Good morning everyone. I appreciate everyone tuning in. Today we'll hear from Secretary French for our weekly education update as well as Deputy Secretary Samuelson and Dr. Levine for our usual vaccine and health updates. This afternoon we'll also be paying very close attention to the advisory committee discussion about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It's my hope that after the committee finishes its meeting the CDC and FDA will move quickly on their recommendations perhaps even tonight or tomorrow. In Vermont we're preparing for a resumption of the use of these vaccines so we're ready if all goes well. If the feds give the green light we'll be ready to start using J&J again next week which will be helpful in so many ways but I want to assure everyone even without the J&J we're still on pace to have more than 60% of adult Vermonters vaccinated with at least one dose by May 1. If the pause is lifted it will allow us to further accelerate so I want to thank Vermonters again for doing their part in signing up. Among many other things in this pandemic Vermont is a national leader in both rate of vaccine administration and the percentage of our population being fully vaccinated and that is because of all of you and thanks to all of you helping yourselves and your communities by getting the vaccine. We're really fortunate to have all these choices all these vaccines that are safe effective and will allow us to do many of the things we've missed over the last 14 months. Next as you'll remember from last week Senator Sanders and I talked about our work to expand summer programs for our youth. Together with the Agency of Education, Vermont After School and others our goal to make sure kids can reconnect with their friends and have some fun this summer after missing out on so much over the last year. This week Senator Sanders and I met with superintendents from across the state to hear about their plans and I was really encouraged by what I heard. I want to thank them for working with us to help build a great summer for our kids. For parents out there looking for opportunity for your kids you can view a map of available camps on vermontafterschool.org. So far there are over 400 offerings listed with more on the way and that's enough capacity to welcome over 30,000 kids. We're working to make these programs accessible, affordable and impactful for our youth so please take a look if you have an opportunity. One obstacle we heard about from the superintendents and this is true for many sectors is staffing. There are currently many full and part-time positions available this summer across the state. The more people our summer programs can hire the more kids will be able to reach. So this is a great opportunity to step up for our youth and spend the summer having some fun. Vermont After School has a full page as a page for people interested in these jobs. This is open to high school as well as college students looking for a summer job or college credits and it really does bring back memories for me. When I was 15 I was a camp counselor at Lotus Lake Camp as a woodworking instructor. So again if you're interested visit vermontafterschool.org. Lastly ACCD will issue our full summer camp guidance within the next 24 to 48 hours and we'll discuss it at Tuesday's press conference in greater detail but stay tuned for that look for it it will be up on their website over the weekend. With that I'll now turn it over to Secretary French for his education update. Secretary French. Thank you Governor good morning. I'll begin my update with a review the PCR surveillance testing in our schools from this week. This was vacation week for some of our schools so the participation rate was much lower than normal. This week we tested about 226 staff which is about 20 percent of the number we usually test. To date this testing has identified no positive cases of COVID-19. This is the third week in a row the testing did not identify a single case. This means the positivity rate for school staff has been zero percent for the month of April so far and the state positivity rate remains low at 1.5 percent. With the vaccination of school staff nearly complete we have decided to end the surveillance testing program for school staff after next week. In its place we are working with the health department to organize a pilot surveillance testing program for students in schools and summer programs. We'll be using new funding from the CDC to pay for the program. This program is still being organized and we'll have updates on it in the coming weeks. The USDA announced this week that it is extending program flexibility for the student meal programs through June of 2022. This will enable schools to operate these programs next year in response to changing conditions of the virus and will also provide additional financial subsidies. We are in the process of understanding the specific implications of this announcement and we will follow up with additional guidance and communications as we get more information. Our initial reaction is this is welcome news and will certainly help support the food security needs of our children during what has been a very challenging time for many of our families. On a similar note we've received the first guidance on SR-3 funds from the U.S. Department of Education yesterday in the form of an interim final rule that describes how the funds need to be administered. The SR program has been the primary vehicle for federal K-12 relief during the pandemic. Vermont's K-12 education system will receive about 285 million under this SR-3 program with 10 percent of the funding being reserved for state level support and 90 percent going directly to school districts. In the guidance that was issued yesterday the U.S. Department of Education clarified the agency of education is the recipient of these funds and the agency is responsible for developing a plan for how to spend the state level funds. We will now begin the work of developing the spending plan. The agency is required to develop the plan through a formal process of stakeholder engagement and public comment and we will use the priorities that emerge from the district level recovery planning guide to guide the initial drafting of our plan. Lastly we will be issuing guidance on graduations and end of school year celebrations this afternoon. Both graduations and end of school year celebrations including PROMs will be permitted but we'll need to follow the safety requirements outlined in our safe and healthy schools guidance in the Vermont Forward Plan. These celebrations are not only being permitted this year but also being strongly encouraged. This has been a long year for our students in our schools and we want to do whatever we can to ensure the school year ends in a safe and celebratory way. That concludes my update. I'll now turn it over to Deputy Secretary Samuelson. Deputy Secretary Jenny Samuelson of the Agency of Human Services today will provide an update on the progress with vaccinations. As it's already been mentioned the CDC's advisory committee on immunization practices is meeting today to review the data on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. We hope to have more information later this afternoon and during but during this pause we have been watching closely and planning. Depending on the outcomes of the advisory committee we could begin vaccinating as early as Tuesday in the northeast kingdom. If a recommendation comes out this evening we'll likely have more specific information to share with on Vermont's plans as early as Saturday morning. I am happy to share that we have reached another milestone this week. More than 300,000 people have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. We are making great progress and at 56 percent of eligible Vermonters vaccinated with at least one dose we are closing in on achieving the second steps in Governor Scott's Vermont forward plan. I also want to let you know that on April 29th we will open registration to out-of-state college students and part-time Vermont residents. You can make an appointment on the state's website at healthvermont.gov backslash my vaccine. If you are unable to sign up online you can call<PHONE_NUMBER>. Turning to BIPOC Vermonters we continue to make good progress as of today 52 percent of BIPOC Vermonters have been vaccinated or have made an appointment. In terms of our overall progress as of this morning 305,100 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19. 94,000 and 900 people have received their first dose of vaccine and 210,000 people have received their first and last dose. In closing it's critical that we all do our part to end this pandemic. I want to encourage those who have not yet made an appointment to get vaccinated to do so as soon as they are able. At this time I'll turn it over to Dr. Levine for the health update. Thank you and good morning. Our data continues to move in a very positive direction as we are seeing more consecutive days where daily reported cases are under 100 now. We've seen about a 36 percent decline in cases in the past two weeks. Hospitalizations remain relatively stable at 26 today with five people in the ICU. Our positivity rate has dramatically decreased to 1.2 percent. So while illness among anyone is always a concern we do appear to be on a better overall trajectory at this time. We continue to see two powerful forces at play in our pandemic landscape variants of the virus and vaccination. As you know they're working in opposite directions both here in Vermont and nationally and despite the good news in our case data we cannot let up on our efforts to vaccinate Vermonters as quickly as we can and preventing spread of the virus. Across the U.S. the B.1.1.7 variant continues to represent an increasing proportion of the circulating virus. The CDC estimates that it accounted for nearly 45 percent of circulating virus in the two weeks ending March 27th. Although our numbers in Vermont are too small to calculate the proportion of B.1.1.7 with certainty well over 50 percent of the specimens that we've sent for whole genome sequencing are returning as this variant. We've also seen the B.1.429 variant in several Vermont counties and the P.1. variant was also recently confirmed in a small number of Rutland and Wyndham County residents. Speaking of these variants though if the B.1.1.7 and B.<IP_ADDRESS> were able to evade the vaccines to any significant degree I would expect increased transmission of the virus but we are of course seeing the opposite right now. A cause for cautious optimism and this is a great time to remind unvaccinated Vermonters and those not yet fully vaccinated who have traveled out of state to obtain a test within three days of their return. Test opportunities are widespread and readily available. As you just heard on the vaccine front we're now over 55 percent of Vermonters 16 and older having received at least one dose of vaccine and 38 percent who've completed vaccination. I continue to be quite proud of this progress and thank each and every Vermonter who's protecting themselves their families and their community. As I've noted before we are now at the time in the vaccination effort where the impact on cases should become apparent and seems to be doing so. Now that everyone 16 and up are eligible for vaccination I hope you'll join me in helping anyone you know who may not have made an appointment yet to do so especially in our younger groups where we would like to see even more uptake. Maybe you're concerned about side effects and need encouragement so talk to our trusted healthcare provider or if you haven't yet found an easy time or location maybe you need childcare or a ride or you might still need a meaningful reason for yourself because although many of us have shared experiences during this pandemic we all still have personal reasons as to why we might get vaccinated to feel safe to restart our social lives less financial stress or to protect our children or any one of a number of reasons. Or maybe you are waiting to see what happens with the J&J vaccine which I've been hearing from a lot of people regarding just that point. I fully expect a definitive decision today. The meeting of the ACIP began about 25 minutes ago and will be ending at the end of the day followed shortly thereafter by FDA and CDC decisions. We will be preparing guidance for Vermonters and for Vermont clinicians this evening. And if there are no major stipulations on who should be offered the vaccine we will then develop even more opportunities for how to access this vaccine including the opportunity referred to by Deputy Secretary Samuelson in Essex County. Whatever the case may be we can support one another and keep improving our reach to more Vermonters because every person who chooses to get vaccinated brings us all a step closer to moving past the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally I'd like to end on a somewhat different note one that I've raised at various points in the pandemic regarding substance misuse. Throughout the pandemic we've continued efforts to meet all ongoing public health needs and COVID-19 has certainly created unique challenges for people with substance use disorder including isolation and mental and emotional pressures that contribute to their disease. So I want to remind everyone in a spirit of prevention that tomorrow is take-back day. Something we made a big deal of many times in the past and I don't want it to be overshadowed by the pandemic. More than half of the people who misuse prescription drugs get it from a friend or relative often straight out of the medicine cabinet. If you no longer need your medication please do your part and dispose of it safely. Take a few minutes this weekend to go through your medicine cabinets and safely disposed of unused and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter drugs especially prescription painkillers. This simple act makes a huge difference in preventing misuse and diversion. Please visit healthvermont.gov slash do your part for more information about take-back disposal sites near you as well as to request a free medication mailback envelope. You can get that from us at the health department you can often get that in a pharmacy it allows you 365 day a year opportunity to get rid of unused and unwanted medications. And as always help is available when and where you need it. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use visit vermonthelplink.org that's vthelplink.org for support and referral services. I'll turn this back to the governor now. Thank you Dr. Levine now open it up to questions. All right starting with Calvin Cutler WCAX. Thanks governor so you may have seen today that New York City is opening up vaccination appointments to walk-ins you don't have to have an appointment and in some states they're actually asking for fewer vaccines because the uptake isn't as high. So I guess my question is you know are we seeing the demand slow down any counties here in Vermont and if the J&J vaccine goes forward as well what do you envision demand looking the demand looking like for that? Yeah you know there are certain areas of our state that have either slowed down or never had the uptick. That's why we've concentrated for instance on the Northeast Kingdom. That's why if the vaccine the J&J vaccine is approved the pause is lifted this afternoon we'll be concentrating more first on the Northeast Kingdom. Other areas are seeing a high demand still. So in some respects I don't know if that's good news or bad news but I'm going to take it as good news because we still have a lot of folks that want to have to be vaccinated and that's what we're striving for. Other states talking with other governors they really are struggling to find enough people to to meet the supply that they're having come in their doors so they're they're in the uncomfortable position of turning that away. We're not there anywhere near that at this point but it's going to come to that pretty soon. Again when you look at our numbers I mean we're as far as the administration of of the vaccine and the policies we've adopted puts us in the top three to top five consistently in number of categories so we're doing something right and Vermonters are doing something right but there there may come a time when the supply is going to overwhelm the demand and and then we'll be adopting similar policies. We're starting to talk about that now to be prepared so that we might have some walk-in opportunities and so forth but but right now today we're in we're in pretty good shape and the registration process is working well. My second question I think might be either for you or Secretary French you know the state as you mentioned is putting together this continuity continuity of learning plan for the summer so I'm just kind of wondering you know number one what will that look like and what will it cost families as well what will be the average cost for some of these camps? Well again Senator Sanders has consistently said and he was able to funnel money to for these programs that's why we're speaking with some of the superintendents as well to use some of the funds they had to to initiate this it was it was pointed towards summer and after-school programs so our goal is to have it it either be free or a small amount of money but we don't we want to make sure that it's accessible to the majority of kids regardless of their zip code regardless of their the means of their their families we want them to take advantage of this because it's really important we we've said this consistently getting kids back in school for in-person instruction was about the the social needs and mental health of our kids same is true here we want them to have some sort of a normal summer and then transition to in-person instruction by fall and a number of schools at this point in time after the the break this week we'll be going back to more remote or more in-person learning so we're we're encouraged by that sign I'll let Secretary French answer further on that on that point in terms of of what we're seeing as we move forward yeah thank you governor yeah there's there's a lot of activity going on now in this area particularly as a part of the recovery planning process but particularly focused on summer and your question we have sort of parallel things going on in terms of planning on the one hand we have the recovery planning that the school districts are engaged in and that's a result of you know planning for the next phase of the pandemic but specifically about how to utilize the federal funding that's coming into the state on a sort of a parallel track we also have coordinated activity happening at the state level and this is through Vermont after school to expand the capacity of programs statewide so there's more options for students and families across the state that include not only schools but but summer camps and so forth we just want to ensure that there are a large number of activities available for all students this summer so they can get outside reconnect with their communities so their and schools and so forth so that's that's sort of the overarching construct right now you know again to echo the governor's observations I think it's been a tremendous success so far I mean things are really coming together very well things are moving in the right direction so it couldn't be more pleased with the support from schools and the community stepping up and Vermont after school has been been wonderful and sort of leading us so I think it's going to be a great summer secretary do you envision every single student moving on to the next grade or do you think some districts might make the decision or or have have kids stay back and and repeat grades yeah that's that's a question that's really handled at the local level school districts are required to have a policy on retention for example you know certainly this this policy was more typically enacted in a way prior to the pandemic and you can imagine how that plays out differently at the different grade levels so you know decisions on retention for students in the primary grades for example are fundamentally different than the decisions around retention for students of the high school level which is largely based on passing courses and making progress towards meeting graduation requirements so those kinds of issues are all being sorted out at the local level which is where they should be sorted out and we haven't heard a lot of conversation yet around particularly progress towards high school graduation but I expect that conversation will emerge here in the next week or so as as districts come back from the April vacations Steve given the fact that we're probably going to hit 60% between now and next weekend where are we at possibly for outdoor events and masking wise for spectators and parents and and such are we looking at changing that guidance a little bit or I think I mentioned that either on Tuesday or last week that we are looking at whether how long the outdoor masking will be required so I think you can expect sometime in the next couple of weeks that we'll have some guidance on that we're not quite there yet but we are certainly talking about that right now. Liz, NBC 5. I know we're still waiting for new award on Johnson and Johnson but if we get the green light from the CDC and the FDA how soon do you think you'd be able to administer shots because I know of a couple people who have appointments on Monday at this point do you think those people will be able to get the J and J did you get the green light today? It will be close I don't know if it will be Monday certainly Tuesday but but maybe Deputy Secretary Samuelson will be able to answer that. So for the few appointments that we still have in the schedule they are mainly with our pharmacy partners our pharmacy partners will need to look at and respond to the guidance that comes out this afternoon. It is anticipated as the governor said that we definitely will be ready to go on Tuesday depending on what the guidance is this afternoon we'll be able to make decisions with our pharmacy partners about those that are scheduled on Monday. I have a question for Dr. Levine. Please spoke to a person or a woman who claims just five days after she received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine that she had to go to the emergency room and from there she was diagnosed with Bell's palsy. Have you heard of this reaction and do you recommend that this person skip the second dose or continue to move forward? Yes so Bell's palsy has been reported not just with this vaccine but with vaccines for a variety of diseases over the years and decades. So it's not an unknown side effect whether her side effect is related to the vaccine or another factor she would have to investigate with her healthcare provider because there are a number of other known causes of Bell's palsy. The reality is if it is related to the vaccine it is a distinctly uncommon side effect and would not be seen in huge numbers in any of the trials that have been ongoing to date. I wouldn't want to advise her on the second dose again because she needs to be assured by a healthcare professional who knows her case specifically that there is no other cause except potentially the vaccine before she makes a decision about the second dose. Someone like her though if it were actually associated with the vaccine that would still not potentially preclude her from getting another type of COVID vaccine but I'll leave it at that. Lisa, DAP? Thanks this is also a question for Dr. Levine. As I'm sure you know the Washington University release that study yesterday about the increased risk that COVID survivors even who had mild illness faced months after they've been sick. I was wondering if the health department monitoring or plant monitoring COVID survivors in Vermont for any lingering illness or for death months later I know you already have plenty to do. I thought I was wondering about that. Yeah no thanks for the question and the CDC came out with information that I guess is going to be embargoed for a short time but it's probably available this afternoon that also speaks to what impact having COVID has. So this allows me to repeat a theme I've mentioned many times here which is to those who think well I don't need the vaccine if I get the illness it's not a big deal it'll be done and over with and then I'll still have some immunity. These kinds of studies remind us that it is not always a benign condition it is not always something that has no long-term ramifications on someone's health. The description of the people that were observed in these studies are that they had not very significant cases of COVID they were oftentimes very mild yet when you look at their health care expenditures look at their times to revisit the health care provider community they were at higher rates than you might expect after having had such a benign illness. Some of them had more chronic symptoms that developed as well. I don't want to emphasize death because that was not as significant a finding with regard to these kinds of patients that I'm talking about so don't my word of caution to Vermonters especially those who might feel like they may not really need the vaccine is do not underestimate this virus and don't underestimate the fact that you could have long-term symptoms. Now with regard to what the health department's doing you know most of our interactions with a person who tests positive occur very immediately and then we allow them to have communication with us and encourage that through either the CERA alert app that we provide or other means during the ensuing weeks certainly if they develop symptoms they're concerned about if they don't lose any of their symptoms and are wondering how to reintegrate back into work and etc. So we communicate with them then we don't actually follow them long term however that's been one of the reasons I've been pushing very strongly for our own within Vermont study of people long term with COVID and we're very close to beginning that study in a more prospective way now to understand this whole syndrome called long COVID or long haul COVID depending on what label you'd like to use which is not everyone.  So the bottom line is we're going to be embarking on some study of that but we don't have a lot of data regarding the people who've had COVID already in Vermont and how many of them do or do not have persistent symptoms. I did have an opportunity to speak with a support group a couple of nights ago and there were people there obviously and they had very compelling stories to tell but at the same time it was not a large large group that's not totally representative of the whole Vermont population I realize but we're not aware of large numbers of people who feel that their symptoms are persistent but clearly we know that there is a number of them out there and we want them to be able to be able to turn to aspects of the health care community to have their stories heard and have any interventions provided that could be useful for them. Okay and then also thank you for that you mentioned earlier that you'd like to see your health department like to see more young people get vaccinated what what is the percentage now and and what would you be comfortable with being I'm sure you'd like to see them all get vaccinated but is there a certain percentage that you're looking for? Well you know we've set a goal for most of our age strata if you will in the 80 plus range and that's how we've been doing a lot of our projections I think the most recent group that we opened up in that window over the weekend that passed already was the 16, 17 and 18 year olds and I think we're in the 55 percent range or so of them is that true? 41 percent range of them and then in the next strata it is okay 50 percent in the 16 to 18 and 41 percent going up to age 29 so certainly and I do know we have a number of people in that latter age band that are awaiting Johnson and Johnson so we will see with great interest if Johnson and Johnson is returned to its former status with no major restrictions or concerns how many in that age group are joyous about that and immediately start scheduling appointments I see okay thank you very much if I could just add to the Johnson and Johnson issue just as a reminder we we don't have a lot of inventory at this point in time so I think we have maybe in the state supply under a thousand doses and but the but the pharmacies which aren't in our control have an inventory as well so we can get started this week but a lot of it will rely on what we do in the future will rely on what they tell us on Tuesday so when we have our White House call on Tuesday they will tell us if if the pause is lifted how much they're going to ship us and that will be a big factor in what we do in the future over the next week or so in terms of vaccination clinics with Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Mike Donoghue, the Islander. Thanks Jason. Governor we've heard from a number of people especially women deeply concerned about Johnson and Johnson vaccine shots given when it does get approval to restart. What are the latest numbers of promoters failing to show up to their vaccine appointments and the state has to be thinking that the number of no-shows may grow when Johnson and Johnson is there or that people may walk away. I know it was one in a million aren't great odds for the problem with Johnson and Johnson unless you know that happen to be that one but what steps will the state take to get Pfizer or Moderna shots into these people that may not want Johnson and Johnson? Yeah well keep in mind first that the CDC FDA their meeting that meeting with the recommendations of that committee after this meeting ends at five o'clock tonight I would imagine and and there may be some restrictions involved and and who gets it and age categories and so forth or there may not be anything at all we just don't know at this point it's up to them so we will certainly that will be a consideration in terms of making sure that everyone understands what those restrictions are before they sign up. Secondly we were not forcing anyone to have the Johnson and Johnson. I had Johnson and Johnson myself as did my wife but this is going to be a choice we're not forcing you to have that so there will be Pfizer and Moderna available for you if you want to wait for that. As I said if they didn't lift the pause we would still I believe meet our goals over the next couple of months so with or without it we'll still be there but with it Johnson and Johnson it will certainly accelerate us getting to some sort of normalcy in the next couple of months but truly a choice this isn't something that we would force anybody to do anything else Dr. Lee? So what are the latest numbers? What are the latest numbers? Yeah I don't know yeah I don't know if we have those yeah I'm not sure that we do we had to cancel a number of them and reschedule them because of the Johnson and Johnson and we know I know of a few people who are waiting for Johnson and Johnson that's what they want so they aren't they aren't interested in the Pfizer and Moderna so I think it's going to be a mixed bag so to speak there are going to be some who are going to want the Johnson and Johnson others who may not want it at all but they'll have Pfizer and Moderna to choose from so it's difficult to say at this point who's not showing up because we're not offering the Johnson and Johnson right now so we'll see what happens after today. Dr. Levine? And just the only thing to add to that is obviously the person who was scheduled in the last several weeks for Johnson and Johnson didn't have an appointment to not show up for because that was canceled but they were all provided with the opportunity to have a Pfizer or Moderna appointment within the same time frame so they wouldn't have to move to the end of the line because of what happened at the federal government level they could actually get Pfizer and Moderna within the same number of weeks as their Johnson and Johnson appointment had been already scheduled for and some took advantage of that for sure and those who want to wait will just wait until Johnson and Johnson is available again and either go through the pharmacies or the state registration site to access that. Okay and Governor Reader is inquiring that there may be some movement on increasing the number of spectators at high school games I think it's 150 right now are those numbers going up and if people are heavily vaccinated to that count for the 150 Reader one? Yeah no actually the 150 is unvaccinated you can have as many vaccinated people over that number fully vaccinated people over that number as you want so that is flexible. Secretary Curley have I got that right? Governor I was actually hoping maybe Secretary Moore would sign in join in but I do believe it as of May 1st we go to that 300 just to be clear. Right right it's still going to follow the guidance that we put into place in the steps so the next step is May 1 which we feel we're going to hit and whatever the attendance the gathering size is in that category is what we'll adhere to but the point is if it's 150 that's unvaccinated and we will allow any number of vaccinated fully vaccinated people to come and gather at those at those events those are outdoor events. Great thank you very much have a good weekend. Joe the Barton Chronicle. Thank you I have a question that you may have answered in the past but maybe it's different now in an office the public does not come all the people who work there are fully vaccinated that is two weeks after their second shot are masks still required? Yeah I believe so Joe but I will refer to Dr. Levine or Deputy Secretary Samuelson for that. That would still fall you know as we enter the months of May and June in the in the universal guidance part of our Vermont Forward Plan so it would involve asking in that setting. Okay well thank you very much. Secretary Samuelson we learned last week that FEMA was giving the state about 46 million for the motel program and I'm wondering if you could give us a little information on that can that money be used to purchase motels or is that just going to continue paying rent so to speak and you know how long do you think that will carry the state and what is the long term plan beyond that if the state spending about six million a month that's only going to go another six to eight ten months or so so what can you tell us about that 46 million we got last year from FEMA last week? Yeah that's a great question so the current hotel program we've been working with our housing partners across the state to identify what a transition plan is for it the program as you mentioned in its current state is not sustainable for several different reasons we will be returning to tourism here in the state of Vermont and the number of hotel rooms that are available will decline and it's just also not financially or programmatically sustainable. We submitted a proposal to the legislature yesterday which begins to reintroduce reintroduce some of the eligibility criteria as we go forward beginning in June and for those who are currently in the hotels beginning in July over the next couple of weeks we and months we'll be working with our housing partners to help make the transition of this emergency housing program to something that is more sustainable and also works to get folks into permanent housing versus what is really in a program intended for emergency or short-term housing. And so the 46 million is just going to continue along with what's happening right now basically paying rent for another six to eight months or so. The 46 million will be used in that transitionary process to transition from the hotel program to a more long-term sustainable process. What does that mean transition? Does that mean purchasing motels or what can you tell me about that? It will be used to to current for the individuals who are currently housed and in and in the future but it will see a declining program as we see other funds that have been introduced increasing the number of available units through what the governor has proposed as a longer term housing plan. Okay thank you Howard just keep in mind that is part of the plan we put forward to to use the billion dollars that we're receiving that's flexible the YARPA funding we received 2.7 billion in its entirety but a billion is much more flexible for us and one of the initiatives along with broadband climate change mitigation water sewer and storm water provisions and and the economy was housing about 250 million dollars for housing and a good portion of that would be to provide a for more permanent housing in the future rather than spending the way we have been over the last year upwards to over 70 million dollars for temporary housing for those who are homeless we want more permanent housing so we would take a at least half of that 250 million to build out more permanent housing for those who are homeless and is that a combination of purchasing motels as well as possibly building it could it could yeah there's there's a number of different initiatives within the plan some of it could include buying existing motels and and refurbishing some could be used for existing housing and upgrading some could be used for building new housing as well so it's all the above right okay well thank you both I recently decided to reopen college campuses to you know visitors who are touring the campus why did you decide to make that change now like what what inspired your confidence that it was safe to have people especially potentially outsiders on campus visiting the facility I'll let Dr. Levine answer that but but as you know Erin we have moved forward we want to have more welcome more people into the state those who are vaccinated can freely travel in and out of the state those who are not need to have a test before they come and so that we can get back to something normal so we're encouraged by that and it's one small step forward in that regard yes and that's one of those sort of administrative operational decisions that campuses on their own make as well to figure out if they want to have opportunities for people to visit as a part of a recruitment strategy we have noted over months now that well under five percent of our new cases of COVID in Vermont come from travel so it's a very minimal contributor to cases I'm happy to report that today we are at a rate of about 120 per 100,000 for cases which is below the US average which is now in the 130s per 100,000 but keep in mind we were just recently higher than that so it's not as if a student within Vermont visiting would not present any greater challenge than a student visiting from out of state and obviously people coming from out of state are still needing to adhere to our travel requirements so we felt that this was not a high-risk proposition and would benefit the universities and colleges families of students who are currently you know college students at a campus are those families allowed to visit their you know their sons and daughters I would say that it has to do with the rules that the campus has set because they can set their own rules regarding how open their campus is and how much visitation goes on there again we have a travel policy for the state that people should be adhering to if they're coming from out of state to visit but beyond that I think it's more of a college level decision about what they're doing on their own campus okay and the state also made the decision to allow out of state college students to get to sign up to get the vaccine but with that registration opening on April 29th and the semester ending early to mid-April of mid-May do you think that these students will be able to get fully vaccinated before they have to leave for the summer? It depends on when on a number of factors when their semester ends and they had planned on leaving it depends on what vaccine is available to them and if after today's deliberations Johnson and Johnson is freely available to all members of the college age population and the state acquires enough of it through its own allocation as well as through the federal pharmacy allocation how many doses are available we are wanting to work very closely with the colleges to make sure that if we have sufficient vaccine we can actually allow that deployment to occur in a way that will benefit their campuses and all of the students who are still here so a lot of factors in play here but our goal is to be as helpful as possible and to provide vaccine when we can and are there any kind of on campus or within walking district clinics planned on college campuses I mean you know not only for the out of theaters but for the students that are on campus that usually live in Vermont yeah all I can ask you there is to stay tuned because as we understand the Johnson and Johnson situation better and the amount of vaccine from the presidential calls that the governor is on every week we'll be able to comment more on that okay Deputy Secretary Samuelson wanted to say something as well Karen in addition to the availability of the Johnson and Johnson coming aboard which will give us new opportunities to explore with our college campuses we've we've worked hard to ensure that the vaccine is located in in close proximity to many of our campuses so for example for the University of Vermont it's located at the double tree which is just a short distance from campus in Middlebury around the Middlebury College it's also located within the town of Middlebury so I feel confident that those students who are on campus now regardless of the move that we go forward with will have access close to to where they they live and access close to the campus Erin if I could thank you Erin if I could also add just think it's important for everybody to understand you know the Moderna in Pfizer has first and second dose so if they were if these college students were interested in having their first dose let's say they could get their second dose back in their home state it's not something magical it's not something different the first dose is exactly the same thing as the second dose and the other states have seemingly more supply than we do and less demand in many many states so we're blessed in some respects that we have such a high demand for the vaccine but on the other side of that we just don't have enough supply so that we can get it in the arms of those who are willing in as quick as we'd like it's just a it's a it's like just a math problem we don't have the supply that we'd like to have so we're working on that and but it shouldn't preclude anyone from at least having their first dose because they can go again back to their home state and have their second dose very easily and just to be clear you know when you're on the state website can you kind of specify that you're only signing up to the first dose appointment or would you kind of have to cancel the second dose appointment if you made one as state or how would the telepower yeah I'll let Deputy Secretary Samuelson answer that one but I believe you don't have to make your second appointment but I'll let her answer that in the majority of cases when you go for your first dose you schedule your second dose so it would be at that point that you would indicate that you would be getting your second dose in another state or another location so the system is set up to really accommodate the desire of students to get their first dose in Vermont and if they choose to get their their second dose at their home state to indicate that at the time that they have their appointment okay thank you Greg Lamaroe the county courier thank you good morning governor I guess this afternoon now good afternoon governor we have a local municipality that took ownership of a property by a cocktail last year there were people squatting in the home and without a lease the municipality was not able to evict because of the state's eviction moratorium meanwhile the municipalities had to you know maintain the property they're they're not able to put it up for sale to get the property back in the tax roll they're having to pay the utilities costing taxpayers more money and the taxpayers are really trying to take me down the nose I'm wondering when you expect the current eviction moratorium to be lifted yeah this is a source of frustration for many I know of many individuals that are facing the exact same scenario but but the vast majority of people we've been able to help over the last 12 months it's been substantial so a lot of it depends on the the courts themselves the courts are now just reopening and can hear some of those eviction cases but I'm not clear in terms I just can't remember what what our process is at this point in time and I will reach out to anyone that may be listening on our side that might be able to answer that I'd appreciate that maybe just wait Greg we might have somebody on right now that might be able to answer it Governor this is Secretary Curley and I don't want to attempt to try to get into the weeds on this one on this call but I would be more than happy to offer offline to connect and connect you with Commissioner Hanford uh to see if he might offer a perspective on that okay great thank you Governor a quick follow-up on uh a question I've asked a few times it sounds like with the current labor shortage it's going to be hard to get people to fill the roles for summer camps we've heard week after week you know that the work search requirement is going to be reinstituted shortly but we haven't really heard anything concrete when can we expect a concrete answer on on when that's going to be reinstituted yeah it'll be within the first two weeks of of may and we'll have more information on this next week but but I think for those listening the work search requirement will be reinstituted within the first two weeks of May so prepare for that all right that's my two questions thank you governor have a great weekend thank you cat wcax hi I had a question that probably is for Dan French how many schools will be going back to in-person learning once spring break wraps up this week and what's holding districts back at this point hi cat we're not sure yet as you know we do a monthly survey to measure the amount of in-person that survey closes at the month at the end of the month so we'll have a better understanding of what's going on relative to the transition to more in-person once we get the data back from that survey and I'll be reporting on that in early May you know but the issues of what's holding them back I think it's just you know we've had particularly the last couple weeks you know elevated case counts and schools you know have learned to operate in those kinds of conditions but it's certainly been hard to make additional progress and coming back to more in-person when schools have been cycling back and forth from hybrid and remote and so forth so I'm optimistic we have the right policy tools in place to enable more in-person and certainly you know vaccination is contributing to a pretty you know regular increase in the conditions that schools are operating in so I'm optimistically we'll see a steady increase in in-person here in the couple couple weeks Governor I believe in your inaugural address you had a goal of April to get everyone in the classroom full-time in that window of course is closing fast here what comments do you have for districts who have not yet made the decision to go back to full in-person learning well anecdotally we're hearing that there are going to be some coming back to in-person instruction and I appreciate that effort and again you know this is a there's no playbook on this there's no roadmap in some respects for the pandemic and we're doing the best we can with the with the information we have at the time and we were in a much different place back in January in some respects we didn't have all the variants that we're seeing today so I know the the schools the districts superintendents and all other staff are doing the very best to get back to in-person instruction we'll leave it to them to decide but again I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing at this point anecdotally there'll be more coming into in-person instruction when they return from this April vacation secretary french do you believe there will be districts that do not at all for the rest of this school year go back to full-in-person yeah I don't I don't think when you say districts you mean whole districts I don't think that's likely uh schools on the other hand yeah I'm not sure they'll they'll definitely be issues of staffing and so forth that has to be sorted out but you know the governor's observation is the same as mine that everyone's really working hard at this it's been challenging a little bit in the last couple weeks with the conditions improving but I think you know the the tools are there the conditions are improving and we'll see an increased effort on this in the coming weeks but I I think it's also important to acknowledge you know particularly as we're working with the federal dollars that are you know clearly targeted at states and districts around the country that never were open at all that our schools have been essentially open from the beginning and have been working through really challenging circumstances the up and up and down so the the pandemic uh you know as the governor mentioned the new variants and so forth so continued effort um it's really been working really well so I just I have a lot of confidence that they're doing the best they can and uh with that we will provide the support they need and we have the right tools in place for them to enact more in person what promise you have for parents who are waiting for their children to go back to full-in-person learning and are frustrated at the moment yeah no I feel for them and uh you know it's essentially uh the the target of our our recovery plans is we really want to re-engage with all our families so I would just say you know be patient work closely with your your schools your teachers I know they're anxious to provide those supports as best they can um and uh you know just be patient and uh stay active and work with your school board and so forth uh to make sure that the needs of students are being met thank you and also take advantage of the uh summer camp opportunities that we are um are um laying out at this point in time and are developing I think this will help uh parents as well as the uh students uh transition through this summer Governor two readers say that they've been denied access to their child's graduation ceremonies because they have not been nor planned to be vaccinated would you or Secretary French please say whether non-vaccinated attendees will will be allowed at public school graduations and if so under what conditions yeah all I can do is comment on what our gathering limits are you know we put our plan forward and allows for a certain number of people um to gather in one place both inside and outside at certain stages with the vaccination process in place and those limitations are based on those who are unvaccinated so I don't know the schools obviously have to do what they think is best and uh and I know there's some more guidance going out this afternoon for schools and graduations so I don't know what limitations the school districts or schools themselves will implement but um but we're trying to find a path forward so that they can have um a somewhat normal graduation Secretary French yes I think um you know for the most part it will be closer to normal certainly than last year but um our guidance that is coming out this afternoon basically follows the Vermont forward limitation so guy I don't think there's been any graduations yet um but they there will be some in May certainly and that would fall under sort of step two of the Vermont forward uh so districts would have an option certainly on indoor um unvaccinated people is one per 100 per square foot um and then any number of vaccinated and then outdoor they certainly have greater flexibility so and then come June certainly when most graduations after after June 1 the the numbers expand up from there so I'm I'm optimistic that the Vermont forward plan our guidance that falls under it will provide districts uh sufficient flexibility to hold graduations that look a lot more normal than than last year so you're saying that right right now or in May it'll be one unvaccinated person per 100 square feet indoors yes our guidance follows the Vermont forward plan so if you're looking for that specificity at this moment I just encourage you to go to the Vermont forward plan uh that that describes the gathering uh context limitations and so forth that all groups in Vermont will fall under going forward and Secretary French the State Board of Education this week ruled that four local school districts must pay tuition to three different religious schools pursuant to the Espinoza Supreme Court decision last year does this throw the door open to public tuitioning of Vermont's approved independent religious schools for the coming school year or will the general prohibition on paying tuition to religious schools continue well I will comment on the State Board's decision but certainly I think as you're aware this is a topic that's been actively being considered before the the courts in the United States and ultimately the Supreme Court so I think it ultimately will you know remain to be seen how the courts decide this issue so the Esparade the Espinoza was not conclusive in that in that regard it's sort of beyond my expertise guy I guess you know from my perspective it's I think we can we can understand that the courts are actively engaged in clarifying this context and we'll have to be patient wait and see how that is ultimately resolved okay thank you Ingrid the Valley Reporter Hi my question is for Secretary French can you give us a snapshot or general overview of the graduation in prom guidance you know what type of information should schools accept to see yeah thanks again the guidance will be coming out this afternoon but we've been clear in the last couple weeks in our messaging to school superintendents and principals that the guidance will fall under the general parameters of the Vermont Forward Plan in terms of group size but also follow the safety provisions of our safe and healthy schools guidance so basically our the guidance that's coming out in this afternoon basically just suggests that these events are encouraged that districts should consider sort of the intersection if you will between the Vermont Forward Plan and the safety and safe and healthy schools guidance and it speaks to just a couple areas of how to operationalize those guidance documents in the context of both graduation and events like prom okay thank you and I have one more question I'm not totally sure who it would be for but can private businesses require proof of vaccination sorry require proof of vaccination before letting people into bars restaurants and other types of businesses yeah more of a legal question and I don't know if secretary curly has the answer to that but I believe we are allowing businesses to determine that on their own because you we still have a mass mandate in place and for inside so that that continues to be the case yes governor okay you're correct we're our interpretation is that private businesses are permitted to require proof of vaccination if they pursue okay and I just have one follow-up on speaking of gyms uh when will fitness classes resume and will that be after July 1st I what was yeah what was the question again maybe oh I'm sorry um just speaking of gyms uh when will fitness classes be able to resume and will that be after July 1st they can they're open at this point in time and if they follow the Vermont Forward Plan uh can incrementally have more people as we move forward so uh as long as they adhere to the guidance uh they can they can have those classes now is that do I have that correct secretary curly you sure do great thank you very much Chris Roy Newport Daily Express yes good afternoon I have no questions this afternoon thanks thanks Chris Devin Bates local 22 local 44 yeah question for Governor Scott yesterday in the House Committee on Healthcare uh parents and pediatricians gave testimony on lengthy wait times in the emergency room for children in a mental health crisis before they're connected with treatment and from what I'm hearing uh Dr. Ritu's on the call he said these wait times are an issue that have kind of fluctuated even before the pandemic but with 30% of beds at adolescent inpatient programs temporarily cut right now have there been discussions to eliminate some of these barriers and try to help these wait times go down a little bit for these kids yeah we're very concerned about this something that we've been highlighting since the start of the pandemic about the mental health of our kids in particular and that's why we were trying to get more in-person learning so that they could get back connected with their with their peers and other students and and more normalcy in a lot of respect so this this isn't a surprise it's unfortunate we're doing everything we can to try and open up more of these facilities but the pandemic is driving a lot of that as well so the quicker that we get out of this the quicker we'll get back to somewhat normal but but we had some issues previous to the pandemic and as I've said consistently all these problems that we faced before whether it's workforce challenges or demographics existed pre-pandemic and they're going to be with us after the pandemic so we're going to that's why we want to put our plan in place to try and address some of these issues like housing and and climate change mitigation and our water sewer and stormwater as well as the economy and and broadband so that's why we put that billion dollar plan forward. Dr. Levine anything to add to that or Deputy Secretary Samuelson on the facilities and mental health challenges? You're correct we are seeing an exacerbation in mental health it's not just due to the the 30 percent of the beds that are closed but an increase in the number of individuals who are in the emergency rooms. What I can say is the Department of Health and the Department of Mental Health are working closely together right now to and working to mitigate the current standards that exist for those 30 beds and to see whether they can open up more of them. In addition to that we've been working and Dr. Tu can probably speak to this with our community partners and our designated mental health agencies and other support services to really bolster the community-based options that that are available. Again we take this very seriously and we will continue to look at how we can address it both now and into the future. Yeah this is Dr. Wirtu thank you for the question and I agree with everything that's been said. There have been a number of initiatives that are looking at multiple different places in the flow of care to remove obstacles and many of them that we heard in the testimony yesterday are directed at trying to keep kids from getting into an emergency situation in the first place and try to offer good mental health care upstream of it being a full-fledged emergency. And then I just had a quick question as well from a viewer that we should be pretty straightforward. They were wondering what happened to Vermont college students who go to college out of state. They received their first shot out of state but then they need their second after they return back to Vermont. What should those students do? They just wanted some clarification on that. Yeah just just have them call in and make an appointment and we will be able to give them their second dose. Great thank you that's all I had. My question is kind of a piggyback off of the vaccine passport question. Some companies like IBM are designing digital health passes that could be used for entrance and events like sporting games. Governor would you feel comfortable with this kind of technology being used in Vermont? Yeah I think this is somewhat of an open question. You know we're all going to be facing at this point in time. I you know we're using some what of a passport at this point for travel. We're saying that if you're vaccinated fully vaccinated you can travel in and out of the state without any testing. So we're utilizing that. We're encouraging that for the step process to the 4th of July when we're going to be increasing the gathering sizes but it's going to be somewhat unlimited in terms of outdoor in particular the number of people who can gather who are vaccinated. So I think this is the path forward but we're going to have this debate I think in the future as to whether there should be or something that is utilized with a passport of this sort. But for my standpoint I think we know that this pandemic the virus itself is not going to be magically wiped away it's going to be with us for quite some time years to come. So we're going to have to deal with it in some way. So I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing and we'll have this debate moving forward. And a second question for you. House Bill 128 of the LGBTQ Panic Defense Bill is moving through the legislature right now. If that reaches your desk would you sign it? Yeah I have no reason not to unless there's something technical wrong with the bill but everything I've seen thus far it wouldn't preclude me from signing it. Thank you. I have. Hi Governor I don't see Commissioner Goldstein on the list but perhaps you and or Secretary Curley could answer the question about the USCIS lifting the Vermont Center's completion of the EB-5 immigrant. Yeah fortunately projects. Yep. So I'm just wondering if you could summarize what what it means in a practical sense. Yeah fortunately I think Commissioner Pichek is on and he can he can describe what happened and the effect of that on Vermont. Commissioner Pichek. All right great. Yeah thank you Governor and thank you Tim for the question. So you know we take this as a really encouraging development. The argument that we have been making for some time about the way we see the facts and the way we see the law was really finally agreed to by USCIS and granting the motion to reconsider and withdrawing the previous termination. So it has to go back to an internal office with USCIS but you know for all practical purposes it's directing that office to rule in our favor and and it's a big win for the investors really. I mean they no longer have the fear that if they were granted a conditional visa that it would be taken away and those that have not yet received a visa now have the assurance that their application will go through USCIS with the regional center to support them. So it's a really big really big win for the investors and we're really happy that USCIS you know agreed with our position. How many investors in that second group that are still even waiting for a visa do you know. Yeah so we thought you know there could be there are likely hundreds of investors that were impacted you know there were probably three or four or five hundred investors that had gotten a conditional visa that maybe were at risk that it would be clawed back if USCIS went that way. There's probably another 100 to 200 that are still in the process of getting their visa in the first place and those obviously are more directly at risk because they haven't been issued. They haven't been issued a conditional visa even that or conditional green card at this point. Does it affect any any actual projects in Vermont either going forward or or in in process at the moment? So you know the project investors. Yes really I mean you know it's it's beneficial to all the stakeholders you know when when the investors invest they're anticipating getting you know conditional residency they're anticipating you know a financial investment as well. So if they were unable to get their immigration status you know that really puts the projects in a bind as well that was the primary reason these investors you know invested with the project. So it's good for the investors it's good for the individual projects that were impacted which includes Mount Snow, Trap Family Lodge and you know a couple of different projects at JP Resort. So it is good for the investors but it's good for the projects. It's good for those communities also where those projects are located knowing that you know there won't be any impact on those projects. So those projects potentially can go forward then that word were halted by this? Yeah exactly I mean they can their investors can go forward to get their get their immigration status. There won't be requests to withdraw from the project you know the projects won't have to come up with money to try to refund the investors you know it seems like everybody now will continue you know in the direction that they were hoping to. Yeah great it's trying to get just trying to get a sort of a practical sense of what what this would mean. All right thank you Commissioner Pichett I appreciate it. Tim just to add a little bit to that as you recall as you remember to remind people we inherited this problem four years ago when I came into office and we have not disagreed that we want to shut down the regional center. We don't want to be in charge of that. We think someone else should do that. We've never disagreed with that. It was just the timing they wanted to shut it down immediately. We thought we should unwind this in a methodical way to protect those involved and and that was our argument all along it wasn't that we wanted to continue to run this regional center we just wanted to to make sure that we protected the investors and protected the projects that were went into this in a legitimate way and want to and it's been helpful in some respects for the trap trap lodge and trap family lodge and and others throughout Vermont so we didn't want to penalize them so we think this is a reason was a reasonable request and we're happy that they took this action. Wendy assuming everything goes goes smoothly when would you expect to unwind the regional center just as quick as we possibly can. Commissioner Pichett do you have a timeline for that or are we still waiting to hear I mean this doesn't mean that we're going to they're going to grant our request although we're expecting they will this means that they're going to hear this case. Yeah that's right governor and you know Kim to your question I mean we're already in the process of unwind it you know if you think about what we're doing we're not taking on new projects as the governor said we're supporting the current projects the current projects have raised all their money they've deployed it to build the programs they're at this point you know waiting for the investment returns to come in and they're repaying their investors and they're waiting for their immigration status so we're keeping track of that we're filing you know reports with USCIS as necessary but you know in all practical purposes we're already in that process of winding it down and it's really going to be complete when the final investor gets their petition so that could be you know it's probably over well over a year from now but but we're in that process as we speak really. Okay great thank you appreciate it. Tom Davis, compass Vermont. I actually don't have any questions today appreciate your time and hope you have a great weekend. Thanks Tom. Greg, Bennington Banner. Hello Am I on? Yes you are. Okay thank you very much governor. Thanks for your patience. Two questions one for you and I think one for secretary French. Governor the legislature has been tackling how to implement the new per pupil waiting formula for school funding and those new weights could impact proper education property taxes depending on the district since whatever the legislature decides is going to come to your desk what do you think is the right approach to putting those new weights in place? Yeah you know this is an interesting situation and I don't necessarily disagree with the waiting type of approach but I don't know what the ripple effect is of this and I might ask secretary French to comment on this at this point in time if he's the appropriate person. Yeah thank you governor. Yeah it's a complex study and the implications are significant and as you point to Greg that's why we've been testifying in favor of doing an implementation study. I don't know what the right answer is on how to implement the new weights but I know it is complex it affects special education funding and certainly the variation and it impacts on different districts is going to be significant so it's going to require some thoughtful effort on the part of the general assembly to create a plan to implement the weights. Right without getting too wonky there were some questions this week about the new weights particularly those addressing students and economic disadvantage. What's your level of confidence in the UVM story at the UVM study as a basis for addressing funding equity moving forward? Well I think the study is very well done. I've been involved you know certainly as the contractor that basically initiated the study but also working closely with the researchers that include researchers not only at UVM but the national level researchers so I think the study is exceptionally well done but again it's a very complex issue and the application of the study is what needs to be evaluated by the general assembly and it's going to require some focus effort to do that in a thoughtful way. Okay thank you very much. Thank you governor that's that's my question for the day. Thank you Greg. St. Albans messenger. Yeah hi actually my questions have all been answered at this point thank you. Good news thank you. Eric Times-Argus. Yes governor uh with the demand around the country in some places easing off have there been any discussions or are there any plans that you're aware of about funneling those unwanted doses to a place like Vermont which still has high vaccine demand? You know I've had some conversations with the the pharmacies some of the pharmacies in Vermont and they are we had asked them to take their whole allotment and then share them with us from the state supply standpoint they're going to work with us on that so they indicated that they may be asking for more if we need it and and I spoke with the second gentleman as well as you might have read and I brought up the fact that we could use more in this state at least in the short term to get more vaccinations in the arms of those who are willing because we didn't we don't have the same type of problem that it seems as though the list is growing longer every day of states that have more supply than demand we have the opposite problem so we we would be willing obviously to ramp up as necessary we have plans in place to do so if we receive more supply so I sent that message through to the through the second second gentleman to the VP and and to the president okay thank you Erin Calvin so reporter yeah my question is about actually the housing market in still right now there was a huge jump in out-of-state home buyers in 2020 and it's putting a lot of on president pressure on the market and I'm wondering if the state is you know watching that right now if there are any concerns about the pressure that might be putting on infrastructure or you know any problems that might be causing for the kind of like affordable housing development that area of really badly needs especially when their main challenge is land acquisition yeah you know again this is the ripple effect of some of the real estate market is going to impact some of those more vulnerable populations and that's another reason why we have our plan to put forward spending provisions within the billion dollars that we we're advocating with the legislature on is to address those I mean this is again this is a once in a century or once in a lifetime really opportunity to change the state's trajectory and see economic growth in every corner of the state so that's why we want to put money in broadband 250 million there 250 million for housing that would include more affordable housing for the workforce as well as for those who are homeless and other initiatives water sewer and storm water that those are the infrastructure needs to build out some of the housing so you know that's that's why we developed this plan we want to make smart investments that will have a tangible impact on Vermont this is a transitional time for Vermont and so if the legislature doesn't like that plan to invest in housing broadband climate change and water and sewer infrastructure we're waiting to see what their plan is and we want it to be in a transparent way so that every day Vermonters can understand what we're going to do with this one billion dollars of flexible money for these recovery needs so you bring up a good point I think still has been impacted and along with other areas of the state and but you still have needs for low-income housing you have homelessness as well as needs for those the the blue collar workforce so we want to be able to put our plan forward to help in that regard thank you Andrew record yes thank you good afternoon you mentioned earlier concern with some waning back theme demands in parts of the state including the north east kingdom can you detail what you're seeing here in comparison to other parts of the state well it's not just there in the northeast kingdom but but we have seen some hesitancy lack of folks stepping up to make appointments and so forth but I will say the some of the strategy that we've put into place is working we are able to utilize a lot of the local EMS and going out directly and and trying to meet them where they are and and it seems to be making a difference and we're going to continue with that strategy we're going to continue to focus on I think again next week you'll see maybe some pop-up sites where we're going to vaccinate people in the northeast kingdom next week if the J&J opens back up and the pause is lifted so stay tuned on that but but we you know our mission is to get as many people vaccinated as possible and in those areas where we're seeing a lack of of interest we're trying to develop a strategy to to increase the demand do you want to add anything go ahead yeah I was I was gonna say you you mentioned stay tuned and earlier that the secretary sameth and commissioner again specifically mentioned that's accounting perhaps Tuesday um what would those potential plans look like for the Johnson and Johnson that um yeah should uh residents there be paying staying tuned to um for sign up opportunities and and yeah I don't want to get out too far ahead here because I really don't know I don't want to get people's hopes up because if if the committee decides or the CDC and the FDA decide not to move forward with the Johnson and Johnson we won't have the supply we need to get out and to use the strategies that we're planning so you should we should know more by tomorrow morning and certainly we'll be putting out a press release at that point in time and have something up on you know social media channels and so just stay tuned we'll get something to you so over the weekend you should look and and and continue to to check your email because we'll be putting out a press release on on what we foresee over the next week or so okay thank you very much hi thanks I had a quick question about the vaccine gender gap this topic has received a fair amount of news coverage over the last week and looking at Vermont dashboard it looks like women are getting vaccinated at a higher rate than men um which reflects what's been seen around the country I'm just curious if the others um you have any sense of if that's um perhaps related to our um some of the occupations that were given priority initially or are you sensing that there is more of a hesitancy among men than women in getting the vaccine Dr. Levine yeah I'm glad you mentioned that this has been observed lots of places not just Vermont if you think about the earliest groups that got vaccinated they involved people working in health care and in long-term care facilities and um there is a female preponderance in that workforce if you look at some of the later phases we've had um specifically in the education sector there's again a female preponderance in that workforce if you look at health care in general historically just looking at who comprises visits in a typical day month or whatever to a doctor's office there's also female preponderance there um not necessarily because women are sicker or anything like that they may be much more attentive to symptoms much more attentive to preventive care and overall health care needs so I think in a sense the cards were stacked in favor of more women getting vaccinated than men for a whole variety of factors that I probably haven't mentioned even half of them beyond that I think what the governor was alluding to earlier when he was talking about EMS and elsewhere was ways to enhance vaccine uptake in general and reduce vaccine hesitancy and if men are more hesitant is one of the reasons because of their lack of ability to access the vaccine is readily and do we need to design strategies that are innovative that more bring the vaccine to a population than actually have the population seek out where to get the vaccine from and believe me everything's on the table when it comes to trying to allow overmonitors to get vaccine in as rapid a fashion as possible so those are some of my thoughts okay just just really it doesn't sound like then that there is that the state has recognized a hesitancy among men at this point so is that fair to say but or can you not say at this point I don't know what the data would show you know if there's anecdotally yeah we recognize the data which shows that there's less uptake in men than in women and the reason behind that is not always clear but if there are factors in hesitancy we're we're looking for them and we will try to meet them by doing whatever strategy is required right that's it okay well that that concludes today's event but before we go I just want to again remind everyone tomorrow's national drug take back day I think during last fall's take take back day overmonitors dispose almost 4,500 pounds of unused medication so again I want to encourage everyone to clean out their medicine cabinets this weekend and get rid of any unused prescriptions it really does make a difference so I want you to encourage you take advantage of this this weekend with that thank you very much again have a good weekend and as we welcome spring back again and we'll have more on Tuesday thank you