 Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today. I'm Mike Smith Secretary of the Agency of Human Services. Governor Scott is currently on another call with fellow governors and White House officials but he'll be joining us shortly. Today I want to provide an update on our progress with the vaccination program as well as a few policy related updates. Let's talk about what happened yesterday. We opened 50 plus registration and those were Vermonters age 50 and older. As of this morning, more than 21,000 Vermonters in that age group had made their vaccination appointments. In terms of overall progress as of this morning, 202,300 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19. 86,000 have received their first dose of the vaccine. 116,300 have received their first and last dose of the vaccine. We have mentioned in previous press conferences that we anticipated reaching the 200,000 mark by the end of March. When I look at the number of people vaccinated, 2,202,000 as of today, we are right on that schedule. Nearly 90% of those 70 and older have been vaccinated and 75% of those age 65 to 69 have been vaccinated. Now let's move on to an update on hospital visitation policy. Our hospital visitation policy and guidance for inpatient and outpatient health care procedures are changing. Today we will issue revised hospital visitation guidelines for those that have been fully vaccinated. Hospitals can now choose to allow fully vaccinated individuals to visit patients in their hospitals. These visitors will need to present evidence of vaccination, which includes the COVID-19 vaccination card provided to every vaccinated person. Hospitals do have discretion to use more stringent standards and guidance so as long as they otherwise comply with applicable laws and regulations. Hospitals must continue to apply all safety protocols for visitors and patients, including the requirement that all visitors wear masks during the duration for the duration of the visit. We have also updated the guidance for health care providers and facilities offering inpatient and outpatient procedures under this guidance. Patients will be screened for vaccination status and should be prepared to present evidence of vaccination at their health care appointments. We also and Dr. Levine will discuss this in more detail in a minute. We're changing some of our registration process. Commissioner Levine will discuss two new special adjustments to our vaccine strategy. The first is for a group of parents who are caring for children at home who are too young to be vaccinated, but have serious medical conditions and care needs. The second change is to implement further enhancements to our registration process for our BIPOC Vermonters. Each of these adjustments are designed to provide greater access for all Vermonters. The first change will be available on the registration system on Wednesday morning and the BIPOC change will be available by Thursday on the registration system. You can register by either going online or calling our call center. Just a federal pharmacy update moving on to the federal pharmacy program. As we look toward the goal of offering a vaccine to all Vermonters by July 1st, we continue to add more pharmacy partners and locations. This week CVS will add locations in Essex, Rutland and Williston and starting April 5th. You can make your appointment at 12 Hannaford locations across the state. As a reminder, those age 40 and older will be eligible to make their vaccination appointments starting on April 5th at 8.15 a.m. I encourage everyone to go ahead and create an account online at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine so you can simply log on and make your appointment when it's your turn. Go on and register and simply log on and make your appointment when 8.15 on April 5th comes around for those 40 and above. You can make your appointment at one of our health care partner clinics, which includes Costco and Walmart through the state website as well at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. If you are unable to sign up online, you can call 855-722-7878. One more time, 855-722-7878. You can also make an appointment directly with Kenny Drugs, CVS Pharmacy or Walgreens. All these options are available at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. But if you do make an appointment on the state website and then you make a subsequent appointment at a pharmacy, please cancel the appointment in the state system if you get a vaccine at one of the participating pharmacies. That way it opens up a slot for another Vermonner. Thank you once again for doing your part to end this pandemic and protect yourself, your loved ones and your community. I'll now turn it over to Commissioner Pichek for our weekly update. Thank you very much Secretary Smith and good morning everyone. We first shared CDC modeling about the more contagions COVID-19 variant B117 this past January, which suggested the variant's impact in the U.S. might be significant and that it was forecasted to become the dominant COVID-19 strand by March. This set up a critical race as Dr. Levine has mentioned between the variant and the vaccine. And through much of January and February with falling case counts and rising vaccination rates, this race certainly seemed well within hand. That was until last week when we saw the emergence of some concerning trends, most notably in Michigan, a state with the highest per capita detection of B 117, while also one of the states with the slowest vaccine rollout. Not only were cases rising rapidly in Michigan, but so too were hospitalizations. And now this week, the indication is clearer. Aided by many feeling the general fatigue of COVID-19, the variants seem to be pulling ahead with cases rising in more than 30 states and hospitalizations rising in nearly half the states in the country as well. And we are seeing some of these trends here in Vermont. For example, this week we crossed the 19,000 case threshold. We recorded our single highest case day since the pandemic began. And we came within two cases of tying our highest weekly case rate since the pandemic began, which was set on January 5th. But we must also recognize and acknowledge how fortunate we are to have the vaccine available to us and how fortunate we are to have made so much progress, particularly with those that are the most vulnerable as we see this uptick in cases. When we look at the case counts this week compared to the week ending January 5th, the totals are certainly similar, but the risks are very different. On January 5th, about 21% of our cases that week were among the population that was 60 and older. But this week, now with significantly more protection among that age group, those 60 and older only make up about 9% of our cases. And you can see the significant decrease in those 80 and older as well. The trend toward younger cases is something we have seen throughout 2021. As you can see from the chart, cases among those 10 and younger and those 60 and older are disproportionately lower this year. However, when looking at those in their 20s, they represent 13.4% of the Vermont population, but they're representing over 20% of our cases so far this year. And the same is true for those 10 to 19 years old as well. As we can see in March in particular, cases among 20 year olds have had a dramatic rise. Seeing their share of cases increase 53% so far this month. The reason is clear why we're seeing fewer cases among those in the older populations simply because they're stepping up and getting vaccinated. As Secretary Smith mentioned, over 86% of those 70 and older have started or completed vaccination. And those 65 to 69 saw a 13% increase this week and the number started or completed moving up from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. And now when we look across the country, we see that Vermont is now leading the nation with the percentage of those 65 and older who have started or completed vaccination with that percentage continuing to rise each and every day, adding very important protection to our most vulnerable community. Again, the key to ending the pandemic is for all of us to get vaccinated. This individual action will have a significant collective impact. In fact, given our current case rates over the last three months, we estimate that 78 lives have been saved so far from the vaccine being available to us here in Vermont. And many more can be saved when it's our turn to step up and take the vaccine. Looking at our 14 day case rate, you will see that after a relatively stable five weeks, cases have started to climb. But again, among our most vulnerable, those with vaccination percentages over 86% we continue to see cases among those 70 and older trend down. While overall cases are now only down 11% for those under 70 years old, they are down 81% for those 70 and older, an even greater disparity than what we saw last week. You also see that there are now six active long term care facility outbreaks in Vermont. But again, these outbreaks remain considerably smaller than what we experienced earlier in the year. In early January, the average size of a long term care facility outbreak was over 38 cases. While today that average is down to five. Along with certain age groups, driving transmission in Vermont, so to our certain geographic areas of the state, you can see that the case counts remain elevated and the more northern counties of Vermont as well as Rutland. Again, as we've said in the past, we all need to keep up the hard work of keeping COVID-19 at bay for a little while longer. But this is particularly true for those living in the parts of the state seeing higher transmission at the moment. Turning to hospitalizations, we see that our trends are pretty stable with the overall hospitalization rate increasing 6% over the last seven days. But when you look at the last 14 days, that rate has decreased about 5%. And we're down nearly 60% from our peak in early February. And as we continue to see fewer cases among individuals 70 and older that have led to hospitalization with another decrease set for the month of March. And we are also thankfully continuing to see the impact of our higher vaccination rates and lower case counts among our most vulnerable on the weekly, daily fatality or the weekly fatality rate with these numbers continuing to trend down over time. The recent rise in cases has added much unpredictability in our forecast this week. The CDC ensemble model which collects about 30 or so models from across the country still anticipates our case count to remain relatively stable throughout the month of April. However, the Oliver Wyman model which we have used since the beginning of the pandemic anticipates cases will continue to rise before falling at the end of April and into May. You know, these range of outcomes are certainly all possible, but they are certainly also within our control. If we continue to follow the public health guidance, particularly for those in the younger age groups who have been driving transmission recently and for those living in communities with higher case rates, we will see a more safe glide path into May when vaccine will be available for all age groups in Vermont. We are also on track for fewer deaths in March compared to February, although the deaths in March will be higher than what we had forecasted at the start of the month, but we still anticipate lower fatality rates into April and plan to provide a longer range forecast next week as well. Looking around the region, we see that cases in the northeast continue to tick up, increasing 9% compared to last week, adding about 7,700 cases. Taking a look at the regional heat map from early March compared to today, you can really see some of the areas of the region that have seen their cases worsening, particularly in the New York metro area, as well as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and also parts of New England as well. And just like the Vermont forecast, we really will need another week's worth of data to confirm the trends that we're seeing in the region, but at the moment the forecast for the region anticipates that cases will stay high through the month of April. So again, all the more important for everyone to double down on the public health measures, particularly those in the younger age groups and for those that have the availability to get the vaccine to step up and get it and protect themselves and their families. And at this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine. Thank you. As you just heard, we noted on Friday a higher number of cases reported in a single day than we've been seeing here in Vermont. Those daily reported cases continue to range from the 100s to the 200s. We believe the reasons for this uptick are varied, similar to what's happening in our region and in some other parts of the country. Vermont is certainly not immune from what's happening in surrounding states, especially as more transmissible variants are circulating. We have one of the most restrictive travel policies, and yet people are traveling at a time when it is still not advised. While earlier in the pandemic we at times existed like an island, during this current surge impacting the northeast, that is just not possible. We also know, because we've all felt it, people are sick of life in a pandemic, plain and simple. That's been true for a while, of course, but our strides in vaccination, the beginning of spring, hope for the future may be enticing us to take increasing risk. And some risks might seem more acceptable to some, now that our most vulnerable Vermonters have been protected through vaccination. But wanting the pandemic to be over, and it actually being over, are not the same thing. We still need to do everything we can to reduce spread of the virus while we vaccinate more and more Vermonters. Fortunately, our positivity rate is still on the lower side for this country right now at 2%, with a relatively small number of hospitalizations that in the last few days have been stable at 25 and two in the ICU. And deaths have slowed dramatically, as you've just seen. And in case you are wondering, it does not appear that our latest cases relate to the minor changes recently made to household gatherings and those rules or restaurant or bar guidance. If we can keep our prevention game strong, we keep our hope for the future alive, that time when it really will be safer to do all the things we want to do again. So wear those masks, keep your distance, and avoid crowds for a little longer. Keep gathering small and safe, and parents, please encourage the same for children and teens. And always keep in mind, testing is available around the state whether you have any symptom or think you could have been exposed. In fact, we are glad to see higher rates of testing right now in Chittenden and Orleans County, as well as in St. Johnsbury and Newport. In fact, testing last week at our on-demand sites increased by 17 percent over the previous week, with almost 10,000 tests done, and that's not even counting college testing. Finding cases as soon as possible is how we can hold further spread because we get closer to the finish line every day. It's now less than three weeks until all of our monitors are eligible to sign up for their dose of vaccine. We've seen some promising results from Israel, which was experiencing a high number of cases that dropped off precipitously when just 50 percent of people were vaccinated, and Vermont is already at 35 percent who have received at least one dose. Another bright spot comes from a new CDC study that was just published yesterday that showed that the Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines were highly, I emphasize highly without exaggeration, incredibly effective in real-world conditions. The almost 4,000 people enrolled in the study were at high risk of being exposed to the virus because they were healthcare workers, first responders, or others on the front lines. According to the report in CDC's MMWR, a two-dose regimen prevented 90 percent of infections by two weeks after the second dose. Even one dose prevented 80 percent of infections by two weeks after vaccination. This data confirms the kind of trial data we saw in the clinical trials, but now in real-world circumstances. Please, though, make sure your take-home message is not that one dose of those drugs is sufficient. This study also gives us some insight into the question of virus transmission after vaccination. It's suggested that since infections were so rare, transmission is likely rare, too. All of the participants did their own nasal swabs on a continuing basis during the time course of the study. So this data, too, is adding to the now accumulating evidence on the topic of transmission of virus after vaccination that is often asked about here. And also keep in mind the study was done from December 14th of last year to March 13th of this year. And that is at a time when variants were in greater circulation. Despite these variants, the vaccines provided strong protection. Having more evidence that these vaccines work so well should give us all even more confidence and incentive to get vaccinated as soon as we are eligible. Now, I'd like to tell you about two new adjustments to our vaccine strategy. The first is for the relatively small group of parents or primary caregivers who are caring for children at home who are too young to be vaccinated but are children who have serious medical conditions and care needs and who would be on our high risk disease list due to their immuno-compromised medically complex condition and they would be prioritized if they were only old enough to qualify for a vaccine at this time. We need to ensure that these parents and caregivers remain healthy enough to care for the child and that they do not risk bringing the virus into the home. Therefore, starting tomorrow, these parents and primary caregivers can now be vaccinated and can register to do so online or by connecting with our call center. Again, that number and all our vaccine information is at healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. The second adjustment is for our population of individuals who are a by-park, black, indigenous, and people of color. Two considerations make it important we act now to further facilitate the vaccination of these members of the Vermont community. Now that all Vermont residents who are at the highest risk of death from COVID, those in the most vulnerable age and high risk condition groups have been vaccinated, we can focus on preventing the other most serious risk of the virus, namely critical illness leading to hospitalization. Data that I have shared here previously reveals the almost two-fold increase in risk the by-park population has for being hospitalized. Our data also shows us that we have much farther to go with progress in our vaccination efforts. Thus far the pace of vaccination for by-park continues to lag significantly behind with a rate of 20.2 percent of the population having received at least one dose of vaccine as compared with non-Hispanic whites who have a rate of 33.4 percent. And this is in spite of our ongoing efforts to offer vaccination of multi-generational households within the current age banding strategy and to engage our community partners in setting up community-based clinics. Nonetheless it is unacceptable that this disparity remains for this population placed at higher risk. So beginning this Thursday all members of the Vermont by-park community 16 years of age and older as well as their family members will be able to register on our website or through the call center to be vaccinated at either state-run community vaccination sites, pharmacies or at the very well received community clinics developed with our partners around the state. They will simply need to attest they are a member of the by-park community at the time that they register. And finally it's been a while since I've told a story so I'm going to end with a short story. A man in his 70s living in a very rural part of the state with COVID-19 had been experiencing symptoms. Severe cough, marked fatigue, shortness of breath on exertion. The symptoms were not improving. Through our health department program the man was sent a free pulse oximeter. A pulse ox as it's called is a small device that clips onto your fingertip to measure your pulse and the oxygen levels in your body. A physician volunteer contacted him within 24 hours of receipt of the pulse oximeter and learned that the morning value had been 83 and a midday value 89. A normal level of oxygen is usually 95 or higher. This condition is called hypoxia. At that point the volunteer advised him strongly to go to the closest emergency department to be checked out. The next day he was hospitalized. More than two weeks later the volunteer got a call from the patient and learned that he just been discharged after being in the hospital for two weeks. He was calling to say that our program had saved his life and to thank us. Luckily this experience is not common but it does illustrate how it can be difficult to tell when you may be in need of medical care. COVID-19 has become notorious in this regard. Affected individuals just don't recognize when they are hypoxic. People who test positive for COVID can request a pulse oximeter when they are contacted by the health department. But only about a quarter of people take us up on this offer. So if you do test positive please consider this extra level of monitoring that could help ensure you receive the medical attention should you need it. Since the governor is still on the phone with the White House we'll begin our Q&A at this time. I actually might have something for the governor but since we're talking about expanding the sites for the vaccine some folks had asked us about whether or not we were going to be able to maintain or get to the point that the president's recommendation was that you should be five mile within five miles of a place where you could get a vaccine. Where are we at with that? Yeah that just was announced yesterday by the president and Secretary Smith will come up but clearly no state has had the chance yet to begin to evaluate their position with regard to that and I'm not sure that rural states should be looked at in the same way as urban states. Our rule has been that we wanted people to be within I believe a half hour of travel time to a site and I believe we've achieved that and we're even working further with in the northeast kingdom to make that become real as well. Might as well follow up on the BIPOC situation. Do you see it as is this sort of a lack of confidence in the vaccine or a lack of confidence in the folks administering the program? I mean what do we see here as far as that goes? Yeah so you know I can't say that we know the reason or reasons but I can give you some theories. Obviously part of it may relate to the fact that there's just needing to be more guidance and education but that's being provided pretty abundantly. Part of it may be actual access to the vaccine which is why we've begun these community-based clinics with our partners but they are by no means abundant at this time so that could still explain part of it. I think a big part of it is actually you know every Vermonter in some way has benefited from the strategy we've used and you've seen the data about how we're having so few cases and so few deaths thank goodness in people over 65 or 70. The BIPOC community does skew younger not just in Vermont but actually beyond Vermont as well due to a host of factors that have to do with some of the systemic racism that we've talked about previously and the fact that they have more chronic diseases may live in more adverse circumstances in terms of their housing live in multi-generational housing more frequently and often have jobs that are public facing and that require public transportation to get to. So all of those factors work against them when it comes to the age-related strategy because many of them are not as eligible until you get into some of the age groups that are further down. We really do not feel that this rate of vaccination for that community is something we could ignore. This is a very data-driven approach. We have good data on hospitalizations and even some data from hospitalizations that say that the younger ages are getting hospitalized perhaps in their 20s and we have now good data from our vaccine over the last couple of months to really tell us that we need to expand as much as possible the opportunity that members of that community have to access the vaccine. Thanks Rebecca. I did have a question for the gov but while Dr. Levine is there I had one for Dr. Levine as well. From a viewer who asks if the state or why the state isn't following CDC guidance on people who've had an adverse reaction to the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines and who want the J&J vaccine this woman said she could not get the J&J shot because she had a Moderna shot had a bad reaction to it and doesn't feel comfortable getting a second Moderna shot given that. What should she do? Well first of all we should review the fact that we do adhere to the CDC guidance and people who have had one shot of a two-dose series and had an adverse reaction would be eligible to get one dose of the one-dose series the J&J at a future time so the problem at the present time is just the amount of that vaccine that we have in the state so that strategy will work when the vaccine becomes more abundant which will be in the very near future we hope. Speaking of that though the governor the governor may actually be able to shed more light on that since he's just arrived and has heard from the White House about how much of what we might be getting so this would be a good time to segue to him and then you can ask your second question to him. Good morning everyone. As Dr. Levine mentioned I just got off the phone with fellow governors in the White House for our weekly call first it looks like we're going to receive about five to six thousand more doses this week than last between both the state and federal pharmacy programs. This includes a small bump of Pfizer-Moderna that's the two-dose vaccines but this is mainly due to a significant increase in Johnson and Johnson. The federal pharmacy program alone will see a near doubling of its allocation and it's while it's good news that the federal pharmacy program is getting more but we heard there was some questions by fellow governors and I continue to express concern over the lack of coordination between that program and the states so they are going to be watching for any any cases where there's stockpile going on or not utilizing their allocation so that we can get more doses in arms. They also said that the supply overall will remain flat next week and we were told to expect J&J to fluctuate both up and down over the next couple weeks they just don't have a good handle on the supply chain there so that's about it for in regards to the supply and now I'll continue as you saw in Commissioner Pjx modeling Vermont and the rest of New England has seen a rise in cases over the past couple of weeks. This comes as we continue to make progress on vaccines particularly among those at risk of death from COVID. As you heard we ranked first in the nation for those over 65 who've received at least one dose and as a result even while cases have gone up in general they've actually gone down significantly amongst those most vulnerable those over 65. This shows that vaccines work so when it's your turn I would advocate and we urge you to please sign up. We're very encouraged to see how our vaccination strategy has reduced hospitalizations and death which has been our goal since the very start of the pandemic but now that we're just three weeks away from everyone becoming eligible sign up for their shot we must step up in our efforts to slow the spread of this very contagious virus because even though the most vulnerable have had their chance to be protected cases can still slow down our recovery. We've seen the average age of our cases decrease and although it's true younger people are far less likely to suffer severe outcomes from COVID it's not impossible but importantly even asymptomatic cases can have a ripple effect whether it be in the classroom in the office or on the job site. As we work to get more kids back in school full time and get back to some sort of normal it's more important than ever to recommit to the public health guidance we have in place because contrary to what you might see on Twitter or other social media platforms we haven't thrown the spigot open although we have taken some small steps forward but it's important to remember Vermont still has among the strongest if not the strongest mitigation measures in place throughout the northeast and in the country. For instance we still have limits on gatherings like keeping it to new two non-vaccinated households at a time and while we made some small spigot turns for restaurants bars and social clubs like the Legion and the VFW we still have more stringent measures in place than Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and others in the region. This includes capacity limits, distancing, hours of operation, seating requirements, masking and more. I bring this up because while we continue to take small incremental steps forward I don't want people to think we've rolled everything back and you can let your guard down. Vaccinations and vigilance are the strongest tools we have in this race and we need to work hard in order to win. On the other hand I know there are also many who think I'm moving way too slow to reopen. I hear from them every single day but as I've said we're going to continue to take a methodical and strategic approach like we have from the start. The good news is with vaccinations speeding up it's not that far away and as I've said in the coming days I'll present a blueprint showing how we'll work our way back to normal which will be based in part on the percent of the population being vaccinated. So with that we'll get back to the questions. Folks had a question for the governor so I'll go back to Calvin. Thank you governor. So I wanted to ask about the pension problem that's unfolding. As you may have heard there's state employees and teachers that are protesting today and and later this week as well. I'm wondering I guess from from your thoughts you know does the plan that was submitted by the legislature does it go too far and is the state breaking its promise that it made to these these teachers and state employees. Well again I think they presented a plan. It hasn't gone through any committees at this point yet. It hasn't gone to the house and it had a vote on the house floor nor has it gone to the Senate. It's a plan. It's a concept. We have a five point seven billion dollar combined problem unfunded liability. And this problem's not going away. Just ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. So I give great credit to the legislature to the house in general the speaker for bringing this up and because it's been ignored for far too long. We've seen the warning signs for decades and have ignored. So now it's time to do something. Now I'm sure it'll have a lot of twists and turns along the way but we need to get something accomplished. So I'm supportive of their efforts. We'll see again what happens as a result of some of the dialogue that's been going on between the house committee and some of the advocates and see where they go from here but until it's presented in bill form and and pass out a committee and then then goes through all the other ups and downs and and turns it's hard to say what it will look like when it comes out the end. You said that you oppose the attacks on the state's top earners but you know should should taxpayers in some sort contribute you know whether it's not top earners but I mean should should taxpayers contribute something? Well I think we are you know I think that's how it's funded to begin with. In fact $150 million doesn't come out of thin air. So it's coming out of taxpayers and rightly so. I mean that's that's what this whole system's about. It's just that it's it's not sustainable the way it is right now. We spend hundreds of millions of dollars on this obligation but but we can't keep up and we can't keep up at this rate. One side question is well it appears as though the Senate today voted on that unemployment bill. Latest version from my understanding takes out the 20% unemployment benefit increase but it still keeps the $50 a week for dependent benefit. What what are your thoughts of what's coming out of the Senate and are you supportive of it? Well again I don't think this is the time to add things. We've I think the the unemployment benefit with the federal allotment has been quite beneficial and generous in a lot of respects. It went from 600 it's now at 300 each and every week extra. So I don't know all the terms of what was passed and again this is just past possibly it's not even fully probably passed out of the Senate although I haven't been following it today. So it still has to go to the go to the House for their reaction but I would like to keep it as simple as possible and and try to move forward and continue this debate in the next during this legislative session and beyond but right now we need we need some relief for those the businesses that are going to be on the hook. Now I've heard many describe what's in the bill as a as a break a tax break for businesses. It isn't a tax break it's just a deferment they're still going to have to pay it's just they can't it shouldn't be subjected to this type of a of a increase in the amount that they will have to pay this year. I mean they're still suffering they're still struggling and and we need them to recover from this pandemic. Thanks. I'm also at Rebekah. Hi. Can you hear me? I can. Okay, thanks. Was there any mention of was there any mention of the Canadian border governor I know you've asked that a couple of times and he can't end a discussion about a vaccine document. Yeah. Nothing specific about the border but there was another question by another governor. I think it was North Carolina actually Governor Cooper that it asked about some sort of a passport some sort of a vaccination card and there the bottom line is they're working on something but it doesn't sound like it will be any database that is run by the federal government so I think that's you know comforting news to some they're not going to keep track of that but I don't know who's going to so they said that they would have the White House said that they would have something out in the next couple of weeks so we'll have to wait and see but they didn't they didn't really give any indication as to who is going to run it and and how it's going to be utilized. Well that being said New York has moved ahead with sort of a card system would you be open to that as well. Well we do have a card system I think now in some respects everyone that receives a vaccine will get a card and so that they have some record of being vaccinated so I would anticipate I mean we'll we'll still have that and in fact our travel has been based on those who are vaccinated can freely go in and out of the state so we're already using that vaccination card at this point. Okay thanks very much. Hi morning everybody these rising cases is there anything new that can be done to try and stop them I mean we talked a lot about you know the the measures that's from on this had in place for a long time but they don't seem to be stopping things. Is there anything that can be done besides just waiting for more of the population to get vaccinated? I'll let Dr. Levine talk about this but this came up Dr. Lewilinski the director of the CDC talked about her concern about the uptake of cases across the country 13 percent increase this week hospitalization and deaths she said have been increasing about six percent across the country and she she said that Europe had the same trajectory before they experienced their spike she her guidance was to recommit to double down to to re implement masking distancing and avoiding crowds which as you know we have continued to do so it's tough you know her advice was to I think pointing at states that have lifted their mask mandate or any of their public health guidance and we haven't done that here you know we're we're still advocating we have a masking mandate and I as I see as I'm traveling around the state and going into different entities I see people are still wearing their mask which is great they're saying just keep your distance avoid crowds and again we advocate for the same so I think I don't let Dr. Levine see if he can answer further but what President Biden and Dr. Lewilinski have been advocating for we're already doing and I certainly concur with all of that they really have and I'll act out Fauci's name to the list in my own name to the list I've been pointing in a non-targeted way but pointing at states that basically just said it's time to reopen and it was like night and day all of a sudden never the approach that we've taken in Vermont but that seems to be from the federal government's viewpoint what needs to be done now is just for everyone to adhere to all the guidance like we've been preaching here but also not rescind or go back on any of the mandates that are out there that the tongue-in-cheek answer and I'm not advocating this for the United States over a month today is a lockdown we know from our own experience stay home stay safe shuts down cases pretty quickly if people really can't interact with one another they don't have the ability to transmit the virus the virus gets suppressed and that's an effective means unfortunately you're seeing countries throughout Europe resorting to that now and this latest surge that they're experiencing and though I quoted Israel's statistics which are quite good with their vaccine strategy about a month or so before that they had come out of a lockdown so this does happen throughout the world even in places where the virus is controlled like Australia in a targeted way locking down parts of the country where they've seen resurgence is not advocating for that here not advocating for that now but that is of course a mitigation strategy taken to the extreme that would be effective we would hope that this race that I keep referring to of vaccination increasing at a time with adherence to all of the other guidances would get us to the same finish line if you will and it's heartening to hear about more vaccine coming you know we could use even more to get there even faster but that's really the solution in the end okay great and governor what was the you mentioned what was the figure you used five to six thousand more doses next week than last what's the total amount we're receiving now about I think it's let's see 21 I think it's around 28 28,000 I believe for this week okay it's the state allocations okay great all right it's it's 21 this week or about 22 so we think we're going to get around 28,000 next week okay right okay great I thank you both as I can say let me see if I can clear this up a little bit I don't know what the amount was for last week I don't have it with me but it's we feel that we're going to get five to six thousand more doses than we got last week what complicates last week just a little bit not to try and complicate this any further but we did receive a one time allocation last week that isn't counted in this week's allocation so we got a one time bump last week of a few thousand doses so again the the increase from last week is going to be including the one time is going to be about five to six thousand doses it's good news okay thank you very much thank you rebecca good afternoon governor last week I asked about the validity of the vaccine data the numbers seem to have been fluctuating one age group in grand isle county reached upwards of 102 percent and now I believe they're down like 95 percent Dr. Levine I think you were going to look into that before you you asked to look into it before you made too much of a comment have you had a chance to do that before I jumped into my two questions for today or are you still looking into those that's two questions there secretary smith Greg I said we would reach out to you to get a better handle on that we try to reach out to you on at least one occasion I don't know if we did it twice but Andrea is trying to reach out to you just to understand what you're looking at so she'll make an attempt again today Greg to reach out to you and let's let's just settle it for let's get the information that we need from your perspective let's look at it and I'll have an answer on Friday okay awesome governor a wedding venue reached out to us wondering what to expect for restrictions in May and June many weddings that are scheduled for for May and June were rescheduled from a year ago and if you remember at that time they were told basically delay your your event for a year you'll be fine you know understanding the caveat that things can change what can people expect for gathering restrictions for the months of May and June as you see it now yeah I can I can go into more detail when I present the blueprint which we'll be doing within the week but I'm not prepared to do that today so we can probably expect something more on Friday within the week that that today's what Tuesday so one week within within the week within within the week okay and lastly governor as a construction worker you know many towns right now are experiencing mud season much harder than normal with a with a faster warm-up than typical in the in the past 10 days many many back roads have have become so broken up that they're impassable schools have had to close because they can't get their school their their students and teachers there and and even maybe some emergency vehicles are unable to get to quite a few homes I'm wondering what the state can do to help these rural residents stay safe and and if the trans house resources that that are available to small towns when they're already so stretched then they can't do anymore um first of all and and I don't uh I'm not being insensitive but I I hear this I think every single year in fact I say it myself I live on a back road so I experience it on a daily basis so every every year I think it's never been worse than this year but it it's about typical from my perspective it's about typical our our road going to my house is almost impassable there's one road that close to there that has been closed down as it typically is every single year having said that we will do anything we can to help out in any way possible but this is you know this is mud season the frost is coming out the ground it is coming out quick that may help in some respects in terms of the longevity if we can get a few days of warm weather with the frost coming out quickly it won't last as long so stay tuned if there's any communities that are needing assistance we will do everything we can to help but uh and if that I don't know if they need aggregate I don't know if they need equipment I'm just not sure what they need at this point but sometimes you just have to somewhat close the road down before you can do much of anything other than putting more aggregate more stone in place so should town officials reach out to how does that work you know again if they have any issues I would I would have them reach out to their maintenance districts we'll see what we can do not promising anything but but we'll do everything we can to assist them if there's some technical from a technical aspect if there's aggregate that's needed that we may have or they want to borrow I'm sure that we can we can do something to help if it's something they can't handle themselves but most of the towns I know my town of Berlin is uh has been well prepared and has a quite a stockpile of aggregate and has been working on the roads consistently and they've done a pretty good job I think that's far thank you governor you have a wonderful day we'll talk to you about it thank you thank you Rebecca governor maybe one quick question with all the issues governor Cuomo is facing do you think it's time for him to step aside was he on the call today he was on the call and that question didn't come up but do you think yeah the step aside I think I think he should do what he think is right you know there is a series of allegations mounting I'm sure those there's a lot of people in in New York they're debating this issue as we speak but but I think it's up to him and the people of New York so you and your colleagues have not offered him any advice if you know he did not ask for our advice that's probably not he doesn't have to all the way through this thing yeah okay uh we had previously asked about the state encouraging Vermonters not to work because of the extra benefits being offered for refusing jobs like the bar and restaurant I know you were going to have some plans in the future but uh I was just wondering we since asking that and we've heard from more employers who are frustrated and here's to be more widespread than I would like to believe initially based on what I'm hearing from these people and it's just that Vermonters is lucrative paying out benefits and welfare as you probably know for what number one or one of the top states in giving out benefits is there any thought of having back this $700 tax free each week not to work uh some way to encourage people to go back to work we'll be implementing the work search requirements sometime in the next month or so two months but it all depends on the vaccine a lot and getting people back to work because there are some some who are home because they don't have no one to take care of the kids and their kids aren't in school so they're led uh that they have to somebody has to take care of them and they're staying home because of that and I think that's a legitimate issue so uh until we get more people back to work we're not going to implement something that they can't adhere to so uh but at the same time as soon as we get more people vaccinated kids get back to school we'll be able to implement those work search requirements because there are you know there over 30 000 still uh on um involved with the unemployment assistance in some capacity whether it's the pua or the traditional unemployment so we want to get them back to to work just as quickly possibly can because I know employers need them uh they're they're ramping back up well yeah and I think that's their frustration is that they're you know and this is prime time especially for the restaurants and the bars that are trying to reopen and to get the tourist season going I mean they're completely frustrated and I think they're looking for leadership here as to how to get these people that you know we're working a year ago and now just say hey no I'd rather stay home and collect $700 tax-free rather than maybe getting $1,000 taxable and having to work 40 hours yeah well again I'm certainly is a distance to work it's a distance to work again I'm that's what they're I'm sensitive to those who can't go to work because they have child care issues and uh as we experienced up in the St. Albans area there was the YMCA that closed down so there's a number of families that were impacted because of that and I'm sure there are great needs throughout Vermont for child care because the schools a lot of the schools aren't back to full in-person instruction and and and it's not a consistent when they are back to in-person instruction it's not consistent so the answer is trying to get more vaccinations get the vaccine supply increase so that we can get through this and I know it's difficult for everyone on both sides of the coin on that one okay thank you very much thank you appreciate it quick time Liam VPR hi I was wondering with the expanded eligibility for BIPOC for monitors that's opening up on Thursday how that will affect distribution of the vaccine to people that are currently incarcerated in the state they will be included just the same as the age bands but I mean meaning that they will they will be vaccinated under this provision okay is there any plan to just sort of make sure that they're aware and sign up I mean I you know it's sort of curious what that the rollout would be for that situation yeah Liam let me explain what the rollout is they don't sign up we bring the vaccine to them as as the the provider of health care to those to those facilities through the contractor we did just to let you know where we are and what the plans are we have completed the 70 plus in terms of their first dose I'm talking about first dose in terms of what we're doing we hope to have the first dose in every person in the Department of Corrections done by April 19th we the 70 plus have all been vaccinated at least one dose that started on February 2nd those 55 and plus with qualifying health conditions that started on March 8th with their first dose I'm just talking first dose here because I'm going to give you a sort of an end date with all second doses we did DOC did complete the 60 plus with first dose they started on 60 plus on March 18th 50 plus will start on March 25th um or has started on March 25th I'm losing track of of time 40 plus will start on April 5th and 30 plus will start on April 12th and we hope to have all age tiers completed by May 13th that in that includes second doses so everybody should be vaccinated completely vaccinated with their second dose by May 13th but that's the time schedule you know in in those age bands and by April 19th all ages within the Department of Corrections inmates within the Department of Corrections will be vaccinated uh in that week of April 19th okay um so they everybody by the by April 19th will will have been vaccinated and do you have a current um just sort of breakdown of what the uptake has been among the incarcerated population at this time I don't Liam but let me get back to you I'll uh I'll get to Corrections and uh find out and remember that vaccination I gave you was first dose second dose won't be won't be done until like May 13th of all all those uh inmates that I talked about okay that's all for me thank you there have been a very large number of cases up in my area in Orleans County and it appears from what I've read that the rate of vaccination in that area is also quite low um are you number one are you aware of what might be behind the high rate of COVID in the area if there's anything specific to say I know sometimes there isn't and in any event are there plans to specifically target the kingdom um to improve the situation here I know we've been working to try and improve the situation I don't know whether Dr. Levine or Secretary Smith wants to answer Dr. Levine first we're going to divide and conquer on this one with cases and vaccine strategies so you saw on the map that we showed earlier today that pretty much northern Vermont is more activity than southern Vermont with the exception of Rutland County so it's hard to say that there's anything specific driving this it's really been community transmission and that means it's out there we see it in work sites we see it in schools we see it in healthcare facilities we see it in occasional long-term care facilities it's really across all sectors of society and it's hard to point at one sort of inciting event or outbreak or anything of that sort because that's just not happening there we do know that the prison accounted for a fair number of cases but having said that it's probably the disease being brought into the prison and leading to those cases as opposed to the other direction so I'll let Secretary Smith give you some of the statistics he's got in his hand for the rest of the question Joe just let me give you vaccination rates in in that area and this is either started or completed in terms of vaccination rates your county Orleans that you were talking about is 17.7 percent it's not really way off from other counties that are out there the average is 19.4 percent but if you look at other counties they're all hovering around a lot of them are hovering around 17 to 18 percent so Orleans isn't too much of an outlier in terms of that population with the other counties where we do see a disparity is in Essex and I've talked about this on several occasions and we've tried different strategies and we'll continue to try different strategies including mobile clinics in that area we're trying to work out the details on that now but but Essex County is at 13.9 percent of the population and either started or completed and I just percent vaccinated either started or completed and that is that is a disparity between the other counties and as I mentioned before we're keeping an eye on that and trying to figure out what's going on thank you very much governor my question is actually going to go to the controversial decision to put surveillance powers up on the Canadian border there's of course the consideration that we need to protect the borders but people up here are feeling that kind of a big brother invasive system to have and they feel that it can potentially be abused can you kind of speak to how people can balance and how a government can balance protecting the borders without becoming too invasive or having people feel like a canvas in their bedroom well again this is not a state initiative this is a federal initiative this is the Biden administration so it's probably a better question for them better question for our congressional delegation than it is the state delegation myself included but I think there is a way to have a balance I believe that there's there's got to be an approach that protects the border but also protects individual rights so I would be seeking that we'll be in contact with the congressional delegation but but I would I think I would I would point towards them or the Biden administration to see what their plans are yeah the congressional delegation should get together and just feel cut to the least on it I'm just asking you just on your level because you're dealing with residents of the state of Vermont that is there any way there to be insurances that they'll be protected so surveillance material can't be used against them in a state court well again I think this is something that has to be worked out by the by the feds and we'll provide input we want to protect our citizens but I would say our congressional delegation has the same interests protecting individual rights and and our citizens here in Vermont they're representing them too so we'll work towards finding whatever compromise is necessary I know their charge is to provide enforcement along the border protect the border and again we want to protect the rights of our citizens so we'll we'll continue to advocate for that and I would imagine the congressional delegation will as well first I want to thank you for your announcement about the high-risk families I've already heard from a couple of them who I spoke with recently who said they're very relieved to hear that they can now sign up to protect their kids I am curious though why weren't they addressed earlier in this vaccination process I would say I'll let Dr. Levine answer but you know we didn't have nor do we today have an infinite supply of vaccine coming to us we're forced to and it's not comfortable forced to prioritize we get we get requests every single day about someone wanting to get to the front of the line but with a limited supply we wanted to get to those who are at most risk of hospitalization and death and that didn't unfortunately rise that level at that point in time with the increased amount of supply we felt that it's it was appropriate for us to take action to do whatever we could to protect them and their families Dr. Levine Dr. Levine has nothing to add to that unless you want to interrogate him no um do you have a couple logistical questions though that I've gotten from the parents do they need a special code when they sign up no they do not need a special code when they sign up and does this change just so I'm clear in my reporting applied to all caregivers or just the caregivers of the kids who can be vaccinated due to their age and who are higher the latter caregivers of kids who are at risk perfect and then do you have an estimation for how many families in vermouth will make a difference for you know that's a really hard number for us to come across certainly if we look at our children with special health needs group that's under 50 but not every child is in that group because that's a special set of diagnoses I can't really give you a an estimate that I would really want to hang my hat on so I won't go further than that we don't think it's a large line yeah we don't think it's a large large number that's for sure I was wondering if you have any indication of the timeline for pharmacies more than coming online there are some that are ready everyone is trained but they haven't been told that there'll be a vaccine but yet what's your indication once we get to these later age groups how many pharmacies could sort of be playing a role in a rollout I know we're adding them as we speak I'll let Secretary Smith maybe answer that further thanks Devin we are adding locations CBS for example I said we'll add locations in Essex Rutland and Williston and we are adding a pharmacy starting April 5th you can make appointments at 12 Hannaford locations across the state what we're just trying to make sure as we add on pharmacies that we state coordinated with one another we've seen some issues with staying coordinated with the federal pharmacy program and we just want to make sure that we do this in a methodical way as we're bringing on more and more pharmacies also they're limited to even with the federal pharmacy program they're limited to the amount of vaccine that they have as well so it's not like we can bring everybody on and then they have vaccine that's not the case so we will continue to be methodical we're trying to hit as many locations and as many people as possible with the addition of Hannaford across the state and with the addition of more clinics through CBS we continue to and of course we have Costco we have Walgreens we have Walmart that are included and Kenny drugs which is are included in our pharmacy program a question for Dr. Labien um you had briefly mentioned the news that one shot of Pfizer Moderna um has 80% efficacy but mentioning the you know the takeaway here is to not be that one shot um is good enough and the surgeon in general seems to agree with that um he said to caveat about that if we don't know how long that protection lasts um could you just expand on that a little bit and kind of talk about you know the importance of people not just getting one shot and then assuming they're good to go because they see that 80 percent number just a little bit more about behind that the uncertainty with it yeah thanks for helping reinforce that major message um so you know the way the trials were done for these two dose vaccines is specifically uh with everyone getting the second dose so it's sure they did look at efficacy after one dose but that was never to avoid doing what they wanted to do it's very common in trying to induce immunity in a person through a vaccine that uh you follow um the titers of what antibodies are being produced and then see the impact on the durability of those antibody titers by adding booster doses and so this is a fairly common concept and generally uh works very well you know we all know that there are various vaccines we've used in our lives that one shot is not enough and that we have to go back and get more so um this this is just using basic vaccine and immunology uh science uh and understanding that the one dose while adequate for a period of time may not be adequate for the duration that you'd like it to be great thank you yes thank you good afternoon uh probably for Dr. Labien I'm wondering if uh he can provide us any updates on the situation with the bus and company in Caledonia County and the outbreak investigation that's unfolding with that yeah I'm not sure it's much of an update but because you're assuming everyone who's listening to this understands what we're talking about I'll just say that there is a bus company in Caledonia County that services a number of the school systems there and there were cases associated with that the um school systems are aware of it the superintendents were aware of it the superintendents sent out communications to all of the parents so that they would know that they would not be picked up by the bus on Monday morning this week and um it's an ongoing investigation but the reality is we're already aware of cases the company is aware of the cases they're aware of the guidance we've provided regarding the need for the cases to isolate and for other drivers who became close contacts or other members of that company who became close contacts for the need for them to quarantine so it's pretty straightforward um containment strategy and use of important public health guidance um I can't speak to when that company will begin picking kids up again etc um because this is all fairly new over the weekend and it has to play out for a short period of time yet do you uh do you have a count on how many um how many positive cases and close contacts are associated with it I don't have a count for you um at the moment um when the very earliest part of this the count um was not high and we don't usually discuss counts when they're not high and we needed to understand and I'm not sure we yet understand how many employees there are of the company in total because there are rules regarding um providing that public information that hinge on the number of counts and the number of employees are you uh do you know whether there's than any um transmission um within the actual functioning of the bus routes for instance you know from right driver to kids or from kid to kid or anything like that right so that's important news and so far we are not aware of any uh within the bus transmission but again this is still early so I I can't be definitive about that it's only been a few days um if you had to guess I realize you don't understand the um the operational capacity of the busing company but do you see this being resolved by next week or do you think the busing shutdown is going to extend beyond uh you know beyond this one week that most of the schools have announced the cancellation it really be impossible for me to say because we'd have to know how many of the contacts become true cases uh how big the company is and how many drivers they actually have total and how many of them are not impacted by what just happened so I I can't really give you uh I wouldn't want to give a guess and then uh over promise or um anything like that just don't have insight into that right now um one last on this topic uh this busing company has several regional hubs uh elsewhere in Vermont and uh Gablewood and Hampshire and other locations do you know whether uh the situation extends just beyond but it's it's Linnanville hub I am not aware of I'm not aware of anything outside of your county but and I'm so and I've not been told that any anything else has occurred okay um and if I may uh you already addressed much of this with Joe's question earlier about the real rise in cases uh in the kingdom um just from a 30 000 foot view if you will um given a recent surge in cases in the kingdom and uh uh the relatively low vaccination uptake or at least in comparison to the rest of the state um you've described uh but you know Vermont as being in a race between the vaccines and the virus would you say that the kingdom is losing that race at this point and what are the consequences if it is no I would say we're still early in the race so I wouldn't want to dare say anyone's winning or losing uh clearly we are winning the race when it comes to the data we've shown you about older vermoners and the fact that they're not accounting for many of the current cases and certainly that the death rate across Vermont is markedly decreased when it comes to COVID so at that part of the race protecting the most vulnerable we're clearly winning I wouldn't want to uh comment on a vaccination rate and a case rate sort of competing within a specific county um we will get there for sure vaccination is not sort of an outbreak response strategy it's a long-term preventive strategy so I would hope that when eligible all members of the state and certainly of those counties avail themselves of the opportunity to get their vaccine as quickly as possible I know that this has come up in earlier press conferences but I'm wondering if there's any progress made with the um people who are homebound a lot of them who don't use computers I know there are services providing mobile vaccination but I'm wondering do you know how many of these people are being missed because we are hearing from uh their caretakers saying that they just uh they can't uh they can't get somebody to come to the house to give these people vaccines I haven't and I haven't heard of anybody being missed but if they are um the next press conference I'll I'll provide the phone number I don't have it off the top of my head the phone number that they should call I know in Chittenden County we had a little bit of backlog that we're working through right now and that is um and it's I think we should be caught up by the end of this week or early next week but I haven't heard that we're missing people and I will provide the phone number for people to call we don't want to miss anyone we want to make we have the capacity to bring vaccine to people that are homebound we need to use it we've done over 3000 I think it's 3000 visits and and doses to people that are homebound and I want to make sure that we do uh we built that capacity to be used and we need to use it do you know how many people total are homebound if three thousands have had their uh visits and doses yeah I I don't know how many are homebound um and we as you know we relied initially from home health and then we asked people that if they weren't with home health we sort of combed hospitals and primary care uh uh for uh providers to see if uh we could suss out other people that were uh homebound that may not be on a list any place and then we just said please call and uh that's what we're doing right now we're in that phase of please call okay but if you don't know how many there are how do you know that haven't that none have been missed well I I haven't said none have been missed what I said is we're trying to get as many people there or homebound as possible I'm trying not to miss anybody is what the goal is here and you know I don't think we can you know look we're trying to do a vaccination program that hasn't been ever done before we're just trying to make sure that we get everybody possible that we can and we set up a whole separate program in order to serve the homebound and I'm hoping um that people that are listening that are homebound we're trying to get the message out as I said through the various avenues that we have home health primary care local hospitals to figure out how we can hit everybody I don't think anybody has an accurate count of who who this uh how many people we're having um if they do please come forward but we haven't been able to find an accurate count of how many people are out there we will probably have the only accurate count uh or the nearest accurate count once we're done with this program okay thanks my other question is about um people in the state who are advocating against vaccination of which there are a few um one of them is actually a postal worker in Essex County which might account for some of their disparity but as far as public officials go as you guys already know that the the select board in Stanford has been pretty clear about um counteracting the message about vaccines and the dangers of the virus and I'm wondering you know since this is a long-term and very coordinated strategy that you have to put out this message is there anything more you can do to address public officials who are putting out the opposite message um you know we're going to continue to try and educate and advocate for people to get their vaccinations when they are able um we I think it's proven uh that's safe it's reliable um just look at our numbers uh we we were able to reduce the number of deaths and hospitalizations uh amongst those 65 and over significantly and uh but the data just backs that up so um I know the on the call with the White House as well uh they had brought this up they are working on a campaign uh a nationwide campaign and trying to for those who are hesitant to obtain the vaccine trying to connect with them but we're all ears who are going to continue to do everything we can if anyone has any ideas on how to get through to people we'd like to hear them because obviously we don't have all that we don't have all the answers to that but uh for the most part I mean I have to say when you look at the number of people I haven't received the update but we opened up 50 and over on yesterday and I think there was 20 something thousand by last night I don't know what it is today 21,000 at this point so that was uh significant in a day and when you see the number of people who are vaccinated in that 65 and over range it's a it's a good sign and and getting in the upper 80s uh in a couple of those age bands so we'll continue to do all we can if anyone has any ideas please let us know um thank you very much I think this question is for Secretary Smith I want to return to Liam Elder Connor's question about vaccines for BIPOC prisoners Secretary Smith I heard you explain the state's plan for vaccinated incarcerated people by age bands did I understand correctly that incarcerated that the incarcerated BIPOC population will be vaccinated separately from those age bands that you still about the answer is yes um what if you're going to the way that we've been doing it with uh corrections that if you're eligible in the general population you're eligible within the facility so if there's a BIPOC a member of the BIPOC community in our facility then yes they would be eligible for immediate vaccination as would 55 uh 16 to 55 that would be eligible for high-risk conditions great thank you and then I think the second question is for Dr. Levine on Friday Secretary French said that surveillance testing for educators would be phased out does this state mean that people who've been getting um pro-phylactically tested each week can and should also phase out their testing once they're fully vaccinated when you're saying people I'm talking about just general people in the in the state or in the education community well Secretary French explained that surveillance testing for educators would likely to be phased out since they're actively being vaccinated so my question from people in our community okay getting tested on a regular basis should once they're fully vaccinated can they also phase out testing yeah so um they're doing surveillance on themselves is what you're saying because they're just regularly getting tested yeah so we believe the best benefit from surveillance testing will come from those who have yet not yet had the opportunity to be vaccinated so early on I have no objection to people getting tested as well but some of the data I just presented this morning from the Pfizer Moderna CDC report basically indicated that there's a marked decrease in the ability of nasal swabs to turn positive in people who have been vaccinated with that regimen so I would not recommend they continue to do surveillance testing on themselves at that point in time but there still be plenty of people who have not yet been vaccinated who should continue that if that's what they've been doing and with regard to what Secretary French said that the teacher population if it has a high enough uptake of vaccine just doesn't make for a viable population to do surveillance testing on but that doesn't mean other groups that are getting surveillance testing should just phase out on their own because they may not be actually being vaccinated with a strategy like we're using for the teachers so if there are worksites that are having routine surveillance testing done and they have a heterogeneity of people of different ages and different jobs at those worksites they're probably worth continuing doing the strategy they're doing as as as they are now so thank you very much uh hi this would be for the governor so on town meeting day Montgomery up here spotted in for attacks on your endulate markets from marijuana and with members now appointed to the cannabis control board what are sort of the next steps at the municipal level for towns like Montgomery and sort of alongside that uh why was the definition of canvas change from the agricultural product to commercial good yeah i don't have the answers to that Cameron um you might want to connect with when possible with the chair of this new commission although they've just been named they haven't met formally at this point so they haven't gotten their legs underneath them at this point in time but i would say in the very near future some of those questions should be directed to them and they should have the answers okay and the um the only thing i wanted to ask about is with spring sports kind of right around the corner is there any guidance at this time that the state is looking at i believe so i don't know if secretary Moore is on at this point i am governor uh yes the school-based spring sports guidance has been published and is available on the agency of education website we are working on recreational sports guidance and update to it and anticipate publishing that in the next week all right thank you so much governor with the rising case number has this changed what you plan to announce in terms of your reopening blueprint no um not at all it's just the trying to tie up all the loose ends but because we're tying it all the blueprint will look at the vaccination rates and milestones along the way we feel confident especially with what we've seen thus far from the data in terms of those 65 and over we've already vaccinated hospitalizations are down significantly deaths are down significantly so the more people we vaccinate the lower numbers we'll see so it won't change our strategy and we we think this will provide some assurances to what we're going to be doing over the next three months as we work towards normalcy it seems like we're seeing more schools lately go to remote running due to either cases in the school or just low staffing because of cases are we seeing more transmission within our schools right now I don't know if it's within our schools Dr. Levine may be able to answer that better but certainly from the outsides the community activity has shown that there's more viral activity within the community so that enters the school from that from that way Dr. Levine and that and that's exactly what we are seeing but you are correct there are more schools that have been impacted by cases secretary french may have some more insight into the numbers that have been severely impacted in terms of their staffing needs at this point in time because I'm not aware of that I just know that the numbers of schools with cases have increased but majority of them to my knowledge with some notable exceptions that have been discussed at the press conferences have remained in operation sorry go ahead I was just going to add actually Dr. Levine's comments definitely more cases and then you know sort of the related impact of quarantining and so forth has put pressure on staffing patterns as we've seen all along but it's definitely a lot of activity right now and that's definitely impacted school operations in the last couple of weeks does that mean it's not a good idea to put high school kids back into school full-time yeah in terms of the earlier question relative to reopening you know our guidance is still on track I think the publication next week and it is certainly gives us pause looking at the case counts that are up now but at the same time you know a lot of what's behind the CDC recommendation to change the distancing is some of the studies are pointing to factors really no significant difference between the three feet six feet so you know I think right now you know in our confidence and where the numbers are heading relative to vaccination we're still on track to you know implement our recommendations from the CDC in the coming weeks thank you hi governor before you came on there was some discussion about people jockeying for different vaccination appointments and I was wondering if you know and Mike Smith mentioned that the pharmacies are also opening up news sites can people switch their second vaccine site to a place that might be closer instead of driving for some time secretary Smith yeah Tim this question came up last press conference and it makes it logistically difficult if you get vaccinated in one place and try to vaccinate in another in trying to make sure that we can keep track of various people and one site might be doing Moderna another site might be doing Pfizer and it may switch so it's better to and we have encouraged people that if you make an appointment at a site that you return to the same site for your second vaccination it just makes it a lot easier and it ensures that there's no mix-ups along the way and it also makes sure that we don't have extra vaccine at one site and and and vaccine goes to waste so the bottom line is no the the bottom line is no basically okay great thanks thanks Mike thank you I don't know this question for commissioner p check or for doctor Levine going back to the deck that you supplied today with the Vermont forecast and showing an increasing through the month of April I was curious for a little more understanding of the CDC ensemble forecast I understand that they take different methodologies and mix them together to try to make sure they have a more accurate projection but is that projection comparing what their projection for the state of Vermont is or for the U.S. average commissioner p check hey Tom thank you for the question so that is the Vermont model so you know there are anywhere between 30 and 50 modelers that at this point submit models to the CDC Oliver Wyman which again we've relied on from the beginning of the pandemic participates in that modeling but then they also submit individual state models as well so about 31 modelers have submitted an individual model for Vermont and then the CDC aggregates them to create an ensemble model generally you know the more methodologies the more forecast that you include you would generally see the more stable more accurate prediction Oliver Wyman basically competed with the ensemble model for accuracy throughout the fall and into the winter so we like to look at both of them but that ensemble model is specific to Vermont so looking at that the CDC ensemble come out before Oliver Wyman they come out at the same time yeah good question so Oliver Wyman was updated on Monday the CDC was updated through last night so pretty much the same time got it okay thanks very much one last question for the governor governor I talked to you last week about the expanded model bill which looks like it may possibly be seen to come to a vote. Compass Vermont did its own survey of both redemption centers and of the general population throughout the state and we came up with about 91 percent people in the state at least in favor of increasing containers to plastic and wine bottles and water bottles more more sort of on the cusp about the 10-cent deposit my question to you is if this is this bill goes through knowing how you feel about it do you think you'll sign it or veto it. It's got a long ways to go before I make that determination but again it's complicated it's not just I mean we all want our roadways to be cleaned up we don't want there to be debris seen so I can I understand some folks need or or desire to have plastic water bottles included or wine bottles and others but it gets pretty complicated when you think about that and the magnitude and the facilities necessary to accommodate that I remember a I remember a Seinfeld episode where there was a lot of bottles coming from other areas into one community that they were cashing in on so this would be much more difficult than some people would imagine so I just think we have to be recognize that cognizant of that and make sure that we you know get the desired goal of cleaning up the roadways if that's what the goal is again I still see we have a container a law here and a bottle bill and I still see those that can be redeemed along the roadway so that doesn't fix the problem and it could just complicate things. So spare for me to say your your fuel whole judgment until you see whether the bill actually comes to your death. Yeah I do that with anything you know look at the bill as it moves its way through the legislature add my input along the way and the input of our of our administration and then see where it goes and make a determination after it's passed fully by both bodies as to whether I'd sign it or not. Okay thank you very much. Yes thank you Rebecca. Governor Scott we've noticed in in recent weeks we've taken note that you've come to these Tuesday press sessions directly from your conversations with the White House and I'm just wondering how the Kenner and content of those those meetings each week compare under the Biden administration to those that you might have had with Vice President Pence and the COVID response team in the Trump administration? You know they're just different in some regards I think they were both widely attended they were governors from both sides the aisle on the meetings the meetings with Vice President Pence were a little longer to be honest but we you know we wait now you know it's different now because we're all waiting for our allocation so this is timely from our perspective to be able to tell the general public what's happening on a real time in real time so so we wait for that and they're only 45 minutes long so governors are a few governors are allowed to ask questions and and you learn something about what other governors thinking at that point too so but that's that was the case previously and they're all they were cordial before they're cordial today. Thank you very much Governor I have two vaccines cited that questions first one of my readers wants to know if with teens soon to be receiving the vaccine if possible impacts on current or future pregnancies have been thoroughly studied and what has been learned how sure are we that vaccines are safe for pregnancies. So that was two questions so the first question is a little premature to answer because we're talking about future pregnancies for a vaccine that has been out in less than a year really we're getting data all the time from the original trials because those people are being followed up so that's that will be important there's been no known impact at this point in time but again when you're talking future you're usually talking more than months or a year so have to just qualify that answer that way but certainly nothing concerning at this point in time and the data on pregnancy is increasing all of the time and there are now pregnant women enrolled in trials so we're going to learn a lot more about this but the consensus of the obstetrics and gynecology community and all of their guideline setting panels and advisory panels is coming out on the side of definitely recommending this vaccine to women after a shared decision-making process can occur and it's doing that because there is a notable slight increase in risk to the woman and a slight increase in risk to the developing fetus from active coronavirus infection so the hope is that the vaccine would reduce the likelihood of both of those untoward events so it's an evolving science as is so many parts of our pandemic thank you commissioner this next question is from our old friend Steve Merrill Moderna vaccine patent says mentions using quote anti-microbial polypeptides that quote from the patent may block fusion via our entry by one or more enveloped viruses e.g. hiv hcv hepatitis c are there hiv or hepsy parts in these vaccines and this would be the Moderna vaccine and if so is that a concern i have no awareness of there being either of those as part of the vaccine we can look into this further it's nothing i've ever heard about it's right there in the patent language and it's just i mean in black and white and all and this kind of raises a question uh you know what's is there a concern there is that something that that you could follow up on to my best thank you hi a question for the governor about s100 the ability to provide universal meals to vermont children your office has previously expressed concerns about any aspects of this proposal that could lead to increased taxes i wonder in its current form would you veto this bill way too soon i don't even i haven't even looked at it myself uh is it passed out of the house is it in the senate at this point or is it what it is in the senate currently and what was the bill number that's 100 so it hasn't hasn't made it to the floor of the senate even at this point i think that's correct yeah way too early for me to weigh in on that one i i'm clear do you broadly share the goal that the legislature find a way to get this done this year to you know provide find a way to provide universal school meals i think we're we're working with them and we'll continue to do whatever we can to assist in that way but but i'd also say that i'm i'm not as you noted i'm not advocating for any tax increases either okay thank you vaccinations for college students um a lot of students are starting to think about how they will get vaccinated and i have some evidence that their students have already been vaccinated whether they're out of theaters or not um i have a question can out of state students get vaccinated because they have on-campus addresses or they lease addresses in burlington they'd have to be at this point in time they'd have to be a vermont resident uh if they're a college student and they're a vermont resident then they could be vaccinated if they maintain their out of state status then they cannot at this point in time now depending on what we get for a supply when we get to the end we may be able to fulfill that and and offer it to those from out of state but at this point in time we want to make sure we take care of vermonters first and as other states have done as well and we'll and then we'll move on to the next phase if possible but that will be after we get through 16 and over vermont students and our vermont population okay thank you and has there been any further discussion with the university of how the student population will be addressed in the vaccination process given that that april 19th date is rapidly approaching Dr. Levine i want to remind you that the april 19th date is the date you're eligible and you can make your appointment on the website so the concern is by the time you would get your appointment will you still be on campus or not but let's assume in the best of all worlds appointments are readily available and students can get vaccinated in a timely way while they're still part of the spring semester we have talked actively with all of the campuses around the state partnering with them to make sure the vaccine could get to them as opposed to making the students drive to some site where they might not even have cars to be able to drive to the campuses all have health centers and a staff that are eager to participate in this as well so i'm sure when and if we would get to that point we have had preliminary discussions nothing put down and set in stone about how the vaccine could be deployed on campus as opposed to making people travel off campus okay thank you thanks very much for tuning in and we'll see you again on friday