 Today marks nine months since Vermont's first fatalities from COVID-19. As we have on the 19th of every month since, I've ordered flags to half staff to honor their memory and remind us why the sacrifices we're making are so important. On this day I ask all Vermonters to think about the 193 Vermonters we've lost. Think about those who love them, friends and family of members left behind. And think about the responsibility each of us has and the choices we make to help protect those who are vulnerable due to their age or certain health conditions. I'm really proud of how Vermonters have stepped up to do their part. That's why Vermont continues to have one if not the lowest death rate in the country. And fortunately we've seen a significant decrease in deaths and hospitalizations since January. Our vaccine strategy is a major part of this as well. But it's up to each of us to keep this moving in the right direction. And that means following the public health guidance. Now I know we're all getting tired of it. But the better we do now while we continue to vaccinate those at greatest risk of hospitalization and death, the faster we can get back to normal. About 95% of Vermont's deaths have been people over 65. So every dose that's diverted from this population puts them at risk and slows down our exit strategy because after the oldest Vermonters and those with certain conditions are vaccinated, our healthcare system won't be at risk and fatalities should be rare. And we can begin to return to normal. And as a reminder, Vermont has one of the oldest populations in the nation, which makes our strategy even that more important. Fortunately, we're making great progress. And since we open registration to those 70 and older on Tuesday, over 21,000 in that age band have already signed up, which means we'll be able to open to the next phase very soon. Next, I was asked Tuesday about the status of the Vermont National Guard deployment to Washington, DC. I'm happy to report our mission is complete and our soldiers are returning the home this weekend. As a reminder, I approved this deployment just over one month ago because states were asked to help ensure the peaceful transition of power following the violent insurrection at our capital. We were asked to extend the mission because of their performance and professionalism. We should all be very proud of how they represented us so well. And I want to thank all the members of our guard for their service and for helping defend our most basic democratic principles. Finally, we're announcing a couple of changes to our guidance today. In a few minutes, Secretary Smith will talk about changes to long term care facility protocols as we complete vaccinations of residents. And as I previewed on Tuesday, we're announcing a change to our travel policy. Early this month, the CDC and shoot encouraging new guidance around quarantine for those who have been fully vaccinated. As a result, we considered the impact this would have on our guidance. And as a result, we found many things it could impact. There are literally dozens of what if and what about questions. And we started working through a number of these. But I want to be very clear, we're going to do this carefully and methodically like we have throughout the pandemic. And I'm asking for your patience as we work our way through this. So today I can announce one significant step forward relating to travel. Effective this Tuesday, those who are fully vaccinated, meaning two weeks after their second dose will not need to quarantine after that travel. This also means those who come to Vermont from other states will not need to quarantine if they can prove they have been fully vaccinated. Of course, they'll still need to comply with all our other health guidance like masking and distancing. Again, this change is very narrow focusing on travel. And I know there will be a lot of questions and some head scratching about why this is allowed while other things are not. But the fact is every step we make comes with questions. And we're taking it one step at a time to lessen the confusion. The next step of working through is how vaccinations will impact multi household gatherings. And we're also looking at returning to a trusted household policy. And we'll have further announcements next week on those issues. I hope you see this as I do because it's incredibly encouraging news as it means the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger and brighter. We're one step closer to returning to normal and as more and more of our monitors receive their vaccine will make more turns of the spigot. Again, I know this raises a lot of questions and will address them methodically. But please understand, we're going to take this one step at a time and continue to be guided by the science, the data and the advice of our experts. So with that, I'll turn it over to Secretary French for our weekly education update. Good morning. Thank you. Dan or we're not hearing you. You still can't hear you. We're starting to hear you now. Hello. Yeah, we can hear you, Dan. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Good morning. I will begin my report with an update on our weekly surveillance testing of school staff. About half our schools were on winter vacation this week and the other half are out next week. This may be logistics behind the testing a bit more complex than normal. Some of the testing had to be rescheduled. That being said, we administered 620 tests this week, which is about a 26% participation rate. So far, no positive cases have been identified. So the positivity rate is zero statewide positivity rate is 1.8%. We collect monthly data from our schools as to what extent they're offering in person remote and hybrid learning. The data from the January survey were recently published. I thought I'd provide a summary of this information. The data continued to show a great deal of stability in the operations of our schools. In January 55% of all schools were in hybrid mode. 30% were in person and about 15% were fully remote. When we break this data down by grade level, we continue to see about half our elementary schools were operating at full in person. 25% of our middle schools were in full in person in 10% of our high schools. Again, I think the major conclusion from these data is school operations have remained fairly stable. January in particular was a very challenging month in terms of virus activity in our communities. In spite of these conditions, over 80% of our schools were able to maintain some degree of in person instruction. I think we can draw two conclusions from these data. On the one hand, the mitigation strategies required of our schools work. And on the other hand, our schools have obtained operational fluency and implementing them on a daily basis. I think it is important to acknowledge that the achievement of this facility requires a tremendous amount of attention to detail in mitigation fundamentals and in communications. It takes a lot of hard work on the part of state employees and school staff and the active support of students and their families to make this all work. The success of our school operation is a direct result of their dedication to their schools and students in our communities. The CDC released updated guidance for schools last Friday. The U.S. Department of Ed also released companion guidance to support schools with implementing the CDC guidance. After initial review, I do not expect the new federal guidance will have much impact on Vermont's guidance for schools for now. The new CDC guidance seems to be directed more at those places in our country that never reopen their schools or are just starting to do so. We remain confident that our guidance is well designed and works well since we have very good testing system in place, both among the general population and among school staff. And the results of the testing consistently demonstrate our success. We had scheduled a normal review of our guidance this month so our team will evaluate the federal guidance very closely and see if we can improve ours in any way. On another topic related to federal guidance, we continue to examine our options for implementing the SBAC achievement in testing this spring. Our options in this regard are highly limited to what the U.S. Department of Education says they are since these tests are required under federal law. Last spring, a national testing waiver was issued. We are expecting the U.S. Department of Education to issue guidance on testing for this spring, but probably not an outright waiver. It is not clear, however, as to how much flexibility they will impart to states in their guidance. We have seen a few states pursue waivers that are testing under the general waiver authority of the Every Student Succeeds Act or what's called ESSA. We do not believe any of these waivers have been approved, however, and it is not clear if the general waiver provisions of ESSA are appropriate for the specific circumstances of the pandemic. On the one hand, we remain interested in having data for the patterns of student achievement in our state, especially since our students have experienced a variety of learning settings over the year. The data could be very useful for us in targeting and focusing our work in the recovery phase. On the other hand, our test, the ESSA Act, and not every state gives the same test, but our test, the ESSA Act, takes a significant amount of time away from direct instruction. In many cases, more than a week. We are concerned that this would be too much of time away from direct instruction at a time when more in-person contact for all students needs to be a priority. If we are provided some flexibility in our decision-making, our priority on maximizing in-person instruction will likely be the most compelling consideration for us in deciding whether or not to hold the testing this year. We should know more on this in the coming weeks. That concludes my update. I'll now turn it over to Secretary Smith. Thank you, Secretary French. Good morning, everyone. As many of you know, as of Tuesday, February 16th, any Vermonter aged 70 and older can make an appointment to receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. We received an overwhelming response this week, and as the governor said as of today, 21,400 Vermonters aged 70 and older have made appointments through our community vaccination program since Tuesday. If you wish to make an appointment to receive a vaccine and you are 70 years old or older, please visit the Health Department website at healthvermont.gov slash myvaccine or call our call center at 855-722-7878. We've also added additional vaccine appointments for next week in Essex Junction, St. Johnsbury, Rutland, Brattleboro and St. Albans. If you would like to make or change an appointment to make it sooner, please call our call center at 855-722-7878. In addition, those 65 years old and older will be able to make an appointment as early as the first week of March. I would encourage this age group to go online at healthvermont.gov slash myvaccine and set up an account ahead of time so when we announce a date to register, you will already have an established account and can simply go to the account and pick a place, date and time to get vaccinated. Now let's look at our progress with the community vaccination program. Over 83,000 eligible Vermonters have been vaccinated against COVID-19. 41,000 Vermonters have received their first dose, 42,000 have received their second dose. So far, 58,000 Vermonters in the 75 years old and above group and 9% of Vermonters in the 70 to 75 years old and above group as well as 1,100 homebound Vermonters have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine. This week, vaccinations for homebound individuals will occur in every Vermont county. Our planned allocation for next week is 720 doses with the assistance from hospitals, primary care offices and area agencies of aging. Our home health and EMS partners are working to identify homebound community members that do not receive home health services. As you may know, the state of Vermont has worked to protect some of the most vulnerable Vermonters living in long-term care facilities against severe illness or even death. In fact, out of the 193 deaths that have occurred in Vermont from COVID-19, 125 were residents of long-term care facilities. Many of these residents were the first to see restrictions placed upon them back in March of 2020. And although we've loosened restrictions in the summer of 2020, we had to tighten things up back up again in the fall and into the new year when we had multiple outbreaks and unfortunately deaths in our long-term care facilities. As we continue to roll out a successful vaccination strategy in our long-term care settings and as we see the corresponding reduction in the number of outbreaks and deaths in those facilities, we are able to reevaluate our recommendations and ease some of the restrictions that those residents have experienced over the course of the pandemic. Now we feel safe. We feel it's safer than it has before because of our ability to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable Vermonters. All of our skilled nursing facilities have received both the first and second dose and in terms of all skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and residential care facilities, 93% of residents have received their first dose and 74% have completed their second dose. Nearly three-fourths of staff have completed their first dose and half have completed their second dose. We're happy to announce that next week, effective February 26, residents living in long-term care facilities in areas where there have been no COVID-19 outbreaks will be encouraged to follow the guidelines, the following guidelines. Encouragement to use full vaccination status as a factor but not the sole factor in planning for such things as congregate activities within a facility. This means beginning to allow congregate settings if the facility is within the CMS or Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines for county positivity rates. This means eating together and participating in other group activities within guidelines. On a case-by-case consideration, safe physical contact and recommendations for allowing that contact in specific circumstances which includes full vaccination status. Some modifications to quarantine requirements for residents and with full vaccination having visitors indoors participating in non-medical essential services such as salon appointments. Just for information purposes, fully vaccinated means greater than or equal to two weeks following the receipt of the second dose in a two-dose series or greater than or equal to two weeks following receipt of one dose of a single dose of vaccine. While the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, have not issued new regulations for long-term care facilities, these updated recommendations reflect progress made with our vaccination efforts for residents and staff. It's important to note that CMS continues to require staff surveillance testing in CMS certified skilled nursing facilities based on the prevalence of COVID-19 in individual counties. And equally important, our updated guidance continues to highlight safe practices related to infection prevention and control. Even as we move through the successful vaccination process, we want to ensure that we are providing the safest and highest quality environment for Vermont's long-term care facility residents. We will continue to work closely with CMS and CDC to monitor changes in regulations and to translate those practices right here in Vermont. We are happy to announce this milestone, but it's also important to maintain necessary safety precautions such as wearing masks, handwashing and keeping a six-foot distance. The Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living and the Vermont Department of Health have collaborated with our facility partners on this updated guidance, and I want to thank everyone for their work to make this guidance successful. I also want to change to another subject. I want to provide an important update regarding a federal initiative called the Farmer to Family Food Box Program. In the month of February, the USDA program has had significant challenges with the food box distribution program. The governor has instructed me to fix those issues so that this federal government program is as seamless as it was once in distributing food to Vermonters. In the coming weeks, we will intervene and work with the USDA and partner with the Vermont Food Bank to ensure these supplemental food boxes are distributed equitably to Vermonters. As a result, food boxes will be ready for Vermonters to receive them on March 1st. Like other Farmer to Food Box rounds, you can use the online registration system to receive a food box. The website is humanresources.verman.gov slash foodbank. Beginning next week, the website will be updated with available days and locations for March. Those without internet access can call Vermont 2-1-1 to register. And now I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for a health update. Thank you. Today, we're reporting nightly news. Thank you. Today, we're reporting 97 cases. We're down to 37 patients in the hospital, 13 in the ICU and a positivity rate of 1.8%. As I mentioned on Tuesday, fortunately, the higher rate of spread of the virus has improved in Bennington and Rutland counties, though we do continue to monitor Franklin County where we believe the increase in number of cases is due to community transmission. As we've experienced, when there are high levels of community transmission, this can result in more cases in schools and in workplaces. Enesburg Elementary School, which was discussed on Tuesday, is a good example. Of the 12 cases I reported, only three cases there were associated with the school. I reported with two small sub-outbreaks at area farms that totaled another nine cases. The direction of transmission may at times be difficult to trace, but quite often the school is either part of a chain of transmission involving work sites or households or just an unfortunate bystander. The major theme I want to convey is that the virus is in our communities and that is how it works in our workplaces, so we must always be cautious and careful. Now this school did choose to go remote before their vacation, mainly because of staffing needs. As I've said many times, schools go remote for a variety of reasons. Some public health related and some pragmatic and necessary, such as staffing issues brought about by the number of staff needing to get the virus. So even though we are sick of this pandemic and even though many of us anxiously await a chance to get the vaccine, the virus is still a threat and we need to stay focused on keeping it from spreading. Avoid gatherings and crowds, wear your mask, and if you have any reason to get tested, please do it. It's easy and it's free. I've discussed here the new testing system before we started to see higher rates of COVID in that area. As part of these efforts, we also offered pop-up testing at local ski areas, Bromley and Stratton. The testing was offered to anyone who wanted it, whether employees, skiers, or even local residents. We now have data from this past weekend and though it is a very limited snapshot, I do want to share with you that at Bromley, 148 people were tested through antigen testing, including a small number of staff. About 38% had a Vermont address, 62% were from outside of Vermont. Bromley was a great partner in this effort and officials there said the overall response was very positive. We heard that several guests after getting tested went to Bromley as well after learning it was free. At Stratton, through another great partner, Stratton Mountain Urgent Care, 79 people were tested through PCR testing, 35% with a Vermont address, 65% out of state. Testing wasn't also encouraged for staff and 180 people tested. Out of all of these experiences, only a total of three positives were found. Keep in mind antigen results need to be confirmed with a PCR. Now keep in mind we don't want to draw final conclusions from one weekend's testing efforts with one self-selected sample. But I did want to provide this preliminary data and we were glad to see that people were receptive to testing at ski areas and plan to offer testing again this weekend at Stratton. Thank you for being with us and supporting the communities in these efforts. As we continue to race to suppress the virus, we know that the emerging variants could make our work even harder. Our public health response won't change but we do need to strengthen it, encourage better fitted masks, strict adherence to physical prevention steps we ask to take are not the only tools at our disposal. We can ensure that our testing, tracing and outbreak prevention and response strategies are robust and that we can support people to isolate and quarantine when necessary. Vaccination also of course plays a role as we really need to get out in front of these emerging variants as quickly as possible. The less the virus can be transmitted from person to person, the less the virus can mutate and the less chance there is for a more virulent strain to occur. And finally, policies are also another lever such as the CDC's new order requiring masks on all public transportation. These can play a key role. You just heard Secretary Smith talk about the new guidance coming for long-term care facilities. I first want to emphasize and reinforce the very positive public health data from this sector as a great illustration of the potential for vaccination to markedly impact people's lives and lead us gradually into the future that we're all eagerly awaiting. These slides are updated from Tuesday's presentation. First you can notice of course that we're having marked decreases in active cases throughout the state of Vermont and in the next slide looking at our cohort of over 75 years old a 75% decrease from mid-January. Keep in mind vaccination began in this later part of December and this is where we're seeing now a significant effect. Note here in terms of new cases and new vaccinations, the rolling seven days average the yellow are the cases the blue are the vaccinations. Vaccinations going up nicely at a very accelerated pace and the caseloads obviously coming down dramatically. And then finally we are also noticing a marked impact on deaths over the same time period in our state. This is all deaths but as we know the majority of deaths are occurring in the older age ranges and you can see visually the dramatic impact. I just want to echo some previous comments that we certainly recognize the toll separating residents from their loved ones has taken. We're glad vaccination efforts have been so successful in these facilities and help residents feel safe while making it possible to have greater freedoms and connection with others. Whether they're visiting with families eating meals together participating in group activities we believe facilities can set a path forward and still maintain the safety standards we've all been dedicated to throughout the pandemic. The remarkably high uptake of vaccine is obviously able to work in the facilities favor. Another good news is that CMS regulatory language pivots off of the disease activity expressed as percent positivity rates in our counties. With rare exception our facilities are free to be ambitious in implementing successive layers of freedom. The hope is that the aggressive posture that allowed us to protect people in these facilities can now just be as aggressively reversed to improve everyone's quality of life. But clearly we will still guide the long-term care facilities use of the safest infection prevention and control practices and testing protocols. But imagine how differently a single positive case of COVID might impact such a facility in the post-vaccine era with such a high proportion of the residents protected. I have just one update on the vaccination front. Secretary Smith has already noted we're aiming to expand vaccination further to the 65 and older age group soon. And as you know, the next age group beyond that will be people with high-risk medical conditions. I can share that we are adding type 1 diabetes to the list of conditions that will be eligible for vaccine in this high-risk group. It won't be viewed any differently than type 2 diabetes which is already on the existing list. For my final comments, I want to end on a note unrelated to COVID but in the news. Several winter storms have left millions of homes and businesses without power across the country. And people have taken to using alternate power sources such as gas generators or grills for cooking and heating their homes. This has led to a surge of carbon monoxide poisonings in places like Texas as using these sources can lead to carbon monoxide buildup inside homes or garages. In Vermont, we may be more used to winter storms but we can still face the same dangers. I'd hate for the message to get lost during the pandemic that we need to be cautious about carbon monoxide poisoning, a message we deliver traditionally several times over the course of a winter. It still turns out that dozens of Vermonters go to an emergency room each year for carbon monoxide related symptoms. So if you lose power, never run a generator, grill, camp stove, kerosene heater or other fuel burning equipment indoors. Be sure to clear any snow away from vents of fuel burning equipment so they don't get blocked. Never leave a vehicle running inside a garage even if the door is open and make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector and alarm in your home. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headaches, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting. These symptoms can be confused with the flu. Go outside immediately to get fresh air then dial 911 if your carbon monoxide alarm goes off or you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning. Thank you. With that, we'll open up to questions. Let's start with Calvin. Long-term care. Just a quick clarification. These visitation policies, is this just for people within long-term care or if you have somebody that's in long-term care but their spouse is living at home, can they still see each other? I guess I'm just looking for a little more clarification. Sure, when we've sort of became more liberal in the recommendations obviously, vaccination of the resident is one of those considerations that we put in. We're leaving it up to the long-term care facility to decide what the vaccination sort of requirements are for individuals coming in to visit. But I would assume that they'll be pretty... If you're not vaccinated, I would assume that they're probably going to allow visitation in line. Does that answer your question? If you're an individual, you're a relative of somebody that's in a long-term care facility and you're not vaccinated, our expectation is you'll be allowed to visit. We'll be. Regarding the winter storm Dr. Levine talked about... Actually, Secretary Smith, this is probably for you too. I'm wondering if we're going to see any of our vaccine allocations potentially delayed in the last few weeks as well. There've been problems at airports and whatnot. We have not seen our vaccine delayed where it has impacted us. I have previously mentioned we have about a thousand doses in reserve that we use for this specific purpose that if there's a disruption in the supply line or if there's a need like a spoilage or something along that line that we can step in and not cancel clinics. We don't anticipate canceling any clinics right now because of the weather. And then just last question. A few weeks ago you mentioned that you were in discussion with the NEA about vaccine prioritization after the age banding. I guess I'm wondering if anything has come from those discussions yet or sort of an update on that? I would describe them as cordial discussions. I think the leadership of the NEA and myself want the same thing is that kids want to get back to school, parents want kids to get back to school on a five-day-a-week full-time basis and teachers. Everybody wants the same thing. So we have the same objective. As the governor has mentioned, there is a Phase 6 that we're anticipating right now and trying to figure out what we're going to do with Phase 6. Phase 5 is what Dr. Levine just talked about when he talked about Type 2 and Type 1 diabetes. Those are with people with serious health conditions, underlying serious health conditions. We're still in discussions on what we're going to do with Phase 6. But I can say that we're both looking for a path forward on where we're going to go with those vaccinations and having pleasant and positive discussions. Thanks. Yes, this could be for the governor Terry French probably. With the federal guidelines that have come out there was the thought out there that it may alter. You're saying it's not going to alter the state's guidelines. But I believe the state's guidelines right now for all grades is three feet between desks and I think the national is six, which is double that. So are there little tweaks that are going to be going on or how's that going to work? Again, I'll let Secretary French answer this, but those are just what they reflect guidelines. And as Secretary French said they were mainly aimed at those who haven't opened up at all. We've been open up since the beginning. In fact, 30% of our schools at this point in time are in person and we leave four to five days a week. And then we have about 20% which are remote. The rest 50% are hybrid. So we've already proven ourselves in some respects and we don't intend to change our guideline at this point in time. But Secretary French. Yeah, thanks governor. I just reiterate your point that and just to clarify, we have three feet at grades K through six, but six feet in grades seven through 12. We made that decision very early on based on what we're seeing internationally and the science if you will that younger students are less susceptible to the virus or its transmission. So that stood as well and once again I think the other side of that is we have confidence that what we're doing is working because we have a pretty substantial testing and particularly surveillance testing on a weekly basis in our school. So I think we know if it wasn't working well so we I think will remain on our track that we are and monitor our progress. But certainly, as I mentioned we welcome guidance like the CDCs and anything we can learn to improve our approach we're definitely open to. So we'll continue to partner with folks at the national level to improve what we've done and also to share what we've done because it stands the other piece of the CDC guidance that stands out that many of the things we're doing are now incorporated in the national guidance which is good to see. And thanks Mike. And as far as the reopening the turning of the spicket where are we at now? I mean the numbers are looking pretty good. Some of the businesses are at 25% still. I think hairdressers and some other folks are. Do we see us another little turn there at some point here? Yeah, again I think the announcement today is a huge change in terms of travel. This is going to have a beneficial effect on many for those who are for monitors who want to travel to visit let's say go to Maine, maybe do some snowmobiling or do whatever they want to do. They can travel and come back without quarantining. So this is a big improvement and we're going to have to see how this works. We're going to work next week as I said before on trusted households and further refining what this means when you're vaccinated. But you can expect as we continue to see the numbers go in the right way as we're experiencing right now and we'll continue to turn this picket just a little bit more every week we hope. Along those lines is what I was talking about the planning process for a lot of these events that are going to be coming up as we get further into the year. Where are we at as far as that goes? Again, we'll provide clarity as soon as we have some comfort as to where we're going. Again, positive developments in many respects but there are also some areas that give us a little bit of pause and we just want to make sure we're doing it for the right reasons so we don't have to go backwards. We want to keep moving forward. That's what we've done since the very beginning I believe has done well for us in some respects and we'll continue to do that. Thank you. Good morning. In light of the bump in federal vaccine supplies coming into the state I wonder if you have any sort of more insight you said the 65 plus will open the first week of March week after next and then the list of chronic medical conditions following that. When do you think the general population might expect to become eligible? Again, we're going to consider that next phase after we finish with the health conditions category but that's a fairly significant population I'm guessing it's around 75,000 at this point in time. We have a little bit of time to determine where we go next but the each bending from my perspective has worked very well. It's not easy. People know where we're going and it's easy to administer. We'll weigh that all out before we make an announcement on where we go next but we want to get people through as quick as possible. I think Dr. Fauci had said this past week that we might be able to have most of the population done mid-summer so I think we're falling in line with that and we're hopeful we'll continue to build on the supply and what we're seeing from the manufacturers increasing their inventory and supply and getting them out to the states as positive news and we'll continue to work with the federal government to make sure that we receive our share. Let me ask you a political question a young man named Colby LaMarch resigned his position as chairman of the Burlington Republican Party and from the Vermont Republican Party last night and in a letter that has been made public that decried what he called the unfortunate truth that the Vermont GOP has now been hijacked by far right extremists who have attached themselves to what he called the extremist former president and so he felt he has no chance but to leave and said the party is headed for electoral disaster as a result. Do you agree with him have you spoken with him is this sort of the way you see things as well? I have not spoken with him I read that account I think it's unfortunate a younger person involved in the Republican Party is good news and I appreciated all this good work what we see whether it's a Democrat or Republican you see the extremes of both groups at the party level and beyond and some of their voices are very loud but I still believe the vast majority of Vermonters on both sides the aisle are in the majority I think it's that centrist, moderate voice that a lot of us will react to and that's where I see us going in the future but again acknowledging that those voices are loud and from his perspective he didn't feel he had a role to play but I'm hoping in time that he'll be able to come back thank you thank you I think this is for Secretary Smith we're hearing stories about some geographic problems and scheduling vaccine appointments here in southern Vermont for example we heard from an 80 year old from the Chester area who was scheduled in Montpelier which is a 200 mile round trip also someone who was scheduled from wanted to go to Springfield and ended up in Windsor and at the same time we're also hearing that there have been people from Chinden County who have been scheduled in Windsor County a lot of people are saying that people at the call center don't seem to understand the geography of Vermont are you hearing these stories and is there a plan to fix this before opening up to larger numbers and also are there plans for more clinics opening in the southern part of the state thanks Sean I have not heard of those complaints I mean if you're online you choose your own location if you're calling into the call center we do have Vermonters that are manning those those call centers not you know we have also Maximus which is what we use for Medicaid as well manning some of the call center the call center as well but we do have Vermonters that are also doing that but Sean I'll look into that I have not heard you know I've heard of a few instances but not sort of an overwhelming complaints that people are having problems finding vaccination sites near to their facility and if we have an issue I will straighten it out thank you Governor today's reopening of travel raises questions about what will be the state's response to people who decline vaccination yesterday a bill was introduced to prohibit loss of employment educational access and travel for non-vaccinated people will the state allow employers and schools to require vaccinations for employees and students you know it's a great question guy I think I said probably a month or two ago at one of these media events that this was going to be dialogue we're going to have to have both on the state level and the national level what this means to us and I would just say that we have to have the conversation from what we announced today I think it's quite clear you have to be vaccinated in order to not quarantine when you're coming back in the state it doesn't mean that you can't leave you have to quarantine once you do if you're not fully vaccinated but again these questions are you know topical and I believe they have to be discussed but I'm not familiar with the bill that you referenced thank you two years ago the state of Vermont replaced in full the title 10 family planning funding lost by Planned Parenthood when the Trump administration said abortion providers no longer qualified if as seems likely the Biden administration restores title 10 funding will you recommend the legislature remove the estimated I think it's about 800,000 in state funding again if the federal government is going to provide funding then we would take advantage of that so that we didn't have to utilize state money thank you my first question is a clarification question for secretary Smith on the long-term care facility guidance you said that one of the factors that should be whether the facility had an outbreak or not and I wonder if you were referring to having a current outbreak or an outbreak at all during the pandemic I'm thinking of a facility like Burlington Health and Rehab who had their outbreak back in March 2020 but they'd be ineligible for these reopening it is a current outbreak an ongoing outbreak not something that's happened previously thank you and I'm not sure who this question is for but we had a reader he is 63 and has chronic conditions and he's wondering if there's been any evidence as to when his bracket comes eligible for vaccination whether he will have to prove that he has those conditions and if so how yeah we I just announced that the first week of March we're doing 65 and up for an age band and it goes with underlying conditions with serious underlying conditions there will be a verification process in that it will be in the drop-down menu in terms of you will have to self-attest and then there will be a verification process from there we'll outline that as soon as we have the IT program all put together which is in progress right now there will be a verification that we're coming up on to this age band next month in a fairly rapid way so I would just ask your reader to stay tuned it will be self-evident once they sign on either through the phone system or through the or through on-site but there will be a verification process that will be fairly it will not be intrusive to the person that's signing up there's a lot of things that will happen behind the scenes on the verification thanks very much I appreciate it Mike Donahue, the islander thanks Rebecca excuse me first question and this may go to Mike Smith or maybe the commissioner Dr. Odine first question centers on the COVID crisis found in the wastewater system dumped by the city of Wellington into Lake Champlain I get to see any public discussion about the impact that those COVID strains might have on drinking water for those communities up and down Lake Champlain both in Vermont and New York State as obviously the primary source for their drinking, cooking, cleaning water whatever what is the state doing to help each town or water district to make sure that the water is safe for Vermonters to use Mike, thank you I wouldn't want you to differentiate the variant strain from the regular we'll call it the regular strain because it's all virus either way and so the assumption that's been made is that it doesn't really matter what strain of the virus or what virus for that matter the water treatment plants are still operating the same way they always operate so I don't think people should be fearful of getting the variant strain of coronavirus from drinking the water any more than they should be fearful of getting any strain of coronavirus that currently exists from drinking the water granted I maybe I made it too specific but what are they doing to make sure that the water is acceptable my understanding is nothing during the pandemic has changed from their normal chlorination and other processes that they would use because in the end that is virus-idal if you will no matter what the virus changes maybe for you or Secretary French I'm wondering what you know about the new outbreak in the South Ural school system we continue to be asked also why the state continues to ignore teachers in the list of those getting shots most states make teachers priorities in getting schools fully reopened I think I didn't hear Talvin's question but you know some see this as especially troublesome that teachers are taking back seats especially at least one hospital allowed its lawyers and others in risk management that have no contact with patients to get private shots but you know I get to see a target date for teachers that are out on the front lines and certainly probably those to the same for grocery stores they can't get shots that those working in pharmacies and so what have you heard about South Hero and when can teachers is there a date certain that you're shooting for I have no special insights on South Hero I'll leave that to Secretary French if he has any knowledge on that and I believe both the governor and Secretary Smith have pretty exhaustively answered your question regarding the discussions that are going on and the things that are on the table and the mutual progress people want to make towards getting to an agreed upon goal but I'll let Secretary French but I haven't heard a date I mean they're cocking down the line but everybody's going to get it down the line is there a date target date for teachers Mike this is Mike Smith we had mentioned that we're looking at phase 6 which is if you were sort of mapping this out I think you would see the first week of March I would think you would see the start of the aspect of those with underlying conditions about mid-March and then we'll start looking at phase 6 which we've been having discussions with the heads of the teachers union on that specific phase and what we're going to do there's no time frame there is something that's going on and we'll be coming out next week that I've already talked with the head of the NEA and that is we're going to be sending out a survey to teachers and school personnel and child care to make sure that we have an accurate number of what our needs are going to be for vaccines for those groups there's no promises here but we're looking at those groups in terms of what we need to do for planning so if I was adding all those up I would say that it's coming but I don't have a specific date for you I don't have any specific information out south here either have you been told about it either Justin it's sort of our generic reporting but I don't have any specific information I mean when will you get an update on the outbreak I generally don't have updates on specific circumstances like that we just look at the general data periodically I do have superintendents or principals make me aware of their situation particularly if it's a complex from an operational standpoint but generally speaking I don't get an email or a call from every principal any time they have a case in their school I do see the aggregated data through our reporting system but when they shut down a whole school you aren't notified not necessarily really okay thank you thank you Governor good afternoon thank you Rebecca good afternoon Governor first off I wanted to thank you for getting me the list of outbreaks in Vermont I noticed on that list I see a school that have first identified an outbreak on February 5th and yet seven days later they hosted a varsity basketball game obviously the state hasn't been transparent to people to let them know that each school has identified a new outbreak but I'm wondering as far as participants at that gain is the hosting school notifying the visiting school that they've had an outbreak and is that visiting school notifying parents that they're busting their kids to a school that's had an outbreak here's what I do know and I'll let Secretary French add to this but if there's an outbreak that shuts the school down then and they go remote then there is no athletics at that school either Secretary French yeah firstly I would just say outbreak we haven't seen necessarily outbreaks at school we've seen cases and situations but not necessarily outbreaks but when the cases are identified we do sort of go the epi-teen goes through their typical contact tracing process and so forth and advises the school on what to do next there have been situations where that process has impacted operations of a school or related schools because of the necessity of people to quarantine or isolate and so forth but those circumstances aren't directly connected to the ability to offer a game or to hold a game but there have been situations where a school has shut down part of its operation due to logistical concerns not necessarily directly related to the virus but still held athletic competition so again just to give you a sense of the nuance how those things are evaluated very closely and school districts are given specific advice on their situation it might be helpful as well if I had Dr. Levine explain what an outbreak is because it's not in some cases not as dramatic as it might appear thank you governor in fact in most cases it's not as dramatic as it might appear it is an epidemiologic definition that has to do with the setting that the cases are in and the epidemiologic linkages amongst cases and in some settings two cases constitutes an outbreak and Greg you probably noticed on the list that we sent to you there are a number of situations that are listed as work site A or work site B and don't have a number of cases assigned to them because again they are so small a number of cases might be identifying otherwise so the school situation is such that you can have three individuals in a school and have an outbreak yet that is the limitation of the entire number of cases there and in fact minimal if any number people might even have to have quarantined because of those three cases in the circumstances so quite often that does not result in a closing of any classroom or school at all or going to remote learning which would as the governor just indicated immediately force the school to cancel all of its athletic competitions so that is the way it's sort of put together so I would doubt that there was a school that had an outbreak that closed it and put it into remote and then played sports the next day because that would be directly in contradiction to all of the guidance that we provided all along I still don't think I got an answer though as far as our parents notified if their kids are being bused to another school that has very recently had an identified outbreak yeah I don't believe I don't believe that's done by any requirement or any existing guidance obviously everyone at the school itself knows because the school staff are really very good about conveying that information through their community to all of the parents and families but again it'd be again like if you knew about a work site that had a case but they were still open for business you could elect to boycott them and never go to them or you could understand that because they had one case that was acquired in the community that's now been removed from the work site that the work site is in fact quite safe and everybody has been questioned and everybody understands if they are a close contact or not probably safer than the place where you don't know that there's a case that's there and nobody's been questioned so again you have to use this information very very delicately if I could use that word because quite often no one is at risk and if people were at risk that process has already been gone through where we've notified everyone who's at risk certainly okay moving on to my second question here because I don't want to take too much time Governor is it your intent with the current travel policy to continue to require fully vaccinated people to quarantine for seven days and get a test or does being fully vaccinated free someone from that part of the executive order I'm I guess I'm not understanding the question I think what I announced today would do just that if you are fully vaccinated fully vaccinated first, second dose in two weeks you can travel without quarantine and if you come in contact with someone who is infected you don't have to quarantine either thank you for that clarification my reception was a little bit broken I think when you announced that thank you Governor thank you staff have a great weekend yeah my question is about a store new for UPS severed its relationship with it because they refuse to comply with the mask order they had warned them or the Attorney General had sent them a letter back in November and then another one on Wednesday the store ultimately ended its relationship they had a sign posted on their door that said we choose not to wear a mask if you're uncomfortable with this we ask that you do not come in what is your reaction Governor Scott to sort of the messaging that this store was putting out saying that they're choosing not to wear a mask despite the mandate this seems to be an issue that's been pretty few and far between in Vermont but something that has been kind of a hot button topic nationally what's your reaction to that yeah this was in direct violation of the guidelines that we put into place that's why the Attorney General was involved we did see this on social media we looked into it tried to repair the problem tried to give guidance and the guidance wasn't accepted and it appears the corporate UPS decided to get involved themselves and actually appears took away their franchise the unfortunate part from all of this is it was avoidable if they just complied with the guidelines we put into place and as the UPS corporate had asked as well they'd be open today and I'm hoping and again this is out of my control it's they were in violation of their franchise agreement with the corporate UPS but it'd be my hope that they could find a path forward to reopen following our guidance we don't want to shut any businesses down thank you when we get to that group of Vermonters with chronic underlying medical conditions will you be further breaking that group down by age group or the entire group will they be all eligible at the same time to sign up and get vaccine yeah we're considering all of that and we'll have more details on that in the very near future long before they were able to sign up but we're considering all that we just want a seamless process that's easily understood and gets us to the end as quick as possible okay thank you another question about the long-term care facility guidance changes can you clarify for a viewer who wrote in and was confused people from outside facilities are if they are fully vaccinated are now allowed to come into the facilities if that facility allows it correct if the facility allows it you don't have to be vaccinated to come into the facility I think Calvin asked a similar question that what we are saying is that because the person inside the facility is vaccinated now it can I would suspect most will just keep in you know we have the resident vaccinated and visitation policies indoor visitation policies I think will remain that we won't require people coming in to be vaccinated got it I wanted to clarify because we did get a couple of emails after the questions were asked earlier wanting us to clarify that okay and the next question I had on that front was what is the way that the state is going to be advising these facilities on what's the appropriate way to gauge the safety of certain measures that they roll out are you going to be giving them specific like here's what we recommend you do or is it the type of thing where each facility gets to have a pretty broad leeway with what they choose to have as their policy there are two ways that we're going to be doing this one the skilled nursing facilities have to still appear to the CMS guidelines and we've sort of worked around those guys not worked around work in conjunction with those guidelines in order to be specific we're going to be releasing a whole set of guidelines for all long-term care facilities in that we're going to be holding discussions with those long-term care facilities to make sure that we answer every single question that they have and I think that's going to happen next week as we as we roll out these these guidelines and will those be online so that people who are curious can go see them yeah I'll try to make sure that they're online cat so that anybody can see them thank you very much the Vermont Supreme Court upholding the constitutional constitutionality I don't know if I got the whole question do you have any thoughts on the Vermont Supreme Court upholding the state law that then I have a gun magazine I hadn't heard that actually Erin so okay I guess it is a relatively recent that doesn't surprise me we thought it was constitutional from the start but doesn't surprise me that they found it so yeah just to kind of clarify the court wrote an issue issued rolling today we conclude that the magazine began with the regulation of the rights of the people this is the law that signed in April 20 in response to the alleged school screening or after the alleged school shooting spot in Fairview any additional thoughts matter unfortunately Erin I didn't hear all of that just once again but I support anyone challenging the constitution constitutionality of any law that we might put into place fully within their rights they did so and the Supreme Court appears to have upheld that so again we thought it was constitutional from the beginning and the Supreme Court appears to have agreed with us again I but I support anyone's right to at least challenge them okay thank you good afternoon Governor I have a general economic question for you and I was wondering after Commissioner Harrington can update us on when the good K99Gs will be going out but as far as the economy is going you know the revenue report was pretty good that came out earlier this week especially on the personal income tax the ski areas look they they're having really a surprisingly good season the snow has been phenomenal cases have been low so I'm wondering the national economy seems to be something I'm wondering what your take is on the Vermont economy now given sort of early results well again I would go back to while our economy has improved over the last number of years three or four years as reflected in some of our budget and the surplus as we've seen and so forth it isn't as it still isn't as good as it should be that's why we put in a lot of the measures in place we want to grow our economy we want to make Vermont more affordable and we put a lot of issues forward that the legislature has agreed to and come up with some on their own as well so we work together to improve the economy it's got a long ways to go but if you're comparing to what we had before to what other states might have had before that had a stronger economy theirs is probably softened ours is improved and I believe that we if we do things right and especially with some of the surplus funds we find ourselves with the one time money a couple hundred million dollars if we invest those in the right areas I think we can have an even much more improved economy a stronger economy in the end so that's why we're working so hard to try and identify those areas where we make those investments with one time money to make strategic decisions about improving our economy in the future I was kind of thinking of just anecdotally this moment in time how are you feeling about the local economy again I it's much better than I thought it was going to be well no I'm hesitant because it's supported by an influx of federal money so this is we're in good shape today but this isn't a real solid foundation this is built on billions of dollars of injected federal money into our economy that's helped us and the trick is to make sure that we come out of this when the federal money's gone so that we can support ourselves stand on our own two feet so these strategic investments I've been talking about are vitally important to being able to accomplish that in the future okay great thanks Commissioner Harrington has an update on the tech idea that would be great thank you and thanks for the opportunity to share the information about the new 1099 mailed out by the end of the month our extension that we requested runs out the first week in March so we should be able to get the 1099s out before our extension expires okay great thank you thank you Derek 7D hi my first question is for Richard Smith I'm wondering if these forthcoming long-term care guidelines will require or recommend that a home have a certain proportion of its staff vaccinated before they relax these visitation restrictions and I ask that knowing that we've seen how outbreaks amongst staff at these homes have created critical shortages that can affect the quality of care we're still maintaining the pretty rigorous regiment of testing in long-term care facilities and we've had great response in terms of those staff that have gotten vaccination in our guidance we aren't requiring vaccination it's going to be an individual choice but that is staff and residents now like I said we've had tremendous uptake on the vaccination and I think it will continue as we move forward but we have not required that they be vaccinated that's an individual choice so the guidelines won't say the state recommends two thirds of your staff be vaccinated before you do expires no we recommend that you be vaccinated we're not putting any criteria on that as I said three fourths of the staff have been vaccinated I think I said three fourths of the staff have been vaccinated and we'll go yeah nearly three fourths of the staff have completed their first dose and half of the staff have completed their second dose I have a question related to the new travel rules is that going to be an honor system to prove that you are vaccinated or is the state issue any sort of proof of vaccination card that people could carry with them? there is a vaccination card all states should have this it's federally issued I believe and I may ask Dr. Levin to explain further but everyone should have the card with them whenever they travel in or out of the state that's all I have thank you good afternoon on Wednesday lawmakers who gathered for a news conference on opiate overdose deaths in Vermont said that COVID relief dollars ought to be used for addiction treatment because the pandemic has contributed to the increased number of relapses overdoses and deaths in the state would you support the use of upcoming COVID relief dollars for opiate treatment and counseling? I will certainly reflect on that we know we have our challenges in terms of the opioid crisis the pandemic has had a bit of a detrimental effect on that and we're concerned we've now put into place a chief prevention officer in our staff it was former commissioner Monica Hutt is now on the fifth floor with us and as our liaison and as well I've spoken to secretary Smith about upping our efforts in this regard to get back on track to get the treatment that we need secretary Smith thank you governor we've recognized that the pandemic has isolated people and in those isolated cases we've not had the results that we want in terms of opioid deaths we have a really good job up until when the pandemic hit we're trending in all the right directions into that and the biggest factor I think is isolation we've put into place various ways of people connecting with us commissioner squirrel from the department of mental health talked about a couple of those but we are putting together a task force within the agency and coordinating with with the chief prevention officer Monica Hutt in order to make it a statewide effort in order to redouble our efforts in this area we can't lose ground no matter pandemic or not into this and we need to address this this situation as we move forward do you have anything or did you okay as secretary Smith said there had been probably a five or six year continued growth in opioid overdose deaths and then the year before the pandemic we had a dramatic decline actually that coincided with a lot of successful programming all of that programming has gone on and as secretary Smith has just said the root cause is really the isolation produced by the pandemic the fact that people first of all vulnerable individuals who are already in the thralls of substance misuse were confronted with a pandemic and the extra stress that that could provide potentially increasing their use secondly the fact that being alone they had no one to rescue them if they overdosed so that there was a lack of a structure with friends who would look out for each other because they were isolated and then thirdly amongst many other reasons the fact that their usual supply chains were disrupted and they often did not know what was in the product that they were purchasing so all of those things contributed to the reversal of the good fortune we had the year before but I don't want people to think that this was going on because we've been really pioneers in the rapid access to MAT program and during the course of the pandemic we've actually expanded the number of hospitals that now can provide immediate access to buprenorphine for those who are agreeable and want to take that at that time we've also expanded the number of syringe service programs that are poised to provide MAT to their clientele through that mechanism and they have a fairly robust clientele that connect with them and are trusting of them and when they are prepared to take MAT and start buprenorphine they now have a ready avenue to do that and I don't want people to think that the substance misuse treatment system shut down because of the pandemic those who went to our hubs continue to go to our hubs and in fact we're able to go to the hubs in a more relaxed way if you will not having the requirement for the intensity of their visits to the hub they could have take home doses things of that sort that would allow them to again protect themselves in a pandemic but still be on the appropriate treatment those who went to spokes didn't always have to have face-to-face contact with their clinicians they were able to actually get provided their monthly buprenorphine prescriptions without having to travel and again be in face-to-face contact and those systems have continued and are actually enrolling more and more people all the time so it is a tragedy that we have had a pandemic and that the fortunes that we've enjoyed for a year were reversed so quickly but I don't want people to think that all systems shut down this system has continued to go on and there's a lot of dedicated people who either in person or remotely were delivering services through the treatment centers through the recovery centers etc okay I three people answer my question so I don't think I can really ask for more thank you very much my question is likely for my first question is likely for Dr. Levin have you ever forwarded a letter from a UVM parent that says the UK variant has been found on the campus but we were confused to whether that meant in the wastewater in Burlington or whether it was discovered with a test of a person yeah if that letter is correct that that parent has way more insight into situations than the entire campus administrative community and the state of Vermont has a sequence something on their own all we have is the two mutations that were found in the wastewater none of the subsequent genome sequencing specimens have shown the variant but I will say we still have more to test and three days from now we're going to get more results back and we'll see what they show so it's still pending I would not want anyone to say with certainty that it was found in the nasal secretions of somebody the variant virus and that was proven by genome sequencing okay my other question is likely for Secretary Curley we've been receiving a lot of messages and emails from people who are part of social clubs like St. John's Club concerned about why they're not allowed to open but restaurants who serve food are allowed to open where they are at social clubs they also serve food is there any guidance that the state can provide for these types so Secretary Curley are you on? I sure am thank you yes we do have guidance for social clubs to operate if they are able to operate as a restaurant they need to follow the restaurant guidance on our work space in our work space on our web page at accd.vermont.gov they also could operate under a section for indoor entertainment if they wanted to host a bingo for example they could also have a blood drive or be a vaccination site so there's a variety of ways that they can operate currently they are unable to operate in the traditional club setting social club setting due to our multi household gathering prohibitions but there are a variety of ways that they can operate during this time thank you thank you I saw a headline this morning in the New York Times where it says states are finding hidden stashes of the coronavirus vaccine and these were supplies that were set aside for nursing homes and now they haven't been used and they are trying to many states are trying to get that in order to boost their vaccine efforts and I'm wondering is that a situation that we have here in Vermont are we finding hidden stashes? yeah I don't know if I I don't know if I would describe them as hidden stashes but we are finding there is some inventory that we are going to bring back into the fold and put into use I'll let Secretary Smith talk about that John we've found through the long-term care the federal long-term care program that there has been doses that have been left over we've collected 2,800 doses from CVS and we're in the process of getting back 7,000 doses those are first and second doses from Walgreens that haven't been used as you know we used our allocation to give them portions of our allocation up front in the beginning of the 1A phase now we're starting to recapture those doses back into our systems and we've received the 2,800 and have immediately redeployed that and we are looking at getting the 7,000 first and second dose back and redeploying that as well and so these doses are now are you figuring them into your calculation of sort of the time frame for the next age band etc does it allow you to move things up a little bit or has it allowed you? we got to be a little bit careful with that John because it's one time it's a one-time bump so we're figuring in into our calculations in terms of our age banding but at the same time we're looking at a more sustainable flow that's coming in as we move forward you know next week it's like 13,000 doses it's just over 13,000 but I don't have the precise number with me okay and then under the new policy that if you're quarantined I'm sorry if you've been vaccinated you don't have to quarantine if you've been out of state but would folks still have to or still be unable to visit other households other families I know you're addressing that later on but they could folks could be vaccinated but still be unable to meet with friends and family that's correct at least for the time being and that's exactly what I was talking about it raises a lot of questions the what ifs, the what abouts and we're going to address those next week the travel policy goes into effect on Tuesday hopefully we'll have a lot of these worked out Tuesday or Friday and be able to answer those questions but that's exactly what I was talking about that it will lead some to reflect on why not this and we just can't answer that right now we want people to focus on is your ability to travel in and out of the state without quarantining if you've been in the state for over two weeks plus two weeks and then we'll consider all the other questions that might come along and I'm sure that we'll get a number of them over the next few days but this is why we want to take our time make sure we get it right so that we can clearly define what we're doing thank you very much as well I'd like to go back just before the inventory that was found as you might remember this was an area of concern for me I think it was Tuesday when we heard that the, or I heard from the Biden administration that they were going to double the amount of vaccines for pharmacies and long-term care facilities and I'm very concerned about the federal government getting involved in some of the contracts that they want to do and utilize we would like to have more control over our vaccination plan because these types of situations wouldn't happen if we had control of the supply coming into the, funneling into the state we want to have partnerships we want to work with the pharmacies and the FQHCs but we'd like to know where that vaccine is going and how much they have and make sure that we're utilizing it to our fullest advantage so this is one area that I use myself the governors across the country both sides of the aisle are raising a red flag here because this could this could be problematic for us as we try and distribute as much as we can as fast as we can Thanks. A topical question and not but when there was the conversation about antigen testing earlier it occurred to me that someone was in vaccinated might show up as positive on that I could be wrong about it but if that is the case can the antigen test be used over time to monitor the length of time that a vaccine remains effective? I'm going to have to sort of self interpret your question Joe but let's say a person's been newly vaccinated in a two dose vaccine and they've gotten the first dose there is a possibility that person in the next week or two can actually contract COVID and test positive on any test a PCR test, an antigen test you name it at a time where their own immune response hasn't yet gotten to the point where it would be totally protective and we have seen that in just a very very small number of people in Vermont and certainly a greater number of people around the country so that the test is still the test and if there's enough viable virus in someone's nose and the quantity is there and the test can detect it the goal is that once your immune system has really done what it's supposed to do in response to the vaccine that you can repeatedly use an antigen test on somebody in their nose and not find any virus if we believe the AstraZeneca data two thirds of the people in their trial did not have any virus detectable on testing with a positive vaccine and that tells us a lot about how much you might be able or not be able to transmit the virus to someone else if you've been vaccinated the UK is now doing a study where they're actually um subjecting someone in the study to getting the virus by having them breathe it in um and looking at the same question of vaccination and they've been able to get that through their ethics apparatus and we'll see what kind of results they get from that if you're asking six months from now after somebody's been vaccinated could you keep using an antigen test to see if they still remain immune probably wouldn't be a great use of that test at that time unless they had symptoms I wouldn't just do it in a surveillance way and if on the other hand you're talking about antibody tests those are blood tests as opposed to the swab in your nose certainly antibody tests would be able to detect if you have some level of immunity but nobody really has done the studies yet to see if it's worth looking at a population wide basis blood samples from people over time I'm sure those are going to be done as part of some of the trials but we don't have any real insight into that just yet so I hope with that sort of lengthy answer I covered what you wanted me to I think you did I obviously had a misunderstanding about antigen and antibody tests um but you think that the continuing studies um that allowed the emergency use authorization will do the kind of work that in the end will show how long a vaccine is effective for yeah I do and I really think that's a critical question so we need answers to that obviously it brings up all kinds of issues about boosters and things of that sort so we need those answers and those will be forthcoming I can tell you though right now nobody is doing routine antibody testing after vaccination in the immediate period so you get your dose or you get your two doses depending on which vaccine there's no requirement or intent that you get an antibody test to check on what happened or didn't happen we will assume you are vaccinated and that you hopefully have a higher level of immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus than you did before the vaccine thank you that's very clear good afternoon I believe both my questions are for Mike Smith if someone is vaccinated is eligible to get the vaccine and they move to Vermont what constitutes residency does someone have to be a resident for a certain amount of time before they are eligible to get the vaccine how is residency verified we have two criteria one you have to be a Vermont resident and you have to self attest when you sign up that you're a Vermont resident or you have moved within the last six months and intend to be a Vermont resident those are the two criteria that we have in both of those instances you have to self attest we're hoping that Vermonters in most cases and perhaps in the vast majority of cases are self attesting truthfully I see and there's no time requirement well you have to be my other question yeah you have to be a resident to be a resident you have to be here six months but if you've moved within that six month period and you intend to be a resident that qualifies as well okay and my other question is a follow up from a question asked by Mike Donahue last Friday have you gotten an update on the VA vaccine distribution program I did it was it was last week I don't know if it's ongoing they're getting and I will check on that but it is for those that are veterans and those that are 65 and over and by the way the more the better in terms of what we can do in this state for vaccination but you have to be a veteran and you have to be over 65 in order to take advantage of the VA that's all I know Lisa right at the moment okay thank you very much yeah I want to yes it's not part of our program it comes in separately to the VA that's why I hesitate to talk you know about that program because like the governor was talking about some of the pharmacy programs like the Walgreen programs it doesn't fall within our purview so the VA program doesn't fall within our purview and therefore I'm a little bit more vague about what is going on with the VA as opposed to the state program I see, thank you very much we got the first part of that Tom I'm sorry my question goes back to the UPS Star and Hardwick and really more about enforcement following up we had a lot of readers who were curious what happened we understand the process is you first put a complaint into the portal and Vermont government then screens through those and tries to determine which ones are actually real and valid and then goes through an education process with local authorities from there if it doesn't work out we understand it also goes to the attorney general's office what doesn't seem to be as clear to folks is how much action is the attorney general's office taking, how often do they do more than just write a letter and have they done full enforcement on any violators well I can answer part of that really, we haven't had that many that have elevated to the point the attorney general has had to take action but I can remember one in particular and it was the Rutland gym and that actually went to court I believe and there was a decision made there and it all ended fine from our perspective and this one that I know of now whether there's been others I don't know Commissioner Scherling might have more insight into this Good afternoon Governor you covered most of it in almost every instance there has been compliance gained as a result of a letter or letters and or discussions with either the attorney general's office or some cross section of folks from the Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement so if there just haven't been that many events really just the one that we're aware of that required legal action everything else that has been that has been elevated has been resolved okay thanks very much Tom I don't know if I misheard you but the UPS store in question that was in Newport I'm sorry he was in Newport you're right thank you Governor yes good afternoon thank you this is likely for Secretary Smith you mentioned additional appointments being added next week to several towns including St. Johnsbury do you have a number on how many appointments that increases either in totality or by town and why were these handful communities selected sort of the total number I think of slots and that's all I have in terms of what has been added is the total number of slots is around 800 total number of slots and the reason it was added is we had some vaccine that we couldn't use okay and then somewhat on topic have you been able to fold the doses that are getting directly allocated to the FQHCs into the state system or how was that working out at this point yeah I think the governor had talked about that that's a concern of ours and I think it is actually a concern of coordination with the FQHCs we've had a very good working relationship with the FQHCs and have allocated to some of the FQHCs actually state allocation now as a roll on to the federal program how do they sort of register do they use our registration system how do we account for what's going on do we back off our our allocation based upon what the federal allocation how is this all coordinated and the governor has mentioned this there is concern across the nation with governors as he had mentioned that you start layering on different programs that aren't connected to one another and the complexity of trying to keep all that coordinated becomes immense depending on how many layers that you put on so to answer your question we haven't figured that out yet in terms of how what this is going to look like what their allocations are going to be how their allocations are going to be coming in what size and how we coordinate all this so if those direct allocations from the federal government not yet arrives at the FQHC I don't think they have yet I'll have to double check on that but I don't I you know there is one that is scheduled to arrive at the FQHC that it has yet okay and then second topic on the school music guidance this comes from a reader who is associated with the school music program wondering about the 30 minute rehearsal time limit and why sports teams can play games or practice for longer stretches and they're wondering if there's any method to be able to practice longer than that perhaps changing physical locations or waiting for the air to clear and then resuming rehearsal after a certain amount of time Secretary French thank you for the question our music guidance came out this week as I described it is fairly technical so we're really interested in feedback and ways we can improve it the 30 minute rehearsal time does come from the national recommendation and once again we don't look at student activities on a comparative basis we look at them specifically so there's quite a bit behind looking at music as a discreet activity relative to sports and not to get too technical but there's some things around the aspiration so forth of students playing various instruments that necessitates specific mitigation strategies for when they're using their instrument so bottom line is that's kind of where we're at now we're certainly looking for feedback as people begin to implement the guidance the last part of your question the only way I think we would prevent extended rehearsals now is outside and the weather's not that great for that but hopefully soon we'll be able to do more of that thank you okay thank you everyone that's it okay well thank you very much for tuning in and we'll see you again on Tuesday for more good news