 Good morning, everybody. The governor is on a White House call, so he will be joining us momentarily. I'm Mike Pichak. I'll kick off with this week's modeling and data presentation. We'll then hear from Secretary Dan French with the K-12 update, Secretary Smith with the vaccine update, then Dr. Levine. And of course, when the governor arrives, we'll hear from the governor as well. So starting this week with Vermont's data, last week we saw some encouraging trends in terms of case numbers, in terms of hospitalizations, both in Vermont and in New England and nationally. Unfortunately, as it relates to Vermont, those trends have not continued. You can see here on the case slide that the trends have actually reversed and gone up, up about 26% over the last seven days and up 8% over the last 14 days. We'll get to it in a minute, but the trends in New England and in the country have largely held steady, which certainly is a good sign for Vermont. What happens around us obviously has an impact on us here in Vermont, but at the moment, as you can see, the case slide trends have reversed and are going up. You can look at the modeling slide from last week in that 50% confidence interval. The cases have fallen on the upper end of that, so it was something the modeling was showing was a possibility, but again, all of the other trends were pointing in a favorable direction, and we're not anticipating that reversal when you consider that cases have been coming down for two weeks in Vermont, and like I said, that cases have started to drop in New England as well. So again, something we'll have to keep a close eye on at the moment in terms of the modeling, both because of the state holidays that we were experiencing and also because of the trends in Vermont, a little uncertain as to the direction that we're heading, unfortunately. When you look across the country, you see that Vermont had the 19th fewest cases reported in the last seven days on a per capita basis, so continue to be in that sort of top performing half of states, but you can see there that we are at 19. When you look at the vaccinated versus unvaccinated rate, a similar story holds true here. You can see how much different that fully vaccinated rate is than the not fully vaccinated rate. That fully vaccinated rate has continued to stay pretty steady. It's increasing about 7% over the last seven days while that not fully vaccinated rate is up about 7% as well. But again, that difference has held pretty steady there about 3.9 times greater among those who are not fully vaccinated. You can see on the next slide that tests have held steady over the last number of weeks. So this fluctuation that we're seeing in cases not really tied to a fluctuation in the amount of testing that we're doing. Last week we had cases go down when our testing numbers actually went up a bit compared to the week before. This week testing is up again. A little bit cases up as well. But generally testing has held pretty steady. It just looks like the prevalence of cases a little higher in Vermont this week compared to last week. When you look at where the cases are similar trends hold here as well. The Northeast Kingdom continues to be at the upper end of the regions of Vermont with case counts. You can see them clearly standing out over the last few weeks. But including this week, standing out as one of the highest case prevalence regions central or southern Vermont rather holding pretty steady while the Chittenden County area and central Vermont coming up just a little bit as well. So cases in southern Vermont holding steady still very high in the Northeast Kingdom relative to the rest of Vermont looking at the hospitalization rates. This was something again that gave us encouragement last week. We saw the admissions going down, particularly among those 70 and older. Those admissions have continued to trend down. So the number of people being admitted has been trending down recently. We'll just put a pin in that for a second about something we want to talk about. But when you look at the hospitalization rates overall, still a majority of them among the not fully vaccinated. So 69% of recent hospitalizations among those who are not fully vaccinated, 82% of ICU stays among those who are not fully vaccinated. You can see again, when you look at the rest of the country, Vermont performing at the top in terms of the number of new admissions sixth in the country this week relative to all the other states in the country. Again, when you look at the fully vaccinated versus not fully vaccinated on the admission side, you see that the emissions have come down more clearly for those who are fully vaccinated versus those who are not. The fully vaccinated mission rate has gone down, but that's down about 6% compared to those who are fully vaccinated down 36% over the last seven days. So we mentioned that the 70 year old age group was coming down, which certainly is a good thing. But something that we want to just keep an eye on and have a note of caution is when we look at the different age groups in the cases that we're seeing, you can see that the 70 year olds and the 80 year olds and over did see their cases go up this week as well. So again, for those who are visiting maybe elderly friends or family, be cautious, take a test before you see them. Those that are eligible for boosters, certainly important to do that and get boosted or even get your initial vaccine as well. We're seeing a big disparity among the rates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths among those who are fully vaccinated and those who are not fully vaccinated in those elderly for modern populations. So really critical to get vaccinated, but critical to get your booster shot as well. Turning to the Vermont death slides, you can see that we are at 14 deaths for the month of October. We are at 45 deaths for the month of September. A few deaths reported recently were actually occurred in the month of September. Looking at the next slide, you'll see that that fortunately puts us at the better end of the spectrum in terms of the other states across the country. But with the case rates as they are, a little uncertain. Any forecast in terms of the trajectory that we're heading in terms of our fatalities is also uncertain at the moment, unfortunately. But we'll keep obviously a close eye on those as the week and weeks unfold. Looking at higher education, continue to be good news on college campuses. You can see that we had 27 cases this week up a little bit from last week, but pretty steady throughout the entire semester. Their vaccination rate has broken over 95% in terms of all institutions together. So the news continues to be favorable on our college campuses. Looking at the long term care facility outbreaks, you'll see that we added one additional outbreak in terms of the total number. There are actually four outbreaks that were retired from the slide. Five new outbreaks that were added. And you can see that the total number of cases down a bit from last week down 17 compared to last week. So again, maybe some favorable signs there in terms of long term care facility outbreaks in terms of where we're still seeing optimistic trends certainly across the country. You see here that cases hospitalizations and deaths for this week have continued to trend down when we look at the next slide, which breaks that out by the most vaccinated states in the least vaccinated states. You continue to see that big difference. The states that are more vaccinated like Vermont continue to be spared. The worst of this delta wave cases are not nearly as high as those that are less vaccinated even though they're starting to see improvement and have been improving for a number of weeks. And then when you see Vermont in there specifically, you can see we're a little higher in the case counts, but continue to remain right on point in terms of the number of fatalities and hospitalizations remain low relative to our peers and that highly vaccinated rate. Similarly, when you look at the New England trends and this goes through last Friday because there were a lot of reporting delays over the weekend, so we didn't include the weekend in these numbers. But when you go through last Friday, you can see that most of the New England states have a clear trajectory downward at this point. Even Maine had had a lot of trouble in the last, you know, number of weeks, including pretty much most of the delta wave has started to see their cases come down. Same with Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, New Hampshire is pretty flat and you see Vermont in there as being the outlier with cases increasing this week. Turning to vaccinations. We see that they have picked up a bit. Similarly to some of the states not reporting. The CDC did not report yesterday or on Sunday. So this is a truncated week. But even that being the case, we're still up about 2400 new individuals starting vaccination this week, which is certainly a good sign up to 88.7% of eligible Vermonters who have started vaccination. And you can see that the seven day average has jumped up a bit as a result up about 35.8% over the last seven days. So good to see people continuing to get vaccinated. Important to get your booster shot if you're eligible, but important also to get vaccinated if you're still on the fence. Important to do so as quickly as you can. And that leads us to where we stand in terms of vaccination rates overall. You can see that there hasn't been any change from last week. Most importantly, we are the number one state in terms of the population fully vaccinated now over 70% of our entire population is fully vaccinated in Vermont. The first state to get to 70%, but also at near the top or at the top of many of these other rankings as well. So with that, I'll turn it now over to Secretary French. Thank you, Commissioner Pichett. Good afternoon. Major focus of our work last week has been to support the rollout of our new test the state program. I've been working with school districts to develop a better understanding of how the system will work and to start to address many of the logistical considerations that are coming up. Test to stay will be a promising solution to try to minimize the spread of schools while at the same time doing a better job of keeping our students in school. That being said, there's still a lot of moving parts for implementing test to stay. Met with the leadership of the school nurses Association last week and it was one of the points they wanted me to emphasize that will take some time to implement test to stay. Not all districts will be able to move forward as quickly as others than parents and students should be patient as we work through the logistical issues to implement the program. I will be meeting regularly with the leadership of the school nurses Association going forward last year. They met regularly with the health department team and their feedback was funneled up through our decision making process from the health department. As a result of the meeting we had last week, we decided to create a new structure and I will meet with them bimonthly along with leaders from the health department. I think that will be a more useful structure to get their input factored more directly into our decision making. The nurses Association did hold a webinar last week on test to stay. Featured speakers included Dr. Belf and the Vermont chapter of American pediatrics, Ben Lee, Dr. Ben Lee UVM, a school nurse from Lexington public schools in Massachusetts and some of our team at the AOE. We also followed up had an additional webinar on Friday that overviewed test to stay in the context of all our other testing initiatives and started to outline the various processes that school districts would need to do to on-ramp into test to stay. Thought I'd summarize two of the processes that districts are working on right now. One is the CLIA waiver process and the other is specific training on some of the antigen tests that are part of the test to stay program. One manufacturer in particular Abbott labs requires testing for all the testing sites that use their binax now test. The CLIA waiver process is basically required because it's necessary for schools any any site that's going to implement medical testing and the waiver process is available under federal regulation when the tests that are being administered are fairly simple and there's a low probability of erroneous results from the test. So we're working on school districts to get them through that process as of this morning. We've had four independent schools and 26 school districts or about half our school districts begin the CLIA waiver process. Four independent schools have obtained their CLIA waivers and eight school districts have done so. We're encouraging all independent schools and school districts to begin the CLIA waiver process whether or not they feel like they're ready to implement tests to stay at the moment just to to accomplish that piece of paperwork get it out of the way. In terms of training Abbott labs held one training session on binax now last Wednesday. We had 35 participants and we've scheduled additional trainings going forward on every Monday and Tuesday for the next two weeks and we'll schedule additional trainings as necessary. We're also working on a simplified parent consent form and process. This forum will cover our response testing and the use of the antigen tests that are part of the test to stay program. We do continue to hear from districts and from the school nurses about staffing concerns. I don't have any easy solutions to that as I mentioned previously but we are working to take some things off the plate so to speak. One area for improvement we're looking at is contact tracing. Contact tracing is a labor intensive process but when paired with the antigen testing for close contacts it is a powerful tool that has been shown in other states to keep kids safe and keep them also in school. We know from data from the UK and Massachusetts that classmate contacts have a low likelihood of becoming cases. From an educational perspective we need to use the contact tracing process in conjunction with the antigen testing to minimize the number of students that are excluded from school. So our immediate priority for supporting the implementation of test to stay is to make some revisions to the contact tracing process. We're reaching out to our various stakeholder groups to see how we can make the process more doable while also protecting our students. Making contact tracing more manageable can create more capacity to implement tests to stay. I'm not only concerned about the amount of time involved in contact tracing but also the amount of conflict that's creating for schools and their families. Families experience significant disruption to the routines when students are placed in quarantine. Some parents are pushing back or not adhering to the quarantine instructions from schools. It's something I've observed lately when I've been in schools that nurses routinely mention this conflict. It's persistent and it's wearing on school staff as much as it is wearing on parents as well. Schools are not designed to work in conflict with their parents and their communities. The educational process is a partnership. So I'm hopeful test to stay will not only be efficient and effective but also lead to less conflict in our communities since it enables more students to stay in school full-time. Again this will take some time to implement but I encourage parents and families to work together with their schools during this very challenging moment. I think we have identified a good solution in test to stay and we're working in partnership with our schools to make it as easy as possible to implement but it will take some time. That concludes my update. I'll now turn it over to Secretary Smith. Thank you Secretary French. Good morning everyone. As of this morning over 29,000 people have gotten a Pfizer COVID-19 booster or their additional dose of a vaccine. In terms of any new boosters both the FDA and the CDC must approve these on Thursday this week and Friday of this week. The FDA's advisory committee is holding meetings to discuss the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters for those 18 years and older. They'll also discuss the possibility that an individual could get a booster dose that is of a different type from that of their original vaccine. The following week the CDC panel will meet to discuss the FDA's recommendation. The CDC has final approval on all recommendations. On October 26th the FDA panel will meet again this time to discuss the Pfizer vaccine for children ages five to 11 years old. Then on November 2nd and 3rd a CDC panel will discuss approval of the FDA's recommendation regarding children ages five to 11. As these approvals come through we have the capacity to roll out boosters while we already have the capacity to vaccinate children five to 11. The pace of the rollout will be determined based on the availability of child specific vaccine. As was the case with the vaccine when we first was first authorized all of this will be done through our network of vaccine clinics, pharmacies, schools, and healthcare partners but with children pediatricians will play an important role as well. And we are rolling out boosters to all eligible groups at the same time. There'll be no segmenting of the rollout it'll be all at the same time. As I mentioned last week Vermont is being as inclusive as possible in our definition of who is eligible for a booster. So please take any opportunity that becomes available to you and your family to increase your protection against COVID-19. As the governor has mentioned many times COVID-19 is a pandemic that will eventually become an endemic that we must all manage together. That means Vermonters will have to take personal responsibility and take the preventive steps needed to stay healthy. On a daily basis we see data showing that up to 75 percent of Vermont's reported positive cases are among unvaccinated individuals. Predominantly these are people who can get vaccinated and have chosen not to be and subsequently caught COVID-19. To protect yourself your family and your friends I encourage you to get vaccinated. This week there are more than 70 state-run vaccination clinics available. You can also visit most pharmacies and health care providers to get vaccinated. Whether you need the initial vaccine or you're ready for your booster please make an appointment to get vaccinated. Visit www.healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine. You can also call 855-722-7878. Lastly I'll turn to testing for COVID-19 as commissioner Pichek has mentioned. We have a very robust testing regimen in this state over the past seven days. We've processed approximately 47,000 tests. Testing is free and easy and you can find these testing locations and make appointments by going to healthvermont.gov slash COVID-19. Now I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for a health update. Thank you and as commissioner Pichek noted cases are falling nationally but in Vermont we have not seen that happen in a consistent manner still. The super contagious Delta variant continues to find ways to spread throughout our communities especially among people who are not vaccinated including children. 70 to 75 percent of all recent cases are among people who are not vaccinated. We continue to see cases across the whole spectrum of settings from schools and childcares to long-term care facilities and workplaces. The majority of these cases are related to community transmission and are not associated with outbreaks. This spread is of course not what we want to see but we are still using many tools to protect for monitors during this pandemic. Some are the same and some have changed as the pandemic has evolved. Testing for example continues to be key to finding cases isolating them informing them and their close contacts and stopping further spread. It's still available and free throughout the state and I very much appreciate for monitors stepping up and utilizing this tool to the tune of six to seven thousand tests per day but in schools as you've heard we're focused on deploying newer wrapper testing tests to stay to get results faster while also keeping kids in school. This is how we balance our need to keep communities safe with finding ways to safely live with the virus and I do expect that we will have a national strategy in the not too distant future where the use of at-home rapid accurate and free or inexpensive testing may become the norm and help guide us in our daily activities. As you know we still hold vaccination clinics around the state with so many people already vaccinated numbers go up slowly but we add to our vaccinated ranks on a regular basis. We've actually vaccinated over 40,000 Vermonters since restrictions were lifted in June predating but also likely with the help of policies such as required vaccines for employees. We're also working hard to ensure Vermonters have the most protection possible against COVID by getting them their booster shot. Many Vermonters who receive Pfizer are eligible now and many more who receive Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will be soon as federal regulators meet later this week as you heard. Based on their guidance I encourage Vermonters to get that dose of added protection as soon as they can and the long-awaited news regarding a mix and match approach may be forthcoming and we can expect that data from trials of this approach will be analyzed and debated. We'll keep you up to date as that unfolds on the federal committee level. Now since I was not here last week to do so I do want to address the CDC's recent and urgent health advisory regarding vaccination and pregnancy in light of the 22 deaths from COVID-19 that occurred nationally in pregnant women in August. The CDC health advisory strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination for both pregnant people and their fetus or infant outweigh known or potential risks. Pregnant people with COVID-19 are at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes that could include preterm birth, stillbirth and admission into the neonatal ICU of the newborn also infected with COVID as well as increased risk for the symptomatic mother of death or ICU admission. And finally we are preparing for the approval of vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. This will be significant development in our efforts against the virus. I've heard from parents and caregivers who are very eager to have their younger children vaccinated but I also know many will have questions. That's okay. I'm a parent and now a grandparent and I understand as we get more data we'll be able to provide fuller answers for you. If you're the parent of a young child I hope you'll reach out to your pediatrician for the answers you need. I'm confident they will be reaching out to you either individually or as part of a broader informational effort. Just like for adults vaccinated children have less of a chance of getting sick with COVID, of worrying about rare but serious complications or having long-term effects from COVID. The vaccine can keep them safe, protect those around them and help them live their lives without the disease. We're fortunate that COVID is now another vaccine preventable disease and that makes this a winnable battle. I'd like to turn for a moment to COVID-19 treatments. Vaccination is still the most important way we greatly reduce the chances of getting severely ill but people who get COVID and are at higher risk should consider asking their health care provider for monoclonal antibody treatment. These have been shown to meaningfully reduce the incidence of hospitalization and death in those with COVID-19 who are at risk for severe disease. Monoclonal antibodies are recommended for COVID patients with mild to moderate disease so they are not hospitalized or on supplemental oxygen and are age 65 or older or with a medical condition such as obesity, diabetes, smoking, heart and lung disease and other chronic medical conditions and of course those whose immune systems may not have amounted inadequate response to the vaccine. If you do get COVID and have any of these risk factors tell your health care provider you are ill and ask to be evaluated for monoclonal antibody treatment. This is especially important if you develop shortness of breath. Treatment usually requires referral to an infusion center as the drug is given intravenously however now it may also be given as a needle under the skin. While there may be mild side effects no serious adverse effects seem to occur with any frequency. When used early enough this treatment can reduce the number of people becoming hospitalized by 70 percent and reduce how long symptoms last by three to four days. This is not meant for people who are already hospitalized as we have another a number of other treatments that are more appropriate in that setting. And please remember vaccination is still your best approach to minimizing the chance of getting severely ill in the first place even when we have treatment options like monoclonal antibodies and antiviral medications. This is a lot of information today but i'd like to remind anyone who has a positive COVID test that they can also get a free pulse oximeter from the health department. This small device clips onto your finger and measures your pulse and oxygen levels. It can help you assess how ill you are or if your illness is getting worse. It's especially important to identify this in the first five days of illness when the antibody treatment can be most effective. You may also have heard of a new antiviral pill that could treat mild to moderate illness in higher-risk adults. Mulneupiravar. The pharmaceutical company Merck has just submitted an emergency use authorization request to the FDA. A clinical trial showed an approximate 50 reduction in the risk of hospitalization or death. And if this is true it could be yet another important tool along with vaccination to managing this pandemic. For the same group of adults that have been shown to benefit from monoclonal antibody treatment but as a pill much more user-friendly. Stay tuned for more news from FDA and CDC in the coming weeks. Finally it's October which means it's time to get your flu shot. This month please COVID has shown us the incredible benefits of having a readily available vaccine for what can be a serious illness. There's no waiting period between your flu shot and a COVID vaccine or a COVID booster. It's even safe to get them at the same time one in each arm if you want to. It's important to stay as healthy as possible with both COVID and the flu potentially circulating this fall and winter so we can stay in school, keep working and protect one another. Now the governor will make his comments. Thank you Dr. Levine and good afternoon apologies for the time change today. I'll be traveling to Washington DC this afternoon with General Knight for meetings with our federal and international partners and we'll have more information on that coming later this week. I'll be brief because we want to leave time for you to ask as many questions as possible before I have to go. I just got off our call with the White House and other governors and here's what we heard. Dr. Walensky the CDC director emphasized that while the national picture is looking better they are not letting up on the importance of getting people vaccinated. That includes moving forward on the FDA approval of boosters for Moderna and J&J as well as the emergency use authorization for kids 5 to 11. They still expect these to be taken up in the next few weeks and like us the federal government is already preparing for distribution of the vaccine once it is approved. Dr. Walensky as Dr. Levine has just mentioned Dr. Walensky has urged people to get their flu shots because they expect this to be a more severe flu season after a mild one last year and people don't have the antibiotic bodies necessary to to ward this off and she reiterated as well that it's safe to have a flu shot and a booster at the same time. And finally Governor Inslee from Washington asked about allowing Canadians to travel into the U.S. Simply answer from the White House is we're working on it. So time will tell but they did mention that I had asked about this weeks ago. Next I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for the work of parents staff and teachers through the first six weeks of the school year and I know it hasn't been easy. After what kids went through last year we know how important it is for them to be in school especially with the isolation and the loss of learning they experienced. So the fact that 80,000 kids are back five days a week is huge but it wouldn't be possible without the school staff nurses and COVID coordinators working long hours. Their jobs are tough and their commitment to students and their communities is unmatched. Unfortunately we've heard where cooperation from some parents have been less than ideal and I want to remind everyone that they're just doing their jobs under very difficult circumstances and conditions. So while I know this is tough on parents and students please remember this is not easy for anyone. So let's treat each other with respect and civility. It's our hope test to stay will lead to more kids being able to stay in school and less disruption for families. Instead of quarantines students who are identified as close contacts will be able to go to school as long as they test negative each morning. As we've said we've seen this work in Massachusetts and we believe it will be successful here as well. The Agency of Education will continue to work with districts on its implementation in the coming weeks and with that we'll open it up to questions. About 20 minutes. We'll try to get through as many people as possible but Secretary Smith volunteered to quarterback for the rest of the queue after the governor has to leave. So we'll start with Calvin. You know I guess governor I mean it seems that at this point in the pandemic here in Vermont, New England's doing well. Cases are going back up here. I mean why why has Delta been so hard to predict? Why has it really taken Vermont by storm? Yeah I mean keep in mind let's reset the clock a bit. We saw that our cases were coming down as well into last week. Then all of a sudden they went back up. I said I think I said a week ago one day two days it doesn't make for a trend and it didn't. They went back up for whatever reason. I don't know. I wish I had the answer. I wish I think we all wish we had the answer. Remember we had been talking about the nine weeks. We thought we saw it in the UK. We saw it in India where nine weeks surge and all of a sudden a dramatic drop and we thought we'd see that here in the US. The reality is what we're seeing in the southern states and other areas in the west as well that it's more like 12 or 13. So we're not quite there yet. We're expecting that we'll see that drop again and again we saw a bit of a drop today but one day does not make a trend. So we have to look at this over a longer period of time. Seven-day average maybe even longer but but again unfortunate we're disappointed. I wish we had all the answers but we have to keep doing what we think is right and that is getting more people vaccinated, protecting those, protecting yourself, protecting those who are most vulnerable, wearing a mask when you're inside in certain conditions and and as well with the kids in school wearing their mask as well. So the test this day program we think that will help in some respects. I heard Governor Baker was talking about that on the call. Governor Brown from Oregon was having some issues with their some of their mandates and some of their tests this day. They're trying to set it up. The the White House has said they hope to have release some guidance on that but but as Governor Baker said they've they've made it work in Massachusetts and we're hoping to do the same here. Governor can you speak a little more directly about what you mean about cooperation from some parents is not ideal? What what aggravate you about that? You know I'm sure Secretary French you can go into further detail but again this is frustrating for everyone. They they're with the with the cases that we're seeing in schools and the quarantining that is necessary for some not knowing who should be quarantined who should not leads to frustration just disruption with with families and and work and so forth. So it's led to a lot of frustration against those who are just trying to do their job. They're just trying to keep their kids safe and and keep the schools open. So all I want people to do is just to take a step back and just understand everyone's doing the best they can under very very difficult circumstances. Anything you want to add to that Secretary French? Yeah I think you know Stuart the where we seem sort of repeated issues or students are in quarantine and their education has been disrupted and obviously parents that's it can be hard on most parents to figure out childcare and so forth in those circumstances. I've had nurses report that you know students aren't necessarily supervised when they're sent home in quarantine so there's concern about to what extent students are actually staying in isolation when they're not in school and you know we still I think our epidemiological team would say that although we do see transfer cases inside of school for the most part cases are being brought from their communities into the school so if we consider this idea of students going you know in quarantine or isolation being sent back out into the locations that they obtained the virus that it's problematic. So I just I it's a pattern I've noticed that it's something we wanted to highlight and just you know again ask for people to work together. I've heard it on several occasions now from nurses it's contributing to their fatigue. It's not so one nurse told me it's not what they signed up to be a nurse to be arguing with parents about the need to comply but again it's it's all about keeping our kids safe so we just need everyone to you know really work together is very challenging time at a Delta variant surge. Governor is there anything that can be done to confront this new rise in cases and then separately very quickly is there any update on the pending arrival of the Afghan refugees? Take the second one first no updates on the the arrival of the Afghan refugees we still expect it to be during this month but but we haven't received any any new information. We are continuing to do everything we think we can at this point within reason and and again I hope that as we're watching hospitalizations rates and and to some extent the number of cases we want to make sure that we're mitigating manage them as best we can and we think we are without going to extreme and I think we're in a much different place than we were obviously a year ago and with a number of businesses I mean you've seen it we've seen historic numbers of visitors in some places I think it was in Killington they thought they had the the biggest weekend they've had ever so we're able to keep people coming to our state the economy is still moving we're managing the the cases and hospitalizations and we're just going to have to watch the trends and make sure that we are going down in the right direction in the coming weeks as I said we thought it was going to be nine weeks but it looks like the the U.S. trend is more like 12 to 13 weeks so we should we should see some improvements in the next couple of weeks what's your take on reopening the State House to the public this upcoming session I know that maybe it seemed like a bit more of a certainty early in the summer and I know that's an ongoing conversation but how do you think this delta wave affects that and people being able to go back into the people's house yeah I think again we're watching this this trend and if we're right and we move in the same direction as as other states that don't have the mitigation measures we have here in Vermont and in the northeast that if we follow suit it would appear that we would be able to move back to something more normal with the legislative session but this is something the legislature has to deal with themselves and we'll assist them in any way we can to make sure that we allow for spaces so that they're they're safe as as well that's important we want to get back to some sort of normal I think everyone would agree the legislative sessions haven't been ideal we're an ideal this past session at all and we just need more people to be involved and to be heard and but they did the best they could under the circumstances you see any connection between the increase in visitors from other parts of the country during the during the peak season here yeah and the increase that we're seeing in cases you know I I don't think so although there's you know the more activity there is the more spread there would be what we've seen is that the cases seem to be focused on gatherings small mid-size gatherings whether it be wedding receptions or gatherings at homes and and parties and so forth not larger scale and for any of you that that watched the Red Sox last night at Fenway I mean it was a lot of people the place was packed and I didn't see many masks there although outside but very very tight conditions both of the marathon and so forth so we'll watch their numbers over the next week or so and if they don't see a rise in case cases over because of all the activity there then that proves a lot of things that we think are important outside is is important but but we're seeing those cases mostly in inside more smaller mid-size gatherings and that's what people have to pay attention to don't put yourself in in those positions wear a mask when you're around people you don't know and especially when you're inside in those tight tight conditions when I see the epi report on a nightly basis I watch the number of of out-of-state COVID cases and at most I would say at the high point maybe 10% so it's I don't think that's driving it I remember Mark continues to average over a death a day we're at 14 deaths already in October were those deaths preventable is there anything your administration could do to bring those numbers down you know those cases and we'll hopefully provide more information on that in the in the coming weeks many of those cases while tragic had a lot of compromising conditions a lot of chronic conditions attached to most every death and and there are certain many circumstances where those who are in hospice for instance happen to have COVID as well so it it's still yet to be determined Dr. Levine had talked about some of the treatments available the monoclonal treatment is something that that they the health department has sent out at least one Han maybe two Han Han's in advising to utilize that but that's fairly intensive it's not easy but this new new pill that that Merck has come out with an oral type of antiviral pill I think that's a game changer because that's easy it's less expensive and easily used by by people so we're learning every day how we can mitigate this we still are at the lowest per capita death death number of deaths in the country so we're still we're still okay but every death is tragic and if we could avoid it we would no mitigation measures you can see that would help those numbers I'm not sure what we could do I might ask Dr. Levine if he wants to comment if there's anything that we're missing but but I know our healthcare professionals are doing the best they can under these circumstances but it does it does seem to affect the elderly the more compromised as has been from the beginning I'm anecdotally I would say the vaccine hasn't been as effective in preventing the deaths with the variant as we had hoped yeah it's hard for me to add too much to that I think probably everyone in the country would agree if we had a total lockdown we would prevent deaths there's absolutely no question doesn't mean deaths are tolerable but at the same time I do think a total lockdown for much of the population never mind Vermont but anywhere in the country would be intolerable for many and that's a very different circumstance we had that circumstance in the very first couple of months of the pandemic when nobody had any immunity at all and there was no option of vaccination now the population as was referred to with Fenway Park people are making their choices about the kinds of exposures they're willing to tolerate and the kinds of exposures they aren't willing to tolerate and that's very important to respect that as long as people are using good recommendations and choosing wisely so to speak and recognizing those amongst them that they should be trying to protect if they live with someone who's immunocompromised elderly or visit one commonly so those are kinds of the issues there our guidance remains the same and it has been successful as the governor was pointing out even though a death is clearly tragic at many times it is not avoidable and for years upon years we've seen the same circumstance with influenza we have vaccines for influenza we try to keep influenza out of school classrooms out of long-term care facilities etc but at the end of a season there are always deaths that we can attribute to influenza in our most vulnerable citizens and that's kind of what we're seeing here with rare exception most of the deaths that we've been seeing have been in our most vulnerable citizens and that's tragic but unfortunately when you're in a pandemic of this intensity it's real the other point I wanted to quickly make out regarding the recent cases in increase there are when you look at graphs from India from the UK from the south in our country you see these very steep going upwards and then when the time comes they start to come down but the northeast is very different than that the northeast has been a very subtle increase as illustrated here and it's not one of these up and down things it's such a heavily vaccinated region that we're seeing the impact of the vaccine on much of the population but we're also seeing that it drags out the kind of course that all the states have been having and it's a much flatter curve so you stay in a sort of plateau kind of fashion for a longer period of time and you're not going to see that abrupt steep drop down and that's kind of what these curves are illustrating also you'd asked about what more could we do I think what we're seeing again with those elderly more vulnerable with compromised conditions they should get their booster because when I say that the the vaccine hasn't been as effective with the delta variant the efficacy has been weaning a bit so that's why they have suggested the booster I think the health care experts would say get your booster if you're in that position if you're in that category it's even more important three incidents at high school athletic contests in which ugliness you know racial taunting transphobic union do you think teams should walk off if they're subjected to that do you yeah I mean I think we have to come up with a response a uniform response to this and we'll have to to I think the agency of education as well as the vpa and others need to get together and figure out what are we going to do when this we can't tolerate this this isn't this isn't something that the kids should be subjected to and we should we should stop it in its tracks when it happens having said that I just want to make sure that we're not encouraging um that type of behavior to to throw a game so to speak I mean we just have to be careful on how we implement this and make sure it's the right solution all right we'll switch over to the phone starting with Mike Donahue the calendar thanks Jason uh commissioner p check it appeared today that uh you did not use the term unvaccinated in your presentation and charts instead and I saw I think it was eligible for modders still to be vaccinated and uh I'm just wondering if if that's some semantics or if that's a new way you're going to start listing people uh or what yeah so Mike this chart hasn't changed since May I think of this year we've used the same language as far as I can remember the other time when we use breakthrough data we refer to it as fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated because that's the way that's the most concrete data that we have available to us so you know when we're looking at um the breakthrough cases that's how we look at it those that are fully vaccinated those who are not fully vaccinated including those who are eligible and those who are not eligible when we look at that one slide where we're tracking vaccinations we also include the number of people who are eligible but not yet vaccinated so um that really hasn't changed for some time just seemed that says secretary smith and commissioner levine didn't back use words unvaccinated as opposed to the chart that says eligible for modders and I wasn't sure what the distinction was but um Dr. Levine you uh you answered one of the questions I was going to ask about from a reader as to whether you can get your flu shot and um your booster at the same time but somebody else so it asked about whether it was uh permissible when to get your shingles shot in relation to the flu and or the booster shot get a third shot at the same time I would definitely not do that if there if there is a vaccine that is associated with people feeling more side effects it is the shingles vaccine so I would probably isolate that one out for a period of time from any of the others having said that still a good vaccine to get it's just not one I would want to combine at the same time okay and one other thing during one of the recent news conferences the question was raised about how remoders truly can tell that numbers provided by the health department are in fact accurate and they came after the disclosure in New York with the change of governors that there was actually 12 additional 12,000 additional deaths I'd like to revisit that truth testing question in Vermont uh when the Vermont Health Department reports as numbers like the number of people not getting their second shot how sure are you about those numbers when you present them and are you aware that your department apparently sends letters to people saying the state has no record of them getting their second shot even when they may have gotten their second shot so to take your second part first not not totally aware that that has happened but be happy to hear individual cases where that has happened and we can investigate that with regard to our comfort with the data we get reports from our own internal system for those who have gone through state of Vermont sites we get reports from the pharmacy system we get to compare our reports to what the CDC reports say so there's sort of like a built-in cross-checking if you will with that and reconciling as we've said at various times during the pandemic when data was reconciled when there was a difference between those numbers so I feel pretty comfortable about that and certainly feel very comfortable about deaths because with our small numbers all of these deaths go through our medical examiner's office the debt certificates are always available and checked on so the advantage of being in a smaller state with fortunately a smaller number of debts per capita with COVID is that we really have a good handle on all of those and they're all basically have eyes on them so maybe a little harder to get things lost in the shuffle when you have a state like New York where New York City alone has so many millions of people living in it well why would in somebody shared a copy of the health department letter with me why would somebody who got both their shots at the same place within the specified time separation end up in the health department records is not having gotten their second shot again how accurate are the records how widespread is the problem is there any way the department can track this this misinformation yeah I would have the same question you're asking Mike if that were true so if I could get the information on the person at least that you're aware of we can do a sort of root cause analysis to figure out how that would have happened in the first place I really can't answer your question otherwise okay great thank you very much I'll be inside on that just case in point and in terms of the number of cases it was asked earlier about the out-of-state cases and what I see mostly is out of state New York and New Hampshire they come from bordering communities to get a test in Vermont because it's more accessible and maybe it's because it's free I don't know what they do in the other states to be honest with you but we count those those are counted in our daily case counts so we try and be accurate and at times I I wonder whether we should be including them because they just go back home after they get their tests but that's a small point Ann Wallace Allen seven days hey thank you governor I'm hearing from a lot of people who are feel strongly that there should be a stronger mass mandate still they're saying with CDC guidance being what it is everyone should wear a mask in public indoor settings they're asking why the health department doesn't strengthen its guidance just a little bit to use the the same type of message should wear a mask in indoor public setting I think we do I think that is the guidance we've been giving if if you're in a and this is my terminology I'll let Dr. Levine answer this for the health department but again if you're in a in a situation where there you're in a gathering inside you should be wearing a mask if you're going into what we found is it's not going into the convenience store after getting gas it's not going into certain situations for a small period of time and like going into a maybe a hardware store some that's not where we're seeing it we're seeing it the cases in gatherings in barbecues and receptions and baby showers and so forth that's where we're seeing most of the cases so if you're in one of those situations you should be wearing a mask Dr. Levine yes thanks for the question Anne and of course you picked the one day where I didn't give my usual paragraph of guidance because I had way too much else to cover today but I've been very consistently standing up here recommending indoor masking in concert with the CDC and when you go to our website for protect how to protect yourself it reiterates that guidance admittedly it doesn't mandate it that's a that's a different kind of policy decision at a government level but it certainly provides the recommendation that that be what you do indoors do you think a mandate would help reduce the number of the infection rate in Vermont no that's a real challenging question at this point in the pandemic lots of public health officials look at where we are now and look at the appetite for the population for things like mandates look at who would abide by a mandate which would probably be the people who have already been vaccinated and are strong health beliefs that they should follow this kind of guidance and who would not abide by it which might be the people who you would want most to abide by it so it's very challenging when you look at data from prior in the pandemic we know masking is effective so there's no question about that even though people seem to be newly raising that question again when you look at mask mandates whether it be in a country in a state or within counties of a state prior to delta mask mandates were more effective as well when you look at delta we don't have a lot of data and we see this incredibly high level of community transmission that delta has had which doesn't seem to respect state borders when it comes to states that have either no guidance about masking recommend masking or mandate masking so it's a very challenging question to answer right now would that be effective or not effective and then you'd of course want to factor in the vaccination level and status of the various places you were comparing to also see how much of a role that played and if that was playing what i would suspect to be even a bigger role than the mandating or not of masks so it's a it's a great question to ask very challenging to answer what is the cost of just having a mandate anyway it's just an event that it would it might catch some of the people who aren't vaccinated understood and i can let the governor answer as he has in many weeks regarding that kind of a policy decision and what it would require in the state to actually accomplish that again and to be clear if you're unvaccinated and you're indoors you should be wearing a mask you should be wearing a mask now i don't think my saying that or us mandating that is going to get one single person to wear a mask that doesn't want to wear a mask the enforcement is the challenge compliance is the challenge we believe you should under many circumstances as i mentioned many times be wearing a mask when you're indoors in certain gatherings but i don't believe that and i've said this that a mass mandate is effective in this situation right now i just don't think we get the compliance and i think that we would take our eyes away and our focus away from doing what we can uh to to get through this it would just create one more controversy all right thank you greg lambrow the county courier good afternoon governor just one question for you and then i'll hold off until you're not here uh to allow for some questions for other people but um you said that during your questioning with the white house you were given essentially the answer we're working on it when you asked about the border somebody asked about the border um can you elaborate on that a little bit and can you tell us a little bit about what you've done to push that issue other than just submit a letter you know because quite frankly people that are living near the canadian border don't want to just hear we're working on it we want to hear more we want to know what's really going on and why it's taking so long yeah no no totally um i can appreciate uh that their sentiment i feel the same way we have almost daily calls and when any anything we um when we have a call with the with the white house uh we mention that we want to see the border open back up along with at least nine other governors governor insley from washington was the one that brought it up today asking pointedly when are we going to see the border opened up because they have a number of people that come into washington state to shop and uh and the answer was literally what i said we're working on it and that was about it uh we'll continue to push but we don't have any authority over the border we don't have any authority over the white house and their decision making but we're as we're as frustrated as anyone else on this issue because it seems as though with their they have their they're actually better protected at this point than we are in the states in canada so i fail to see where this would be an issue and if we want to put a the same type of a vaccine requirement whatever testing requirement whatever it is it seems as though we could do that they have mentioned you know you can fly in to from another country as well as into from canada but that's just for the affluent and that's not what we need we need to open the border up to allow for safe travel into our bordering states because they're part of our economy as well on your your weekly calls with the white house have you specifically brought this up or have you only brought it up in a letter no i brought it up yeah in fact they mentioned that the executive director from the national governance association today after governor inslee asked his question mentioned again that we have been consistent for mod has been consistent in asking for this for weeks so um that was their their term thank you governor and i'll hold off my other question for secretary uh you can you can yeah you can go ahead and ask that because i am i don't want to miss my flight so i'm going to take off at this point in time and see you all next week secretary smith are you going to answer all the rest of the questions today thank you very much thank you governor it's a tough world when the governor is going to worry about his flight taking off without him greg did you uh you have another question i i do um so i'm told that the johnson and johnson shot is only available in the next four weeks it's only available in venetian county in orange county and and i'm hearing from people who you know are on the fence and and maybe would would get a vaccine if it was down to just one uh one shot uh as johnson and johnson is right now um for anybody in franklin county that's that's a two-hour drive to orange county it's a three and a half to four hour drive to bennington county i'm i'm wondering why you know that's not available to to people in other parts of the state yeah greg i know that if dr levine has any additional information we are very limited with the amount of johnson and johnson that we have we have been promised that johnson and johnson will start flowing in at some point here but you you've got to realize for months we haven't had a supply of johnson and johnson we've been using whatever we've had in the warehouse where it's been deployed specifically i'll have to follow up on with you on that i i'm not aware that we have any sort of uh other than need of where it's been deployed but i'll i'll look into that greg for you but for for the past two or three maybe in four months now johnson and johnson has been really limited in supply and in this state moderna and fizer have been much more abundant as it as it comes in but i'll follow up greg sure and and to be specific that was more of my question not the supply but um why is it available on a on a weekly basis uh in those two counties and not in the other 12 counties so thank you okay thank you liora from odd digger uh yes so i wanted to ask about the waste time investigation and i wanted to know for u of m and for basically all the hospitals it sounded like and i wanted to know uh where you guys are at with that what's sort of coming out of it and then if you've gotten a chance to look at a u of m health network um patient access plan and what they're proposing they released today and what are your thoughts about that you know i i have not read it in depth i've just scanned it as i was walking into the press conference here so i have not had an opportunity to see it i was sort of pre-briefed on it that it was uh that it was coming out and some of the elements that were in it i think one of the things i'll be looking for in that plan is investment in human infrastructure i think it's really important as we're talking about access that we do invest in human infrastructure in two fundamental ways we recruit and the most talented people that we can especially in those specialty uh areas where we need to fill some gaps if there are gaps out there and secondly and more importantly i think is how do we retain a workforce here i think it you know money is one one only one aspect of that you know whether it's bonuses or or retention bonuses or something along that line the culture is is another aspect of it and how you develop a culture where people want to stay in the profession and here in vermont i think is very important in terms of the study um it's it's underway the investigation is underway and you know i think if you look at it from a high level i think one of the things that you sort of look at it from my perspective is at at three different segments first what are the benchmarks that we are going to um to set just to determine what are acceptable and unacceptable wait times that's number one number two who's not meeting those benchmarks and then number three why are they not meeting those benchmarks and those are three fundamental questions that i want to see out of this investigation and when you see those then you can come up with recommendations of what to do the we're at the the first step right now setting benchmarks in terms of where we're going to be uh in terms of what are acceptable unacceptable benchmarks and and like i said i hope to have uh some recommendations for the legislature when they come back in january so that's the progress report on that thank you joseph gresser part and chronicle joseph moved to p herschfeldt vpr thank you jason um dr levine on september 15th um you told us that there has been five pediatric hospitalizations due to covid-19 since delta arrived in vermont do you have an updated figure for us on that i can tell you it's more than five but i can't give you its exact number i can get back to you on that i know that as of today there are five hospitalizations currently of pediatric patients pediatric patients um are any of those in the icu to your knowledge i don't know where they are to be honest um another question for you i i probably missed something but the last time i recall you talking about monoclonal antibodies was around this time last year um you were much less bullish at that point on their utility as an intervention you are also concerned about um limited uh space in in the uh infusion centers where monoclonal antibodies are administered and i'm hoping you can talk about uh what's changed in the intervening months to to um make you think that this is an appropriate treatment for monoclonal antibodies with uh moderate or severe cases of covid-19 absolutely it's the data and the science uh so very originally like you mentioned probably a year ago uh not only myself but members of our academic clinical community uh had all reviewed what scant studies there were and basically those studies were not compelling and in fact bodies like uh the infectious disease society of america and the nih review panels uh were not as um high on these um it was very reserved and so there was a reluctance to start using them especially because it was i believe still a pre-vaccine era and it was very complicated having people who were covid positive enter hospital environments to go to an infusion room uh and have um not only that room but and the staff but the whole hospital um be exposed to somebody with covid you recall that most people were delaying medical care because they didn't want to even go near a hospital thinking that was not a safe place to be fortunately it turned out to be one of the safest places to be in our whole society so that was a year ago um a lot has happened since then and what's transpired is some very high quality and compelling studies that basically uh make the case very strongly for the utility of these monoclonal antibodies in treatment some of the ones that were originally used are no longer effective but have been replaced by other combinations of monoclonal antibodies that have been recently studied and are effective so that's the reason for the mind my enthusiasm if i could use that word for them uh we have capacity in the state right now probably to process 20 patients a day and if uh staffed up could probably get to 30 patients a day across the state if uh if these uh antibodies were requested and needed all of the hospitals all of the physicians in the state have protocols have received health alert notifications from the health department um and it's just a matter of there hasn't been the demand to exceed those numbers that i've just mentioned but certainly the capability right now is there to deliver those and in fact people are getting monoclonal antibodies in the state of Vermont just not at the rate that i was quoting question for for dark uh secretary french uh as it relates to test this day what's the soonest that we could see districts have the capacity to institute this program um and then you know for people that it's going to be more difficult to get this in place how long might it be before uh kids have access to this yeah peter i mean last week i said about two weeks i think we will see a couple uh districts start to move down that path within that time frame i think the basically the rest of the month i think we'll see more come on but it will you know it'll take some work at a local level to figure out how to situate uh this tool in the context of the other the other tools we have on the table and as i mentioned um we're looking is our priority right now to really look at the contact tracing process i think if we can uh come up with some revisions to that process that would help test this day be operationalized in more districts i think we'll see more come on but i i would i would suggest that this month you'll see more districts implementing tests to stay thanks so tom davis compass Vermont thanks jason dr levine i just want to follow up on mic donik you just to understand uh sorry if i missed it clearly um people who are eligible to get a booster shot uh is it okay for them to schedule both the booster shot and a regular flu vaccination at the same time definitely so and no no chance of increased side effects like combining them um so with the booster shots if you got your first obviously you've gotten your first and second dose of Pfizer and you're getting your booster shot the chance of side effects from that alone is no different than it was for the first two shots so that that is quite clear that there's no increase in side effects by getting the booster the flu shot you know generally people tolerated quite well may get very mild symptoms um generally much less than what we've seen with covid vaccines there's no evidence that the combination of the two gives you a set of side effects that are much higher than one or the other great thanks very much that's all i got ed barber newport daily express okay thank you thank you ed body teeth remand digger no question thank you lisa lumis the valley reporter hello have i successfully unmuted myself you have okay this is probably for a commissioner p check at the september 21st press conference governor scott promised updated data on long-term care facilities and who is most vulnerable has this information been published and if it was referenced at the beginning of today's press conference i apologize because i did not get any volume for the first seven or eight minutes lisa just hold on i think we're conferring who's going to answer that just a second thank you so i think it was two press conferences ago i gave a presentation on the long-term care facilities and i did show some slides the question that the commissioner p check and i are not clear to the answer on is uh are those slides actually on the dfr website or not um but we'll have to find out and figure that out i can certainly get you those slides i would appreciate that it's hard to see live if they are not when they are behind you on the screen because of reflection yes so when you do show slides we can't see them but if that data were available we would appreciate it we have we have readers asking us for it absolutely tim mcquiston that's it for me thank you sorry thank you tim mcquiston from my business magazine i i don't want to get this wrong who is catching uh covid right now i got what just wasn't clear on who who's getting covid right now the unvaccinated and the the age groups is it is it um across the board i i saw i i asking that mike because i i saw a report that it was people under 18 that are the biggest group and i just wanted to see the accurate checks of that yeah tim we have a chart on that i think and i'll either let commissioner p check uh i'll let commissioner p check uh describe the chart thanks mike yeah thanks tim it's being shown right now tim if you um are watching but it's also in our dfr slide deck as well it's on the website so you can see in terms of the per capita case rates that the zero to nine-year-olds stand head and shoulder above the other age groups that we're um measuring here you can see the next age group is the 30 to 39 year olds followed by the 10 to 19 year olds so that age group that unfortunately has no access to vaccine at the moment is clearly head and shoulders the highest rate in terms of in terms of age the more vaccinated uh for monitors those that are in their 80s in their 60s in their 70s their prevalence is lower than all of the other age groups so i think that's really the key takeaway is those age groups that are the most vaccinated have the lowest prevalence rate those that unfortunately don't have access to the vaccine are seeing the highest rates at the moment and historically through much of the delta wave as well okay i'll run this slide then in the next report thanks mike yeah the one thing that i do want to say though tim as you look at the case counts each night i mean the the people that can that can't be vaccinated are only a portion of a portion of that larger group that can be vaccinated and chooses not to and they are the ones that are driving most of the covid cases here okay all right thank you very much guy page from on daily chronicle guy page right move to andrew mcgregor caledonian record um commissioner levine oh we got you guys i'm here thanks oh thank you thank you uh commissioner levine um or whoever um how many of the 14 vermont fatalities on the dashboard for october were fully vaccinated that's a that's one of those uh not on the top of my head questions i can tell you um we have the data on most of them there are some cases that are uh occur out of state and we don't have access to the data always on them but there are so you are clearly fully back there are clearly fully vaccinated people in the group of 14 no question okay um and is that something that that Ben or someone could get to me in the next day or so absolutely thank you um also um is this the first time if i read that data right um the rate of increase among fully vaccinated was 7.1 over the last seven days as opposed to 6.9 which i know is not a great difference over the um not fully vaccinated is this the first time that fully vaccinated vermonters have tested at a higher per capita rate have tested positive than the unvaccinated the three of us are shaking our heads saying we think so i mean we can't be a hundred percent confident of that but we think so how do you explain that i mean if why why would that be i i i guess i try not to explain things that are 0.2 difference because i'm not certain that there is a real difference and i wouldn't want to blow that difference out of proportion i would also want to refer you to our weekly update on our website because instead of just focusing on the 14 deaths you'll be able to focus on the whole pandemic and look at vaccination and uh not vaccination rates i i guess mr sure i would think that the the deaths rate is pretty important factor there about about uh when examining the the impact of the of the pandemic i don't mean to be flipping or snarky about that it just seems that that's a rather important data point no it's it's critical absolutely uh and i again have to reiterate um from the very beginning we have a vaccine that is one of the most effective vaccines that's ever been developed but even saying that if it has a 90 or 95 chance of reducing the most severe outcomes and those who get vaccinated and you have a state the size of vermont with a huge vaccination rate you are going to see people who are not in that 90 to 95 percent who did not have that benefit even though the majority of the population will have that benefit that's just okay the way the numbers work unfortunately and it turns out when we sort of drill down into looking at who didn't have that benefit it is the very vulnerable um who might not have had that benefit with the flu vaccine or any other vaccine uh at that time in their life okay thank you and jim agregor caldoni record yes thank you good afternoon uh any word on winter sports guidance i know the high school season is over a month away but youth sports such as ice hockey uh and where you have a majority of players under 12 is either underway or on the verge of starting in the next week or two secretary just curious about that hi this is dan french um we're still on track to produce some recommendations on winter sports uh for this month uh actually secretary more and i are meeting this afternoon on that safe to assume that uh oh go ahead no this is secretary more i would i would only add that the the guidance we've been providing to the recreational sports community is to take their cues from what's going on in schools and recommending that masks be worn for indoor sports um so long as masks are being worn in school and uh again that's in the form of a recommendation not a requirement since there's no state of emergency that is correct oh okay uh that's all for me today thank you erin potanko from ontdigger okay um so i remember there was some tentative discussion of um you know surveying schools to get a better understanding of how covid has affected them this year kind of similar to how it was a survey for schools last year i was wondering if where that survey was and um you know if you had any results yet to share with us secretary french hi erin uh we are planning on launching that survey this month uh there's two parts to it i think you know one is we want to measure the vaccination rates both the students and staff and we also want to get an understanding of the patterns of attendance that have occurred since the opening of school so it's been our plan to launch that survey this month and it's on track for us to do so so we don't have any data yet so you don't have just to be clear any idea yet of how many schools closed their doors or sent students remote learning due to covid in late august of september we haven't we haven't stood up a data collection to quantify that yet would the survey answer that question yes okay that's it for me thank you welcome michael vermont digger michael dority this is erin i i believe mike is off the day one last follow-up here maderna and j and j booster fda meetings we don't expect an announcement that day right or from cdc no the cdc meetings the following week on on that if i've got it correctly yeah johnson and johnson this week they'll they'll also discuss uh booster dose that is a different type from the original the following week a cdc panel will meet uh to discuss the fda's recommendation and then on october 26th they'll talk about five to 11 year olds so maybe a week from friday well here yeah about the booster expansion yeah dr v fda will still make an announcement and in fact today's news they're already talking about the data that the company's submitted to the fda as if it were gospel and we accept it the way it is and approve the boosters so we'll hear more i i also wanted to just take this chance to clarify five pediatric cases today but three of them are actually at the rattle borrow retreat so they were not actually sent to a hospital for uh covid specifically but they have