be helpful to have your card for your primary insurance. Once you've finished answering these questions, you will be asked to select a vaccine clinic site. We urge you to select the nearest vaccination site to your home. Once you have selected the site, you should select the date and time from the menu of options available. Once you register online, you will get an automatic verification letter sent to your email. If you register over the phone, we will collect a phone number and email address if you have one so that we can issue you a verification. We can only register one person at a time online and through the call center because each slot and series of questions apply to just one person. So if you have a spouse or partner and you are both 75 or older, you will need to register individually. We all want a successful vaccine rollout. It will take all of us working together to get it done. It will take patience and understanding from all of us. We have worked really hard to set up an efficient system that will ensure we get everyone vaccinated that we can. Appointments will start at Clinic Statewide Wednesday, January 27th, and here is what you can expect once you come to your appointment. Please arrive on time for your appointment. Once you arrive at the location, you will be asked for your name and date of birth. You will be asked to sign a vaccine administration waiver consenting to receive the shot. Then you will be vaccinated. You will be asked to stay at the site for 15 minutes or so so that we can monitor for any immediate reactions to the injection. You will also get your scheduled, we will also get you scheduled for the second dose appointment while you are at the clinic so that you can leave with that follow-up appointment in hand. We cannot accommodate walk-ins. Please be sure you register in advance and show up on your scheduled day and time. Additionally, the Health Department's equity and community engagement team is working with key community partners to reach out to the BIPOC community to identify those 75 and older to answer their questions and ensure they are able to access the information and tools to register and be vaccinated. We are separately working through the logistics of reaching those who are 75 and older and homebound or unable to come to a vaccine clinic. We are collaborating with Regional EMS and Home Health Agencies on this and we'll have more information on the Vermont Department of Health and the Department of Aging and Independent Living websites soon. Now as I close, let me make a request to Vermonters, all of us. We have put this process in place to protect those at highest risk due to age as quickly as possible. But we cannot do this alone. We need your help and your understanding to make it successful. That means helping seniors get registered and it also means not trying to find ways around the system. We all care from one another and we all hope that more vaccine will be released and we can scale up the system to more Vermonters more quickly and are ready to do so if this happens. Vermont and Vermonters has had the most successful pandemic response in the country by the simple means of supporting each other and putting the needs of others ahead of our own wants. There is light at the end of the tunnel and vaccinating the most vulnerable first will get us out of this faster. We just need to stick together. Lastly, we also know the systems both phone and web registration will be busy beginning on Monday with tens of thousands of our elderly neighbors, family and friends who are anxious to get this vaccine. Just remember everyone will get a vaccine slot. Please continue to be patient and be kind to those working on this effort. They are putting in long days and long weeks and some are even volunteers helping us manage this unprecedented global crisis. Thank you for your continued support and generosity. We'll get the systems up and running on Monday and we'll begin this exciting phase in earnest on Wednesday. I'll keep you posted as we learn more and continue to move forward with this critical phase of our response. And now I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for an update from him. Thank you very much, Secretary. I will begin with a very brief health update. Our case counts continue to fluctuate in the 100 to 180 range. Today we are reporting 174 new cases after a low of 102 the day before. Recently on average, only 10% of cases are associated with outbreaks. More than half of people with COVID had contact with another person who had COVID. Only one in four had an unknown source of exposure. This tells us that so far people are more likely to get COVID-19 through close contact to another person who has the virus and less likely for their infection to be associated with an outbreak. Our positivity rate is still at a manageable and better than the nation 2.5%. However, we see that transmission is clearly occurring across our communities and often within households, which is why we continue to advise everyone to keep their guard up as you never know when you might be placing yourself in a risky situation, especially knowing the high rate of asymptomatic spread of this virus. While we are still seeing outbreaks across the state, they are not having as great an impact as they were in October and early November. Of the 52 outbreaks, our epidemiology team is currently following 21 are in long term care facilities or senior independent living. 19 are in workplaces and five are in schools. But since I last spoke with you 72 hours ago, Vermont has sadly recorded six more deaths. All among older Vermonters, half of those were residents in long term care facilities and half were living at home or being treated in the hospital, bringing the grim count to 169. Second lowest in the country, but still 169 lives lost. These deaths once again underline why we have chosen the current vaccine prioritization strategy to focus on these hard to accept numbers. Proof that the groups that highest risk for severe illness and death from COVID are almost exclusively in the population age 65 and older. It is our moral imperative to protect as best we can those who are at highest risk from this disease. We are still keeping a close watch on hospitalization trends. There are a stable 433 patients in the hospital and five are in the ICU. On another topic, we are continuing to meet weekly with our college health centers, and we'll be closely watching the day zero and day seven testing of returning students over the next several weeks. We have already seen the impact of positive cases and exposures in the student athletes who've been here for a few weeks already, who are trying to function under extremely cautious conditions, and with regular testing. Still, many of you have seen your favorite teams sidelined similar to the experiences of the NBA and the Boston Celtics recently and the NFL and college football playoffs. The testing protocols and surveillance testing programs that colleges in Vermont have agreed to for returning students will be more severely tested this month compared to when the students completed their fall semester. But I am confident that these protocols will serve them and our Vermont communities well, and we will keep your prized of the results. Now, Secretary Smith just led you through the details of the vaccine program, which I will not repeat. My vaccine comments today pertain to some encouraging statistics on the uptake of the vaccine. Who in our group one a population has opted in. Yesterday in a call with by state, which represents all of our federally qualified health centers, the consensus was that varying by the particular health center, somewhere between 70 and 92% of healthcare staff received vaccine. Now keep in mind, this is among people who might be considered to be the most critical in their view of the science. We should all take note of this. My prior surveys of some of the hospitals in the state had similar 70 to 80% rates. And this morning in my call with the hospital CEOs, most were again in this range with only one as low as 65% and several in the 90 to 92% range. So I would encourage Vermonters in general to take note of these statistics as you come to your own decisions around vaccination. And when we look at preliminary data from the long term care facilities, we see an astounding absolutely astounding 92% rate of vaccination among the residents of those facilities, which to me bodes very well for the next priority groups to be vaccinated. And staff at these facilities took the vaccine at a rate of 60%. Now that may seem low to you, but compare that to many rural states where the rate is estimated at below 40%. This is believed to be for a variety of reasons, including the high percentage of ethnically diverse, and often disenfranchised groups working in such facilities, who have often suffered historical injustice, and may not have high trust in government programs. Now my final comments today will be about quarantine, my quarantine. I thank the many people who've wished me well inquired about how I'm feeling. I've been asked countless times about the experience. So I'd like to tell you what it's been like for me. To start, I'm doing what we have asked every Vermonter to do during this pandemic, when they've been potentially exposed. This is how we keep others safe. Our exposure clearly fit the definition of one worthy of quarantine, which is a cumulative and not just concentrated exposure of over 15 minutes in a 24 hour period. In fact, the Health Department's own scientific publication, the one I discussed here a few months ago, drawn from videotape footage of a corrections officer's cumulative exposure to COVID positive inmates, which then led the CDC to modify its guidance on the topic. This actually helped us solidify the need to incorporate cumulative time of exposure into the equation. And we all know that these press conferences can run long. Like so many other Vermonters, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with a very professional and patient member of my contact tracing team. During this conversation, I received great and practical guidance, responses to all of my questions, as well as reference materials. Like the rest of us, I've had to rethink my daily patterns of life and find ways to keep myself apart from others, including my wife, even wearing masks at home to further limit exposure. I'm not saying it's easy. Even for me, it's not easy, but it's what we must do. Now, throughout the pandemic, Vermonters have had to be creative in their approach. And for those who could not quarantine in their own home, there have been state supported options for them. I am also asked about how the state's getting state business conducted. Well, like legions of Vermonters, even though many of us have been going to our offices until now, we have all have become quite versed in telework and conducting meetings on Zoom and Teams platforms. So none of that has really changed. We all know how to work remotely effectively. Personally, I can't wait to take advantage of another Vermont Department of Health trend setting and CDC policy altering innovation, the ability to test out of quarantine on day seven, assuming I'm still feeling completely well at that time. Thank you. And we'll turn it over to the question and answer period. Thank you, Dr. Levine. And thank you, Secretary Smith. So now we'll open it up. I did have a reporter who sent me his question via text. So I'm going to go ahead and ask that in the interest. Governor Kim McQuiston from the Vermont business magazine would like to know if you support Senator Sirotkin's proposal to increase funding for another housing bond given the one time money that appears to be available and given the very low interest rates we currently have. Well, thank you, Tim. I can make this short, although I'm sure Rebecca would like me to extend this for a while while we try and fix the technical problem. I don't want to get too far ahead of the budget. But as you might recall, I was very supportive of affordable housing in the state. And we had that housing bond a few years ago that was about $37 million that leveraged another $65 million to make it the single largest investment in housing Vermont has ever seen. But it doesn't end there. We have more to do. And again, I don't want to get ahead of my budget. I'll be presenting the budget actually on Tuesday. Hopefully after I get done quarantining and be able to present this for legislature. But suffice it to say that I still have priorities as well. Housing is important. It's important to our economy. It's important for some of what we're trying to do to attract more people to the state. So again, stay tuned. But there'll be something with housing in the budget. I will say one other thing, though, in terms of the bonding aspect of that, I am concerned about the bonding capacity of the state and what that means. I know Treasurer Pierce has talked about a lot. And I am concerned as well that we don't go too far. In fact, we have a debt affordability committee that meets and guides us on that. So we can't go and just borrow more money at this point. But there may be flexible money that we could use for on a one time basis. Okay, so it looks like we are having a widespread unmuting issue. So we can keep working on that and trying to fix it. But I have gotten some additional questions sent to me. So I'm just gonna, we're gonna just have to go with that method and apologize to those folks who would rather do the grilling themselves. Our question from Stuart Ledbetter, unless he can unmute right now, would be he is wondering your reaction to the Elderwood nursing home inspection that uncovered so many patient care deficiencies for the state have done more to intervene? Yeah, for my, for my standpoint, that's been concerning after reading the article this morning. But I'll let Secretary Smith answer that at this point. Thank you, Governor. Obviously, the inspectors who are employees of the Agency of Human Services, they are employees at Dale, the Department of Aging and Independent Living do inspections on behalf of CMS. They had done this inspection after there were some complaints during the outbreak at Elderwood. They did come up with with findings in this particular instance. At the same time, the Dale was working to make sure that those staffing concerns were being met working closely with UVM and closely with other agencies, home health agencies to bring in staffing because of those concerns. The steps now are that they Elderwood needs to develop a plan of correction for their for the staffing issues, including during an outbreak. And also, we will continue to do surprise inspections of that facility to make sure that it is that it is safe. Now, the state has done quite a bit in terms of reacting to outbreaks at long term care facilities. First, we have a rapid reaction team that that immediately responds to those sort of situations that are having those sort of facilities that are having an outbreak. Now, we also have a in a employee pool where we have employees that we can put or staffing that we can put into facilities there. But there those were unfortunate events. The state has worked closely throughout this pandemic with long term care facilities to now not only make their staffing needs available, but also to respond rapidly to situations. Okay, and Stuart's next question is, and again, this is from Stuart Leadbetter at NBC five. There was a teacher petition that they deserve to be in the queue for vaccinations and claimed opt in testing judgment doesn't tell the whole story and is looking for a comment. Well, again, I would I would say that we're quite confident in the in the data that we collected. And it shows, I think fairly clearly that those over the age of 65 are impacted tremendously by COVID in a negative way, either with severe illness or could cause death and a higher rate. So that's why we took the approach we did. Obviously, we'd like to open up as many sectors as possible and everyone get a vaccine. But as I said, my opening comments, we have to be realistic and we have to deal with reality. And the reality is we don't have enough vaccine to do everybody we want. So we have to prioritize. And from my standpoint, it's it's a moral obligation that we take care of those who've taken care of us and making sure that we're able to reduce the number of illnesses and the number of severe illnesses and the number of deaths that we've seen. So so again, I, I, we count on the our health experts to provide the data. And it seems clear to me, but I think I'll ask Dr. Levine if he could comment further. I think you did a excellent job, Governor. I don't have too much to add. I do believe that in a world that was perfect, we would have adequate vaccine to do multiple parts of our population. It's just very, very challenging at the current rate of allocation. And knowing the statistics keep mounting up and only further support the moral imperative that we've described here today. And I don't want to wait any longer. I want to see us be able to bring an end to that number of deaths in our older population. I do believe that there are states that are trying to vaccinate everyone who's in the older age demographic, everyone who is in the chronic disease, high risk illness demographic, and everyone who they call frontline workers. All I can see that that strategy would do would be to totally dilute out our ability to have an impact on any of those groups at the same time, because they would all have very small amounts of allocation to each group and never get to the entire area of concern. And it would put our older population at even increased risk to have a strategy that wasn't as focused as we're doing now. Secretary Smith, anything you'd like to add? No, Governor. I think both you and Commissioner Levine have covered it. Okay. I'm going to add just a little bit more if I if I may. You know, we're seeing this short supply throughout the country right now. I've talked to many other governors who are facing this same dilemma. And and some of them have opened up to a larger, broader sector, and they're facing not only just shortages, but they're running out of vaccines that like they can't fulfill their obligation. They've over promised. And we can't do that from day one. We've tried to be transparent, want to give you as much information as possible, and and to make sure that we're not over promising so that you're not disappointed when when something happens. So I am encouraged. President Biden understands the issue and in fact signed the Defense Production Act yesterday for more PPE, as well as more testing capacity, as well as more of the vaccine, which is what we need. So we'll see how that goes. But if we get more supply, we'll be able to open up further. I also would like to mention that we, you know, again, we're watching the data. We're watching the science. And what it tells us is that those over 65 are more impacted than any other category 65, 70, 75. Once we get to that that point where we have the 65 and over as well as those with severe chronic conditions that Dr. Levine had outlined previously, once we take care of those populations, then we'll have the ability to reassess and and and perhaps we'll have more vaccines available and we'll take a different approach then. But we have to take care of that 65 and over population first. And just a follow up clarification from Stuart and perhaps this is for Secretary French. He'd like you to address specifically the idea of the opt in surveillance testing and how that factors in to our vaccination decisions, which is is being implied by the by the petition and other comments. Yeah, hi, Secretary French. Yeah, I appreciate that prompt because that's that is one issue I think that probably should just be made more clear. The surveillance testing is, from my perspective, not connected to our making on vaccination. You know, our surveillance testing, which is one of the few if not the only one in the country that's using schools in this manner was started in mid November as part of a strategy to to understand the conditions of the virus in our communities. And it's proved to be a very useful tool. I think it's the governor, Dr. Lien said our decision making around virus is largely firstly predicated on the limited supply of the virus and the hard decisions we have to make in terms of the allocation of a scarce resource, not connected to the surveillance data. I provide a weekly update on the surveillance data for most weeks just to take a transparency to tell people here's here's what we're finding. And once again, that data shows that the positivity rate among school employees is significantly lower than the general population. That's that's the only point I'd make with the data. It's not connected to our decision making on vaccine. Okay, next up, I have a question from Kat at WCAX. This is to Secretary Smith. I know you urged people not to try to find ways around the system. If my inbox is any indication, there are a lot of people who are looking for loopholes for themselves. Will there be people at the vaccine site who will be checking ID and turning people away if they show up and are not 75 or from Vermont? When you register, when you register Kat, you will attest that you are 75 and you are 75 years old or older. And that's the criteria 75 years old and older and there's a residency requirement as well as as well as like I said, in the beginning, a lot of health related questions that will be asked. We did that upfront to make sure that you do attest to that. We will ask for your name when you when you arrive. And we will ask you to sign a waiver when you arrive. Those are the those are the processes that will go. I would hope that Vermonters would look and not try to quote unquote game the system here. This is this is a very vulnerable population. And what we need to do in these times, in my opinion, is to make sure that we help not hinder the vaccination process here for that this vulnerable population. As the governor mentioned, 65 and above and the statistics are right here. 70% of Vermont's COVID deaths have been Vermonters that have been 75 and older and and more than 90% are over the age of 65. So we are hoping that people won't gain the system and that when they sign up, they're attesting to their age and they're attesting to their residency. I also if I could, I just also add, first of all, there will be some who might go through the process online and think it's overly cumbersome or stringent and so forth. But it's made it's detailed so that we don't have to go through all that once you get to the site and then we can get the vaccine vaccine in your arm as quick as possible and get you on your way and make that as as as streamline as possible. The other the other issue is for anyone who is outside the category we're talking about. If you are trying to gain the system and you're you're not over the age of 75, you're taking a vaccine or vaccination away from someone who might be impacted. You're taking a vaccination away from someone who could die if they have COVID. So your your your your strategy might impact or hurt someone else. So I just want everyone to to be aware of that. It's just not the Vermont way. We need to again pay attention to who's who's at risk and make sure we take care of them first. So Kat's follow up is it sounds like people just have to say online that but no one is checking. It sounds like people just have to say online their age, but no one is checking. They have to online their age. They have to attest online their residency. OK, and her next question. You mentioned the effort to make sure vaccines don't get spoiled. What is the status on that? Will it still involve a rapid call registry for people nearby? Yeah, we're working on that Kat and hoping that we have that in place as well where we can call people and have them. We'll have the list of people. We'll have the dates of vaccination. We'll have their addresses as well. So and we'll have their phone numbers. So we we hope to have a rapid response for those people that are near. And final question. Couples who want to get the vaccine at the same time because they're trying to limit their travel and exposure. Will they be reasonably likely to get appointments at the same time? They'll they'll have to register separately and there could be I think if they're registering separately and they'll be fairly close in terms of when they're registering, they should be fairly close on when they can find the same dates. We hope that that will be will be the majority of people. If there are instances where that doesn't occur, we can we can talk and and try to accommodate. But we think that you're going to be registering separately. But if you're registering registering separately very close to one another, there's a dependent button on the registration that we think you're going to be accommodated fairly well. And we talked about this at at length in one of our many, many meetings and it's our hope, our directive that we'll be telling those on the front line, those administering the vaccinations to use some common sense during this. If you have a car coming through and there are two people in there, they're they're close. They're a couple and they just have to have different times. We want them to be vaccinated at the same time. It would just make the process work all that much better. So I'm sure that Secretary Smith will be directing those who are or actually giving the vaccinations to just use your common sense here because it would make a lot of sense to to do them when you can. OK, next up, I have a question from Lisa at the Associated Press. Does the governor or Commissioner Shirling have any thoughts on the judges injunction in the Slate Ridge case? From my standpoint, I think it's it's good news. Obviously, this has been an area that has been controversial. And if there were environmental laws that were broken, they should be they should be followed through on that in which we've been advocating for. So good news for for them, the neighbors of of Slate Ridge at this point. Commissioner Shirling. Nothing to add beyond that, Governor. Thank you. Her follow up question is that judge says there should not be any school or fire that all school or firearms training must stop. And why didn't the state do something sooner? Well, I can take that one, Governor. There has not been the basis of evidence to act on any of the reports that have been made. A number of them have been reviewed by prosecutors in addition to having ongoing investigations. And at this point that now that there is an order in place, there could be a contempt of court if those activities continue. OK, we'll move to Eric from the Times Argus. His question is to is Secretary Smith said it will take five weeks to vaccinate the 75 plus group. Why so long? How long will it take to get through the 70 to 74 and 65 to 69 group? I think Secretary Smith can answer this, but it's it's all math, right? It's the only unlimited supply coming in and do the math and are able to accommodate those who sign up. And if there's more vaccine that comes our way, we'll scale up. But until then, it's just just simple math. And I'll just add the governor is absolutely right. It is simple math on this and to answer it. I think I've answered this a couple of times, but just to answer Eric's question, we're hoping to get through the 65 plus about 125,000 people by the start of spring. OK, next I have a question from Calvin at WCAX. His question is this week we had some encouraging news from the Emergency Board about state finances being propped up by federal billions in federal cash. Is this making your making you rethink any of your priorities in the coming year and in your budget? The priorities will always remain the same from my standpoint. It's about growing the economy, making room more affordable, protecting the most vulnerable. Those are those of the guideposts that we use in every single decision. So we'll we'll consider this. We're building our budget as we speak there. There's some you know, there's a lack of clarity that that becomes more clear every day. What the impact was of the Second Cares Act that came our way? How how can we leverage that money to the best of our ability as well? There was a federal budget bill that was passed that was was good new has some good news in there for Vermont. And how do we use that to our full advantage? And and there's going to be more in the future. And how do we anticipate that if there is another stimulus package that that passes for instance? So you put all that together and we'll do the best we can under the circumstances, present the budget next Tuesday. But but we have priorities. I think they're you'll find that they'll they'll they'll fall in line with many priorities of the legislature as well. And then we'll we'll begin to to have our conversation about where we go from here. But but it certainly has been good news in some respects that you know the billions of dollars that have been injected into our economy have resulted in us being in a fairly decent position. But but again, our economy is still fragile because we're we're counting on we counted on this this federal money to come in and supplement what we weren't doing ourselves. We had many businesses shut down. The hospitality sector is has been impacted still suffering a great deal. We have to pay attention to that. And then at some point, we're going to be on our own. You know, we're not going to be able to rely on the federal government to help us out over the long term. So we have to make sure we put ourselves in a position, invest in areas that give us the highest return, the best return on investment we can possibly hope for and follow those guiding principles that we laid out before. But we know what the needs are. It's just where do we make the right strategic investments to get us out of this the position we find ourselves in and come out of this stronger than we went in. Calvin from WCAX has a second question. Would it which is what time does the online portal phone bank come online on Monday? Should people stay up until midnight? I would advise this is Mike Smith. I would advise not staying up to midnight. I would advise we'll we'll put out a press release in the morning. So I would not stay up at night when it's operational. We will let you know. But but I can it's safe to assume it's not going to be in the middle of the night. OK, and I want to thank all of the reporters who are sending their questions. I'm going to try to stick in the order of the question queue as closely as I can. If anybody at any point is able to unmute, please feel free to ask your question that way. We know that is preferred and appreciate you bearing with us here. So next up. I have I'm going back up to the top of the list with somebody we missed. Courtney Kramer from Local 22. Her question is during Biden. President Biden's remarks on coronavirus yesterday, he mentioned that under his plan, each state will have a COVID contact in the administration where governors should go to for vaccine issues, supply, anything they need. What will be the first thing Vermont addresses to that person? From again, I'm speaking for myself. We haven't had this conversation, but more vaccine, more supply. That's what we need. I think that that's it's fairly simple where we're fairly we're fairly good. I think on testing and testing supplies we're in good shape with PPE. But where we have our deficit is really in the supply of vaccine. Get us more as quickly as possible. Dr. Levine. And I would just add the word predictability of supply as well. So that planning for all of these clinics that we've described this morning can continue to occur in a orderly fashion. It was shocking to hear some of the news from other states New York in particular about canceling clinics at the last minute because vaccine either did not arrive. Allocation that was promised didn't happen or a spoilage had occurred. So clearly having the supply increase and having a predictable supply with more notification than just a day or two in advance would really help our efforts tremendously. Secretary Smith. I just I think predictability more vaccine. Both of you have covered that. I mean we we really rely on that predictability and that pipeline coming in to fulfill the vaccine needs for these clinics. And as you had mentioned, Governor, if we get more, we could quickly scale up these clinics and going back to Eric's question, even speed up that timeline that we talked about earlier. I think I will also add equity, equitable distribution of the vaccine. I've heard from many, many governors on the calls I've been on that they hear about one governor who got got more than their share, for instance, and and the squeaky wheels shouldn't get the grease this week. I think that we all are deserving. There are some states that can vaccinate quicker than others. For a lot of different reasons, I heard Governor Baker say they were struggling a bit because they had so many residential care facilities that they couldn't get to. I mean, they just is so much in a dense population. They just couldn't get to them as quick as they can with some states that have these mass vaccination sites where they can drive through and not to not as many people drive in Boston, especially those who are elderly, nor should they. So it's been cumbersome for them and they've been struggling with that. So it shouldn't be. I heard I think in the previous administration, they said, you know, the better you do and distribution, the more vaccine we're going to give you. And that's just doesn't. That's just not fair in some respects because there's going to be a point when we're all going to be able to get on a better cadence, maybe, because we'll take care of a certain population and then we'll have the ability to max vaccinate if we had the supply and a consistent supply. So again, equity, consistency. I think that that's what we're asking and no favoritism, no political favoritism in particular. Courtney's follow up is knowing that it's still early. Are you seeing improved guidance communicate and communication from the federal government? I think it's been, you know, in some respects, I am coming from the top, coming from the president. It's been more clear. I think Dr. Fauci had said yesterday that he's able to speak his mind a little bit more than he was before. So again, that transparency, that sense of urgency, taking some of the actions that we've seen has been it's been good. But but but I also will say in the previous administration, you know, we had our struggles in the beginning in terms of testing, for instance. And we we did I was able with with Governor Sununu to make a call to the vice president to directly and and have a conversation about what was happening on on the ground. And he was able to to help alleviate the situation. So we had in the previous administration, we had contacts within the White House that were were helpful to us. So we hope to establish relationships as well. But but I'd say the Biden administration is off to a very good start. OK, next up we have Ed Barber from the Newport Daily Express. And his question is for Dr. Levine. Ed has heard rumors the number of strep throat cases are on the rise. The increase is attributed to wearing a dirty mask. Is this true cases are increasing? Is it attributed to dirty masks? And how long should you wear a mask before replacing it? Rebecca, could you repeat the what kind of cases that are on the rise? Strap throat. Oh, strep throat. You know, this is the time of year, strep throat occurs a lot. So I don't have good documentation from my epi team that we're actually seeing more strep throat. It's not a reportable disease, but let's say it were true. I would find it very challenging to try to correlate the use of dirty masks with an increase in the rate of a strep throat. A strep throat is a bacterial illness. It's not a viral illness. And I just know of no correlation prior to the pandemic that one could correlate this together. So I'm going to have to say that doesn't make sense to me at this point in time. Dr. Levine, I think the second part of the question was about how long you should wear a mask. You should wash your mask on a regular basis and maybe you could give some guidance there. Yeah, absolutely. So there are several types of masks. Obviously there are the kind that people are fashioning on their own or buying that are cloth masks. And they are clearly reusable and should be reused. But one should not be overusing them before they wash them. I think in the time of winter time, when people generally go out in the cold and often get a runny nose and temperature related, what have you, they should be especially attentive to this. I think there is some guidance on the CDC website, but it's not as specific as this number of hours going by before you change your mask. But certainly I wouldn't encourage people to wear the same mask if they're wearing it constantly through the day, more than a day or so at a time. And clearly when they're wearing the mask and this is the challenge trying to avoid touching the mask. It's so challenging to not do that because masks often need adjustment and what have you. But the more one touches the mask, the quicker one wants to bring it to the washing machine. Now, there are also the kinds of masks that were worn in the health care setting that are disposable masks. And generally we would not want people wearing those if they're wearing them constantly for more than the course of the day. And one would want them to replace them more frequently. Admittedly, many people are wearing a mask off and on it for very short periods of time, so one can take that into account. OK, we have a question from Lisa Lumis at the Valley Reporter. And her question is, are school counselors receiving vaccines in the current phase, which I believe she means phase one a. And Secretary Smith speak more to the issue of avoiding wasted doses and how the quote unquote wait list will be managed. I can handle the first part. Yeah, would you start the first part and then I'll start the second part? Yeah, sure. So a school counselor would not, by definition, be in the one a priority group that that is really made up of a health care workforce, people who are what we call patient facing. The school nurse certainly would be in that priority group, but not the counselor themselves. On the second part, we will have the list of people that are available in that area for vaccine that if we have you know, that are 75 plus. And we will have the list of those that have various that we could call on. We're developing that aspect right now. They're also just so just to just so people know. I mean, we still are finishing up on one a. So there are some people on one a that we can call in as well as we move forward. And then lastly, there is the home bound that we can use some of this to avoid any spoilage along the way. So her question is, how will people get on the wait list that there is no wait list? Let's let's be clear. There is no wait list. The we will open up. There'll be enough slots for everyone that is eligible in this in this age group, 75 years and above. If you're if you're aged 75 and above, we have enough slots where you can make an appointment for you. There will be no wait list. If we have spoilage, we can pull from those various lists that we have, but there is no wait list. OK, the next question is from John Dillon at VPR. His question is to the governor, saying with this most recent potential exposure, isn't the time for you and staff to get a vaccine given that you and staff are most definitely essential workers? Again, I think I'll just reiterate my feelings haven't changed. You know, I'm anxious to get a vaccine just like everyone else, but I'm not any more important than anyone else. And we every vaccine that's taken away from someone under the age of 65 or 75 today, but under 65 is impacting the life of someone else. So from my standpoint, I'm going to wait until it's my turn. If I if I had my brothers, I would I would have everyone vaccinated before I had. I'd be the final vaccine shot into the arm of of a Vermonter, if I could, but but I'll wait my turn. I think it's the right thing to do. I feel I committed to this process and and I'll just be careful along the way. I mean, this was a situation that was not entirely anticipated, but but I'm going to do what we ask other Vermonters to do. And that's why we're we're we're quarantining at this point. And it's a good it's good for us in some respects, because we get to walk in the shoes of others. We've asked to do the same thing. Dr. Levine, anything you want to add? I think you covered it very well. All right, John's second question is there was a legal challenge filed this week, challenging challenging your Governor Scott authority to make changes to act two fifty via executive order. Why not wait for the legislative process? Well, you know, I would say this is the legislative process. It is quite clear that the the first part of a biennium, the governor by executive order is able to restructure government. That's all we're doing here. We're restructuring the Natural Resources Board. And that's within our purview to do so. The legislature can then they can they can within 90 days they get to decide if they don't want to go along with it. They'll take testimony on it. They don't they don't think it's prudent. They can vote against it. Both bodies have to do that. However, that's fairly clear. Both the the Senate and the House have to take a negative position in order to stop it. If they don't, then it moves forward. You know, we did it with the Agency of Digital Services before when I first came into office. We restructured government and this is the the process is put in place and we do we we utilized it. So again, we're not asking for anything out of the ordinary. And we feel as though we're on solid constitutional ground and the legislature does get to weigh in. So this I think it's I struggle to find what's wrong with this process has been used for years. So we feel like we're we're on solid constitutional ground. But we'll let the let the courts decide again, we'll keep moving forward, make our case. And this is for the third branch of government, the judiciary branch to weigh in and tell us whether we're right or not. And we feel like we're right. OK, next we have a question from Cameron at St. Alden's Messenger, and he's wondering if there is any update on sports. Our teams cleared for competition next week in individual sports or our team sports like hockey being considered as well. We have not taken a position at this point in terms of opening up for competition. We will continue to monitor and watch the data and arrive at a decision just as quick as we possibly can. But we have not made any changes at this point. Maybe I could Secretary Moore or Dr. Levine, anyone else want to weigh in on this? Sure, Governor, I think you cover the high points, which is currently we are just at the stage of having practices and team-based scrimmages. We are watching the epi data to see if there are cases associated with this this change that just went into effect on Monday and expect the earliest that we need at least two weeks of data to be able to make decisions about further steps. OK, next up we have a question from Avery. At WCIX, which I am finding in my email. Avery's question is the National Guard in D.C. We're recently told to leave the Capitol Building and we're moved to a parking garage following providing inauguration security. They have since been allowed back by the big sense. And so I believe it means called back by Governor Sununu. I he's asking about Governor Sununu calling them back. The question is a little unclear. I'm I'm aware of the story. I think it was in Politico. We we did reach out to General Knight to make sure that we're in we're OK in terms of our troops who are down in D.C. He indicated that he had no information that would prove otherwise that our our troops were able to go back and forth to their hotels and and had all the provisions they needed. It was in a climate controlled building where they were staged. And I think everything is OK. But but I would I would say that will will continue to um General Knight has my my cell number. Anytime there's an issue that comes up he isn't shy about contacting us and this has not come up since then. So I think we're still OK. But I'm not saying that others haven't been impacted other other National Guard units. But I'm just saying from us Guard units have not that we know of. OK. The next question is from Anne Wallace Allen at B.T. Digger. He says there will be larger vaccine providers such as hospitals and private sector partners will primary care doctors and smaller operations have the option to administer the vaccines to their patients. This would be a secretary Smith answer and maybe possibly Dr. Levine. Yeah. I think in this first phase you're going to see most of the vaccines happening through what are called pods, which is the Health Department through pharmacies and through health partners, mostly hospitals and FQHC's and those sort of operations. There may be occasions later on where we do get to the physician level. But I think you're going to see this at these higher level institutions as we move forward. Dr. Levine. Yeah, I agree with everything that's just been said. And there are some very practical reasons behind this early part, not having primary care involved in primary care understands this very well. It has to do with some of the unique storage requirements of these vaccines and the amount in an allocation and how quickly a primary care practice could utilize that. Also, the pressure on primary care practices to do the work that they do every day and not have it be impeded or impaired by a robust response to wanting to be vaccinated. So these are very practical issues. I know some of the larger systems across the state are actually trying to work as a system. So incorporating the needs of their primary care practices, but also balancing that with the storage requirements and the logistical requirements and having more large central locations where people across primary care practices can receive their vaccine as part of that health care system region, if you will. And that's a very pragmatic and reasonable approach for them to take, especially in times when they have a shared medical record because then they can continue to document as they would otherwise. So that's where we stand now. Obviously, in a time of much greater allocation of vaccine, other things will be entertained that could distribute the vaccine more and more widely to a larger number of practices. But it's not even feasible or practical right now. Thank you. OK, the next questions are from Greg at the County Courier. Greg is hearing from family members of elderly residents of the Holiday House in St. Albans, whereas, you know, there is a current outbreak of patients. He is of the understanding that because this facility is only an assisted living facility and not a nursing facility, that people there don't qualify for a vaccine. Is this true? And why would a congregate living facility not take priority, especially those experiencing outbreaks? I'll take that, Dr. Levine, if that's OK, Governor. That is an assisted living facility or a residential care facility. I'm not sure what the designation is, but I'm pretty sure it's one or the other. And they will be on the pharmacy program. There are some congregate living facilities that aren't considered a HUD sort of eligible facilities, which would be in the pharmacy program. But the Holiday House is not one of them. And if I could just piggyback on to that, because I know that the question may come up, well, why wouldn't we be running into a facility that has an outbreak with all the vaccine that we can muster and start vaccinating everybody left and right? There's a pretty clear science on why we don't do that and why vaccine is not considered to be an outbreak response strategy. And the CDC has actually worked across the nation to provide that message, but they provided it specifically to us in a special phone call. We arranged with them when we were having just these kinds of questions arise with a facility that had an outbreak at the time. And the counseling, which is very sound, is that, one, it's not an outbreak response strategy. And number two, if you already have the vaccination scheduled, you shouldn't necessarily change that. You should keep to that schedule, but you shouldn't run in there specially because of the outbreak. Unfortunately, what happens during an outbreak is that there is transmission of virus. That's why it's called an outbreak. And the potential is that many people are not symptomatic but incubating the virus at the time you would run in there with your resources so that they are already going to get infected and potentially show signs of infection, whether you've provided them with the vaccine at that moment or not. So I just wanted to clarify that so people would understand we're not ignoring facilities that are in the midst of an outbreak, but we're not changing the entire vaccination schedule due to the sound counseling from CDC and the scientific reasoning behind that. OK, Greg from the county courier is also hearing of cases where people were or are fraudulently filing for the PUA program. How many cases have been discovered in Vermont of fraudulently filed PUA claims since the program began? I would I think, Commissioner Harrington might be on and I'm sure we'll hear a little bit about adjudication in this conversation. But Commissioner Harrington. Yes, Governor, can you hear me? We can. OK, so there are there has been and I think everybody is aware of the national news around just increased fraud in general and fraudulent filings in all programs. This was a significant uptick. And what we see is that it coincides with the availability of benefits. And we've seen upticks as it relates to additional what we'll call supplemental benefits. So the original six hundred dollar FPUC payment and now the three hundred dollar FPUC payment that's been added on top of the benefits seems to spark people to come back and start fraudulently filing. What I should point out, though, is is most of the fraudulent filing we're seeing are not other Vermonters. These are crime syndicates and rings across the world who have been able to get their hands on stolen identity information and are using the stolen identity information to file fraudulent claims. We are and have been since the beginning working with federal and state law enforcement officers, and we have a fraud team stood up within the department as well. And while I don't have the number in front of me about how many fraudulent filings, we do review every initial claim that comes in for suspicious activity. We also are capturing fraud fraud reports that are submitted to us from individuals who believe a fraudulent claim was filed using their personal information. What I will tell people, you know, as we've seen this uptick, we've increased our communication to the public. But usually the the information that people are using, the personal information was likely compromised during maybe a large scale national or international data breach that could even go back to the Equifax data breach back in 2017. And people were simply holding on to that information for the right opportune time and COVID happened to be that time. So we do encourage people, if they believe that their information has been compromised, there's information on our website, but they can go to the Federal Trade Commission and file an identity theft report. They can also contact the three major credit bureaus and put an emergency freeze, a security freeze on their on their credit reports. If someone files fraudulently using someone else's information, the the true person is not held liable for any benefits that were paid out due to the fraudulent claim and and it doesn't impact somebody's credit report. So, you know, we are protecting Vermonters as best we can through this situation, but it is a national issue that every state is dealing with. I might also add this is part of the frustration some people feel when they're applying. We want to make sure that everyone is who is deserving receives the benefit. We want to make sure that those who aren't deserving don't receive the benefit. So sometimes it leads to, you know, what may seem like a stringent process and someone and it slows the process down. So at times when as we experience, when at times when we have a backlog, we're trying to get as many people through as possible, while also respecting that this that there is some fraud out there and that we are making want to make sure that we're not we're not encouraging that. So it's it's a fine balance. And and I think we're doing the best we can to prevent it from happening, but also making sure that we're we're getting the people, the assistance they need. Agreed. Thank you. All right. The next question is from Andrea from Seven Days. She is hoping to find out the time windows for appointments. What hours and days of the week will be available at the vaccine sites? Also, the same questions for the call center. When will people be able to call and book an appointment any day or other normal business hours? Yeah, I'll take that one. There will be slots that will be on the registration form that will give the days and the times within the slots within the registration form. I don't have those with me and I don't. So I don't know what those will be. There's, like I said, there's 30, 39 towns and 50 some odd registration sites. So I don't have that information with me. Rebecca, if you could repeat the last part of the question. The call center for making the appointments, will that be open extended hours or just business hours? It will be mostly during business hours, but we'll have the hours set on the website on on Monday. And if I could also add and maybe Secretary Smith could clarify, if I don't get this right, with all the sites that we have available, there could be a varied amount of hours, depending on the site and what their capability is and maybe what the rate is of vaccines and the supply. We may find ourselves in a position where in the beginning, we may be five days a week, let's say, but if we receive more vaccines, we might increase the six or seven days a week. We may extend our hours into the evening based on who we're trying to get vaccines to. I mean, it's just there's all kinds of variables that will come into place and will be nimble enough to accommodate that. The governor is absolutely right in that regard. We will remain nimble in terms of how we accommodate that. And we'll definitely will, you know, the next press conference. I can I can get that information and and relay it out. OK, this question comes from Aaron Potenko at VT Digger. Again, if anybody is able to unmute at any time, please shout out and we will let you ask your question yourself. This one's from Aaron. She says, how is the state able to guarantee slots for for monitors when they have said they cannot predict federal vaccine allotment? It's again, it's simple math. We just take the number of people that we have and we allocate the slots that we have. Now, the slots and vaccine are are are different. But we we're predicting that we're going to get a steady supply of vaccine over this period of time. So we we have enough slots. We believe we have enough vaccine. If there's a breakdown in the supply chain, then we'll have to reassess. But right now it looks like we've opened up enough slots in the five week period to cover the the seventy five year olds and above for that time period. So we have it again, it's math. And but again, you know, we're not in total control of the supply, as Aaron pointed out. I mean, there is a bit of a risk involved in doing what we're doing. But we have no other option. Really, we have to make our best strategic decision as to how much of the supply we're going to get in. And then we'll go with that. And but we're seeing right across the lake in New York, they're canceling canceling appointments as we speak, because they don't have the supply that they thought they were going to have. So the consistency we consistency we talked about before is going to be imperative the communication from the administration, the federal government, in letting us know what we're going to get is going to be crucial. As we move forward, but it's not foolproof. And, you know, we we're just doing the best we can based on what we know and and and there it. But there is a admittedly our risk involved in doing so. Aaron's next question is how has the state tested the website to ensure accessibility for non English speaking Vermonters or those with disabilities? Have they consulted anyone about it? Dr. Levine, if you don't have an answer on that, I could actually help. I don't have a specificity to answer that. I think she's looking for some. I likely don't have the specificity either. So, Aaron, we can connect you with the Department of Health Communications Team. But I know that they do work for or across the board on all of their materials with the translation company and in ensuring ADA compliance. But I could connect you separately with the communications team to get those specifics. All right. The next question is from we're out of order here. Mike Donahue, the text of this question. What is the breakdown in each of the three age categories? I'm not sure. Yeah, I the total number is what you're looking for, right? It's one hundred and twenty five thousand is the total number. It's about forty nine thousand four seventy five plus. I don't have the bands after that, Governor. I actually do. I have it. It's forty from this paper that I have. It's forty nine thousand eight hundred and thirty three eight seventy five and over thirty three two oh three eight seventy to seventy four and forty two thousand and three age sixty five to sixty nine. Mike also has reader questions. How are those that have chronic conditions and long term illnesses, especially those who might be homebound going to get the vaccine? This readers doctor hasn't gotten info on information on getting information to patients. Dr. Levite, I'll handle the homebound if you handle sort of the the the underlying conditions as I said in my presentation, what we are doing is we're partnering with home health and EMS and home health will produce a list for either the Home Health Agency or EMS to reach out to the people who are homebound. So we'll be doing that over the course of the next week and be doing it as a sort of a separate system than the registration system for those that are homebound. But that's how we're going to be handling the homebound population. And Dr. Levine on the underlying conditions. So we've we've announced those underlying conditions at our prior press conference. They will be codified in print so that people are aware because once we get past the 65 and older, the next grouping is going to be age 18 through 64 with with what we call conditions that would put you at risk of a more severe illness with COVID-19. So that list will be available for everyone who's going to register to see. We are not asking for physicians at this point in time to provide written documentation for their patients having one of the conditions on the list. Does that answer the complete question, Rebecca? Sure, I'll I'll follow if Mike has a if Mike has a follow up. I'll circle back and I apologize. I had to jump out of order there for a minute. Oh, he does have a follow up. Any idea when list of sites will be available? So a list of the vaccine sites. Yeah, the towns, there'll be a town site map coming up in it should be on the website in the next hour or two. And then the actual sites you'll see as you register. I have one additional answer for the previous question that was involving interpretive services and things of that sort. And I think we've made it aware that there is a video that will help people understand the mechanics of the website and how to work through that. And we do have the intention to make sure that that's available to people and the language that they need. But in addition, we have, you know, a lot of work going on in terms of our relationships with communities of color and other ethnically diverse communities, many of which have interpretive needs. And we have health equity teams and we partner with community partners who provide a lot of these interpretive services directly. And that effort is already underway and will continue even more robustly as we continue with these vaccine efforts. Thank you. We now have a question from Greg at the Bennington Banner and Brattleboro Reformer. Greg says Bennington County now has the distinction of passing Chittenden County as having the most widespread case count in Vermont, 234.9 cases per 10,000 residents as of Thursday. With that in mind, a three part question. Is contact tracing telling us anything about what's leading to transmission in Bennington County? Is there any thought to taking short term aggressive steps in Bennington County to control community spread such as pausing in-person dining, pausing out-of-state accommodations, including ski areas or any temporary move to remote learning? If not, then what growth of cases would lead to such steps being taken? Dr. Levine, you want to start? Absolutely. So, you know, this is a pattern we have seen in other parts of the state as well at different times. And Bennington is just the site right now that you're referring to. Unfortunately, as I alluded to in my earlier comments, it's not like we have a significant outbreak of one sort or another that's fueling that kind of case growth. Most of what we're finding are people who are acquiring this within their communities due to a higher prevalence of the virus in the community. I can't really point to a specific event like we had with the ICE teams in central Vermont a number of months ago. So what we did do at that time, though, in central Vermont was, you know, meet with some of the community and legislative leaders and discussed communications campaigns, discussed kind of interventions that could occur. We did not actually counsel to do anything overly restrictive at that point in time. But we did note that many of the municipal offices were operating remotely. And that was certainly a fine strategy. There was nothing wrong with that. But we did not actually start saying to make schools remotely or to close certain aspects of the work sites or business community. It really is a time when people have to be much more careful and much more compliant with all of the guidance that we usually provide. But we didn't feel that it was warranting a specific region of the state to have a stricter protocol in place with regard to the kinds of closures that we saw back in March when the pandemic first arrived. We really do feel and continue to feel that this much more strategic approach pays dividends. We're no longer in a situation where we don't have testing, don't have PPE like back in March. So we can take advantage of the fact that we can perform containment, even if we can't relate a lot of cases to one another in terms of an outbreak. We can still contain by testing early and doing contact tracing early for those populations. And that's been the major strategy. And as we've seen in other areas of the state, like Orange County and in the central Vermont region and then followed by Essex County and Orleans County, we've had the cases rise and then come down without necessarily getting into a total closure type of situation or what used to be called a lockdown. So we will continue to exercise that kind of strategy because I think it can be successful and it's not necessary to be more severe. But it is more necessary for people to realize, as I alluded to in my early comments, that household transmission becomes very common when there's more going on in communities. So being very attentive to people's loved ones and those they're living with when there are cases has to be a major part of their own personal strategy as well. The next question is from Andrew at the Caledonian Record. He has a question about rural areas in particular Essex County. They have one of the highest COVID rates per capita, but the lowest testing per capita and lowest vaccination rate thus far. What will be done to ensure vaccinations reach those in rural areas? Yeah, I think you've seen, I think you will see that we have put particular effort into those rural areas, particularly Essex County as we looked at it. And there's been some great partnerships with both the FQHC and others up there in order to make sure that we do have, and as you know, that's a fairly long county, to make sure that we have access into that county. So we've been paying particular attention to those places. And like I said, 39 communities and 57 or so locations as we move forward. I can just tell that we have been, like I've said, we've had been paying attention to that. Andrew's second question is, he understands dose allocations are already assigned to regional partners for the entire month of February, and the registration process will include all of those doses. Is there any chance these allocations will increase if the state receives more doses, or is the pace of vaccinations in February set in stone at some, in some way? If we receive more vaccinations, we will ramp up our vaccination program. I think the governor had mentioned that earlier, we would appreciate more vaccine. We are poised to ramp this up if we are fortunate enough to have more vaccine. All right, Elizabeth Murray from the Burlington Free Press has a question for Secretary Smith. Can you clarify when people with chronic conditions can sign up to get the vaccine? Is the 65 age bracket the earliest they can sign up, or will they be able to sign up starting Monday? No, let's go through this again. Starting Monday, those that are age 75 and above will be able to sign up. As soon as we're done with that group, we will start with 70, those that are 70 years of age and above. And then we will turn to age, as soon as that group's done, we'll turn to age 65 and above. After that group is done, then we'll turn our attention to those with chronic conditions. And the age group is predicated on the vaccine, basically from 16 to 64 with the specific conditions that Dr. Levine had laid out previously. Thank you. And in Liz's defense, she sent that before that question was asked previously and I didn't catch it. For Dr. Levine, have any of the variations of the virus been detected in Vermont at this point? And if so, what can you share about it? So at this point in time, we do not have any documented cases of the so-called variants. Since I didn't include this in my opening comments, I'll just make one further comment on the variants. The one that's of most keen attention is the B117 called the UK variant to my knowledge and the data presented thus far indicates the vaccine will be effective with that variant. You may be hearing though about a number of other variants because as more genome sequencing is done, we're hearing about not only more variants around the world, but even some within the United States that haven't been publicized previously, specifically one in California that may be fueling part of the major epidemic going on in Los Angeles County. But there are variants from around the world like in South Africa and Brazil particularly, which people are doing the same kind of sequencing and testing of vaccine against. And we don't have any firm conclusions from those. And those are not really widespread or even found in our country at this time, but there have been questions raised about the efficacy of the vaccine with the South African and the Brazil variants. So I would just caution people to be patient and wait to hear more, but to also recognize that those are not immediate threats to the continental US. Thank you. And Liz is also wondering how the vaccine clinics will be set up? So what will they look like? Will it be drive-through options and are there accommodations for those with mobility difficulties? There will be accommodations. We've been fairly keen on that, those with disabilities. It won't be a drive-up sort of situation. And I don't believe we have any drive-ups in that. I'll double check for Liz, but I'm pretty sure you will come into the facility so that you can sit down and be observed during your vaccine. Then next on our list is Guy Page and his question is for Governor Scott. Defender General Matt Valerio says, this is Guy's question, says restrictions on carrying guns in public such as Senator Bruce S30 do not, do next to nothing prevent gun crime? How do you view this bill? Yeah, I haven't looked at it specifically. I know it's working through the process and they're taking testimony in the legislature on it. It's not a priority from my perspective, but we'll listen and we'll see where it goes from here. But it's got to get through, I think it's being heard in Senate Judiciary first, and then if it gets out of there, it may go to the floor of the Senate at that point. And then I'll have to, if it passes there, I'll have to go to the house. So there'll be plenty of opportunities to weigh in. And I would advocate people should weigh in if they have feelings on either side. Guy's second question is, how much did the recent extra police presence at the state house cost? I don't have that, Commissioner Scherling. We haven't assessed that yet, either in part because we're still within a pay period that involves ongoing operations. So it's not yet available. The next question is from Kevin at seven days. Vermont State Law says only one house of the general, this is Kevin's characterization. Vermont State Law says only one house of the general assembly needs to block executive order like the one on Act 250. Luke Martlin says the EO is inaccurate on this. Why do you say it's pretty clear that both houses need to oppose the EO? That's the advice from our general counsel. I have a lot of faith in her, Jay Johnson, and I value her opinion. I think it's quite clear if you do the analysis that it has to be turned down by both bodies. And we just wanted to make sure that everyone knew that going in. So again, it's an area that possibly the third branch of government needs to weigh in on, but we think it's pretty clear. And Kevin asks if you could offer the best example you can think of on how decentralized administration of Act 250 holds back the economy. In this situation, if that's what he's talking about, is he referring to the EO? I take it more as a general question about Act 250 and how it's decentralization with the Natural Resources Board review process. I think what I've been on both sides of the Act 250 process in many different areas. And again, from my perspective, there's a lack of consistency amongst some of the commissions, particularly in some of these projects are getting more complicated. When you have a commission that's voluntary in nature, and when you're meeting nights and weekends and you don't have all the same people, you might have somebody that's planned some time away and then you have to have an alternate sit in. You don't have all the information to begin with. And again, these are very, very technical, legalistic decisions that need to be made. So the lack of consistency amongst district to district is evident. I don't think that there's going to be a lot of conversation about that. I think many of the legislators recognize that, they hear it from their constituents. And so for the more complicated, and that's the basis for the EEO, is that for the more complicated Act 250 permits, hearing them in a setting where it's consistent, you get a quicker decision and either yes or no. And so where developers don't get dug in, like when you go months and months and months with trying to provide information and so forth and so on, it gets expensive. So if you, and then they get so far in spending, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars for a permit that they may not get, then they get dug in and feel as though they have to follow through. With this process, my hope is that they might get a red light or a green light earlier and save money in the process and again, accept the reality from a more professional board. Thank you. Our very next question is to Steve from N-E-K-T-V. He says this question is from a caller who asked him, quote, for people that have the internet while homeschooling kids and working remotely. Her internet provider keeps raising rates on her. How can they raise rates during a pandemic? Are there any plans to address this and have all internet companies raise their rates? Don't think commissioner Tierney is on the line. Can you repeat the question? I believe he has a viewer who has had her internet rates raised. Her question is, how is this fair during a pandemic when folks are so reliant on the internet? Tara raised the question. Yeah, I can certainly understand that. They're not a regulated entity, utility, and there's arguments about whether they should or shouldn't be, but I think we can get a better answer. We'd ask his viewer to get in touch with us. We'll put them in touch with the public service department to see if there's anything we can do to help. We do have some programs available to help those in need during the pandemic so that they can pay their utility bills. And I believe this falls into that, but again, probably better to have commissioner Tierney weigh in on this. She also is wondering if the pandemic has anything to do with gas price increases. I wouldn't know that. The only, I think they did come down in the beginning because there are fewer people driving and the price actually dropped because of increased supply. There was an oversupply of petroleum. So that's all I can offer, I guess. All right, a third question, testing your economist skills, governor. The St. Louis Federal Reserve has a chart showing that the money supply has increased by 70% since the pandemic, something unseen on the chart that goes back years. Are we going to see an inflation? Well, I think we certainly could at some point, and I don't think it'll be long. The economists actually brought that up this past week that there could be a point where we're seeing inflation. Of course, I'm sure at the same time, as most economists do, they'll start predicting a recession shortly after. So it's a constant evolution of the environment we're in. So I wouldn't be surprised if there was inflation after this. And Tom Ayers is our next questioner. Sorry, just looking for his questions. It seems to be lost in the abyss of many emails I've gotten during this call. Let me skip to a question from Jane Lindholm who just was asking if Secretary Smith could clarify how many sites there are around the state. She knows you may have mentioned it, but she just was trying to get some clarity. Sure, there are 54 vaccine sites in 39 towns. Thank you. And I have located Tom's email. Thank you, Jason Malucci. Tom Ayers from the Vermont Standard asks, is there a list available today of the sites and the towns? There will be a map of the towns where the sites will be located. It'll be on the health department website shortly. And if you just give me a minute here, I'll give you the website's address. It's healthvermont.gov forward slash my vaccine. Okay, and his second question, Tom from the Vermont Standard's second question is a pharmacy manager at one of our regional hospitals in speaking to a local civic organization earlier this week expressed significant concern that they have the manpower to vaccinate in sufficient numbers to meet the schedule laid out by the state, owing to restrictions on facility capacity, social distancing and the 15 minute waiting time required after the shot is administered. What is the state's plan for assuring that sufficient workers are available to administer vaccines at each of the 54 sites this schedule you have laid out? We have laid out a schedule with personnel at each of these sites. It's, and not only that, we have backups in case people don't show up. Great, I believe that is all the questions. And if we've missed anybody or folks had follow-ups, Jason, Lucia and I can help assist you afterwards. Okay, so I wanna thank everyone for their efforts here and I apologize to the listeners for the technical glitch. And I wanna thank the media in particular for your patience and assistance and working around the problem. I think it's a reflection of the Vermont way that when we're faced with a challenge, we work together, use common sense to make it work. So however imperfect that may be. So hopefully we'll either get better at this or we'll go back to having in-person in the very near future. But again, I thank you for your questions and I appreciate everyone tuning in today.