 Good morning everyone. I want to start this morning by acknowledging that we lost another Vermonter to COVID-19 this week. I send my sympathy and condolences to their family and friends. Every death is a sad loss for Vermont, though we're incredibly fortunate to have gone six weeks without a COVID related death. Something no other state can say. It is, however, a sobering reminder that this virus is still with us and that we must all continue to do our part to keep our friends, family, and neighbors safe and healthy. We've seen the heavy toll it's taken around the country and the world. It's thanks to the sacrifices and commitment of Vermonters that we continue to see good results here in Vermont. Mr. Pichek, who will present our latest data and modeling this morning, and our positive trends continue. And even with the outbreaks and surges, many other states have experienced the last several weeks in growing concerns in our neighboring states. We still have the lowest positivity rate in the country, as well as the lowest number of cases. As you may have noticed, it's been a while since our last turn of the spigot. As my team and I have been carefully watching trends across the country and the potential impact it could have on us here in Vermont. And while I'm still concerned with what we're seeing nationally, our own numbers show we can take another step forward and will increase the capacity limit on retail businesses from 25 to 50% beginning tomorrow, August 1st. This step will come on the same day that our statewide mass mandate goes into effect, which will help support our retailers and their hardworking employees, many of whom have been working on the front lines since the pandemic started. To further support the mass mandate, our emergency management team will begin distributing free mass to towns, community partners and local emergency response entities with a goal of distributing over 200,000 free mass. While we still have much more work to do to open our economy, I believe the cautious approach we are taking is the right one. And as we talked about on Tuesday, it's critical. We keep our positivity rates low in our communities. So we keep our schools safe as they reopen next month and work to increase the amount of in person instruction that we know is best for our kids. The fact is, we'll continue to fight back against this virus until the vaccine has been developed and distributed, which is in all reality, several months away. So it's up to us to protect the gains we've made and take steps forward when it makes sense to do so. If we all do our part to suppress this virus, we can get our kids back to school and keep our businesses open. And when you think about it, it's really pretty basic. And it only takes just a few simple steps to make a difference. Keep at least six feet apart when possible. Wear a mask in public places. Wash your hands a lot and stay home when sick. Taking personal responsibility is the best way to keep this in check and win the war against this invisible enemy. I continue to be incredibly grateful to for monitors for all you've done and continue to do in this fight. So with that, I'll turn it over to Commissioner P check to present our latest data. Thank you very much, Governor. And good morning, everyone. We'll begin today with a look at updated national data, then some new modeling that accounts for mask usage, then turning to our regional and Vermont data and closing as we always do with an update on our travel map. As a reminder for those watching at home, today's presentation is available on our department's website, dfr.vermont.gov, where you can find all of our past presentations and information on all of our modeling partners as well. As the governor alluded to, I want to begin today by marking a grim milestone also for our country. This week, the United States passed the threshold of 150,000 lives lost to the coronavirus, tragically including another Vermont life. Seeing the number on paper certainly does not do justice to the pain and suffering that so many families have had to endure in every part of our nation. And while our state has certainly been spared the worst, Vermonters too have lost family members, loved ones, friends and neighbors. We should keep them in our thoughts and prayers and let this serve as a reminder, again, as the governor stated, to take care of each other by following public health guidance. Across the country deaths from the coronavirus are on the rise. Yesterday marked the third consecutive day and the seventh day in the last 10 where we reported more than 1000 deaths across the country. After a long period of declining mortality, new case surges in the south and the west have filled their hospitals and most unfortunately are now leading to increases in deaths. In the hardest hit states like Florida and California, deaths have spiked this week to record levels and indications are that this trend will continue across the west and the south for the near future. The national data does, however, have a few glimmers of hope. The CDC weekly national syndromic surveillance report indicates fewer people are presenting with COVID like illness at emergency and urgent care facilities across the country. Further on the national level, daily COVID case growth is also slowing. When we drill down into the various census regions, we see that the slowdown in cases is tied back to a reduction in cases in the south and the west where cases had been increasing the most rapidly. While we also see, unfortunately, that those numbers are continuing to increase closer to home in the Midwest and slightly here in the northeast as well. Turning our attention to the northeast again, we continue to see new case growth creep up in certain areas of our region. For example, this past week, Rhode Island and New Hampshire reported their highest daily case count since early June. Massachusetts saw similar case growth this week that they have not seen since the middle part of June. And even Quebec where the virus has been in retreat for a very long time, it is seeing a new uptick in new cases. Overall, the northeast again saw an increase in new cases compared to the week before. However, that growth has slowed a bit down to just two and a half percent. And when compared to the regional testing data, we can also see that any increase in new cases is outpacing any new increases in testing compared to the week before. Again, although the case growth is slight compared to other parts of the country, we have seen four weeks of case growth in the northeast with new cases about 25% higher this week than they were at the end of June. This regional data is certainly something we're going to have to keep a close eye on for the weeks to come. Turning to a few of the models that we work with, as we presented last week, the IHME model indicated that certain parts of the Mid-Atlantic in the northeast, as depicted on the left side of the map, are likely to see case increases over the next few months. However, as we alluded to last week, the model also demonstrates, and as we've depicted on the right side of the chart, if each of these states achieved universal mask wearing, defined as 95% of people wearing masks when appropriate, we would expect to see new cases decline everywhere throughout the region over the next three months in every single state. Even states that are expected to see rapid growth over the next three months would see decline if they achieved universal mask wearing. Again, this highlights the importance of masks, particularly on the eve of Vermont's mask mandate becoming effective. Under all of the models that we have consulted with, Vermont continues to have a favorable forecast. And as the Oliver Wyman model shows on the slide, we can expect to see very low levels of case growth in the weeks ahead, which is certainly very good news for Vermont. Looking at our four restart metrics and Vermont data in particular, again, we saw that new case growth decline this week with only 32 cases reported. This is our lowest weekly total since mid June and compares to 52 cases that were reported from the week before. Again, again, as the governor mentioned, Vermont currently has the lowest positivity rate in the country, the lowest number of cases reported in the country and the second lowest growth rate on a per capita basis. Syndromeic surveillance again continues to indicate that very few people are visiting Vermont hospitals and urgent cares to report COVID like illness. This metric continues to be well below our 4% guardrail. And again, is particularly good news when considering that this is an early warning flag. Vermont's three and seven day viral growth rates again, declined slightly this week, about a quarter and a third of 1% respectively, which is extremely low level case growth. Regarding our positivity rate, the seven day rolling average again trended down this week to just 0.45%. Again, as we alluded to the lowest positivity rate in the country and also well below our 5% guardrail. Our fourth metric is hospital and critical care bed availability. Our ICU availability continues to trend around that 30% buffer. But as we've alluded to in the past, it is not a concern at this time considering that our other metrics are trending so favorably. And the fact that we only have one person in a Vermont ICU being treated for COVID and two individuals currently hospitalized and we certainly wish them a full and speedy recovery. Turning now to our update on our regional travel map. We again see a reduction in the overall number of individuals who are eligible to enter Vermont for leisure travel without a quarantine standing today at approximately 4.8 million individuals down 2.3 million from last week and down 14.2 million from late June. Looking more closely at the counties that changed this week. We see again that relatively few counties from across our region saw improvement moving to green status while many more counties have worsened including counties in the Northeast. We also noticed that summertime vacation destinations along the east coast, such as the Jersey Shore, the Hamptons, the coastline in Connecticut and Rhode Island, Cape Cod and even parts of the coast of Maine have seen their counties worsen as their numbers rise this past week with local officials in many cases tying those increases back to visitors and social gatherings that are occurring. Again, looking back historically at the number of individual individuals eligible to enter Vermont for leisure travel without a quarantine. We can see these numbers continue to trend down, reflecting an increase in cases that we are seeing in the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast over the past few weeks. And it's something like we've alluded to. We will have to keep a close eye on in the weeks ahead. At this time, I would like to turn it over to Dr. Levine. Thank you, Mike. As Governor Scott noted yesterday, we reported the 57th death associated with COVID-19, our first Vermont death in 43 days. Each death is a cause for sadness and I express my deep condolences to the loved ones, friends and family for their loss. To protect their privacy, we will not be giving any further information about the person or circumstances of their passing, other than to note that this person was again an older Vermonter. The Health Department has reached out to everyone associated who may have been exposed to the virus to give guidance for their health and safety. As Commissioner Pechak just detailed, we continue to maintain an overall low rate of new positive cases. The Health Department continues to follow the small number of very limited outbreaks, working with anyone who may be affected. In a new development, six individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning to Vermont from the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tupwiler, Mississippi. These six individuals arrived at Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility in Rutland by van transport on Tuesday, July 28. Following the Department of Correction protocol, all were immediately placed in medical quarantine and tested for coronavirus. The inmates are currently in medical isolation and contact tracing is underway. A Vermonter who remains incarcerated in Mississippi tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week. This person was housed in the same unit as three of those who returned this week. The Department has instructed officials at Tallahatchie County Correctional to test those Vermonters who are still incarcerated in the facility. Our strong and strict protocols to keep the virus out of our prisons helped ensure that no other people in state custody at Marble Valley and no additional staff were in contact with these individuals. To speak again about the progress Vermont has made against the virus, it can't be said enough that the gains we have achieved have only been possible because of the cooperation and sacrifices Vermonters have made to protect themselves and others from coronavirus. And while we are hopeful that together our efforts will keep us from experiencing more illness and deaths in the future, we must recognize that our standing is fragile. The virus is new to the human race. And while we have learned a great deal about how it spreads, we don't yet know everything. Work on a vaccine is proceeding. And many are hopeful about the progress that has been made. But at the same time, we must be prepared for the fact that the virus is not going away anytime soon. Indeed, the return of college students is on the immediate horizon. Vacation travel continues and opportunities for Vermonters to find themselves in closer quarters than recommended occur with increasing frequency, making the timing of the mask mandate of real relevance today. I ask everyone in Vermont to again join me in honoring this latest loss in our community by recommitting to doing everything we can to keep each other safe and prevent further spread of the virus. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Levine. Before I open it up to questions, I want to let Vermonters know about their new financial assistance program we launched this week. The Department of Public Service has $2 million in funds to help Vermonters extend telecommunications lines to their homes for internet access. Mr. Tierney is on the line for questions or and you can visit public service.vermont.gov for more information. With that, we'll open it up to questions. The mask mandate that goes in tomorrow, so it says that masks are mandated in public places indoors and outdoors when you can't social distance. I'm wondering what is a public space? Any, well, from my standpoint, I don't know if there's a technical version of this, but anytime you're in a place where there's other people that can publicly go to those those spaces. So it would be almost any, any get together, so to speak. And so maybe I don't know if you can get more specific with an example. Yeah, so I guess it's not just like post offices and like state house or building, but also businesses per se. That's right. Public entities where the public is invited in in some capacity. So anytime there is any get together, whether it's indoors, we have a limited 75 indoor gatherings and 150 members outside. Any of those gatherings would be public and mass would be required. And what if the business owner refuses to reply to people says, okay, I'm not going to turn away people because they're not American. Yes, that's their prerogative. We want to leave it up to the businesses. Certainly again, guidance and education is our first preference. We are not enforcing this at this point in time. But but again, we'll continue to watch and make sure that we're doing everything we can to provide for the needs of Vermonters. This program that we that I announced in my remarks 200,000 free cloth mass will be available to Vermonters donated by many different entities. That should help. I mean, that's a third of our population. So we want to make sure that we provide everything needed to keep others safe. And again, if we if we continue down this road, and we all continue to take care of ourselves and take care of others, we'll get through this a lot quicker. And then just one last question, shifting to the broadband issue that we're kind of touching on. I know we spent tens of millions of dollars on broadband from the CARES Act. I'm wondering if you have the updates to sort of where we are breaking ground or installing broadband seeing as how for the CARES Act dollars to actually Yeah, I don't have that information at this point in time. But we'd be Mr. Tierney is on the line. She might be able to provide an update. But but again, this is going to take a little time to to put this into action. And with what I just announced with the $2 million in funds to help Vermonters extend their lines so that they can obtain Internet access when when it's available near them, that'll be helpful as well. But I still believe wholeheartedly this is going to take that won't be near enough. And everything we did with the CARES dollars and everything we're doing here won't be enough for our needs. And I still believe that this needs to be a national issue. Congress should take action and should and should confront this the way we did with electrification, the REA act, you know, the REA rule electrification act. It should be a broadband act of some sort to provide for access throughout our country because we're not the only state that that needs help. Many others do as well. So this should be a national effort. Commissioner Tierney anything you can offer? Oh, Governor, I thought you covered the issue very distinctly and accurately. I'm happy to follow up offline with greater detail. But fundamentally, this is a question about funding and $40 that we have set aside under the CARES Act to deal immediately with the crisis. Those dollars are in the process of being deployed. This program that you've announced today is just one of several that have launched in recent days. This is the one that most directly affects consumers who are looking to get a wide extension that will help them access the Internet during the COVID-19 crisis. But the overall picture of Vermont's connectivity will still have significant challenges that we are continuing to address precisely the way you've suggested, which is to advocacy at the federal level to secure additional funding down the road in order to more comprehensively address the continuing connectivity challenges in the state. This is the work that we began with the emergency broadband action plan earlier this spring and that progress on refining that plan continues at this time as many on the line probably know discussions in Washington D.C. around the COVID-19 relief funding are complex and what freighted with things that are beyond the control of Vermont and the other 49 states. So it may take some time for clarity to emerge as to whether there will in due course be additional funding available in recovering from COVID-19. But if and when such funding is on the horizon or if and when there is an intrusion of money through the REA programs that the governor's referring to referring to the state of Vermont will be ready to act. Thank you. Stuart. Thanks. Looking at the travel map and seeing the red creep as we, not on our media board, but there's a lot of concern about the return of college students. We've lost so many kids from Metro Boston and Connecticut and Jersey and Metro New York and all of those areas are now in red. And I'm wondering how can you assure that they won't do what young people have done in so many other parts of this country, get together, no masks, schmooze and Yeah, you know, we're taking a number of steps. I know the colleges are as well in trying to anticipate that and how this could could affect us in a negative way. So I would say, you know, having the quarantine period for those who are coming into the state from those who are in the in the red or are out of the green from from the area is going to be important. And I know that the colleges and speaking with them understand that as well. So as well, I think we have to continue to watch the map. And that's why, you know, it's important to do this modeling every single week with C just what we saw today. And that's why I decided to move forward with a mass mandate because of what I was seeing trending towards the northeast. But it could just as quickly as it's coming this way, it could turn around and go the other way when the summer season, I know a lot of activities and some of the tourist type areas around water and so forth have maybe had have possibly been part of why we're seeing this increase number of positive rates in these communities. So in the next two or three weeks with with the steps we're taking with the steps other states are taking, we could go the other way quickly if we all do the right thing. So by September, this could be a whole different picture and it would be again far safer for those folks to come here. But once they're here, we want to keep them here as well. I think that's part of our challenge is to make sure, you know, if we could if we could surround the state and we would be okay because we have a low number of positive COVID people in in our state as opposed to the rest of the country and in contrast the rest of the country. So if we could keep them here, we'd be a lot better off. And I know that's the the mission of many of the colleges and universities as well to keep them here on campus as much as possible. One question about the death. Was this a person who was hospitalized? Was this a surprise? I don't know, Dr. Levine, how much information you can get or give on that? Don't have all the details. Will there be more image for returning to Vermont and Mississippi? Again, we will do all we can in order to bring as many people back as possible. But there are capacity issues here in Vermont as well. I may ask Secretary Smith to elaborate on this. But but again, you know, we've we've reduced our numbers here in Vermont. We've reduced the number of offenders in in Mississippi as well. And that's what we'd like to continue to do is bring people back when when possible. But but we can't bring them all back at this point in time. Secretary Smith. Thank you, Governor. As as the governor said, as you know, we've reduced our prison population significantly during this crisis. I think the numbers were before the crisis about 1600 inmates in our correctional facilities. We got down to our lowest around 1300. However, we always said we were going to be extremely careful of the type of inmate that we would release and we have been right now. The extra space that we have in our in our facilities and the staff that we have is being utilized for quarantine purposes in case we have an outbreak in one of our facilities and or we have an incident like we had the other the the other night when we're returning inmates needed to be quarantined. We have people coming in and out of our facility. And as I've said at this podium before, the fact is that our greatest vulnerability or when people are coming in and out of our facility, that's our greatest vulnerability. So having those quarantine facilities available and staffed is particularly important at this particular time and prevents us from freeing up more space to bring up other prisoners from Mississippi. With that said, in our FY21 budget, we are committed to reducing the population in our out of state facility. I think from approximately 221. I think today down to about 180 in our FY21 budget. So I think everybody wants to reduce that population. It's just as this crisis continues, having doing it in a safe way is important. Okay, we'll go to the phones now. Katie Jifling, PT Digger. Based on if my math and the numbers presented by from Sharpie check are correct, I'm asking that it will reduce cases in Vermont by about two a week. And it seems like the majority, you know, the reasons you pointed to were college kids returning and leak papers visiting. To what degree do you see a mandate as sort of protecting people in Vermont from people coming in from outside? Well, again, I think compliance is the answer. However, we get there is important. We were on a pretty good track before I issued the mass requirement, the mass mandate, but in anticipation of overseeing throughout the region with with colleges being coming back in with our fall foliage and so forth, thought it necessary to have some sort of consistency with some of the other other states around the region as well. So I don't know whether we can put a figure on this, but but again, it was taking a proactive approach to make sure that we continue to enjoy the numbers that we've seen for quite some time. I mean, we've been a leader in many different ways and our positivity rate, number of cases and so forth. And we just want to continue to be able to keep Vermont safe. You said again and again press conferences that mandate won't necessarily increase compliance that actually might make people more resistant and that there's no way to enforce it and then you decided to impose a mandate. How did your thinking change on those topics? Well, I think I explained it fairly extensively in the last press conference, but happy to continue. I mean, I just look at the the numbers, the data and when I saw what was happening in the Sun Belt, for instance, the number of cases, the increase we saw in California and Texas and Florida and what what some in Arkansas and Alabama and so forth were experiencing and they imposed a mass mandate. Some of them some states did at that point in time, but it was after it started affecting them in a negative way. I didn't want to be in that position. I still believe that guidance and education and and and advocating for people to do the right thing is a is a good approach. But time wasn't on our side, especially when I started seeing the numbers that Commissioner Pichek was bringing to us. That's why the modeling is so important to us. Just, you know, really looking at the data and and if it tells us something, then we should react to it. I didn't want to be imposing something after the fact. I think you know what we've done is tried to be proactive being one step ahead all along the way or learning something more about this virus every single day and mass seemed to make a difference. So again, I just thought it was the right point in time to do this and and I still believe it was the right thing to do. However, compliance, getting to compliance and and not, you know, advocating for people to do the right thing with our education approach, which is really hitting the ground running. I think that's going to be equally important to the mandate continuing the education approach. And lastly, what do you think are the political implications of a mandate for you? In what way Katie? You fixed some pressure from other gubernatorial candidates and there's a primary coming up in a matter of weeks and I'm wondering how if at all politics was a consideration or how do you expect it might change things through you in the primary? Yeah, I don't think you know politics didn't enter into the equation for my standpoint. Again, I've done everything over the last few months based on the science of the data the health experts advisement just again looking at the numbers and doing what I think is right for our state. But if you want to look at it through a political lens, it probably isn't wasn't the best move on my part to impose a mask mandate in Vermont in two or three weeks before primary. But that wasn't a consideration for me. Okay, Katie, we need to move on. Thank you, Governor. Chris Roy. Yes, good morning. Could you explain about how the community and entities distribute the mask? Are you giving them direction or is that their discretion and how they're going to give the mask to the recipient? Yeah, there's actually a protocol for this and a plan in place. The SCOC, the State Emergency Operations Center is taking this on. But Secretary Smith has exactly how that's done if I can allow him to elaborate. Chris, thank you for the question. It's called operation cloth face covering for everyone. When we do the SCOC we have to have these fancy names that we have in this operation. We're going to ask each town the emergency management department, the fire chief, the EMS via form if they would like their allotment of 25% of their population in cloth face coverings. So it's going to be distributed through sort of the emergency management apparatus from each town. Also, the National Guard will be distributing these masks at the food sites, the food distribution sites that we have. VDH will be doing it at the pop-ups. And I also want to say there's going to be pamphlets that talk about when to wear a mask, when not to wear a mask, why it's important to wear a mask, why it should be important to you to wear a mask. We're also going to be distributing masks to the community action programs and the agencies around the state as we move forward and also through VDH, through vulnerable populations. So like the governor said, over 200,000 masks will be distributed through these various entities and 165,000 two-year local fire department, EMS, or emergency management department. And what if some of these communities up here in the Northeast Kingdom, we have some towns who don't have a fire department, they rely on neighboring communities like poverty defense, mostly on new ports. So would it be new ports that would distribute the masks to the carpentry or whatever department that covers that town? Yes, I believe that would be the way that we would do it. But in case, I mean, if somebody isn't getting distributed masks at the local level, please call us. Call the emergency management department here in our division, here at the state level and we'll make sure masks get out to each town. Okay, thank you. Lisa Raffke, EAP. Yes, thanks. I wanted to ask about those returning inmates who were tested positive. So the state has asked for the Mississippi prison to test the remaining for monster-serving housing. Do you know that they actually will get tested? Yes, I believe that they are being tested. Again, Secretary Smith, do you want to, is there anything more to be said on that? We have, I believe, we are sending supplies to them to have them tested. They're being tested today. Yes, starting last night and today will be finished today. It will be sent to the state lab in Jackson, Mississippi. So, Lisa, I don't know if you've heard that or not, but they're being tested today, tonight should get all the results back. Mississippi has agreed graciously to administer all the tests and give us the results probably tomorrow. Okay, thanks. And then on the school reopening for the September 80 days, does that affect private and independent schools too? It will affect all schools, yes. Okay. And then, as you know, there's a lot of concern among teachers and superintendents. There's some concern about whether they have enough staff because some teachers may be older or have health issues or have thousands who have health issues. I'm wondering, is that something, the education agency is concerned about staffing levels in school when they reopen? I think we're all concerned about that. First of all, for the well-being of those members of the staff, the teachers and so forth and their families, we want to make sure that we're protecting everyone. But as well, we're not sure the magnitude of this at this point in time, but it's something we'll have to consider over the next couple of weeks. I may ask Secretary French if he's on the line who might be able to comment on that as well. Yes, thank you, Governor. Yeah, I think it speaks to, personally, how the conditions do vary in each district and thick conditions by doing further staffing to determine potential elements for operating schools, obviously. One of the considerations, actually, that a lot of this includes that a hybrid house is going to be necessary, at least to put on the ability to get district complexity, not only in addressing structural needs to be done, but also dealing with the great practical issues, staff availability. Okay, so if you did see a reduction in staff, you would, the hybrid model would be how you would deal with it? Well, it provides a district with an office that might be staffed, for example, that would have difficulty teaching in person, but they might be available each on line in a remote area. Yeah. Okay, thank you. Mike Donahue, the headliner. Good morning, thank you. Maybe for Mike Smith, Chris Royce, started to stole my question, but maybe a clarification. So the emergency rescue squad, the fire department, are they going to be actively passing these masks out, or is it sort of like they may have stopped by the fire station, kind of thing, versus actually going out into the community, high-profile public places, like convenience stores, where we see a large number of people walking in without them, without masks, and everything like that. I mean, is this going to be an active effort, or is it a passive effort, going by the fire station on a Saturday, or something like that? I'll ask Secretary Smith again to answer that, but good to hear your voice, Mike. I wasn't sure whether he'd be on this week after reading some of the headlines, but good to have you back. Good to be alive. Thank you. Mike, there's going to be multiple ways that these will be distributed, that could be distributed, and we'll leave it up to the local communities how they want it. You could have a distribution day at a local fire department or rescue squad. You could have them available to rescue, to take on calls, in case patients' families need them. You can have them in a box, in a lobby, in a town office, if the town office is open, of course. You can make them available by appointment at the town office, or the health officer can deliver them directly to those in need. We're going to leave it up to the local communities how best to distribute them. And remember, we're asking the local communities if they want them. We're not going to force them on each other, but we've had my understanding as of this morning, an overwhelming response from the communities in terms of wanting these masks. I understand. I was just trying to figure out that you go where the problem is, and the people that are walking into public places, convenience stores, whatever, that don't wear masks probably aren't going to go to the fire station to get one. You've got to go to where the problem is. That's why I was wondering if this is just going to be passive or real aggressive, not aggressive, but at least outward ever. Just remember as a tomorrow to walk into that grocery store they're going to have to have that mask on. Yeah, and I was in South Africa the other day and the store clerk told me 20% are wearing masks in the store and they have an ordinance there. Well, we'll have to see. But, Governor, just wondering, we've had different reports in recent months about how some of your decisions are made by the administration and everything like that. And there's a lot of complex issues I understand. And my understanding is that there's like topic-focused advisory committees doing considerable studies about what should or should not be done and some of their advice gets ignored or overruled when it apparently gets pushed up to what I guess is the restart for my committee and then they get reversed or changed and then at some point it apparently goes to Dr. Levine who can veto it or rewrite the findings at some point it may or may not get to you. Can you just sort of give the public an idea of how the system works with these advisory committees, the restart committee, Dr. Levine and how these things change when the advisory committees are in place to give you their best thoughts? Yeah, you're actually describing it much more complex than I had perceived it. We, you know, I rely on a lot of advice from a lot of different entities. But when it comes down to the very end when it gets funneled to me I have, you know, a very short list of people who I'm listening to and that involves Dr. Levine, Dr. Kelso many of my cabinet members and trying to do what I think is right as well. I mean, because I watch the data I watch what's happening around the country and the region as well. So when I keep track of the numbers in, let's say, New York as I do on a daily basis or Massachusetts or even, you know, what I'm seeing in Florida and California and so forth it has an effect on me and I'm just trying to again stay one step ahead. So I take everyone's advice. It doesn't mean that I do everything that my folks ask to do or at least consider. But I will say one thing. If Dr. Levine or Dr. Kelso feel strongly about something I listen and I do it. And so that is something again that I rely on them heavily for some of the decisions I have to make. But I don't believe I will let Dr. Levine answer for himself but there hasn't been anything that he's asked me to do that I haven't done and I think that we as an administration have done a pretty good job listening to one another having some of the debates we have but in the end I think we come out together and are very, I guess, single-minded on the issue when we do make a decision in the end. Dr. Levine, I would say Dr. Levine, Secretary Smith, Mr. Pichek feel free to answer but Dr. Levine? Just real quickly to piggyback on it's a team effort. In the end the governor is still the governor and he is at the top of the team but everything that we talk about is a team effort. It's not put into a specific basket and though public health weighs in on everything we have far less power if you will than you were implying in your question Mike in terms of the ultimate veto power. There are times that we are in a public health crisis in an epidemic so obviously the public health point of view has to weigh in on all the issues that are occurring to make sure that we keep the monitor safe and we don't put anybody at excess risk for the decision that's made. But these things are not snap judgments. These are things that really at times we go through the entire health department and help us inform the governor as well. It's not just one or two people with a great idea. And then the team takes that and we mold it and work together to make the right decision about the specific topic. And it's worked very well but I would say that in spite of all these focus groups you mentioned and what have you, I don't see us actually working at odds with any of them because they're providing an input that's really important to the decision making just like the public health input is important to decision making. So it really isn't a snap judgment on anything that's been done. It's really deliberated quite a bit. But I get the impression that from the P5 talk team that they have made decisions based on a lot of information and then it gets vetoed or rewritten or reversed or whatever. It's probably at your level. And I'm just wondering do you have any people back to that committee and talk to them one-on-one and why you vetoed it or why you reversed it? Mike, our meetings when we have our meetings together there's open dialogue amongst all of us in presenting different facts, different considerations but nothing is really done in a vacuum. We make the decisions together and I think everyone, as far as I know everyone is on board. Now there may be some who feel strongly about opening up the economy maybe faster than I'm comfortable with and that's been the case at times. But we have those discussions and those deliberations and in the end I try and do what I think again is right in something that I can live with and something I can stand in front of you at a press conference two to three times a week and feel okay about the decisions I make and confident that we're doing it for the right reasons. So I'm the one in the end that has to stand before you and make the case for whatever we've done or haven't done. Sure. I think we need to move on. Okay, thank you very much. Eric, the time's arduous. Yes, for these, Mr. City inmates it seems like the Department of Corrections was taking a proactive approach in testing all of its facilities all the inmates, staff and command. But for these inmates it seems like they were almost an afterthought where it takes seven of them to test positive and now they're going to start being tested. Why weren't they already part of the testing procedure the Department was doing? Hi, Eric. I'm Mike Smith. Let me just answer that. A couple of things. I want to go back and explain what's going on now and then explain, get to your question because they all tie together. All Vermont prisoners currently in Mississippi will be tested. They started last night. We hope to have it finished today. That testing will, the tests are going to be sent to the state lab in Jackson, Mississippi. I want to thank the state of Mississippi for allowing us to use their state lab. Given the prevalence of the virus in the state we're now going to establish a program that periodically tests inmates in Mississippi in a way that's similar to how we test in our other facilities here in Vermont. But given that testing capacity doesn't seem to be as robust in Mississippi as perhaps elsewhere in the U.S. and certainly not here in Vermont. As you know, Vermont is one of four states that a Harvard study said that we were in the position to suppress, through our testing, suppress the virus and through a Marshall Project investigation they found that Vermont was tests the most of any state and the data was limited in terms of what was going on in other states but nonetheless the data that they had it showed that Vermont tested the most of any state in the country in terms of its correction policy. We have to figure out the logistics for testing that but we're going to be testing on a periodic basis down there. Now you asked the question why didn't we do it earlier? The contractor that we have, the Mississippi contractor that we have for the corrections had a testing protocol that symptomatic patients would be tested and that does produce good results in a sort of a low prevalence environment but that is no longer the case in Mississippi and we have learned in Vermont when you have multiple cases as we saw the other day when you have multiple cases more aggressive testing is needed and that's what corrections is working to put in place right now. As you remember we used to do symptomatic testing here into our testing capabilities were robust enough and secondly when we had multiple outbreaks we aggressively tested our facilities here and as you recall Eric we test one facility just about every week and that's staff and inmates that we do here in Vermont we're going to impose a similar program in Mississippi given the fact that their prevalence of the virus has increased greatly. So the six that came in were the band just six inmates was that all the six inmates in that band tested positive? Were there more people in the band? It was actually a bus type of vehicle there were six inmates and my understanding two drivers that were in there it drove 30 hours straight through there were bathroom facilities in there the contact tracing has alerted the transportation company of the positive test so obviously those are not Vermont residents but we have contacted the state of Mississippi as well about this incident. And one last question why were these inmates brought back was there any specific reasons? They're usually brought back to get ready for release I don't have the specifics on this but they're usually brought back to get ready for release. Okay moving on, Greg to the county courier Just a quick follow-up there were no guards on that just two bus drivers? I'm not sure about the specifics and there were I'm sure that there were there were guards and drivers I know a follow-up for Secretary Branch and then another one for Secretary Smith Secretary French I understand that many schools in the area are going to be requiring students to stay within the classroom the entire day food's going to be delivered to the classroom and then teachers are going to rotate from room to room as needed is that guidance that's coming down from the state or is that individual schools that are making those decisions? Yeah that's a great question that's an example of an individual school making a decision I will say that model is out there I think also not only in the United States but in Europe as well so it is one that I think we will be able to consider Okay Secretary Smith follow-up on that for you inmates in Vermont's prisons are contained in their cells or are they able to mingle throughout the day? Greg could you repeat the question I just didn't hear it Yeah sure so I'm curious if inmates within Vermont's prisons are contained in their cells all day or are they allowed to kind of mingle within their pods or within their small communities so they're in Yeah I don't believe we're in with the commissioner corrections I don't believe we're in lockdown in in our in most of our facilities the reason I'm hesitating a little bit I'm not sure with Marble Valley with the six positives down there Greg but I'll get back to you on that Okay and then follow-up for Governor Scott on that and then questions and I'll be done I've got some people that I've talked to you know feel like a little bit backwards to have our school children being contained to a classroom all day long when even inmates in our state prisons can mingle a bit what's your take on that and then unrelated but my question for today is with an ask our race and no travel restrictions in Merrimack County is there a concern that that event can could significantly spread COVID back to Vermont and what to say doing to mitigate as far as that particular instance goes Well the first question I'm not sure about the policies with keeping kids in classrooms I think that once we gain more confidence in what we're doing then I would say that there would be more flexibility we want to make sure that kids get outside for instance and get some fresh air and so forth and so on so I think you'll see as this moves forward that we'll be able to to have in-person instruction and create more flexibility but it might take some time for some districts to do that and some schools to do that in terms of the NASCAR race so it's a very limited number of spectators allowed into the race in New Hampshire I believe that they are doing temperature checks and mass are required so if everyone does what they're supposed to do and socially or physically distance themselves they should be fine by the time they get through but we'll handle it just like we have everything else we'll be testing and racing and watching for outbreaks and contain them as we can but I would say this for any of our monitors who are going to the NASCAR race in New Hampshire this weekend make sure you wear a mask make sure you wash your hands a lot stay distance from others don't get in close contact with others and if you don't feel well stay home it's not worth it you can watch the race on TV thank you have a great weekend Steve Merrill can you hear me great thank you quick one for the doctor and maybe a couple for the governor Dr. Levine recently Dr. Fauci is suggesting or he wants people to wear goggles could that kind of mandate be coming next he didn't refer to it in that way though did he he was just recommending I remember seeing the clip and he was talking about mucosa being a vector a prime vector and that you know that goggles you know are very important and it just sounded to me like he was headed in that direction yeah so I don't envision that becoming a mandate anywhere the reason we all talk about washing your hands so much is because people have done studies of just looking around a room how often people touch their face it's just an incredible number of times so again the areas we're concerned about are the mouth the nose and the eyes as a portal of entry so if one's washing their hands very reliably hopefully you reduce the likelihood when you do touch your eyes you'll bring virus to your eyes but the other part is you know when we have people in full PPE we are definitely covering their eyes because they are at markedly increased risk due to the activities they're doing if a member of the public is wearing their mask and staying appropriately distanced and washing their hands they shouldn't need to have a mandate to wear goggles on top of that okay maybe we could have them wear rubber bands on their fingers as a reminder not to touch their face so often you could be an entrepreneur Steve can we get to that yeah Governor have you or your staff had a chance to read any of the the compliance files or the reporting files what files are you referring to the ones where the ones where people get on the internet and report you know non-compliance to the authorities I'm sure I'm sure some in the administration have particularly in public safety you can see if commerce and community are relevant but I have not personally gone and looked at them now well I wanted to thank Mike Schirling and his staff for you know for sending those out to me and some of them I'd say about a good 10% are really humorous and different but if you get a chance they're really worth looking into and and I had a question about the algae blooms too we've already seen a couple of beach closures is here and we had a report from the auditor the state auditor about the lack of the money not not remedying any of the of the existing structural problems is this something that the administration is looking into well this is a long-term project I mean it's not something that was I don't think any of us at least in this administration had ever proclaimed that we would be able to turn this around overnight in fact that's why it's over a 20 to 30 year period and we're taking steps every year to make gains in this and some of this would require you know phosphorus reduction some of it with agriculture with waste treatment plants doing everything we can to slow the amount of phosphorus going into some of these lakes and streams so this again we never had promised this would be overnight in fact we had advocated that this is going to take some time to undo the damage that's been done over the years but I think we're making gains I think we're we're put a lot of money into place founds revenue to put towards this effort but I think we're making gains it just makes me scratch my head that we once had 30,000 farms that were all spreading dry manure right up to streams and there never seemed to be a big problem I would beg to to differ on that Steve I think what we're seeing now is a result of that I mean we're seeing some of the sedimentation that is in some of the the beds of the lakes and streams is part of the problem it's still there so that's I would let Julie Moore, Secretary Moore debate further on this maybe for another time maybe the science shows that some of it is in the sediment okay well great thank you very much Mike Dieloski can you hear me? we can okay great I have a COVID treatment question thanks Mike Dieloski with two North reports Papiel health professor Harvey Rich just said in news week that we need to use hydroxychloroquine seven studies since June have demonstrated that it works on COVID Dr. Steven Smith of the Center of Infectious Diseases in New Jersey has successfully treated hundreds of patients using the drugs Texas U.S. Representative Louis Gohmert who has the virus said his doctor is treating him with hydroxychloroquine and letting these facts why isn't Vermont looking more into the use of this drug to treat patients well as you know I'm going to let Dr. Levine answer this but as you know Mike we've had a fairly low prevalence of late of having to treat many COVID patients we've only had this week two or three and sometimes we have an outbreak and we have two in our hospitals right now being treated for COVID one in ICU so we don't have a high prevalence in this state at this point in time but I'll let Dr. Levine answer the technical aspect Thank you I think you've pointed out like most things there's controversy and the field is changing rapidly and the science is evolving rapidly however if one looks at the science in the published studies you can pick things out that will be on either side of the fence with hydroxychloroquine or most authorities are coming down that the weight of evidence has not yet shown it to be an effective treatment that is as safe as perhaps other treatments especially in light of its cardiac effects unless you think we're not paying attention to treatment we get regular shipments of remdesivir to the state and that's available to all of our hospitalized patients in the state and it has been shown to be efficacious in shortening the duration of illness Dexamethasone is widely available and is also very useful and may actually have a survival benefit when treating very ill patients with COVID and there's a anti-inflammatory drug because again most of the drugs we use necessarily kill the virus as much as they are going to work on the body's immune response which is the so-called cytokine storm all of the inflammatory mediators and barisidinib is a drug that's being actively used certainly at the University of Vermont Medical Center but also there's a protocol that's available to those around the state to try to interfere with that inflammatory cascade and improve the outcomes of patients who are ill in the hospital with COVID does that answer your question? Yeah if I may follow up, if there is more studies that continue to come out that show that some people are benefitting from the drug, would the administration look further into it? Oh, yep with the administration what? Look further into the drug and more people come out on the other side saying that there is benefit from hydroxychloroquine Yes, and actually we work regularly you know it's not just the government we work regularly with the scientific community within the state people who actually prescribe these drugs all the time and many who are involved in research engagements that are testing these drugs in other diseases so clearly we wouldn't put our heads in the sand but at the moment we don't think that the weight of evidence is in that place where we can do that This real quick, if somebody wanted to, if somebody has COVID and they want to use this drug or try this drug or ask your doctor about it would they be given support or access to it or if their doctor allowed for it? Yeah, actually any doctor has access to this drug if they wanted if they wanted to order it so they could presumably prescribe it to a patient I think a lot of what you hear in the news is people trying to use it for prevention of serious illness and that's where it stands on even shake you ground but clearly the drug is not a restricted drug it's only concerning because so many of the traditional uses of the drug need to still occur and we don't want the drug to be out of circulation or a supply demand thing that is interfering with its use and the diseases that people are taking it for where it's been shown to be helpful Thanks Mike, I think we need to keep moving Guy Page Governor yesterday an old friend who's raising a 15 year old son of her drug addicted daughter said their school district both be often drivers that the DMV website says all 16 and 17 year olds must pass the state approved drivers that course could and would you without legislative action approve garden guardians to conduct driver education Yeah Guy, we're considering some of that we don't know who will offer and who won't it's a topic of conversation obviously I have an interest in making sure that people are able to get their licenses and get to enjoy the freedom of driving so I have an interest in this personally but we're considering this we're looking into it and we'll take steps as necessary to make sure that we fill that need What sort of steps? Whatever it takes, again we don't know the magnitude of the problem at this point we've only heard anecdotally in some respects that some districts won't be offering a driver but we'll take steps appropriately Secretary French, is there anything you can add to this? Yes, there was an opportunity I think with the state board to consider a waiver for regulation the next conversation started in April I think once again it's your point largely based on some anecdotal concerns and we thought somewhat the issue would be resolving itself as programs started to start back up to summer with the reopening of the larger economy so something certainly we're going to have to take a look at in the fall in terms of regulatory guidance Okay Secretary French, I want to thank your staff for sending me over the updates on homeschooling applications last week that was 75% over last year as of July 15th Can you give me the latest through the end of July numbers on homeschooling applications? We can certainly send that over to last time I checked I think around Monday it's still holding about a 75% increase over last year Okay Welcome Lisa Lunez the Valerie Porter Thank you I'd like to know how much of the grant funding that the legislature has allocated for COVID business relief has been either awarded or is in the application process We're hearing the local businesses who are ineligible either because their losses are under 50% or they have not owned their business for an entire year and could not show that year over year loss Has the administration been in contact with the legislature about revising the criteria for receiving grant? Yeah, I don't know if Commissioner Goulstein is on the line she's not Secretary Curley might be able to answer part of that but Lisa we are again watching the program is still active we're still accepting applications but we still have money available at this point at the appropriate time we will be asking the legislature for more flexibility or coming up within the parameters of what they've given us for flexibility to make sure that we get the money out the door because we're seeing some of the same things whether it's sole proprietors and so forth or those who haven't gotten to the limit of 50% loss and other issues that are problematic in obtaining the money so we'll be working at this making sure that we're helping those businesses survive so they can thrive in the future Secretary Curley anything you can offer at this point if not we can get more information to Lisa in the near future Yeah, I can offer a little bit Lisa I'm glad you brought this up because it does give us an important moment to share that there is so many left to disperse around nearly 80 million I would say there's more in the queue to be sent out for them and sent yet and we know that there are businesses out there who would qualify that haven't applied and there may be a variety of reasons that they haven't but it may be because folks don't know about it as broadly as we hope so we definitely want to get the word out there and have people go to the ATCD website and it'll walk you through some questions and an opportunity to apply the application process is pretty quick you do have to have a little bit of financial state that's ready to go but I've heard it takes about 10 minutes if you have things ready when you start the process so again get the word out for us and we're still processing applications there's a very intense review process that happens at the agency so as I mentioned we do have money but we have some in the queue as well so people shouldn't delay they should get their application in thank you for that I think the issue is for many of our local businesses is they may have had a 44% reduction in revenue for any given month or they may have had a 49 or a 32 and I think that cliff is what people are hoping up against sure and you know we are as the governor said we're in contact with the legislators making a change like that would require legislative action so if when they come back in August that's something that they want to look at we'll have a conversation with them but we are keeping track of of the businesses that are arguably not qualifying for something that's really close and we'll have those conversations as we go and we need to have them right along so we know there are a lot of people in need and we really want to do everything we can do to help keep them as the governor said to survive now and set the rise going forward great thank you very much Commissioner Curley Courtney Adlin local 22 local 44 my questions are actually already asked so I don't have any at this time so thank you and happy Friday thanks Courtney this is Dr. Levine and you may not have seen it yet I just wondered if you could comment on a research letter that was published yesterday in JAMA about a larger amount of start-up virus in the respiratory tract of young children that has been reported before thanks for the question I was kind of anticipating someone would ask about that that's pretty much like you said a research letter it's more of a laboratory kind of study but it looked at very young children and found that even when they were asymptomatic there were young children who had a very large I will call it inoculum of virus when they were tested so not only did they test positive but it seemed to be a much more potent concentration of virus that in theory they could spread to others so it's really a study a little bit out of context in terms of does this happen all the time is this like a rare event, a common event what implications does it have for schools, for adults etc so it's coming out at a time when of course the entire nation is getting very anxious about the opening of schools but it's not the kind of study that should all of a sudden be looked at and it's like oh my god we have to stop in our tracks because of this study because we don't really know the implications of what this study means we do know again that children do have a very low rate of getting ill with the virus getting seriously ill with the virus being the vector that transmits the virus throughout a classroom or to the adults in the school and we still have to go with that information that we have abundant evidence to support so I want to just put it in context in that way and make everyone realize that it's a very early finding more needs to be sought after and I would still say and we've emphasized this up here before the school room the classroom the school itself is really a microcosm of the community it's in the reason it's good time to open schools in Vermont is because Vermont has the very low rates that Commissioner Peechak showed us on the slides and in addition if we all as a community adults and children are responsible in the ways that we've educated about up here there'll be less likelihood that there will be adults in the schools who can then potentially transmit the virus to a child who might then harbor a virus at a high concentration like this study showed or not because we don't really know yet but again we should really look at the low prevalence of virus as being a positive sign that getting our children back into the schools is a good idea just as a follow-up do you have cycle threshold numbers in aggregate for the various age groups that you're testing for? yeah so the study did rely on cycle threshold numbers just for the public to understand cycle threshold is sort of indicator of how much virus is there if I could express it that way so that's not something that we're commonly measuring that's much more in a research mode and could be used in a specific outbreak what have you but it's not something that's a focus of what we're doing or that I don't think most states are doing on a routine basis you're not collecting those numbers are you able to? we would have to integrate new technology to be able to do that do you have a question from our business magazine? Hi Governor I want to clarify something with the Secretary Curley about the money available to the recovery grant Secretary you mentioned there's about 80 million already distributed right out of the I think 166 total and there's some in the pipeline I'm wondering how much is available to apply for how much is left of that of that money do you want to know how much is left for people to apply for? yeah exactly I don't get that to you but applications are coming in everyday so there's stuff that is being reviewed that hasn't been approved yet so it's a little bit of a challenge but I can get you something pretty close I think my point was that there's still a significant amount of money that people shouldn't shy away from still applying I wouldn't say it's significant people should be applying for sure if they met that threshold and they have that kind of need I would absolutely say they should be applying we would like Tim just to be clear we want people to apply just so we understand the need we did run out of money we want to make sure that we are on top of this so that when we can we go back into the legislature we can advocate for more if more is needed but it's important for businesses to seek application I just want to get that clear thank you and for Secretary Young there have been a couple reports before the legislature journey and the way it was reported there was a fairly rosy picture on the revenue scene with the caveat that that could have been just the fallout from 2019 and I'm wondering what your I look at the rooms and meals tax which is obviously struggling and the $600 federal unemployment insurance is ending what are the red flags you're looking at for the revenues going forward Tim I think the red flags we are looking for is really just generally what impact on the revenues we collect next April for this calendar for tax year 2020 aren't going to look like because those are the revenues where we're going to build up you know the biggest hit because of the pandemic and the shutdown of our economy for a period of time is there any think to the rooms and meals tax that sort of relied on for both the general fund education is that a be a concern as I kind of look at it yeah and definitely the meals and meals tax came in you know 27 million below the January forecast or 15% in the year today I believe 20 revenue and that's not a tax that you know you're going to collect later on that's a tax that's not collectible so there are some categories of taxes that we're just not going to make up like we may make up in other areas because of the deferred deadline yeah all right thank you yeah Tim just to elaborate a little bit further we're obviously very concerned about next year's budget we were pleasantly surprised by seeing some of the numbers coming in from last year you know pre-pandemic but it looked like businesses were doing very well, individuals were doing very well and added to the revenue so that we're seeing today and I reflect on you know obviously unfortunately we're having this pandemic in general but can you imagine the surplus we might have had had we not had to go through this pandemic with the numbers that we're seeing today getting through what was a problematic year with the end being in the midst of a worldwide pandemic what we might have been and I think that again we can't go backwards but finishing out the year on a fairly solid ground without a deficit is not something every state can say and again with what we've done over the last three or four years no new taxes or fees and over at least the majority of that four years and still had what could have been a record surplus says a lot about what we need to do in the future yeah I think we're all looking forward to that thanks to the governor Erin Potanko, UT Digger when it comes to the prisoner testing positive and just the general response I wanted to ask are you generally happy with how the situation and happy with how is treating the prisoners in their prisons in general how do you feel about it again I'll let Secretary Smith answer part of that from my standpoint as opposed to what we had experienced with and I think it was Pennsylvania they're doing a much better job than was done before obviously we'd like to have all of our offenders back within our state borders but that's not possible with the physical facilities that we have today so again I think they've done a good job thus far but but in the future it would be more advantageous if we had a newer facility here in Vermont where we could bring everyone back Erin I think the governor said it all obviously a pandemic has stretched all of us and we would like the fact that nobody would test positive that's not probable as we move forward the question is can we put the mechanisms in place to minimize the number of people that test positive and I think we have here in Vermont we need to do better in Mississippi now that they have a high prevalence of the virus in that state so let's put an incomplete in terms of a virus response on that but in terms of overall it's night and day from what I used to read about our out of state correctional facilities I just wanted to add one thing just because we've had a number of questions and I'm sure it wasn't the intention of the questions about the prisoners but that this event that we've documented for you today is a failure of a system and I want us to look at it the other way if I could the success of a system because not only do we have a great system for any new inmate coming into our prison system but all of the protocols that we've developed are really to make sure that we catch things like we caught this time around with six inmates that are testing positive that could potentially infect an entire facility affect the staff who then vector it elsewhere through the facility we have protocols in place that really guard against that happening and not only the testing part of the protocols but the quarantine part of the protocols just because we know that that's the biggest inherent danger to any facility that's self-enclosed like a prison is that you would bring a virus in unknowingly and in the asymptomatic period it would spread to others so I just wanted to reframe our perspective a little on that, thank you Dan Wallace Allen, BT Bigger Yeah, I think this is a really a quick question for the Governor I'm wondering with cases actually still rising in the North East why change anything right now like this last turn was big is there some urgency or some reason were retailers asking you or could we find it Yeah, we were actually working on this for the last four to five weeks the retailers were asking as you remember we had increased to 50% many other sectors and this was the next one in line and I made the I guess promise in some respects that we take a look at our mass policy before we turned up the spicket, opened up the retail market to 50% and when we decided to move forward I decided to move forward to the mass mandate it made perfect sense to open up the retail market as well Dr. Levine and again I'll let him speak for himself but was quite comfortable even before the mass mandate to open up the retail market to 50% because that's not where we're seeing all of the transmission of this virus we're seeing in other settings so this was fairly low risk but this will help that sector and help those utilizing the services in those sectors as well anything else Dr. Levine would like to offer? Hi it just goes back to the rules of contact that we've described before in the retail setting there's not a prolonged contact with anyone usually there's not a prolonged time that you're actually in that facility unlike a gym or a restaurant or what have you where you may be sitting and engaged with other people for a period of time and there's just not a lot of close contact and where there is it's usually at a cash register where they have plexiglass and everyone's masked and the likelihood of having any disease is very low and many of our retail facilities obviously are mom and pop but others are very large and there's plenty of room for people usually to move around and breathe fresh air in the building and not really put themselves at high risk thanks for the question all right usually you do this when cases are the caseload is dropping and when it rises it just seems anomalous well I want to be clear though what we're seeing here in Vermont the caseload is not increasing you might see it outside the state but for those patrons of Vermont who utilize these retail operations we're not seeing an increase here in Vermont so that's who typically utilizes the retail functions here in Vermont and we just want to make sure that we're moving forward as much as we can safely move forward as much as we can all right thank you Olivia Lyons WCAX Star 6W okay we're going to do a go ahead sorry technical issues I have a question for our governor Scott and Secretary Frank the Vermont NEA released a four phase plan yesterday it would delay beginning actual elections past the September 8th start date to talk with each student about the pandemic how it affects them and affects their well-being do you think there is a benefit to this rather than just jumping into anything and not knowing where each student is academically and emotionally well you packed a lot into that question but I would say we've been working at this for quite some time as I relayed last Friday I believe we've been working on this plan for seven weeks put out the guidelines and so forth extending this for a week or two would give districts school districts the ability to test out the systems make sure that we're doing this in a safe manner I am along with our state experts our health experts and those in the field feel that what we're doing is safe it's something that's it's something that's beneficial for our kids and it's the right thing to do and as I said last Friday with our low positivity rates with our low number of cases with our we're the only state that has been identified who have has suppressed the virus if we can't do it then no other state can so I believe we're in a better position than any other state to put this into place and I to be honest I haven't seen the letter from the state but I believe what we're putting into place starting again extending that date to September 8th getting everyone ready and accustomed to whatever they're going to do allowing for a lot of flexibility and to build that trust that confidence in the system I think it will prove that we can have more in-person instruction instruction but it doesn't preclude school district from doing whatever I mean taking more time having more of a hybrid situation where you're doing more online instruction but as well if a school or district feels they can move forward with a five day a week instruction in-person instruction they can do so so I think we've allowed for a lot of flexibility I believe it can work our state experts our health care experts everyone thinks we can do this and it really does as you heard last Friday think about the kids what their needs are and this will I think benefit them tremendously Secretary of French yes Governor I was just asked you know to live into your question about sort of testing I think that also underscores the importance of reopening schools and particularly we couple that educational with the epidemiological habit or conclusion particularly for those students in grades K through 5 they're compelling scientific reasons why we can reopen there's compelling educational reasons why we can reopen and I think as a state we're just going to have to reconcile these issues with certain but I think the bottom line from a moral perspective is we have an obligation to address the needs of these students and they're not necessarily you know doing well under what happened in the spring and I feel a sense of urgency to get these systems done online and start addressing them and that's from the sounds that that's what the Vermont NEA wants they want to assess these needs and make sure that kids are getting the health that they need because this pandemic has obviously been very tough on them so they think by extending it they would be able to really figure out what each kid needs to the school year would you suggest that in the few weeks leading up to September 8 they start reaching out to families then no I think you know firstly it's the public health conditions as I've been a server and a consumer that information that you know as the governor said the public health conditions don't warrant more delay I mean if anything things would point to a more aggressive reopening the conditions of Vermont arrive that really support going back to school but I think secondly it's the emphasis needs to be on reopening school and getting those routines re-established I think just the fact of getting schools open and getting those routines going is part of the antidote if you will to dealing with some of the social emotional stress that this emergency has created so I'm not necessarily thinking that you know opening schools to start doing academic assessment is the primary focus but it certainly is important that we begin that work but I think primarily right now our focus is on reopening school getting those routines re-established because those routines themselves are just vital to student development in their vital communities great thank you very much Kevin McCallum seven days Governor McCann sorry for the delay there my question involves the math mandate the question for you that is Governor why did you say previously to Calvin's question that you leave it up to the prerogative of business owners about whether people should wear masks and what's the point of a math mandate if people just business owners don't have to follow it or have their customers follow it no it's required Kevin it's just that I don't want them to be in the middle of a controversy and so we're trying to downplay that do everything we can we would advocate that the business follow the rules and trying to instruct those patrons coming into their stores and to do the right thing offer curbside service do everything they can to allow for that but the mandate is like law I mean it's there and it's mandatory that you wear a covering when entering a public entity into a business but I just wanted to downplay the fact that we don't want them to be in the middle of a controversy and put some of the store clerks maybe some of the young store clerks right in the middle of something that could be harmful to to others so again we want everyone to do the right thing I believe they will I think they'll be more compliant but I do as I said previously I think education is the key to compliance and we'll continue with a mass campaign in order to to seek that compliance okay so it's mandatory it's just the prerogative it comes to the prerogative of whether they want to enforce it in their stores yeah that's right the next question is about prison you mentioned that we'd love to bring back all the prisoners from out of state but we don't have the facilities to do so but didn't we just outline some numbers that indicated that we were up at 1600 and we've since dropped to 1300 and doesn't that effectively mean that we do have the capacity to bring back all out of state prisoners at this very moment yeah if you looked at the if you looked at the numbers simplistically the gross numbers and the net numbers would say yes we have enough room enough bed space in order to put them back and bring them back to Vermont but unfortunately as you are aware we have this pandemic going we need isolation areas for those who might be affected by the coronavirus so we have to leave some space in each facility to accommodate that if it does transpire secretary Smith anything else I should have does that make sense Kevin it does but it does raise the question about well when the pandemic passes and we get back to normal is the capacity going to be there in the system today quite possibly Kevin it could I would advocate that we need a modernization of the facilities themselves I think you may have been through some of them but we at the same time we don't have a lot of control over the judiciary separate branch of government and when they send us offenders people who have to do time we have to have a space for them so I would say as we work our way out of the pandemic we may see and I think we've already started to see a bit of a rise in the number of offenders prisoners coming into the facility so I don't think we're at our low point now I think we're at a low point maybe a month or two ago but it's slowly been rising as the courts open back up more and so forth and things get back to unfortunately a normal so we may not have that space but it's something you know it's a great question it's something that I've been asking myself of corrections and Secretary Smith to keep an eye on that because again from a simplistic view when you look at the numbers it would appear that we have the space but we may not by the time the pandemic is over but we'll cross that bridge and again we'll continue to advocate for a modernization of the facilities that we have here in Vermont so that we don't have to send prisoners out of state got it the last question is just for Dr. Levine about the abundant evidence he cited how can there be abundant evidence that children in classroom settings do not spread the disease when children haven't been in classroom settings since the beginning of the pandemic thanks for holding me firm on this one so the abundant evidence is not in the United States predominantly it's in Europe, Australia other parts of the world so it's more abundant than the US actually there's a large number of countries that have been successful and a very very small number at least in the published literature where they have not been successful yeah have you read these studies to have confidence that the way that they were conducted and the circumstances under which those the conditions existed in those countries and in those schools that we can replicate that to set here schools very differently than the United States in many ways I don't know I've read them we also had as guests two weeks ago Dr. Raska was a guest and he and Dr. Lee who are pediatric infectious disease specialists at the University of Vermont Medical Center have written extensively on the topic and had just published an editorial I believe and the journal Pediatrics from their review of that literature so it's not just been one person vetting this it's been vetted by a large number and by the entire if I could expand it by the entire field of pediatrics because the AAP the American Academy of Pediatrics has been very vocal in using this literature to support their concern that kids are being harmed more by being out of school than the benefit that they would reap by getting back into the school environment so we're very comfortable with this literature and as we progress along we will develop the U.S. literature and we will see where there have been successes and where there unfortunately might be failures to be able to guide us better to be lost in this connection moving on Dean Mcgray, paladonia record yes good afternoon thank you for taking all these calls and seeing you through to the end I want to talk about the executive order reporting tool that was referenced earlier by Steve Maryland perhaps this is a question for Commissioner Shirley the question regarding that tool is it working the way that you envisioned that it should and what percentage of the reports that are made are you actually having people follow up on and investigate Mr. Shirley thank you Governor thanks for the question I don't have offhand the percentage that are being followed up for investigation I know that the numbers that have made it all the way to the Attorney General's office number in the dozen or last across 1,500 or more reports it's working as well as can be hoped again the posture is one of education and wanting to have a uniform reporting and flow to ensure consistency so it's working well but I think that our hope is that at some point we can pivot away from that system to really focusing exclusively on education so that remains to be seen as the weeks progress so just as a follow up sir with the actual mask mandate being implemented which should people see the executive reporting tool as a way to sort of alert you guys to some particularly bad actors with the mask mandate they certainly can use the tool because mask compliance will be something that really is a point in time singular location kind of kind of thing I'm not sure how useful it's going to be again the current posture in the hope that the launchers will take the opportunity to if they choose to politely engage folks and remind them of the need for masks without creating confrontations and without creating controversy or shouting matches and being mindful that there are folks that are unable to wear a mask for one reason or another so that's an opportunity to reinforce those messages and again not focus on the need to always report these things whether it's to the portal or elsewhere really the main message is that wearing a mask is good for public health it's good for the people around you it's good for those who are at risk that you may or may not know about there are those who can't always wear masks and again the hope is that we'll see exactly the same kinds of compliance we've seen right along which I've been able for months to have the best virus numbers possible thank you if I could just give one more question this one I'm going to direct to Secretary Smith so if you could just update the efforts that are in place to try to reduce the reliance on the Motel Voucher program for homeless people Secretary Smith thank you for the question we're moving forward with some requirements now with the Motel Voucher system formal application and interviews for all households now need to be need to be done to receive services to ensure that we have the most up-to-date information on each household to support the housing recovery and implementation households need to cooperate with their community housing provider for intake assessment it's formally called a coordinated assessment and housing case management services and the development of long-term housing plans we want to move people into long-term housing plans and we're also looking at households to contribute a percentage of their income to the cost of housing in this facility as you know we've waived all of these during the pandemic and we are starting to impose these sort of questions and guidelines as we move forward so these are questions and procedures that we had prior to the pandemic we're starting to put them back into place the pandemic isn't over and I keep the height of the pandemic but we're our concentration right now with the with the program that we put in place 23 million dollar program is to move people to longer-term care longer-term housing instead of the current motel hotel system as I've said before as I just want to reiterate this is not a permanent solution it's not sustainable the cost of it is prohibitive and we need to move to a more permanent housing as we move forward so that's the update thank you just a quick follow-up in terms of the northeast kingdom Secretary Smith are there any particular plans that you could share with me that you're working with on long-term housing opportunities let me do this let me let the housing portion of DCF get back to you on it and we'll be region specific for you that way I won't guess or give you some wrong information okay appreciate that thank you sir alright last table Joseph Gresser Jared Smith hope you haven't gone too far away the facility in Mississippi obviously the state of Vermont is especially for the well-being of the people who are incarcerated there what kind of supervision does the state have in place is there a person there representing Vermont do you always find it out about things that might be a problem when something like the present situation arises well let me start by saying obviously the pandemic has slowed down our travel almost stopped our travel to the facility in Mississippi obviously we have meetings and right now I suspect there's several zoom meetings in terms of coordinating it just to give you an update Joe all tests have been completed at the facility down there and they're being shipped to the labs I think we had 16 refusals but we're figuring out how to deal with that obviously we keep communications open with the facility down there during normal times we're down there quite a bit these are not normal times at the same time the Defender General's Office keeps in close contact with the prisoners down there just to make sure that they have different avenues that they can reach out to as well so we we don't abandon them down there we keep in close contact with the supervisors and the facility down there the Defender General keeps close contact with the prisoners down there did I answer your question yes except I have one follow up which is I understand that with the exception of the 15 refusals you have tested all of the Vermont prisoners at the facility but were they in Vermont and the prisoners and the staff of the facility would also be tested do you have any assurance that this is going to happen well right now the Vermont prisoners are in what I understand is a sort of a separate pod area so they don't come in contact with my understanding and you're going to have to really talk to the Department of Corrections on this but my understanding as it's been explained to me they are segregated away from other prisoners we are in conversations with the facility down there to make sure that the workforce is tested as well thank you very much last but not least Lee and Elder Connors this is a question about the math mandate that's going to affect I know that some of the reason around this was because of the eventual influx of college students and potentially fall tourists and I was reading through the order I noticed that is right now only last until August 15th and I know it can be extended but I'm just wondering why currently it ends on August 15th rather than into September students and tourism is more likely to be occurring in the state yeah it's just the vehicle the executive order only lasts until August 15th so if you let that lapse without a subsequent executive order you can't forecast it in the future so it only is active while the executive order is in place so it's just a technical the technical aspect of the executive order like I couldn't say I couldn't say you'd have to have a math mandate for the next six months it can only go throughout the period of the executive order itself okay so you would be expecting to extend the math mandate then beyond August 15th along with the rest of the executive order yeah as I've said before you know it's just a vehicle to be able to open up the economy and put these provisions into place so I wouldn't anticipate that it would end as of August 15th that there would be another executive order thank you with that thank you very much for tuning in have a safe weekend and we'll see you on Tuesday