 Well good afternoon everyone. Just got off our call with the White House officials and other governors and here's what we heard. Dr. Walensky started by talking about the importance of getting kids vaccinated and that last week's approval marked a big step forward. The White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients highlighted Vermont to all the other governors as having the highest number of 5 to 11 year old scheduled for vaccination. Leaving the nation once again. As a result of strong uptake we requested another additional doses for next week and the White House approved them so I want to thank them for that. We'll be getting an additional 3900 doses on top of the 5100 we were already allotted making for 9000. Governors have been working with White House with the White House on extending FEMA reimbursements for COVID response costs as well as extending National Guard use under Title 32. Today it was announced by the White House that the President will be extending both of those until April 1 so that's good news for Vermont and for the states. As of this morning about one third of this entire population about 14,000 kids have signed up for their appointment or gotten their first dose. Keep in mind these numbers only include those who go through the state system. It doesn't include pharmacies or others who partner directly with the federal government. So again some more good news and it's so important because as we discussed last week although kids in this age range that usually develop mild have mild illnesses cases can be disruptive for families like not being able to go to school and parents missing work as a result. It's also important to know the 5 to 11 year olds are contracting COVID at the highest rate right now which is why parents should sign their kids up as soon as possible. If you have questions you should reach out to your pediatrician. They have your kids best interests in mind and will have the answers you need to make an informed decision. The Vermont chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics is also holding forums over the next few weeks and you can find out when and how to join at aapvt.org. Next as you know we've seen an increase in COVID cases here in Vermont and across northern New England. The high number cases continues to be dominated by those who are unvaccinated and it's mostly unvaccinated adults who have been eligible for the vaccine for many months and that's what's been driving our hospitalizations. But it's important to note that Vermont still has one of the lowest hospitalization rates in the country thanks to vaccines doing their jobs. But this has put more strain on our hospitals which are already under stress from an increase in patients needing care for health issues that are not related to COVID. The reality is our biggest concern at this point is our ICU capacity. Currently COVID patients make up about 10 to 15 percent of those in the ICU averaging about 14 patients per day over the last month. But because of increases in non-COVID cases we've had days where there are only 10 open ICU beds in the state. As we've discussed there are many factors leading to higher ICU usage like delayed healthcare in the early stages of the pandemic. So if COVID patients rise to let's say 25 percent then the system could be in jeopardy. Think of it this way if someone has a heart attack or stroke or sustained injuries due to an accident we want to be sure we have an ICU bed available. Which is why once again we need you to get vaccinated and if you're eligible get your booster and take extra precautions to protect elderly for monitors. And because cases are high right now and we're entering the holidays with a Thanksgiving just a couple weeks away we need to take a few extra precautions like wear your mask indoors in public. Think about the size of gatherings and whether others at these events are vaccinated. Use testing as a tool like an over-the-counter rapid test or a free PCR test before you get together. And of course if you're sick stay home. If we make smart decisions in the coming weeks and make an extra effort to protect the vulnerable we can help reduce hospitalizations. But it takes all of us committing to these smart practical choices starting with getting vaccinated. None of us wants to step backwards but we need your help to keep older or vulnerable for monitors out of the ICU. So with that I'll turn it over to Commissioner Pichek for an update on modeling. Thank you very much Governor and good afternoon everybody. We take a look at our presentation this week. We wanted to start with Vermont's case rate as the governor said. We did see an increase in our seven-day average this week increasing 42 percent from where we stood last Tuesday. Generally our cases had been trending around the 200 cases per day mark over the last six weeks. We saw some increases some decreases but generally in that 200 cases per day area now they stand at about 309 cases per day so you can get a sense of the size of that increase. Looking at the next slide you can similarly see the weekly totals up about 700 cases from last week. So significant increase we just we haven't seen an increase in terms of that raw number of cases during the pandemic just over 2100 cases reported for the week. Looking at the next slide you can see again that 42 percent increase. It is coupled with about a 9 percent increase in testing over this week so testing is up but of course cases are up more significantly than testing and it resulted in our positivity rate increasing as well. So again what that tells us is that the prevalence of the virus it's greater than it was a week or two ago. It's not just a matter of testing or some other data anomaly. And as the governor said looking at the next slide you can see this is a trend that is occurring most pronouncedly in northern New England with Maine and New Hampshire but it's also generally happening throughout New England as well even in the southern New England states that have been doing better recently overall cases in New England are up about 12 percent over the last week. So that turns to our forecast slide which has been really you know indeterminate in terms of the direction that we were heading like I said over the last six weeks or so when we saw periods of case declines and periods of case growth as well. But the current moment the modeling is not anticipating cases to decrease over the next four weeks which is as far out as the model goes. So again as the governor said we can certainly change that for the better based on our own decisions that we make protecting those vulnerable protecting our families and our friends. Looking a little bit more deeply at the cases again as the governor mentioned you can see that dramatic difference there between the fully vaccinated and the not fully vaccinated rate that difference of about 3.7 times in terms of the not vaccinated rate being higher. You can see both of them have increased this week about 30 percent each 35 percent for the not fully vaccinated 31 percent for the fully vaccinated but again that difference is significant in terms of those two case rates and that not fully vaccinated case rate was increasing at a much higher baseline to begin with. Looking at hospital admissions a pretty similar story to what we saw last week growing slightly in those that are not fully vaccinated seeing some improvement in those that are actually improvement in those that are not fully vaccinated slight increase in those who are fully vaccinated a similar trend to what we saw this week and we'll show that in a minute when we look at our hospitalizations but looking looking at the next slide another you know similarity that we want to look at in our data is the week and weeks following Halloween you know certainly a busy weekend last weekend and last year as well for Halloween weekend colder weather setting in in November sending more people indoors as well and you can see that increase that we saw last year in the bottom yellow line in the increase that we've seen this year now you know seven or eight days following Halloween. Of course the difference here is that following Halloween this year starting from a higher baseline of cases but still heading into the holiday season so wanting to you know get that down as best we can. Looking geographically as we look across Vermont you'll see that again the Northeast Kingdom still at an elevated level of cases you'll see that 12 of 14 counties saw increases this week. Bennington County is another county now that is worth mentioning in terms of where their case counts stand relative to the rest of Vermont so elevated cases in Bennington and in the Northeast Kingdom. On the next slide you'll see again what the governor said that age group 5 to 11 clearly has the highest case rate out of all the age groups across the board. When you look at the 5 to 11 compared to adults so those over 19 years old the 5 to 11 rate is double that of the adult rate and as we said the Vermont rate had gone up 42 percent this rate across the board this week but that 5 to 11 year old rate is up 59 percent so you can see that elevated level of cases and and increasing so again all the more important to get that age group vaccinated good to hear that we're off to a strong start but really important to get as many of those vaccinated as we can in that 5 to 11 age group. Turning to college campuses you can see this week an elevated number of cases across Vermont's college campuses 103 cases so that's up from about 53 last week. Most of those most of that increase is attributable to the outbreak that's been publicly reported at St. Michael's. Otherwise most of the college campuses are pretty calm or at least calm relative to what they've been experiencing for the last few weeks. Looking at long-term care facilities this week we have seven active outbreaks that's down from nine last week so we removed two active outbreaks without adding any. The total number of active cases this week is 103 compared to 166 last week so seeing some improvement in our long-term care facilities in terms of the number of outbreaks and that number of active cases as well. Talking about hospitalizations you can see here an elevated number of hospitalizations across the board 67 percent over the last seven days have been those that are not fully vaccinated down a little bit from what we've been seeing in previous weeks as we mentioned earlier in the presentation and looking at the ICU capacity and the ICU numbers you can see here again an elevated number of ICU patients across Vermont about 64 percent of recent ICU stays have been among the not fully vaccinated and then in terms of the count in terms of Vermont deaths you'll see that we currently for the month of November stand at 13 deaths for this month. Turning now to vaccination we're still working with the CDC to make sure that our first doses are accurately captured over the last 10 to 14 days since the booster doses have been initiated. We do believe that the booster doses are accurate in much of our other data we don't have any concerns about but we are still trying to make sure there is not some over counting in that initial dose category and some under counting in the booster dose category so still working on that we've gotten some good information from the CDC but what we do know from our data one thing that is exciting is that Vermont has administered its one millionth dose of the vaccine so that includes first doses second doses and booster doses as well so over a million doses administered in Vermont just as of yesterday and really thanks to all of those in the medical field that work so hard to get that done you can see across the board the rest of Vermont's data pretty stable in terms of where we rank and then going to the last sheet again another important item the percentage of Vermonters 65 and older who are fully vaccinated who've received their booster dose Vermont continuing to lead the country now at about 48% of those 65 and older who are fully vaccinated so it'll be critical to get that number up as high as we can go to make sure those most vulnerable have the greatest degree of protection so with that I'll now turn it over to Secretary Smith. Thank you Commissioner Pichek good afternoon everyone as of today as the governor mentioned 14,360 children ages five to 11 have appointments to get vaccinated or have already begun vaccination that's just over 30% of Vermont kids in that age range specific and as you saw we're doing very well in that in that age range specifically for this age range we have six ongoing EMS clinics 11 healthcare partner locations available and between those groups they're offering about 30 vaccine clinics for children each week we also have vaccine clinics running at 94 schools across the state over the next 45 days that includes that these are two clinics at each school which means there are approximately 188 school clinics operating these clinics are in addition to our regular state-run clinics and many pharmacies are now offering five to 11 year olds the opportunity to get vaccinated you can make an appointment for your child by going online and this is a different uh internet address as we uh as we move forward healthvermont.gov slash kids vaccine that's healthvermont.gov slash kids vaccine you can also call 855-722-7878 as I mentioned last week our goal is to get as many doses as possible into children's arms before the holiday break at the end of December we continue to urge everyone eligible not just children to get vaccinated and get a booster when it's your time it's especially important for anyone 65 or older to get vaccines and boosters but anyone at risk of getting COVID should be getting a booster so far more than 105,000 people have received boosters in the state and as commissioner peachek had shown um we're leading the nation in our boosted in our booster administration and just this week alone we have more than 100 clinics throughout the state for both vaccines and boosters the website for making an appointment if you're not a child is healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine you can also call 855-722-7878 our hospitals are having high patient uh census I've mentioned this on several occasions at this podium this is partly due to COVID but it's mostly from people who show up sick with a variety of non-covid related illnesses we have taken several steps to open or reopen inpatient mental health beds and subacute beds as well as beds for those struggling with substance abuse this is to alleviate the strain on our hospitals just to give you an example as of Monday evening we've opened up 67 of our planned 80 subacute beds 63 of them are currently filled and we we're continuing to work to bring the remainder online and fill them I think five are due to open up today however those steps alone won't solve the issue we need your help as commissioner peachek pointed out not fully vaccinated people are more than twice as likely to end up hospitalized than fully vaccinated individuals and when we look nationally according to cdc data the unvaccinated are 12 times more likely to die than those who have been vaccinated for those who aren't fully vaccinated and are in the hospital with COVID their average age is just 55 years old on average the number of ICU beds available over the past week was just 11 as the governor mentioned over the month 14 this is important because we need to ensure that individuals who need hospitalization or an ICU bed can access them so please get vaccinated and get your booster lastly on this same subject I want to mention the use of monoclonal antibodies to help those who contract COVID to avoid hospitalization although this antibody treatment is not a replacement for vaccines it is quite effective in treating COVID if you contract the virus personally if I had COVID my first call would be to my doctor's office to ask them if I can get the antibody treatment and what's the easiest way to do so so if you contract COVID please contact your healthcare provider about monoclonal antibody treatment and lastly I would like to ask those who can volunteer to sign up to help with vaccines by joining Vermont's medical reserve corps we are in need of volunteers medical reserve corps units are community-based groups of volunteers who supplement local emergency and public health resources you can help even if you're not trained medical profession professional and we do need people in our vaccination sites as we as we ramp up our effort and as you know our effort is pretty robust around the state please consider volunteering if you can join mrc you can join mrc by going online to oncallforvermont.org that's all one word on callforvermont.org now turn it over to dr. Levine for a health update thank you and now before I actually get into it let me reiterate what secretary smith just said about the medical reserve corps first I want to thank you to all of Vermonters who give so generously of their time and expertise and support of our communities and I encourage anyone interested to visit oncallforvermont.org and consider volunteering as well and I want to make a special request of those mrc members who may have thought that their service was no longer needed we do need you once again as we go down the stretch in our current vaccination campaign and would certainly welcome your assistance at the vaccine clinics and again thank you for your service to the state now I'm going to focus on a question I've gotten many many times and you likely have as well and that is why why are we seeing so many cases here in Vermont right now there is not one simple answer but there are clearly factors that have come together to create the situation that we're in now first the Delta variant this may sound like old news but the fact is this version of the COVID-19 virus is incredibly contagious an infected person can spread the virus to five people or more far faster than the original strain this means it can spread faster than we can trace and alert contacts and we know that while the vaccines are doing their job of protecting against the most severe effects of COVID Delta has allowed a certain smaller amount of transmission even among vaccinated people we're also a victim of our success in at least two ways because we kept the virus at such low levels throughout the entire pandemic most Vermonters did not get COVID which is great that meant fewer severe illnesses and importantly more people alive today but this also means that not many people got any level of immunity from having had the virus from zero prevalence studies meaning looking at antibody levels in people's blood done with the CDC and the Red Cross we estimate three percent or less of the population in Vermont had any immunity to COVID before the Delta variant emerged in addition we also got so many people vaccinated so efficiently and effectively early on starting with the oldest Vermonters that their immunity is likely waning and as one of the oldest states the percentage of Vermonters in this situation is higher than in most other parts of the country another reason is our behavior has changed we are more mobile we're traveling and hosting visitors doing things in person and gathering more especially indoors as the weather cools down and because we could for a while anyways when case numbers dropped to single digits we went back to masking less so that is leaving people even more vulnerable to the virus right now even though we have a relatively small percentage of unvaccinated people the number is still around 50 000 adults and adolescents and believe me this virus is very effective at finding them our least vaccinated age group those in their 20s have had their own surge in the past week and cases and children have also been a significant driver in this recent surge but fortunately 44 000 children ages 5 to 11 are now eligible for vaccination now i know for many of us it can be frustrating to see Vermont looking so different from how we once did during the pandemic but even after all this time the virus is not something we have absolute control over there's not one single solution to stop it we do need to live with taking the simple and common sense actions for protecting one another as much as we can as you've heard slowing the spread is critical right now while case numbers are high and beginning to strain our hospitals the more we reduce COVID cases the more we keep them out of the hospitals and make sure Vermonters can get care for any type of emergency as soon as they needed now for months now our ICUs have been very busy but they're mostly caring for patients who are experiencing worsening chronic medical conditions like heart disease and lung disease due to care that was put off or delayed during the early days of the pandemic as well as they're seeing a lot of life-threatening infections other than COVID many have let slip some of their basic health habits including less nutritious diets reduced physical activity irregular sleep patterns as well as substance misuse some of which are all quite understandable with the stresses of the pandemic there's even a new term for this now health debt the accumulated impact of changes changes in health behaviors that will have long-term negative impacts on health the bottom line is that this demand on the health care system is going to continue for some time so if we can minimize the impact COVID has on ICU bed capacity that is a lot more doable now than reducing the number of people who need urgent medical care so how do we do this we need to take all the prevention steps together as a single package they're not new but they will make a difference the most important as always is vaccination and that now includes children i want to give a huge thanks to the literally thousands and thousands of parents guardians caregivers who've already acted on the decision to vaccinate their children we at the health department were very heartened by the response as soon as registration opened last week and we look forward to having these kids healthy well protected and much more worry-free and as we heard from dr. Rebecca bell last week for those parents who aren't in this early bird group or if you have any questions about vaccinating your children please talk to your pediatrician and take the opportunity to participate in a community forum sponsored by the american academy of pediatrics vermont chapter you can find the schedule of these talks on our website at health vermont dot gov dash ga sorry dot slash kids vaccine that didn't come out right health vermont dot gov slash kids vaccine get your booster shot as soon as you can it's especially important if you're older who have an underlying health condition as i pointed out in my discussion about why we're seeing more cases like other vaccines your booster takes about two weeks to give you full protection so now is actually the perfect time to get yours and be ready for the holidays remember to get your flu shot as well stay home if you're sick get tested when needed this means if you have symptoms if you have any possible exposure which could include certain types of gatherings or travel for vaccinated people the cdc has just updated its guidance which is to be tested five to seven days after an exposure based on new science wear a mask when you're indoors in public spaces or around people who are at higher risk of COVID-19 older adults and those with significant underlying medical conditions and finally keep gathering safe that means small groups outside when possible avoiding crowded spaces and following the indoor masking guidance now an event can mean a holiday meal but also a weekend weekend get together with a small group of people outside your household and consider getting tested before and after an event especially if anyone at higher risk is present at a future press conference we'll talk about some of the testing you might want to do surrounding holiday gatherings we are doing really well on vaccination and testing reading the nation in multiple measures but remember i said this is a package for the duration of this year and certainly to prepare ourselves for the holidays all of the components matter to protect ourselves our families and the health of all of our monitors we have to do it all governor thank you dr. Levine will now open it up to questions last week you said should the infection rate continue our hospitalization rate could raise as our goal as high as 80 is is that a criteria is that a point where where you would institute a mask mandate not necessarily and i don't believe we'll get to that point i think that the point we were trying to make was if we were on the same trajectory we could hit 80 if we don't if the the number of those cases needing hospitalizations doesn't decrease thankfully we've seen them drop we're back down to where we were before so i don't believe we'll hit that at that mark we want to prevent that from happening before it does what would be that threshold especially given icu capacity it's a number of different points we you know from the very beginning we've said we want to protect our health care system so that's that's our goal that's our priority so there are a number of different factors that would impact that decision and we would do it as a team so we've discussed this and and again at this point in time we don't believe we're at that stage but we want to be prepared if that does happen and we are prepared as you know you've got a letter today from the monitor fake action they are most unhappy with your cold weather policy um they call it the immoral for you to have the money from the federal government to put people in motels and choose not to spend people outside you address that yeah i just don't believe that's the case we do have a program we are taking care of those in need we'll be announcing other parameters of the program i'm receiving some some news from the federal government today of the white house call will impact that as well but it's just not the case we we are protecting those who need our help i mean steward look i want to back up the train here because this um we did something that no other state did we brought people in during during the first start of the pandemic before vaccines before anything else we took a program that usually runs at the height about 300 people a night at the height of it during the winter and we expanded that program to over 2500 people that's that no other state in the nation did that there are a few cities that did it but nobody extended it the way that we have extended it the cold weather program is the cold weather program the adverse weather program is the adverse weather program we've always had in place for this particular program we'll be making some announcements here in the next uh the governor will be making some announcements in the next couple of days and uh it will impact probably the uh the adverse weather uh policy as we move forward the other thing is we're using FEMA money right now to extend this program to the end of the year we didn't know about the extension until just a moments ago in terms of what's going on so we're trying to calculate some other issues as i mean some other uh parameters as we speak but this was just announced you know within the hour i gather and we'll be looking at it as we uh as we move forward we knew we could we had federal money till the end of the year which we extended the program to the end of the year we did not know that we had it extended until April 1st and secondly just just lastly i mean just think about what we've done we've helped with those that have been homeless Sears Sears Lane for example we've helped with financing making sure that people have wraparound services there have case management services we've worked in collaboration with the city in uh in Burlington in order to make that i think everyone but one has been placed uh and i think that one wasn't placed because of um some charges of violence so we've done a lot here what does the term let's go brandon mean to you and do you think it's an appropriate first uh salvo from the new GOP party chair um well it's a derogatory statement towards the the underlying meaning is a derogatory statement against the president um we've been working well with the white house at this point in time uh it's not something that i would do um but this is uh what the GOP for VT GOP has decided um for some it's uh light hearted um but i take it somewhat personally if you take it literally and i just don't think it's necessary uh at this point in time so um it's their choice i didn't have any involvement in that but uh i think we should move on to other issues but for instance i mean where if you look back at the numbers uh 65 percent of vermonters voted for president biden i think we should be uh looking as republicans we should be looking at how do we attract at least you know 20 percent of them 30 percent of them in order to uh to win elections in the future uh not offend them yeah it's just not something that i would do but uh but again that's their prerogative i have not i have not and and as i said before i think he was the right choice for the party i think that uh he will learn his way and uh i think that he'll offer a lot but we'll uh time will tell governor scott some states are um not testing covid testing on veteran's day as a way to honor the holiday is that something vermont is considering we are not testing on i don't believe we're testing on on veteran's day either but we'll be back at it on friday and saturday correct maybe we better check i i we're not we're not vaccinating on thursday are we okay let me clear that up and get back to you because i don't want to give you misinformation i have a question for dr levine but you can go dr levine um do we know how many students at st mike's um who tested positive were vaccinated i don't have that information right now i do know that their vaccination rate for the campus is in the 95 range so i have no doubts that many of them were vaccinated um the the administration there has told us that a lot of this was related to halloween gatherings so people with close contact sounds a little bit like what happened in provincetown massachusetts a number of months ago i was thinking governor it looks like vermont's getting about 2.2 or so billion dollars uh from the infrastructure bill what what do you envision some of that that money going well obviously a major portion of that is roads and bridges some of the traditional infrastructure but as well um it's broadband um it's water sewer and climate change so we're still trying to come to grips with all of that and make some plans in terms of presenting to the legislature i'm not sure what's flexible and what's not i spoke with uh with senator sanders last night he called and we're going to be uh meeting shortly to just discuss the future because as i uh as i've said many times our biggest challenge in vermont is workforce um trying to bring attract more people uh to to come to vermont to stay here to raise families here um because we don't have we don't have the workforce we need today to satisfy all the the jobs that are available and this new money while it's uh it's it's going to be essential to our future and could be very effective for all 14 counties specifically the rural areas of the state um if we don't have the workforce to deliver we're going to be in trouble so some of the initiatives that we've talked about over the last number of years that we presented to the legislature that haven't um haven't been adopted we need to reconsider because again we need the workforce we need people here in order to uh to uh put these funds to good use there's a five-year window that we can use these funds these funds are paid out over five years i mean do you do you think it can happen i think it can happen yes yes but um but we're going to have to again focus on areas like housing for instance if we don't have the housing available uh to to attract more decent affordable housing for the workforce um we're not going to be able to attract people to come here to stay uh so again if we don't have the workforce i mean we're we're at our limits at this point in time we have seen where we have more jobs available then we have people to fill them um so having this well great news to have this additional funding uh we uh we need to make sure that we focus on the right things and and from my standpoint it's workforce development and attracting more families into the state are you saying that you'd like to use some of the 2.24 housing no i mean don't don't forget i mean this isn't the only money that we're receiving i mean we have 1.2 billion dollars of arpa funding so um some of that uh can be maybe we need to uh to double down on some of that because we're going to be able to have as some money available in this infrastructure bill for broadband for instance i had proposed that we spend 250 million for broadband out of the arpa funding that may not be enough but but let's say it is um we we are also receiving 100 million for broadband in the infrastructure bill so we might be able to use 100 million out of the arpa funding for more housing so uh i think this is something that we have to be strategic uh we have to invest uh in the areas that give us the highest return and i believe that will be in a workforce i wanted to ask about leslie black um he passed away yesterday um at age 36 um due to cancer and he um was uh he had prompted you to sign um burn pit legislation wanted to know if you had um anything to say about that yeah tragic uh he is uh someone who has committed his life to protecting us uh and in in terms of military service and um it was just a uh devastating for for his family for for him uh and obviously for all of the state of vermont so he'd be greatly missed and he was uh he was one of the many uh who advocated for this burn pit legislation and that's why we signed it because this is so important um so that we learn from the past and don't make the same mistakes in the future and we take care of those who took care of us governor you and members of your administration are wearing masks today i believe the last time that was the case where you still had a state of emergency in place why that change well you know we've been providing guidance uh for uh a few weeks now uh that when you're in certain situations you should be considering wearing a mask while i feel we've felt in the past we've been safe in this environment we still are there's 25 people here and sometimes you have to practice what you preach and uh it's as much symbolism as anything else and i just thought it was a good idea that we we start to show that it's okay during this time we should be uh considering wearing masks in certain certain situations for myself uh i've been spending a lot of time on weekends i go and have my to-do lists and i find myself in hardware stores and and if i'm in there for a period of time i put my mask on i think it's a good idea if i'm going into a convenience store i'm going in and out i typically don't wear a mask i'm fully vaccinated i have had my booster and uh that's not where we're finding uh some of these situations it's really about the gatherings small gatherings and uh and so forth inside so again it was just showing uh providing leadership in that regard but it's uh again your choice but we want you to make logical decisions and and make the right decisions as we move forward and get through this hump because we want everybody to be able to enjoy Thanksgiving and the rest of the holidays that follow it sounds like there might have been a change in guidance for masking i know before when talking about masking indoors there was a qualifier of if it's a crowded space i didn't hear that qualifier today is that a change in guidance um well it's still the same guidance for my perspective which is its guidance there's no mandate you don't have to wear a mask when you're in here you're fully vaccinated we've been we've talked about that extensively but but you have to you know be aware of your surroundings make the right decisions weigh the the vulnerabilities and and just come to your own conclusion so there's no difference in in guidance it's your it's your choice i'm citing dysfunction in washington said he's wants to remain governor for another term you can relate to that i suspect but you you think of his decision i think he made the right decision for the same reason yeah i mean we've we've spoken about this in the past and you know it's a whole different world in washington uh i believe that you are effective as a governor making policy and in getting things done and i i'm not sure that governor sununu is one who likes to get things done as well he's been a great partner from a border state we've worked together a lot and many different ways and sounding boards and so forth so i think he made the right decision hi thanks um somebody told me that they had a hard time registering for a booster shot online to the health department website um and then when they called in the health department the attendants told them that this issue's been happening um they were told you know they got this note saying they were not qualified are you hearing anything about that um secretary we've heard something on occasion not in not a general theme in that what you need to do is go down beside your history and hit the hit the button or the click on the button next to your vaccination history and it will bring you right in some people are clicking on a different button in order to bring that in again if you call the health center um there has been there's somebody there to help you call the call center there's somebody there to help you i you know we've had 105 000 people um get their boosters um that is um that's quite an achievement and i you know i haven't heard generally i've heard um i've heard one person tell me that they had an issue and it was on an AARP call the other day and it was that issue they weren't going down to their history um to see if they could click on what was a booster click a booster button click so we'll look into it we'll always make changes to make it easier for people but we have uh registered and and vaccinated 105 000 people and i i hope we can make it even easier now i do want to lisa can i can i just go back to a previous question um i am a veteran and and thursday i think um to honor veterans who have served our country and and and protected our lives we will be testing we will be vaccinating on thursday thank you thank you lisa lumis the reporter good afternoon um we're getting a lot of questions from community members who are speaking specific testing protocols for thanksgiving and i heard dr livy say that that is coming when it does come our readers would very much like to know they should schedule and take pcr tests three days before thanksgiving and rapid antigen tests the day of does vermont have the testing capacity for that on top of the current delta surge testing capacity for the pcr test we absolutely have testing capacity for the pcr test that the issue for the readers will be their timing because you don't want to get a test and then not have a result in time for the event that they got the test for so you mentioned a three-day window which is fine three days or more would be certainly protective in getting a result on time antigen testing currently is not part of what the state of vermont is doing at all of our testing centers it is a part of testing though right now there are urgent care sites and other places where one can get an antigen test and one can purchase their own antigen test either online or at a pharmacy and also make that part of their testing protocol so we will come out with some very clear guidance regarding that so that there's no confusion but i think that answers the question you posed today yes thank you and then as a follow-up in some states rapid antigen tests are being made available in public libraries free of charge is this something that vermont will consider or is there some other way that the state will be providing free or reduced price access to the rapid test the ones that are being used in schools yeah so we we certainly will discuss that that's not something that we've decided anything about i have to tell you that that's going to be if i can read the tea leaves the national testing strategy going into the future and going into the virus being endemic and coming out of pandemic having your own access to antigen tests so that you can make safe and good decisions when you're planning whatever you're planning to do or whatever whom you're going to be with especially if you're with somebody more vulnerable so having access to free and rapid turnaround antigen testing is going to be really a critical part of the whole strategy so i'll just ask you to stay tuned on that thank you governor you and your officials today have mentioned that the increased cases among children um is a reason to to have them uh vaccinated however isn't it also true that last week's high numbers of positives among children was in direct proportion to the high number of tests among children well certainly um we had i think there was one day we had 18 000 tests and a significant number of those that was that big day that we had almost 500 positive cases so the more testing you do the more you find and so that could be but um i'll let mr. P check answer that yeah thank you governor when we look at the per capita rates for the five to 11 year olds um you know they've been uh the highest age group not just this week or last week or the week before that but really for the last two months and um we really haven't noticed anything disproportionately in terms of the amount of testing i mean if we if we were to look at their positivity rate um you know it would likely have gone up like the rest of the states as well so again that's that's really the reason for why it's critical to get that age group vaccinated okay thank you awesome and governor uh view and your others in your administration today have said that other illnesses are increasing the load on vermont ic use uh i know commission levina touched on this but but what are they and are they in any way related to the virus or to the vaccine i think they could be related in some and that's what i said in my remarks because people we put off procedures people put off going to the doctors and so that is having a ripple effect in some respects uh lagging a kind of uh health risk at this point in time so they're ending up in the hospital so there is there is a connection for some of the cases and uh but we have to keep in mind i mean we our icu capacity in the state is um hovers around 100 depending on the staffing and so forth so we don't have a great number of icus when you think about it so when you have 15 uh 14 15 cases of covid uh and the rest being uh of the other uh it uh it certainly is uh concerning so we have to to keep track of that because we want to make sure that we have the beds available certainly the icu capacity to take care of those who have an accident and significant injuries uh or a heart attack or a stroke and have the beds available dr levine anything you want to add to that your guy was there something about the nature of what cases are in the icu that your question was was asking yeah i guess what i'm really getting at commission levine is um given the high veirs numbers of of uh covid vaccine reactions and some studies and reports saying that uh that there are there are reactions to this i just i wondered if there's any any sense of vaccine reaction being uh being part of this and we are the highest vaccinated state and if there are vaccine reactions that stands to reason that that we will have more per capita than than others yep no i get your i get your line of logic um i can assure you that the cases that are ending up in the icu are generally not um post vaccination related they are chronic disease related and acute infection related uh as well as some covid uh and i would again caution everyone to use the veirs data the vaccine adverse events reporting system data very cautiously because it's all self-report occasionally physician or provider report and most of what's in there needs to be vetted if you will by the cdc uh to try to uh ascertain if there's a true relationship between the vaccine and what has been reported we certainly know there are major um sentinel events like myocarditis or blood clots that have been clearly associated with the vaccines after looking at nationwide and worldwide experience uh those are not the cases that are filling up our icu unfortunately um so or fortunately so the bottom line is i don't think just because we have such a high vaccination rate it explains what's going on in the icu's especially when we know at least in the covid cases it's uh two thirds to three quarters on any given day unvaccinated people thank you come on digger i um i think that this question is for dan french um we've heard multiple times now of a planned agency of education survey to track lost instructional days but we haven't seen any published results of that yet um are there any updates on the status of that survey has it been sent to schools is it being compiled by the agency of education and can you just confirm that these results will be released to the public at some capacity in some capacity when they are available yeah hi uh stan french thanks for the question uh we haven't launched that survey yet um you know delta is really uh forced us to put some of our data collections on the back burner if you will uh we just launched a data collection on vaccination rates uh which we'll see in the baseline information particularly as the five to eleven vaccination campaign rolls out in the next couple of weeks we do intend to point the system towards education recovery we'd love to have started the school year that way but unfortunately then delta sort of put that off but we are planning to launch that survey i'm not quite sure when we'll do that perhaps in the month of december but when we do have the results we will make them public and i also said there was a rise in reported covid cases in the doh report in the past uh week um do you know how much of that is attributable to the spike that's going on and how much of it could be the result of like surveillance testing and increased testing throughout the state probably for one of us then is that a school issue erin or is it uh are you moving on to just generally i mean i was i was specifically talking about the rise in school cases going from 100 to three cases as the november 1st to 217 cases in school um and i was wondering if you you had kind of an explanation for what was going on there if that was part of the covid spike or if that was maybe the result of surveillance testing that's going on now um maybe dan french has the statistics on how many schools surveillance tests have been conducted maybe the department of health might have that data i don't know we're gonna let's go yeah hi erin this is dan french i i can start governor um yeah i wasn't clear and if you were asking me that question or not i apologize for the delay my my general perception of the data since the opening of schools that cases in schools are more or less parallel the cases in the broader population again um what we see in schools is general reflection of what goes on in community um but i don't know if we have any more specific understanding of that maybe commissioner p check would add to that or not yeah we either commissioner p check nor i have anything to add to that uh secretary french the testing levels in the school seems to be a pretty stable phenomenon um there hasn't been a surge in surveillance testing that would explain the increased number of cases so it most likely does reflect just what we're seeing in the general community's environment okay thank you thank you gruesome uh secretary smith i'm wondering how many um beds you're going to have at the ready when adverse weather conditions criteria kick in for folks who will be seeking emergency housing under that program i do know secretary smith will answer this one but um i do know we have 1500 people involved in the program now about a thousand families i believe yeah peter you're asking how we have about we're we have about 1500 people as the governor said about 1200 adults about 300 children in our um general assistance program now the hotel motel program we've placed over the year about 1500 people into into permanent housing but i think what you're asking and i don't know if i have the answer for it but i'm going to ask you to clarify i think what you're asking is how many more hotel rooms we have available than what we're occupying right now what i'm asking is uh there's going to come a day when the forecast calls for temperatures below 20 degrees people who are unhoused right now will in that moment um become eligible for emergency housing under the adverse adverse weather condition program do i have that right so far so far and i'm wondering how many thoughts you will have at the ready for that first night when uh people are eligible for that awc housing yeah i i don't have that number for you i'll try to get some of that number but i'll i'll tell you it's going to be limited because we still are our housing uh 1500 people the the issue is um availability of hotel motel rooms as we move forward we are scouring the state right now and we've mentioned this to legislative leadership we are scouring the state right now for buildings that we could use as temporary shelter sites for those individuals uh that we are looking at anything and we would welcome input into uh where we could find whether it's college don't uh unused college dorms unused facilities that we're looking at but um we are limited in the hotel motel program by the number of motel motel hotel rooms that are are available and right now we're we're near capacity matter of fact we're turning away some people unfortunately that do qualify under the existing program because we don't have the hotel motel space um that we uh that we would like as we move forward so is that there's no guarantee that let's say uh we're gonna have a 15 degree night next week um there's no guarantee that you're gonna have shelter available for everybody who asks for it yeah i don't think there was ever a guarantee peter that we would have shelter available it was a lot easier when we're dealing with 300 at max during the coldest uh winter days of the year but um you know we we are at 1500 now and that's gonna have and 500 in shelters we're trying to build 500 more shelter spaces not build but find 500 more shelter spaces we think that would accommodate most of the people that are out there one last question for commission of p-check commission of p-check you have a slide deck in your presentation today uh that says uh COVID-19 cases are not expected to decrease over the next four weeks i'm wondering if you did a modeling scenario in which uh vermont had more restrictive mitigation measures and if so um what what the modeling foresaw under that scenario yeah thanks for the question peter so you know this is the ensemble model from the cdc it puts together about 20 uh different models i don't believe any of those models um at this point game out different scenarios based on mitigation measures or behavior but like always it comes down to behavior on these um on these models whether there are mitigation measures in place or not if people follow the guidance or follow the mitigation measures then you know cases will be better than the modeling predicts so that ultimately is um the key here thank you all joseph grasser martin chronicle just keep in mind the the number the percentage of those uh uh being infected are amongst the unvaccinated somewhere around 70 percent so that would tell you that first of all they should get vaccinated that would that would help but at the same time as we're moving forward we are they're developing some immunity along the way by becoming infected so that should uh that should affect us uh in some way in a positive way uh over the next few months but we want to keep them out of the hospital and so getting vaccinated is the best policy at this point joseph grasser martin chronicle tim mcquiston vermont business magazine hi thanks governor um i think lisa rapsky's question gets back to people concerned about whether they're eligible or not and not a technical issue for instance on the vdh website it says um get extra protection with a booster shot if you are 18 or older and you received your second dose of bison moderna at least six months ago or johnson johnson vaccine at least two months ago and then it goes on it's especially important if you're 65 and older and have health conditions but there's not a qualified qualifier in that in that first recommendation and people are under 65 or wondering whether they can sign up or not and the the state's website and if you call as well makes it seem like you can't get a booster whereas if you just go onto the pharmacy sites you just click i'm eligible and you move on from there and i think people are looking for a little bit more clarity on whether they're eligible to get a booster or not i would say the vast majority of people are eligible if you read the number of qualifications and so i would say if you want one you can get one secretary smith tim it's been a few weeks since i look at the website but the website um i believe says somewhere in that in in that list that or if you are exposed or feel exposed to covet uh 19 uh you or an occupation where you feel exposed to covet 19 you are eligible and then there's a a place where you can go down and put a a password into that where the password is right there it's called it's booster all in capital letters right there so you can you can access that we've been rarely really consistent here in talking about who's eligible for boosters primarily 65 and above uh those can get a third shot that are that have a immune system that's compromised uh you talked about several other issues you know but we've been really you know if you feel that you're exposed to covet 19 through your occupation or anything else we believe you should get a booster that's you know i i can't i can't be clearer than that and i hope i'll go back and check the website tim to make sure that it has that qualifying statement on it but i think it the qualifying statement um does open it up for people to um to look at where what they can do and where they can get a booster and how they can get a booster and dr levine may have more if i could read the relevant paragraph for fizer and moderna boosters if you are 18 to 64 you should get a booster if you received your second dose at least six months ago and you feel at risk of getting covet 19 we do the detail all the ways the cdc defines the risk but that essentially tells you your concern level um for getting a booster helps define your risk all right thank you all that was uh the clarification i think a lot of people are looking for the other thing i see is dr levine's running away there but um i get a comment last last week and i think people are wondering how to respond to things like that uh middle age the dealt from otter said i'm not going to get a vaccine because i've heard that if you get back if you get covet after you've been vaccinated it's going to be worse than if you're unvaccinated and and how how does the rest of us supposed to respond to comments like that don't believe everything you hear and read i can run but i can't hide um so if there's one thing that we've been saying for many many many months now is if you are vaccinated and you might get what's called a breakthrough case that's the term that's used meaning you got covet after you were vaccinated you still have heavy protection against the most severe outcomes hospitalizations go into the icu or dying so yes you may get covet it's now about a one percent chance in the state of vermont but that's um not consonant with what your reader was saying about it'll be much worse if i get it on top of the vaccine so that's all i can say all right thank you very much we are angle smith vt digger um hi so i have a question about icu capacity and i guess i wanted to know how much of our icu capacity issue is a staffing issue versus a demand for services issue i think it's about um five to any given day it's not consistent five to ten percent so if we have 101 anywhere between five and ten beds are impacted due to staffing and then what happens when we get to capacity like what's the plan we have plans that we've made nothing that we are ready to publicly communicate at this point in time but we do have contingency plans in place and the last question is when do you guys project the peak of like icu demand we don't believe that's going to be the case if we do everything that we've we're talking about doing and people get their backs vaccines they get their boosters i get kids vaccinated wear a mask when you're indoors at least during the height of this uh this higher volume of cases and uh and as we move inside we'll get through this without reaching that peak but what if we do like what happens then we'll put in place the contingency plans thank you and barbara newport daily express yes uh good afternoon uh governor a lot of the uh focus these days has been on the shortage in the labor market but do you have any information you could share about the impact the lack of supplies are having if you like how the department's doing you don't have inventory you don't need employees so could you could you address that issue um well if you use the i i mean i don't know of any industry i at this point in time i i understand what you're saying but uh but the vast majority have enough supplies to do something and so they still in need for those hardware store employees because there are people in looking for all the things they do have in stock um as well in the uh in the trades uh other than you know they're looking for alternatives so let's say line striping i know there was a shortage of paint for line striping so we had to we had to investigate whether there's any alternatives we had to put those into place and we accepted some alternatives that we're we'll watch and see if they're as effective as the the product that was uh spec to begin with but it kept people going so is there one specific area that you have a concern that there is no materials available that i might be able to address i think it might come it would come to your areas for example like shipments and meat to restaurants if there's a supply shortage and they're not getting it kind of cuts down on the net too well yeah well they're fairly creative and i i don't know about some of the fast food but some of the independent restaurants get creative and they come up with other entrees and other products to to sell but again this is impacting all of us in significant ways the supply chain issue is real so again trying to get the the ships to shore into the ports and get those distributed is something that they're facing we're facing on a national level but but that could be related to truck drivers for instance i know that's with with fuel supplies as well as some of the other supplies it's all due to trying to get those into the hands of uh of the businesses and it's just we don't have enough truck drivers to go around so we're being impacted here in vermont on that i i've talked we've talked a great deal in these press conferences about every sector being impacted in one way or another and by labor shortages so i would say if there's uh if there are people that are are impacted or don't have a job as a result of supply issues there are other opportunities and we would be happy to help them find a job or an opportunity to keep them going okay thank you very much uh yes good afternoon thank you uh for secretary smith uh you cited a percentage of the 5 to 11 year old population that had either already received their first dose or were scheduled to receive one could you provide those numbers again and do you know if that is evenly distributed across all regions of the state or are there some regions that have a higher percentage of kids signing up than others that's a good question let me let me the the number is 14360 children ages five to 11 that that you cited that uh appointments to get vaccinated or already uh begun vaccinated i said that was about 30 percent of vermont kids in that age range we have about 44 000 throughout the state let me do this let me uh find out how that i don't have that distribution with me but let me find out how that distribution is and get that number to you we'll get it to you sooner than we did uh last week on your question i apologize for that i just realized we didn't get back to you on a timely basis but we will this time thank you for that um and while you're at the podium uh for you secretary smith or perhaps dr levine you both addressed um the need for volunteers uh to the medical reserve corps um is that request a direct response to an acute shortage and is a staff shortage a limiting agent in terms of um how the capacity for vaccination clinics for boosters and kit yeah it hasn't been um a a limiting factor on vaccination but the over the last week we've been scrambling uh for for personnel to man the vaccination clinics and we've been successful in getting people at vaccination clinics but we just want we just want this reserve amount of people to not be sort of reactive being proactive and making sure that we have enough people in reserve in order to handle um all the vaccination sites that we and we and as i cited we have both the adult uh vaccination and booster and the kid booster uh sites going on and and there's a lot of vaccination going on in the state and so we want to be prepared and making sure we have enough personnel dr levine do you want okay i guess i would just an extension on the on the question of geography uh scrambling to find personnel is that statewide or in specific pockets of the state you know i think where i noticed it was in specific pockets but i think um as we gear up um it will it will immediately you know we've added clinics too um and that is where we see our our issue for example we added a clinic in springfield and we and we needed personnel to uh to deal with that so i think it's it's a little bit of both greg it's it's um it is um adding the clinics that we've added um and the ability to react in any way that we want to react in this vaccination again we are vaccinating um a lot of people and it just um it's just good to have a reserve of people to be in the background if we need them okay thank you for your time and i look forward to um your response to my earlier question we will get that to you in a timely way uh dr levine you want to i just want to add a little point of perspective um the state of ramon is doing a lot of vaccination at one time still trying to get people for their first time working with the new pediatric population and working with boosters of all ages um we are i won't say a rare state but one of the less common states that is still um manning abundant community clinics and now school-based clinics as well there are states that are relying completely on the healthcare system and on the pharmacies to uh through the heavy lifting for this so we are doing this really through multiple directions so again um i don't want it to be sort of misinterpreted that um our efforts are poorly structured or anything of that sort we're actually just doing what we've done for so long now uh in terms of vaccinating people uh trying to use as many modalities as possible to get the best throughput and uh best experience for vermonis greg lambrow the county courier good afternoon governor um as you've probably heard there was a judge here in franklin county that threw out hundreds of criminal cases due in part to a backlog uh driven by covet and a lack of resources to prosecute the cases i'm wondering what your take is on dismissing entire categories of criminal cases in one fell swoop and and also um your office presents the initial starting point for the state's budget every year i'm wondering if it's a priority to you to a lot more resources to the judicial system so that this doesn't have to keep happening yeah first of all i think uh it's unfortunate that all the cases were dropped across the board um i think there should be some accountability for those who break the law uh secondary uh the second question is about the budget development we we are a third branch of government where the executive branch the legislative branch executive branch and judicial branch they come up with their own budget and they present it to us we incorporate that uh into our budget but we don't we don't develop their budget they do that on their own would you be looking to increase what they're even asking for again they are a separate branch of government and they are fully capable of developing their own budget not something that we need to get involved in understood uh one more question here governor and this may be for dr ravine i'm not quite sure um i've been hearing from people who were involved in the lab testing within state government that there's more and more breakthrough cases that are are coming back as false negatives i'm i'm told that people are getting negative results and then you know still showing signs and a few days later getting tested again getting a positive result uh we've been hearing for months from your administration that statistically you're much more likely to get covid or or positive tests from covid if you're unvaccinated but with the premise that you're more likely to get a negative test if you are vaccinated or particularly a false negative if you're vaccinated i'm wondering if the data is inherently flawed and and i'm wondering if you can share shed a little light on that for clarity maybe just if you could be just a little more clear are you talking about antigen testing or PCR testing i believe it's PCR testing it's testing done in a lab yeah thanks for the question i think the premise is wrong and i do think that the reality is when PCR testing has been criticized it's because the belief is that it was too sensitive so it was picking up people that might have had some fragments of virus in their nose whether it be early or very late in their infection and the test was positive but the person was actually doing fine we know that vaccinated people can transmit the virus and that's why the cdc reframed their masking guidance during the delta surge so there are people who are vaccinated who you could test and might find they have a positive result but they never would have self reported themselves as a case because they actually are doing fine so again it's too sensitive as opposed to not picking up cases and even a vaccinated person who has the coronavirus in their nose will test positive whether they have symptoms or not the vaccine should not be impeding the ability for the PCR test to pick that up that's all i can say thank you does that change with the other type of testing with the antigen testing uh so um antigen testing can be less sensitive if you're doing it just as a one time event but if you're doing it in a sequential fashion and it turns positive that's really the way it was designed in a sense the vaccination status again of the person shouldn't markedly interfere with that because each of these tests is picking up different aspects of the virus in terms of its molecular makeup and that the vaccine doesn't change that makeup in any way okay thank you dr. Levine thank you governor tom davis compass vermont uh no questions today thanks very much jason thank you tom chris roe newport daily express yeah it's good afternoon now this question might be for commission of french we're here from a family up here in the northeast kingdom who had their probate child out of school because she has a medical condition and can't wear a mask and they have a doctor's note that says that but apparently that's not enough and i'm just wondering if that's the standard across the state and what the state mandate is for um for math and school well first of all we don't have a mandate uh in place from a statewide level this was guidance that we provided uh to the local school districts all but one district adopted the guidelines and that uh that one being canaan and one school so we provided the guidance uh the the local communities decided on whether they were going to implement that guidance or not secretary french yes thanks governor and thanks for us um yeah if your question about a doctor's note i i think you know there is a mechanism by which uh schools can and are required to provide reasonable accommodations for students who have medical conditions i saw i think we're talking about the same case that i saw recently in the media i'm not familiar with exactly what was in the doctor's note and i think that might be the issue um you know you can't necessarily have a doctor's note to excuse a student from complying with school requirements like wearing a mask but if the doctor's note contain diagnosis information and so forth it could be the basis for a school to work with a parent to create an accommodations plan but i'd have to look more specifically at the case okay thank you holland flanders seven days uh yeah i had a question about our booster vaccine guidance after sitting through these for a few weeks i mean it really does seem like you're trying to walk a fine line here between saying that everyone should get a booster and limiting it to how some other states have i'm just curious why you aren't just coming out and saying everyone should go get a booster when that seems to be your intent here saying if you want it you can get one um is there any concern that you could go too far and get in trouble with the federal government is that the thinking here or why not just have a blanket statement get a booster well i think we've been saying that if you want a booster you can get a booster so i think we've been clear that uh there's a lot of flexibility there and if you read the conditions that the cdc laid out that you would qualify if you feel that you can contract a covet for instance then you can get a booster so i think we're saying the same thing but we're trying to adhere to the cdc guidance and and i think we have i mean i think that's that opens the door wide open in terms of whether you can or can't so if you want a booster you should get one i mean that's a different message though than saying everyone should get a booster we were saying really on everybody should get vaccinated aren't i i guess i would disagree that those are the same statement well i think it should be your choice whether you get a booster or not and is somewhat determining your own risk as well i think the older you are i think it's it's a better idea to get one but those are decisions you make on your own dr levine so back to your earlier part of the question that's why we have been very careful to at least list all of the things the cdc uh mentions but keep in mind the middle of the night change that dr walensky made was to vastly expand and use a list of occupational risks which was her way of really trying to make sure that if you feel just by virtue of what you do every day you come in contact with people and that puts you at risk that you would not fail to take advantage of the fact that there are boosters available to make it a little less muddy in the future you're seeing reports now of the fiser and moderna manufacturers showing results of trials done in 18 year olds and older so people under 65 but older than 18 who just get boosters trying to show that indeed that is a safe as well as effective strategy for improving the immune status of everybody in the population so i think it's going to be a moot point in the near future because i think you'll see the fda authorizing over 18 get a booster if the data bears that out thanks and then i have one additional question governor scott you had said that you do not think we will get to a level where our icus will be overrun i'm curious what you're basing that belief on given that our modeling shows a wide range of outcomes and the second part of that is why not disclose the plans of what would happen when not if that were to occur well there are a number of different strategies depending on what we're seeing so we'll make that determination when if it happens and we don't believe it will happen we've been having high case counts for a number of weeks and and we are hovering about the same number of hospitalizations and icu numbers so we don't believe that it will exceed the limitations of the health care system but but again we just want everyone to know where we're prepared to take action if and when that does happen but we're we're trying to work with the hospitals now to increase some of the icu capacity and and making sure that they're like for instance um making sure there's enough uh bed space available for we worked with the veterans administration to uh to the va to make sure to ask them if they would take some of the mental health patients and we were successful in doing that so that relieves some pressure there so we're just looking for different opportunities to make sure that we have the space available when and if it's needed but but again i don't know it's the modeling when you say that it's showing that we'll get there i don't think that's accurate i i believe all of the modeling has shown that it's going the other direction i would i well just to clarify i didn't say that the modeling is showing we'll get there and the modeling is showing a wide range of potential outcomes and we're hearing that cases will continue to go up for at least the next four weeks um that's that's why i was curious as to what you're basing the idea that we're not going to get there it sounds like you're saying we haven't got there yet so we probably won't yeah i i think that's true but but i may ask commissioner p check to elaborate because when i saw the modeling it seemed like there was a a wide range but it was actually under what we are experiencing so i don't see that i don't think anyone um has said that we're going to exceed where we are today but maybe commissioner p check and clear that up yeah thank you governor so the um you know i think the the modeling didn't say that cases were going to go up over the next four weeks we just said they're not projecting that they're going to decline so either sort of at a rate that we're at now or a little bit less even you know basically what we've been seeing over the last two weeks but that they're not going to have a trend downward over the next four weeks so that's what the modeling shows but just like we've just you know answered a little bit earlier in the press conference it always comes down to you know what happens on the ground and what people's behaviors are and and how the case is actually trend so um you know i think that's going to be certainly the most important but obviously as cases go up or as cases are higher then you're worried about what will follow with hospitalization so we'll just definitely keep a close look on that thanks kevin callen the boston vote thanks jason um governor i'm speaking to you from harford um where your kind words about west black are very much appreciated um given that west had spent his last year not just fighting for his own life but for the health and safety of his fellow veterans losing him so close to veterans day is very poignant indeed uh back to uh the same subject we've been talking about mostly today i'm wondering governor given the level of record infections last week hey do you wrestle with your decision your your your view on mandating mass is that something that you go back and forth on when you hear from other legislators or you hear from other public health officials or public health workers who believe in a mass mandate does that does it ever change your opinion do you wrestle with this well no we do hear um many different opinions on whether a mass mandate is effective or not and uh and i contend that putting a mass mandate into place putting a state of emergency in place and a mass mandate in place would not be effective uh because i think that the vast majority of vermonters are back to their normal lives and i when we see the the cases and where they're uh we're seeing the most transmission it really is in some of the gatherings some of the small gatherings whether it's in a club or a bar or at somebody's home that's where we're seeing a lot of these cases so i think it's extremely extremely difficult at this point in time to reimpose a mass mandate and and be naive enough to think that people are going to follow it we see other states there's a handful of states throughout the country uh that have a mass mandate i think nevada does new mexico i can't think of the others but but they're seeing their cases rise so i'm just not sure that it's effective and and again we have other mitigation measures in place we think that we're we're focused on vaccinations we think that gives us the the most that will have the most impact on vermont the boosters and the of course the vaccinations the five to eleven year olds so we believe this strategy is the most effective way without disrupting everything else in our lives that people have become accustomed to getting back to somewhat normal governor are you basing your position on more social science than medical science and the idea that it would lead to confrontations that could be ugly or i'm curious because it seems that the the medical evidence that you folks have cited for months is that mass work yeah but again i think you're absolutely right it's the social science because you can put all of the restrictions into place and if they're not adhered to then it's all for naught and then you do create areas of confrontation we were fortunate here in vermont that we had a number a great deal of people who did the right thing for the right reasons and were a willing partner at the appropriate time and we can't be in a perpetual state of emergency here it's would be an abuse of power and again i don't think the vast majority of vermonters feel we're in an emergency right now not when we're back to our daily lives going to restaurants going out to different events maybe taking in a hockey game or a football game or or baseball game i mean people are back to doing the things they did previous but but again the medical science would probably say that if every everyone was masked up it would have an effect but but again i don't think we're able to do that now again i will say uh when uh when i've traveled around the state and go into different environments whether it's like i said in the hardware store vast majority of people in a small restricted place in a public area are wearing masks i mean we're we're seeing it so without a mass mandate they're doing the right thing and for those who aren't the mass mandate isn't going to affect them they're not going to adhere to that that's my final question thank you governor like my final question would be to Dr Levine and just ask do you agree with that he said yes all right i'm not sorry anymore so goodbye thank you of course i agree with that uh so to put it on record i am a firm believer in mass i am a firm believer in the literature on mask mandates and i've quoted it abundant times i have to be cautious though and having everyone who thinks it is the simple way out that the governor is correct there's a lot of behavioral issues there that one has to really deal with to make sure that people actually do fulfill what a mask mandate says you also need to look at the experience of the states which are few as the governor said um nevada new mexico illinois washington oregon the district of columbia and hawaii are the ones i can remember and i don't believe there are any more there are maybe one or two um very mixed experiences if you plot out over time when their surges occurred what their date of mask mandate was when it came to an end all of that um in the era of the delta variant all the other sars-cov-2 virus that we lived with before is it's the same virus yes but it's not as transmissible as the delta variant and so i would just reserve judgment until the analyses come in over ensuing months as to what was the efficacy of mask mandates during the delta era because it's really important for us to at least be open-minded about the fact that from what i can see there's been great variability and uh the success rate if you will of the mask mandates and when i talk to fellow state health officials from other states um they say what the governor has been saying that you know when they go into certain places they're seeing people who are adhering to the rules but then there are other circumstances which are probably the more transmission prone circumstances where actually the compliance is not the same um and and that may sort of sabotage the whole intent of what the mandate was um i also want to just make an important take home message based on the previous question that came in sorry to use the globe's time on this but when we talk about the icu you know we we're seeing higher case numbers last week in those peak days so one would predict that if people are going to get sick at the same rate and require hospitalization at the same rate then there's just going to be more of them because there were more cases and that could culminate in more people in an icu so part of what we're doing here is just saying you know we're trying to project a little ahead nothing about modeling or anything it's just look at how many cases we have who they're impacting and exercise some appropriate concern about the downstream effects of that but the take home message actually to come back to your question needs to be this is the time that you want to do all the things that i mentioned in my opening comments including be careful about those gatherings and wear your mask and the circumstances that you should be wearing them in because whether you are the vulnerable person or whether your behavior is going to impact somebody else who is vulnerable and does end up in the icu that's why we're asking you right now to take these numbers seriously not that we believe this is going on forever and ever and that we're going to totally need you know 30 new icu beds we just want to make sure that we don't have that situation arise and people's behaviors will help really determine that the theme protect you very much thank you chris maize brattle burr former i guess i was wondering if there's anything driving the elevated case count in bennington county it's it's really very difficult to know and and if you have any ideas maybe you could let us know it's interesting when you look at the data and i look at it every single day last week as you might recall last week of the week before we were seeing 30 of the cases in the northeast kingdom which for that population was dramatic so but today i think they're down in the maybe nine ten percent yesterday i believe i saw that bennington in rutherland county had around um let's say i'm gonna guess at this like 15 percent uh and today it's 30 percent so at any given time there's some spikes and i don't know whether there's any rhyme or reason uh whether there was an uh an event uh at that point in time that uh led to that in in the area and uh typically that's what's what's happened it's one event like chitin county today i'd say is due to st michael's college that's what i would guess so it just depends on whatever happened in that region uh that that might have might have caused it but i i don't know is there's anything that we have been able to pick up on at this point in time but eventually maybe through contact tracing which again is difficult uh right now with this variant because the variant works so quickly and infects so quickly um so it's been difficult to utilize the contact tracing which was worked so well with us uh with the original covet 19 because it gave us all time to uh to make sure that we were able to snuff that out so to speak all right my last question was do you i think that's the first secretary spanish do you know what um school staff vaccination rates look like at this point throughout vermont thanks that's uh one of the items we're asking in our statewide data collection um i will i'll make the observation that i think we have a high high staff vaccination rate we think it's above 90 percent i think i'll also say that i think for my impression traveling around the state that that's also fairly consistent from school to school i think you know our student vaccination rate on the other hand of the population that is was eligible previously the 12 to 18 year olds but we also had a state average high vaccination rate i think above 75 percent uh but what i've noticed around the state is that that rate does vary more so than the staff vaccination rate so um through the earlier question about geographically how the 5 to 11 vaccination rate is playing out i think it's early to tell that it's something we're going to have to keep an eye on because i think there will be some variation of student vaccination rates much greater than the adult vaccination rate thank you um with dr levine um are you concerned that an outbreak of that size occurred in a highly vaccinated community i'm concerned that it happened yes am i surprised that it happened no based on what we've seen around the country um this virus can do just that i would i don't know this for a fact but i would put money on these cases being very mild and uh not causing a great deal of distress but still a case is a case and it's unfortunate it happens but we saw in provincetown abundant healthy people who were gathered together too closely at a susceptible time um the part of the press that hasn't been reported as widely about provincetown is that even with its big tentacles where it's spread to other states etc the number of hospitalizations and deaths was very very very small uh considering we're talking thousand people totally infected maybe more recommendations you could offer college students in addition to masking and testing is our college students you know should they consider even more precautions i think the precautions are just the ones that the president of the st michaels college offered which is gatherings are not going to get us there it's unfortunate that they let their guard down um didn't follow the colleges or the state's guidance regarding being careful with things like halloween gatherings so you know the campuses are doing very well um and they are basically highly vaccinated 95 plus percent across the board in vermont the campuses testing policies are very consistent with what they should be at this point in time for such a vaccinated campus and the um results have been pretty non-disrupted semesters this time around uh except for certain individuals and at st mikes they they put a pause on things but i believe they're starting classes up again so hard to give them much more advice other than just what we're telling everybody which is protect yourselves and especially protect those who are highly vulnerable by trying to do all the right things during this real peak time of delta till we can get through this that's it thank you very much and we'll see you again next tuesday