Good morning everyone. As we have on the 19th of every month, tomorrow we will be lowering the flags to half mass to honor the 107 Vermonters we've lost to COVID. For months we were fortunate here in Vermont not seeing our number of deaths rise. But as we see more cases, we've seen more deaths. And though it is a number that keeps ticking up, we must all remember these are not just numbers. These are people. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, someone's best friend are a well known community member. Their life had value. And however long it might have been, it was ended by this virus. And the more the virus spreads, sadly, the more deaths will continue to see. This is why we must stay committed to our work and make the sacrifices to keep our loved ones safe. And I know you've been doing just that because while our case counts remain high, they're not growing like they were a few weeks ago. We're not seeing increases from Thanksgiving, like other states are. And our travel related cases are declining. What you're doing is working. And we need to keep it up because even though a plateau is promising news, the virus continues to spread among older, more at risk for monitors. However, through the continued number of high cases, unfortunately, I don't have good news today regarding school based and recreational sports. Still my hope that in the coming days and weeks, we'll see these high numbers drop so we can scale back on some of our restrictions in both sports and household gatherings. But to do that, we have to continue to do all we can to slow this down, like limiting contact with others and wearing a mask. Looking at the bright side, since I last stood at this podium, I was healthcare workers across the state have started receiving the covid vaccine. And by the time I see you next Tuesday at our press conference, vaccinations in long term care facilities will have begun with staff and our seniors getting the vaccine, which is incredibly important and one of my highest concerns. As I've said, vaccines will help us beat the virus and begin our return to normal. And while it's a huge milestone, we need to remember just because a vaccine exists doesn't mean we can let our guard down. It will still be several more months before the vaccine starts to lower the infection rate of the virus. And we have enough people vaccinate. I know how disruptive this has been and how ready Vermont is our to move past this difficult time in our history. But unfortunately, we're just not there yet. So I'm asking for your perseverance for just a little while longer because we still have a ways to go. And due to the success we've had, it's important we continue to deal with this pandemic as we have since March, watching the data and listening to the science. As it's Friday, Secretary French is joining us remotely to update on the surveillance testing program in schools, and we'll provide a look ahead to after the holidays. As well, Secretary Curley is here to speak about what we've done to support Vermont's businesses through the pandemic so they can survive during this difficult time and make recovery possible down the road. Like many states, we're closely watching what's happening in Washington around a second stimulus package. And I want to assure you, Vermont's delegation is working very hard on this issue. But with the end of some unemployment benefits ending shortly, along with other programs from the first round of funding, I'm hopeful we'll have some good news in the very near future. Now, finally, to continue with our effort to highlight acts of kindness, service and goodwill happening throughout Vermont, I want to talk about Troy Austin of Essex Junction, who was nominated by several Vermonters. For the past six years, Troy has run a toy drive to help make sure kids in his community have something to look forward to during the holiday season. With COVID throwing a wrench in many traditions this year, Troy got creative to make sure the drive could be done safely. So he organized a drive through event. And last weekend, the people of Essex stepped up with hundreds of cars coming through in over 1000 toys donated. Troy also made it a show as you might have seen on on the news, lighting up his vehicle and others doing the same as an added attraction. His nominator said that Troy is always thinking about how he can help others. One said that in addition to the toy drive, Troy spends much of his spare time creating events and activities that bring smiles to the faces of others all year round. Troy is an example of how Vermont lights the way. So I want to thank him and all those who have donated and supported his efforts this year and in years past. So with that, I'll now turn it over to Secretary Curley. Thank you, Governor. Good morning, everyone. I think I can say at this point in the year may sure seems like a long time ago, but it was just seven months ago, almost to the day that we proposed our first economic recovery package to the Legislature. After working with them to pass a recovery bill, we then had to develop the infrastructure to deliver the money directly to businesses and aid their survival through this pandemic. We proposed two more relief packages in June and August offering grants and programs that supported economic spending. We listened to the business community and with each proposal tried to evolve programs to reflect the realities on the ground. Now, seven months later, the last of those federal dollars are being distributed to businesses across the state. As I speak, checks are being sent and businesses will begin to see the final grant dollars early next week. All told between ACCD and our outstanding partner in this process, the Vermont Department of Taxes, around 300 million dollars has been granted to small businesses to keep them afloat during these trying times. Over these seven months, we've grown used to talking about dollar amounts in the hundreds of millions instead of the hundreds of thousands. Prior to the pandemic, the agency of commerce and community development could never have imagined developing systems to equitably and securely grant hundreds of millions of dollars so quickly. During the same period, ACCD also launched housing and rental assistance programs by local campaigns, regional marketing grants, cross state travel, educational efforts and ski safety grants to help our resorts open safely. It has been an incredible and historic effort. And I must thank all of our ACCD staff and the Department of Tax staff who made this happen. I also want to thank the other state agencies who lent us their staff to vet thousands of applications from businesses seeking financial relief. I can tell you what kept us all going and what will continue to keep us going is this is knowing that this work helps for monitors in need. Vermont businesses create stability in our communities. They employ Vermonters and they unlock the arts and culture outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities our state is known for. They draw new residents to our state residents that we so desperately need to reverse our demographic trends. So while this phase of business support is coming to a close, the pandemic continues and we know our work is not done. If more money comes from the federal government, we stand ready to again evolve and continue the programs we have established. We also look forward to our work with the legislature to ensure our business community is supported in their long term recovery as we get to the other side of this. But until we know more about the federal funds and until the legislature reconvenes, we are asking all Vermonters to continue to support our local businesses. Be kind to each other, wear a mask and follow the guidelines in place. These workers, including health care workers, hospitality and restaurant workers are serving you in these trying times. Please support them by following their safety procedures without question. Tipping service workers and always trying to buy local when you can. In fact, there is a last minute, if there is a last minute gift that you are looking for, go to buyvermontmade.com. Our Department of Tourism and Marketing has created a great resource to help you shop local. And for those who wait till the very last minute, a gift card to your favorite restaurant will go a long way in ensuring that all of our face favorite restaurants can stay open in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you. And with that, I will turn it over to Secretary French survey to school districts that tells us the spam schools are using in person remote or hybrid learning. This is the third time we've administered the survey. The first time is at the end of September, which reflected the modes of learning schools were using when they reopened for the year. The October survey captured our shift to step three in our guidance, which gave schools a few more tools to support in person instruction. In October's data reflected that shift with almost 50% increase in in person instruction at the elementary level. The latest survey results are from November. Our case counts of the virus were increasing rapidly in the region. Also, the data represents a time of some uncertainty in our schools, which we're starting to adapt to the prospect of Thanksgiving, the first major holiday of season. In spite of these challenges, the November data from the survey largely remain unchanged from October. 14% of our students were in complete remote learning mode, 33% in person mode, and 53% still the majority in a hybrid learning mode. We think the stability in the data from October to November shows that schools have been successful in switching them on the modes with the increased case counts that came in November, and also despite the logistical challenges such as staff availability. The data also showed that the distribution of the modes of learning continues to vary depending on the grade level of the students. In high schools, about 10% of the students were in complete in person mode. At the middle level, there was double the rate that about 20% of the students in person. In just over 50% of our elementary schools were complete in person mode during the month of November. The survey admittedly is administered at the end of each month at one point in time. We know that schools shift them on the modes during the month in reaction to health conditions and a logistical considerations. But the stability in the data indicates our schools have put considerable effort behind maintaining continuous operations and have been very successful in that regard. More information about the survey and its results can be found on the HBC Vegetations website. We also have a map there that shows the trends in the data from a geographic perspective. We are now into the second week of our December surveillance testing for COVID-19 among school staff. During the month of December, we're testing 25% of our schools each week in the weekly sample included schools from all around the state. This means we're testing about 5000 school staff each week. The participation rate in the testing is still about 40% but we are seeing the participation rate increase in more districts. The number of districts that had a participation rate of greater than 50% doubled this week as regards to the prior week. The positivity rate from the testing of school staff remains very low. Before Thanksgiving, we tested about 9,300 staff and the positivity rate was 0.26%. From the period after Thanksgiving, as of this Monday, December 14th, we've administered approximately 6,000 tests and the positivity rate remains very low at 0.1%. The positivity rate from our surveillance testing school staff is much lower than the statewide positivity rate, which is about 2%. We intend to continue the surveillance testing in January to continue to monitor the prevalence of the virus in our communities. Looking ahead, we are planning on an initiative to start the next phase of our response to the emergency and K-12 education, which we are calling the recovery phase. During the month of January, we'll be working to outline a process that requires districts to develop recovery plans. At this point, we think the central feature of those plans will be to leverage an existing organizational structure in education called Educational Support Teams or ESTs. ESTs in Vermont are typically organized at the school level, but to facilitate better integration with other state services and to focus on recovery systems on a regional basis will be supporting ESTs being convened at the school district level instead of the school level. We will be engaging with our various education partner organizations after the first year to develop these planning concepts with an expected launch sometime around February 1st. This timeline is tentative and very dependent on our assessment of public health conditions. But as we move into recovery, we'll be looking for more opportunities to increase in person instruction, which remains our primary intervention to address the impact of this emergency on students. To that end, we'll continue to monitor the modes of learning through our monthly survey. In closing, I want to wish everyone a happy holidays. The holiday period has been very challenging for schools from an emergency response perspective. But I think our schools have done exceptionally well. And I want to acknowledge the dedicated service of our educational professionals and the cooperation of families that have made it all possible. So thank you. That concludes my update. I'll now turn it over to Dr. Lee. Thank you, Secretary French.  If we look at our total cases in Vermont and our deaths, they're illustrated on the screen here. While you see our total case count obviously continuing to increase, I want you to pay attention to the new cases on a daily basis, which clearly are not showing an increase. There is a lot of fluctuation in the data, as I'm sure you'll notice. And they are settling out at higher levels than we are accustomed to here in Vermont. But at the same time, they are not going on an increasing trend. If you look at the COVID-19 tracker website, you'll find that the only two states that are orange, not that orange is the most favorable color, are Hawaii and Vermont. The rest is really we are lost in a broad swath of redness. And many, many states are showing continuing increases in their cases on a more exponential gross curve. And I'm just illustrating here that that is not happening here. While we're not going necessarily down, we are at a more of a plateau level. And again, we continue to enjoy, if I may use that word, a very healthy percent positivity rate in a low 2% range while continuing to do abundant testing within the state, even what the college students now departed. Just wanted to finish by showing you the current list of long term care facilities and the numbers and their outbreaks. When you add those numbers up, they're in the high 300s. Many have more favorable news to offer now in terms of things have settled down. But obviously, this is a particularly distressing part of the pandemic for Vermont, as well as everyone else. I've spent a lot of time in previous press conferences discussing this grouping. I'm not going to spend a lot of time today, just wanted to give you the updated numbers. So we are still being as successful as one can be and being an island in the middle of the continental US. And we have the fortitude and commitment of Vermonters to really thank for this. Our own account of deaths that you saw is at 107. I want to stress that not all deaths occur in nursing homes. Some deaths occur outside of nursing homes. And we shouldn't always make the assumption because of the outbreaks that that's where all of the deaths are. Hospitalizations are in the same range, which is always in the 20s. Recently updated in the last hour data tells us we're at 27 with 10 patients in an ICU setting. Although we've learned that some hospitals actually are using the ICU room as a more isolation room setting and the patient is actually not needing all of the services that an ICU would particularly provide. The number of outbreaks we are following has grown to 42, 17 of which are in the health care sector. In terms of non outbreak situations, as we call them, they are 223, 58 are health care related, 165 are non health care related. I've noticed a concerning trend for many of these situations to be characterized by people who were in public facing situations by virtue of their work at the time when they were infectious. Obviously, they were not aware they were infectious because they had no symptoms during that time period. This indeed is the reason why this virus is such a powerful foe and why we speak so much about avoiding the type of conditions that allow it to succeed against us. Prolonged time indoors, multi household gatherings, especially when masks are not worn, such as when eating or drinking, and when physical distancing becomes less of a focus. It's also why we are so consistent in our messaging about testing, because there are people who are asymptomatic who will learn that they could be infectious by virtue of having done that testing. Since we were last here, I'm happy to say that the COVID 19 vaccination effort in Vermont has begun. Many of you saw the video of the emergency department nurse at UVM Medical Center become the first for monitor to get the vaccine. That nurse Cindy Wongan said I'm thankful our amazing team will soon have protection from the virus, and we can end this difficult year on a positive note. That moment, both in Vermont and across the country was a historic step closer to a day when we can all be back together again and feel safe. While that day may be many months away, we still need to be patient as we wait to make sure that those at highest risk are protected now. And while we won't get to watch all the vaccinations that continue over the coming months, like we saw the first one, we can keep this in mind every time of a monitor gets vaccinated, all of us benefit. All hospitals have now received their complete allocation of vaccine for the first week. And they've been busy vaccinating their higher risk health care staff over the past several days and today and many tomorrow. We're providing guidance to hospitals regarding the remaining higher risk health care workers who don't work within their walls, but will still need to obtain their vaccine from the hospital in their region. And our pharmacy partners CVS Walgreens and Health Direct Kenny are scheduled to begin clinics at long term care facilities next week. As you know, high risk health care workers and long term care facility residents are receiving vaccines first as part of priority group one a and we're still working to finalize priority group one B in the coming weeks. But it will almost certainly involve some combination of people over 65 and people with chronic or immune compromising conditions. We're awaiting recommendations from the advisory committee on immunization practice that meets this weekend and our own vaccine implementation advisory group, which meets in about an hour. We hope to have a practical and rational prioritization scheme that first and foremost focuses on reducing sickness and death, but takes into consideration our other goals of keeping our kids in in person instruction in schools and protecting our workforce and businesses. In the meantime, everyone who saw the news knows we got good news again about vaccination. The Moderna platform was endorsed by the FDA's advisory committee. And that agency is expected to provide emergency use authorization sometime today. I mentioned on Tuesday that we have already preordered the Moderna vaccine. And if we receive the amount we ordered, we could have a total of almost 34,000 doses of both Pfizer and Moderna by the end of this month. These vaccines are similar in that both are messenger RNA, also called mRNA vaccines. Many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies to trigger an immune response. But mRNA vaccines actually teach ourselves how to make a protein, which is just a small piece of a protein that triggers an immune response inside our bodies against the virus. That immune response, which means we produced antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected. If we should encounter the real virus. Both vaccines have shown similar efficacy levels of near 95%. Some participants in both trials showed a strong immune response leading to side effects, including things like pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, chills, muscle or joint pain. Differences between the Pfizer and Moderna include Moderna's vaccine does not have to be kept super cold like Pfizer's. Moderners is used in people 18 and older, whereas Pfizer is 16 and older. Moderna is two 100 microgram doses, as opposed to 230 microgram doses of Pfizer and Moderna is at a 28 day interval, as opposed to the 21 day interval of Pfizer. Now important as the vaccine is, we must not let this good news drown out how essential it is for us all to stay focused on preventing the spread of COVID. Next week, many will celebrate Christmas. Following week, many will celebrate new years. These are holidays that like Thanksgiving traditionally center on being with people that we love. I know how hard it is to think of spending another holiday apart. The guidance though that is still in place calls for us to avoid social gatherings. And the CDC has said that the safest way to celebrate is to celebrate at home with the people you live with. I hope many of you have made plans with this in mind already. But we still need to remind anyone who does gather to keep it as small as possible, wear masks, keep a six foot distance and go outside if you can. Always stay away from others if you're sick. And also plan ahead to get tested right after a gathering and seven days later. And if you gather or travel, plan to quarantine, staying home and away from others either for 14 days or seven days if you test out with a negative test and have no symptoms. Now I'm not saying this because this is a loophole. The fact is we need to acknowledge that some people will choose these higher risk activities. But if we can encourage them to take these steps, we can still help protect our greater communities from further spread. And please strongly reconsider any gathering that involves a person with underlying medical conditions or an older Vermonter. We know that many of our recent deaths have been in long term care facilities as I stated, but these group living facilities aren't the only risk. About 20% of our deaths are older people who die at home or in the hospital. As you know, anyone with a high risk medical condition is also at risk of severe illness from COVID-19. We need to do everything we can to continue protecting these Vermonters especially. I know how isolating it can be for them. But if they can hold on for that vaccine just a little longer, they hopefully will find it was worth it in the end. We can adapt our holiday celebrations once again to stay safe, whether it's connecting virtually with others, leaving cookies on doorsteps, driving around to look at holiday decorations, spending time in the snow, writing cards or donating to those in need. We can practice random acts of kindness like shoveling a neighbor's driveway or delivering food, books, games to families in quarantine. There's no question we're still asking Vermonters to give up a lot right now, but I hope the spirit of the season will remind us about what's really important and help us look forward to a new year that will change our lives for the better. I'll turn it back to the governor. Thank you, Dr. Levine will now turn it over to questions. You probably saw the newest job report says that unemployment here in the state is down to about 3.1%, which appears to be kind of encouraging news. I'm just kind of wondering what what your thoughts are on the latest numbers as especially as we continue through the winter. Yeah, I don't I don't think it's still reflective of what's really actually happening on the ground. As I said before, the formula is flawed in some respects, especially during the pandemic. So I wouldn't read too much into that while it's somewhat good news. It looks stable. We know that we have some challenges with those who are still unemployed. We have, you know, 20 over 20,000 people unemployed at this point in time. We're only a week or two away. If no action is taken in Congress, that they will lose their benefits. So that isn't really reflective in the data. So I would not read too much into it at this point in time. And if you know, as you said, it appears Congress is making way on some sort of deal, you know, there's rumblings of what's in it, but it appears that PUA could be extended. Maybe this is more of a question for Commissioner Harrington, but if PUA is extended, will there be a gap in benefits and how long is that? Yeah, well, it's a good question. I'm not sure that Commissioner Harrington can answer that because it all depends what they do in Congress. And I've been speaking to I had a conversation with Senator Sanders as well as Senator Leahy over the last two days about the stimulus package as well as the budget bill that is they're thinking that it's going to be lumped together and hopefully passed over over the next couple of days. But it really is in the details of what they do if they make it proactive. I've advocated for them not to make too many changes in how it's derived. Because as you remember, we had to go through a lot of work to create a program so that we could distribute the funds. Our 50 year old mainframe that's antiquated, I couldn't handle the change. I mean, it's just for traditional unemployment and any change whatsoever will will, you know, slow things down immensely. So we had to create programs outside of that IT programs outside of the mainframe to distribute these funds. So if they can keep it to the same type of structure, if they if they're done, if they I would imagine they would be retroactive, but I don't know that it could be a new program starting at a certain date. So we'll wait until it's passed and then be able to get those details. And then just one last question to I understand earlier this week you were on a call with President elect Biden. Just I'm wondering if you kind of shed some light on what came out of the call and what it was like? Yeah, I was I was on a call with other governors, about at least half the other governors across across the US were on the call as well. And we just got a glimpse of what it was going to look like. He President elect Biden, as well as Vice President elect Harris, had said, you know, they're they're ready to work with us in any way that they can open door policy, if anything, that they can do to help and understanding the first 100 days going to be important, especially with a pandemic. Many governors had advocated for making sure there is a smooth transition. This is too important a time to inflict politics. I think we all get that, at least on the on the level and making sure that we take care of our constituents, our states, and knowing that we're all different and our needs are different. But again, I thought it was a positive hour, hour and a half of time spent with them. And they can they said that they hope to continue this process of engaging with the governor's on a regular basis. So I thought it was all good news. Governor, not to be a negative Nellie, but with this huge no storm and the ski area is really enthusiastic about the weekend and everything. I was in the southern part of the state yesterday and actually had several people come up to me and say, look at all these people that have just come in in the last couple of days. You know, they're walking around town and everything so that it doesn't sound like a lot of folks are using that or heating the the advice to quarantine. Yeah, well, again, this is the same in every state, whether it's Massachusetts or New York or Vermont. We all have quarantine requirements coming into the state. I'm not naive. I understand that there are going to be some who aren't going to adhere to our guidance. But I don't want us to read too much into this as well. Because we don't know just because you see a license plate that is from a different state. We don't know how long they've been here. We have allowed travel into the state as long as they quarantine. They may have decided that they were going to work remotely for the next month and if the quarantine in their second home and and that's all good. And that's we encourage that because because it's good to get outside. And we've also haven't found that there's been any transmission in the ski areas. And we continue to advocate as we did during the summer. If you're going to be active, stay outside be active here. It's safer there. And we have to remember to that I don't imagine all of the college students went home. Some of them have they have their their apartments and so forth here in Vermont. And they probably want to take advantage of the skiing as well. They have plates that are from another state and they could be here. So I guess let's just all take a deep breath. Let's be cautious. Let's be careful. Let's make sure that we wear a mask stay physically distance and and continue to be as safe as possible. But but again, it's would mix the motions that we received as no storm in years past. We would have been celebrating and probably declaring a holiday as a result. But but this year is different and we have to just be careful. It sounded like Commissioner Smith might be celebrating that holiday. But anyway, are there are there plans in place as far as if there was a breakout at at a ski area or or anything like that? Is there something that we can reassure the public? Again, we just we will we will continue to monitor the monitor the data, whatever we see. And we will we will take steps depending on what we see on the ground, what we see with any outbreak in the state and take action. And I know, you know, we have to remember as well, the ski areas want to make sure it's a safe environment for their employees. They care about their employees, but also the reputation because they don't want to be shut down either. So they have strict requirements in place regulations. They are doing their best, I believe to make sure that everyone's adhering to that. But if we have an outbreak, we will deal with it just like we do any other outbreak. And and finally, the ski areas themselves, I don't know if Commissioner Curley, but the ski areas themselves have these things in place. Do they also have something in place in case they do have a problem? Well, they know that they can come to us and they have to you know, we want to report that we have to make sure we put our team in place to contact trace and make sure that we mitigate this the best we can so that we don't we don't spread the virus in a substantial way. So we deal with it the same same way. The ski areas know that there's a lot riding on their shoulders with this. I mean, the requirements we negotiated with them and to allow them to open for substantial probably the strictest in the nation. And and we feel that they were the right things to do. But but it's a heavy burden on on them to adhere to that. Thank you. Morning. Since you've been speaking with Senator Sanders and Leah, Sanders yesterday was making a real point about the $600 direct payments in the latest package, which he thought would go to 90% of remoders. What effect will that have? How much of a lifelong is that? How do you want people to spend it? Yeah, yeah, you know, I think it'll be tremendous in some respects. If you look at it as an injection of dollars into the economy, because when you start to do the math, I think he was he told me it was he thought about 93% of the remoders would receive this this direct payment $600 per person 600 per child if it holds. And when you do the math, I believe you would come up with about $350 million injected into the economy. So that's substantial.  But at the same time, you know, I, like everyone else, probably on this at this press event has had to prioritize, you know, take care of some bills that they may have that are there being able to put it towards things that they really, really need. And if and then maybe a little bit that they can spend on their families. So we'll see what they do with it. But but again, injecting that amount of money into the economy over the next month or two will help in substantial ways to get through the last quarter of what we're seeing to get us to the to the finish line. The legislators opted to actually be entirely virtual for the you know, first reopening we've ever seen that way. I'm wondering, will you do you know yet what your message is going to be at your at your inaugural, which I guess will also be virtual? Yeah, it will be a virtual we haven't we haven't determined a time for that at this point. It won't be nothing is traditional at this point. So we won't have the it won't be in the afternoon. We're hoping for maybe an evening address. And we'll talk about the state of the state at this point. I think this is a time it's an important time. And I think monitors need to hear what we talk about a lot of this these press conferences. But the good and the bad and the opportunities that exist, I think. So where we go from here? What's my vision? And and you'll hear a lot of that as well. And it'll be pragmatic and will hopefully enlightening for some. And and, you know, because it's not all it's not all bad news. We have a lot to look forward to, especially with the vaccine being distributed. And over the next three, four, five, six months, I believe that we will start to work towards normalcy. So we have to be prepared for that so that we can come out of this stronger, economically stronger, stronger in multiple ways than any other state. And we have the opportunity to do that because we've we've been so good over the last nine months. And we've we've been healthy. We're one of the healthiest, safest states in the country. Yes, sir. I just don't want to clarify. I got it from Dr. Lee. But so the guidance for Christmas is identical to Thanksgiving. That is essentially what your message is today. At this point, at this point in time, Stuart, we have not still have not received enough data. You know, we've seen that it seems to a plateaued. We were given a little bit of hope on a couple of days when it went one day was in the 60s another day in the 70s. But then it went and elevated to 138 down yesterday to about I think it was 86 yesterday. So we just want to see what the trend is. So we'll update again on Tuesday. But at this point in time, we're advising that regardless, it won't change substantially. But we're, we're regardless of what happens, we, we think the best thing to do is to treat it as we did during Thanksgiving as other states around us, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and so forth have advocated don't gather if you if you don't want to need. I mean, I and I understand the emotional need here. But at the same time, we have to, we have to take care of ourselves, take care of our families and take care of others surrounding us. So just think about that before you act. Thank you. All right, we're going to go to Mike Donahue, the Islander. Thanks for back up. Dr. Levine, your statistics tell there's been an estimated almost 4,000 COVID cases that are considered recovered in Vermont. I'm just wondering over the last nine months or so. How often does the health department check in with the past patients? And in like what specific efforts has the health department taken to monitor or study or get reports about these people received by any short term or long term impacts COVID might have on them or their families, co-workers, whatever the impact of community is. Also, also, do you know what your study show as to whether anybody that caught COVID-19 more than once in Vermont? Great. So the second question, I don't have any knowledge of anyone who got a second infection. But I'm glad you asked the first question. Because that allows us to again talk about what happens to people after COVID. I think the majority of Americans think that unless you're in that highest risk group, you do very well with COVID. And very well to them means you didn't end up in the hospital, you stayed alive, you didn't have such severe symptoms that it totally knocked you for a loop. But the reality is, and we don't know a firm number here, somewhere in the up to 10% range may have more long term symptoms. So they never truly feel they recovered. And those symptoms can be similar to what we once called the chronic fatigue syndrome with a lot of fatigue. But they don't have to just be fatigue. They can be discomforts and joints and chest wall. They can be shortness of breath. Things that have some consequence for people. And the affectionate name long haul or syndrome has been given to them. And nobody understands that well. And when I say nobody, it's an evolving science, an evolving field to really try to figure that out. So at the national level, they're talking about doing some studies, but I don't know that anyone has been particularly funded yet or is active. At the local level, I've been concerned about this for many, many months. And within the health department, we've actually started to make plans about how to perhaps use our medical volunteer core. Hopefully we'll have nothing else for them to do and engage them in working with us so that we can actually do what you just suggested, which is calling for monitors who may show up in the recovered category. But we really don't know long term what happens. Most of the contact we have with Vermonters to further answer your question is at the one month point and within that one month period as opposed to beyond one month. And as you could see with the number of cases we're getting in these last few months and the amount of contact tracing that has to be done around those cases, that's keeping our workforce very, very busy. And to begin to start using them to start contacting people who may have gotten sick in April, May, June, July, what have you, isn't going to happen right at this point in our time course. But we're very interested in that. And that's why we've outlined the notice of a study that will occur over time here so we can get some of that information. But we don't really have a lot to tell you. There are select physicians in the state, one at UVM that I'm aware of in the pulmonary unit who actually have begun seeing a number of these patients. So they don't have a good idea of how extensive the problem is because they're only seeing a select group. But they're already seeing people with the symptoms that I just told you about who feel they've never really recovered. And I think we need to get a good handle on that, not only in Vermont, but across the country. Okay. And my follow up, this comes from a reader up in Caldonia County who says the focus is on the vaccine, which is good, but they're inquiring about treatment of people with COVID. The near and time is apparently reported last week that many, quote, important, unquote, people are getting successful treatments not available to many of my lottery available at all. Do you know what this treatment is and what is being done to make it available to all? And is this treatment available in Vermont? And if so, who gets it and how is the decision made? Yeah. So I'm going to do a little bit of guesswork about what you're talking about, but I think my educated guess will be correct. We're talking mostly about monoclonal antibody therapy. You may recall the president got something from Regeneron. And there's a, yeah. And so the federal government has been sending monoclonal antibody treatments, including that one, but another one as well, to the states. We've been getting about 20 doses a month. The last time we got 40 doses, they come to us and we have them distributed to all the regions of the state. So they're available for use. I've talked about them at this press conference a little bit. And I have great hope for these treatments. I don't believe they have significant side effects. Their goal is to take people who are moderately ill but outside of the hospital, able to be at home, and get treatment in time so that they don't end up in the hospital. So preventing hospitalization and moderately ill people. So it takes getting to know who those people are, making sure they get themselves tested early enough so they know that they may be eligible and not waiting too long until they get too sick. It's a complicated treatment only in the, I put that in quotes, because it has to be given intravenously over about an hour or so. And it requires an infusion center to do it. And of course most of our infusion centers are doing their best to keep COVID out of them and trying to give people other infusions like chemotherapy and things that will keep them alive from the conditions they already have. So they now have to devote a part of their infusion center to a COVID patient. So the other part that's been a little slow on the uptake is that there's only one study that really shows a beneficial impact, which is not to say it doesn't have a beneficial impact. It's just that many of the guidance panels from the NIH and other significant scientific communities haven't yet said this should be a standard of care and they're being very cautious about its use. So those are the issues. I've just put them all out on the table for you. But there are doses in Vermont that are available for people to use right this very moment. And if their clinicians feel comfortable with the treatment and feel that the patient is eligible, they can get that treatment at a variety of our hospitals around the state. Thank you as always. Greg, the county courier. Good morning. Dr. Levine, it might as well catch you while you're still at the white car in there. There have been reports of extra doses in the Pfizer-backed feed in a while by maybe 20 or 40 percent, which looks like it could be a thousand or two thousand patients in Vermont just this week. How does the state come up with, you know, that many people to get vaccinated just, you know, very quickly if it's pretty well calculated out since we get it in advance? I missed the very first sentence you said. Was it regarding shortages? The extra doses? So the Pfizer-backed feed we're hearing that they maybe should be from, you know, 20 to 40 percent more in a while than what was expected? Yes, okay, got you. I'm curious how the state comes up with, you know, an extra one or two thousand people to vaccinate when it's very well calculated out who would get it right off. Yeah, so let me just explain to people what you're talking about first. So each vial was meant to have about five doses in it once you put the saline and dilute out the material on the vial. It's turned out that through experience, literally hours of experience, days of experience, that people are learning around the country that you can actually get more than five doses out of that. Sometimes six, some feel you could even get seven. So that would obviously provide more vaccine from the allocated doses that you were given in the first place. So everybody's going to take advantage of that. What we've heard is no one's going to be penalized for that. And for us, it's really, it's a wonderful thing, but the reality is just to get through the priority group 1A is going to take enough weeks that if this shortens it by a day or what have you, that's wonderful, but it's not going to be a game changer if I could call it that. It's going to allow us to get through each group a little bit faster than we anticipated. It won't really create an ethical dilemma for us about who's going to get some of this extra material because we're going to use the allocations we get for the priority groups in their order anyways. So if we can move a little faster to the next priority group, that would be a wonderful thing and we'll just do that. But I wouldn't expect it to be a real boondoggle, if you will. I will say that with Moderna potentially becoming authorized, we'll have a lot more doses next week than if it wasn't authorized, but we've already kind of accounted for those doses and are thinking with priority group 1A anyways. So they've already been in our calculations. My other question for you, Dr. Reed, is I understand that on Monday the state will begin vaccinating those either live in or work with long-term living facilities? Will the state prioritize facilities that are currently or very recently impacted by outbreaks such as St. Alton's Health and Rehab, or will they just get mixed in like every other long-term facility would be? So there's a phase A and a phase B to your question. Phase A is the 37 skilled nursing facilities around the state. So that's the highest acuity facilities.  So they're already in the priority group of long-term care facilities. Phase B is what you would call assisted living or residential care facilities that people live more independently at. Those are B because they're not as acute as the A. So I think I can answer your question with the word yes, having given that explanation. I'm clarifying quite the way I intended to. There are some facilities that are seeing current outbreaks. Are they being prioritized any more than the same type of facility that is receiving outbreaks? Yeah, they're in the 37 for the most part and they are on a schedule with the pharmacy. So I can't tell you if they're on the first day or the second day, but they're in that group so that during the month of December they're going to get their vaccine. I appreciate it. I do have one non-covid question that can wait till the end if there's time for if I can. Okay, thank you. Erin Botanko, VT Digger. I have a question based on a report from the public that they came out this morning where they found that many states are not planning on collecting racial data about who gets the vaccine, which could be of potential concern because of how black people and other people of color have been disproportionately impacted by the virus and because of some reports that black people in particular are potentially more reluctant to get the vaccine because of long-standing you know medical discrimination. Is this data for mass collecting racial data or other demographic data about who gets the vaccine and do you plan to release that kind of data to the public or to me? You're not here, I'm sure. So thanks for highlighting that that topic in general because that's really of significant concern to us and just to give background the so-called BIPOC, Black Indigenous people of color population, not only have suffered from historical and other injustices over time but in the current era as we've highlighted here sometimes they have a disproportionate share of both COVID cases and COVID hospitalizations when you compare that to the percent they make up in our total population in the state. So they're already a population of focus when it comes to the vaccine itself and making sure that all of our efforts regarding education about the vaccine, messaging about the vaccine and engaging communities about the vaccine highlight the fact that we have to pay attention to this population very specifically. Most of what we do in COVID data now includes race and ethnicity as a core ingredient so that we understand the pandemic very well. Traditionally in vaccination if you look at vaccination as an entire field from measles to flu to what have you that's not always been one of the data points that clinicians have been asked to collect or if they've been asked to collect don't always consistently collect so we don't have as good data on that from a historic standpoint. Our goal is to try to change that for this particular vaccine and I can't tell you we have it in place just yet but that's what we're working towards. So to try to provide not only you but ourselves and others with that kind of data will be really really important. Our biggest focus right now is on engaging communities so that we can make sure that the uptake of the vaccine is as high as we would want it across all populations across all ethnicity and racial groups because that's not been true in the past even if we look at things like flu vaccine there's been a historical reluctance to have the same uptake of vaccine. Does that answer your question? Yeah yeah I know that in other states when I looked at flu vaccine data there's a trend of lower income school districts having lower vaccination rates that's the kind of thing that's from what I'm seeing as well. I'm not sure I understand that question. Is there any evidence of disparities that you know of in flu or vaccine data that they have left in the past? Yes yes so that with flu data specifically we have some data that does indicate that you know vaccination rate by race does vary with whites being the highest rate of uptake but as you know even with flu vaccine that's not always as high as we want it to be even in the racial data where people are having uptake the most so that's of concern. I think what we have to really emphasize on this go around is the need to make sure that when a person is vaccinated the appropriate data is consistently collected from person to person and that will have to be a big focus of what we do if we're going to be able to understand if there are problems or if there are no problems in the deployment of this vaccine for the broad population. Okay thank you very much. Eric the time circus? Yes last night I got a call from a very talent resident he's older over age 85 he lives with his wife they're independent he says he understands the need to prioritize health care workers and those long-term care facilities but he especially wants to know when he's going to be able to have access to the virus he said to the vaccine sorry he said he spoke to his doctor and he was told that there is no timeline right now for when he would get the vaccine. Yeah and I guess the answer would be we're working on a plan and I would anticipate that the Berrytown resident would be on the front end of that list based on the age and the vulnerability of that person so we're actively in fact we talked about this at great length last night and developing a plan we've got a ways to go before we get there doing the health care workers as well as those in long-term care facilities and staff members and so forth so it's going to take us a while to get through that and then we'll be able to release the plan that we've been working on for the other groups and who and what groups come first. Does the state have any estimates on those who are over 65 that's the high-risk people that to know how long it might take to vaccinate that group? I'll refer to Dr. Levine at this point but I mean I'm sure we have the data it's just whether he has it his fingertips at this point in time Yeah I think we're talking about 20 percent of our population which you know because we're in the top four states for the percent over age 65 and I think it's about 20 percent I can confirm the precise number to the decimal point at a later time I would want to say though that regarding your reader the bottom line is we can make all the plans we want but they are contingent on how many doses of vaccine are coming into the state and beyond the month of December we actually don't have any you know clear guidelines on that it obviously depends on where we have two vaccines available which we are optimistic about whether there be other vaccines that become available after the new year based on the pace of the studies that they're involved with and what is the production capacity of all of the companies that are making these vaccines that are getting approved so a bunch of it hinges on just how fast we can get the vaccine into the state and then we can deploy it with the mechanisms that we're setting up that the governor referred to and finally just make a plea to your 85 year old to stay safe hang on until that point in time and avoid the kind of multi household gatherings and crowded areas that I'm sure they've been doing already to get to the good point they're in in their life right now because it's just a matter of a little time and we would hope by late January February we'd be talking about that population maybe a little sooner in January more vaccine comes in than we would have thought Hi, so speaking of the vaccine just a quick question how's the amount gone all of the vaccine doses that we expected to get because I know our neighbors in New Hampshire felt like they didn't Yeah, we've been hearing rumblings over the last couple of days I've had a couple of texts from our neighbors other governors saying that they have been their allotment has been reduced and so I reached out to our agency of human services as well as the health department to see if that was the case up until this morning that was not the case that we were still scheduled to receive our allotment but literally five minutes before we came into this press conference I believe that we received the news that our allotment would be reduced as well and I'll let Dr. Levine talk about that a little bit So I've been engaged with all of my colleagues in the region who are reporting a 25-35% decrease in their allocation for next week and two of my colleagues one in the Midwest one in Montana who were talking about 20-25% range These are states that obviously all are getting more doses than we are because we're the second least populated state in the country so we're already at a pretty low level As we were walking in I learned that as many as 975 doses out of the expected 5,850 doses would not be coming in when we expected That doesn't mean we won't be getting all of the doses that just means it won't be coming when we expected The, if I do with some quick math standing here this is real pressure That's about a sixth of the allocation So 16, 17, less than 20% anyways But still, it means something What everyone around the country is upset about in addition to just the number is there's been no communication So there's no understanding of what this really means I've heard but not had it confirmed that the federal government has been saying that it just means you won't get it on the day you expected it but it'll be more spread out over the course of the week That would be fine, to be honest as long as we had that reassurance The Pfizer company itself has been pretty adamantly denying it is on their end that the problem is and there's been good production still and that wouldn't be why we weren't seeing it So I can only tell you what I know now and that pretty much summarizes it Is this kind of thing expected in a vaccine rollout like this to have something like this happen where there was either a miscommunication or some first nephew with the allotment from Shipman? Well, you know, I think the last vaccine rollout was H1N1 and I wasn't presiding over that in Vermont but I do know that we saw very very small numbers of doses over a very long period of time So I'm not sure this kind of situation actually occurred that we just described here but certainly the slow pace of vaccine coming into the state is something that was an expectation for this time around based on that time around but I don't know if the exact same scenario that I just described happened On the vaccine Did Vermont get a proportional population-wise proportional amount to what other states thought because one of our other viewers pointed out that it appeared to Hampshire was getting more of the vaccine proportional to their population than Vermont was Is that the case? Yeah, I haven't done all the calculations All I did do is look at the map and Wyoming was the only state that got less than 5,000 doses which is less than us and they are the least populated state in the country So all I know is we were at least in the right range for being the second populated state in the country but I don't know I didn't calculate everybody's population and their proportion so I don't know I guess we're relying on the government to have done this in an honorable fashion and taken the appropriate percent of the population and applied it fairly across 50 states And just to confirm that for our viewers that I don't want to get this question the vaccine distribution was not based on current take count it was based on population only Right It has nothing to do with states that are having more of a surge or less of a surge Got it Thank you Just to add to that as a reminder to viewers who aren't aware that Hampshire has twice the population that Vermont does so they could have received if they received twice the amount that we were anticipating receiving that would have been around you know 10, 11,000 so I'm not sure what they received but I didn't hear that they received a whole lot more the other complicating factor in all of this and we'll know more on Tuesday we'll be able to report as to why maybe we received the production in other states that as well but as you remember the news of the last few days has been that they're actually getting more out of the vial so they're getting an extra dose or two out of every vial and if you do the math that is percentage wise about that same reduction so in one sense we may not be talking about a whole lot different in terms of doses than we are anticipating so we'll see we'll be able to clear that up hopefully by Monday Well I'll stay tuned to the headline because I'm off next week so have a good holiday thank you everyone You too Joe, the Barton Chronicle Hello I guess this is for Dr. Levin as well I'm curious assuming a perfect world where all the vaccine that might be needed was available how many people could be vaccinated in Vermont over a week say Well I did the quick math for the early calculation I'm not sure I could do it for this calculation if every primary care practice had the vaccine and every pharmacy had the vaccine it would be a real overburdening for all of them we would need something more than that in terms of more of a mass vaccination effort and that would take time to set up but indeed that's the kind of planning one does when you know that's happening but really hard for me to even get more specific right now with how many we could do knowing as a former general internal medicine doctor and having vaccines for my patients you can only see so many patients a day and even if you set up a vaccine clinic each evening you can only get so much throughput if you want to do that safely and correctly so we've got a chunk of Vermonters but I'm not sure how many Well the fact that we aren't getting a lot more of the vaccine right now it is actually not a problem as it might seem to someone without the medical education like me No don't come across like that because the reality is we could see a lot more vaccine now in deploy at all all we're relying on right now is the hospitals to deliver it to the health care worker force and the pharmacy partnership to deliver it to the long term care facilities but that doesn't involve anybody in Vermont who wants a vaccine that's a very select group so if we start talking about all the people over 65 all the people who see their doctors regularly for chronic conditions there's plenty of opportunity to give them vaccine starting today if we had the vaccine for that purpose so you shouldn't you shouldn't come to the conclusion that it's a blessing to not have so much right now because we could easily dispense a lot more vaccine if we got it all today or this weekend Just one more thing Who is hailing the vaccine right now? Is this federal money at this point and if so are there limits that you know of that may result in problems down the line? So I think what you're saying though is the vaccine free to people and the answer to that is yes the federal government is footing that bill there are select administration fees that a practice might garner from the interaction with the patient and all of that but there are ways for that to be paid for for those who have insurance and if those don't have insurance we have our district health offices and other mechanisms in Vermont to deliver the vaccine to them for free so nobody should be paying out a pocket for this vaccine The amount of money that the federal government is providing to make this possible that funding is going to last long enough that everyone who needs the and should be vaccinated will be able to get vaccinated under this program I can answer part of that I'm going to let the governor answer that part Yeah Joe, in my conversations with the Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders there is money attached to the bills that hopefully will pass in the next day or so so and have to do with the the vaccines and vaccinations so that that is being accounted for and and as part of one of the two bills but it's all going to be one bill once it passes from what I was told by both of them and I also want to comment further with as Dr. Levine had alluded to with the Moderna vaccine coming on on hopefully in the not too distant future there may be other platforms as well other manufacturers that may get approval and we're having some of those conversations we don't want to get caught without being able to distribute it just as quick as we possibly can and some of it's due to my maybe my contractor background production is everything trying to to make sure that we can get things done as efficiently as possible so we're we're having some of those what if conversations and we want to be ready if that if that happens it doesn't appear that it's going to happen any too in the in the near future but if it does we will have a plan available so that we can we can distribute and vaccinate on a on a large maybe a larger scale if necessary thank you just a quick time check here it's 12 30 and we still have 14 reporters under Q plus Greg's extra question Chris so we could just try to keep it to two to three instead of three to four Chris Roy Newport Daily Express yes good afternoon I guess this message might be for Dr. Levine do you know how many vaccines are available up here in the Northeast Kingdom particularly in Orleans County and is there anything any reason why somebody wouldn't shouldn't get both vaccines for multiple vaccines from different vendors when they become available so I don't have a precise number to give you I don't have that spreadsheet with me but we've given vaccine to all of the hospitals in the regions in a proportionate manner to the size of the health care workforce that they need to vaccinate and the second part is there is that this is why it's so important to have a vaccine tracking system so that once you get your first dose we know you got the first dose the date you got it and the vaccine you got so that when it's time for the second dose you know if you need to come back in three weeks or four weeks to get which vaccine and so even if you got it at a different location that information would track with you I think ideally you'd probably oh no you can't mix and match so if you got Pfizer day one you need to get Pfizer day 21 and not modern not modern or day 28 it's strongly discouraged to doing that this is a little bit of a brave new world thing where we're you know using the data we have and the science we have and the science we have takes one vaccine and gets the person the second dose and we know what outcomes to expect we would have no idea what to expect if you mixed and matched them and it's not being advised you know they have slightly different side effect profiles as well as they have slightly different age ranges and it wouldn't be a good idea okay great thank you very much hope you have a nice holiday weekend Liz Burlington Free Fest thanks for taking my questions my first question is for the governor or Dr. Levine or both and it's kind of along the same line questioning as Erin so the social equity caucus recently sent you both a letter urging that members of the BIPOC communities be in a group one C priority for the vaccine and I just I wanted to know what your response to this is or is this part of the plan that's being formulated at this point yeah a little bit of both a brief letter we had already been working on this initiative and and how to make sure that we're providing for that that population so we were ahead of ahead of the letter and and in terms of you know how it's done we're having those conversations down to make sure that we get to them just as quick as possible you want to and the only thing I'd add to that is this is not Vermont's problem this is a national problem as well we'll own what we need to own by by all means but there is going to be the advisory committee on immunization practices there's going to be our own Vermont advisory panel so we don't want to put the card before the horse either because we're going to be getting some input from people who actually are going to be thinking about this actual scenario that you've painted here so it's really important that we focus on the input we get as well as what we were already thinking and my second question I think we probably for Dr. Levine a reader asked about it's basically the time when vaccines become more available to the general public if people will be able to take into which vaccine they get for the first dose whether it's Pfizer, Moderna or any other one that is approved do you have any I guess guidance at this point on that yeah I don't have a lot of guidance on that that's that's almost like a best case scenario you know that's like a marketplace where to some extent supply and demand may dictate but to other extents it could be personal preference or personal review of the data about each vaccine so I certainly would think we wouldn't be authoritarian in that we would let people have some choice if we were blessed with abundant vaccine from several different companies maybe even several different types of vaccine an mRNA vaccine one based on protein etc so wouldn't want to close the door on those thoughts right now you know those thoughts aren't close to our mind because we're lucky to have what we have and we want to make sure we use it because we know it has good effectiveness but we'll you know that point in time where that person in the general population is going to be eligible is obviously getting into the spring so we'll have plenty of time to sort that out and know what's available in terms of numbers and types of vaccine thank you very much Tim Vermont Business Magazine I had a good question so let's see currently I was wondering if if there is more stimulus to be targeted towards hospitality that's been sort of where the grant is going and the hardest hit industry and for Victoria I was wondering if we should make too much out of their revenue numbers and again we're very good and are you concerned that the door they cannot store because they should land shut if there wasn't a stick in the package yes thank you Tim you know we honestly don't know what will be available coming out of coming out of congress you know if if there in the event there was was federal relief that would be we would be able to generate grants with the way we did before we have no plans for exactly how we would focus that so again it's just too soon to tell we with the hospitality industry that was something that with the legislature looking at the need we had the benefit of seeing what the applications were showing and the real need across our state and it was there was a decision to put 75 million to the food and accommodation sector while that targeted that sector what it also did was it raised the percentage of grant need that we would be able to hit in the other sectors so again too soon to tell and I think I don't know if the governor wants to add to any of this but before Secretary Young because David you think that yeah yeah okay Tim from what we're understanding at this point in time and we don't have all the details but it doesn't appear that it's going to be done in the same manner as before before we received a huge check to the to the state and then we we determined how we were going to distribute that if it appears it's going to be more targeted I would expect as I understand that it could be a major portion of the economic relief could be in PPP so we'll see when it's past but but I don't think it's going to be done the same manner as previous and there could be another stimulus coming on the heels of this as well that's the other thing that Senator Sanders in particular had talked about and Senator Leahy so initially not as much discretionary yeah not by the state more we would administer it obviously but it would be directed in different ways was there a question for Secretary Young yeah the revenue numbers just came in that and she sounded in the press release that she was hedging her bet a little bit on how it looks very very good right now but without another federal stimulus package is there concern that the economic door sort of slams shut I'm sure Secretary Young will comment on this but I just want to remind everyone we already you know we knew that we were going to be challenged this year from a budgetary standpoint and the revenues coming in we're already downgraded before we started by $300 million so when we when we talk about have exceeding our revenues on a monthly basis or quarterly basis that's after we started with with the $300 million downgrade so just so that we're all aware it's good news but but the challenge right from the from the start Secretary Young Thank you Governor you're absolutely right and that's the first point is that look so see but so recall we're starting at a place you know we've $300 million below where we thought we would be you know with our January forecast so we're not going as bad as we had expected I guess and so another way to say that but on the left you know the sales and the views so revenues they're looking good and and you know odds and see our to the stimulus and the economically covering grants that have gone out and without further seeing federal assistance and I think all quarters our expectation would be the next six months will not be as positive as the first six months of the fiscal year Peter BPR Governor I know you said the release package is still in blocks but based on your conversation with members of the delegation does that package as currently in addition extend unemployment benefits for the 20,000 or so the owners who are expected to time out next week? Yes yeah it does the part that's missing the details that I talked about before were that we we don't know exactly and and they weren't they weren't exactly sure where was going to end up whether it's going to be retroactive whether it's going to start at a certain time but and as well when you know when the extra payment would start and who would qualify so good news all the way around if it passes there will be unemployment benefits for those who are about ready to lose them there'll be extension of some of the program so that's all I know at this point but but you know I'm cautiously optimistic and and they they felt as though something was going to pass because we aren't the only state facing of this issue thank you and Secretary French you talked about these recovery plans you're asking districts to begin drafting to become effective but in February it sounded like can you talk about the specific kinds of programs and services that you think students are going to need yeah thanks for the question I think it's early in that I'm certainly we've had very pretty much in close communications with our partners in the Department of Mental Health but we just know that there's going to be a need for an integrated response that sort of transcends beyond the boundaries of the education system so we just want to prepare the system for that sort of an integrated response thank you Elisa, the Valley Reporter Hello I have a reader ask me this week whether people who have tested positive with a PCR test for COVID and recovered are still required to quarantine can you confirm that they are still required to quarantine You mean if they travel Lisa or if they have a gathering? Yes, sorry I'm coming into this date so they tested positive just because they wanted to be tested before they came to Vermont is that No, I believe this is a case of a second homo homo who was sort of into a local business person that they didn't need to quarantine because they had had COVID in the spring Ah Okay Now I get the scenario I would this is a little bit of uncharted territory but if it's been over three months since they actually were infected we don't know the duration of someone's immunity and we don't know that they can't transmit virus to someone else that's in their nose just like with the vaccine we're not yet sure if people will will not be able to transmit so I would want them to abide by all of our current safety guidances regarding quarantine coming from out of state so I would say the answer is they need to do that Great, thank you very much Dana, local 22 Dana My question is are you worrying about people getting a call from the security when they get the vaccine like they'll stop wearing masks or those things that they don't have to wash their hands anymore Is that a concern? Yeah, it is for me and I'm sure that Dr. Levine will have more to say about this but especially after the first vaccination it's going to take take a while to build up that immunity and you need the second shot as a booster to make it highly get to the 95% effective so from the time you have your first shot to the time you're truly in a safe state so to speak that's two months so yeah, I'm very concerned that the people won't understand that you still need to wear a mask even if you if you just have your shot you're going to need to wear your mask you need to stay physically separated you need to wash your hands you need to stay away from others when sick I mean it's all the same things particularly in the first two months Dr. Levine Dr. Levine Thank you both said dinner yep oh that was my that was my only question okay, thank you Avery WCAX Governor Scott there's a UVM women's basketball and UVM women's hockey game schedule for this weekend what is the big crash now for allowing these games to go on but High School sports is still not allowed to play yeah, I mean we had to separate the colleges and universities or we felt that it was best to separate that and let them deal with that on a much more regional and country-wide basis but I'm going to let Secretary Curley answer this that's a great question the colleges and universities have worked closely with the health department and the agency of commerce and community development and public safety to create a plan that would work for them to continue competing they have the ability to and when they have the ability to test far more frequently than we do with say club or high school or middle school sports it enabled us to get give them a little broader ability to compete but they have strict plans that they number one they're following NCAA guidance but they also produced another plan submitted another plan to our agency that was reviewed by the Department of Health and our agency to ensure that it meets the spirit of our intentions our hopes in terms of keeping not only the players healthy and safe but the public the general public so that the college guidance is on the website at ACCD and as well as the athletic guidance is on there and I don't know if Dr. Levine wants to add anything of that but yeah so that was the the extensive yeah it's extensive testing is that answer your question okay yeah just a quick follow-up we saw with the Hunky outbreak you all mentioned that really it was kind of the social aspect of actual sports themselves are called to spread what is being done to reduce that effective with college at what actually yeah so they their students all signed an additional agreement that said that outside of practices and games that they would really limit their activity and make sure that they followed the state's executive order which prohibits gatherings right now of multi-households so when they're not practicing as a team and whatnot they're not supposed to be gathering socially if they're in different households so they they had another like I said another element of agreement and really saying that they would step up and do the right thing and do everything they could to value this opportunity to compete at this time and we we have met with the athletic directors probably twice monthly and they reach out regularly and get clarification as needed so so don't need a record yes thank you good afternoon this perhaps for either Dr. Lobby and her secretary Smith just curious how productive your sessions were this week with the officials from ethics and Orleans county and did you learn anything from them or have any action steps been dealt with as a result? maybe secretary Smith can you can you comment first or just to give the listeners a some background we've met with the local and state officials from both ethics first ethics county and then or leans county and I what I learned is that local officials and state elections officials as well really want to do the right thing up there they really want to make sure that people are adhering to the social excuse me the distancing the six foot distancing the mask wearing washing hands staying home if you're sick they really want to do the right they want to get the right message out there as well so that that was the message that I heard from local officials they also want to make sure that you know anything that we can give them in terms of data in terms of outbreaks up there please keep them informed and we had agreed to sort of make sure that we keep them informed about various things that are that are happening in their their area doesn't mean anything to add to that I think that pretty well summarize that we also learned about the new testing sites that we've set up and how useful they have been but also again how challenging a geographic area we're dealing with with the unique length of the counties specifically Essex and the interactions with our neighboring states and how that impacts life in those areas so I'd say to summarize it was a great experience for us to learn something and for the officials to learn from us thank you very much Andrea, seven days I was hoping to go back to the the reduction in vaccine shipment and hoping to find out what shipment that points out of as you know the sort of long-term care the track or the allocations that are going to help their workers yeah that's a that's a question you deserve an answer to um to our knowledge as of this moment and again we just got this news that's going to come out of the allocation to the hospitals and it doesn't impact the long-term care but again when I say it's coming out of that allocation everyone believes the promise is that we'll still get the full allocation just not when we expected it and that's a level of detail I just don't have the answers to fill in the blanks about yet because we virtually just learned about it and there hasn't been wonderful communication coming down to the states okay thanks and um and as far as sort of the state's ability to make adjustments how much the way you have to reallocate between those sort of those dreams that needed if sort of there's a shortage in a weak shipment to long-term care or for the care worker yeah so the long-term care is a more challenging one to to deal with so we're happy that that's being left alone the hospital one's a little easier but I have to remind people with Pfizer you have to get a dose of 975 doses so that already limits where it can go and that can be a big hit for one part of a state versus another uh based on the quantity so though we can make it up it still is an issue and on that first day when we might have expected more of it than we get but it shouldn't impact the long-term care plans at all and my understanding about that long-term care batch was to two of those 975 dose units and and I know there are three pharmacies in in the program how does the state do anything to sort of put those doses up or do those on the straight side and the federal those are those are coming direct from the federal government to the pharmacies themselves who have the storage capacity to do them with the appropriate temperature freezer and all of that so they get split up in some way or or yeah yeah I don't I don't have every detail on they are going to the three pharmacies but I I don't have every detail on actually how that plays out I know that we gave one of the pharmacies a little extra on the first go-around so that we could equalize them so I think it's it's being done equitably Hi I believe my questions are best directed to the governor and first of all I was when you addressed sports at the top of the briefing it appeared to me at least reading between the lines a little that you are equating sports activities with multi-household gathering at this point is this a fair read on your stance? Yeah I'm not sure so now is this why kids in in school together can't yet practice together at the same yeah no it's just a question of the timing and what we're seeing with the data and so forth this is one of my highest priorities outside of making sure the vaccinations get to long-term care facilities is getting kids back acclimated to a normal life and I think recreational sports is important to kids their emotional well-being as well as to adults so we're working our way towards that I just we don't want to pay the price for making the wrong move now as I said on Tuesday and and prolong what will the price we'll have to pay in January and February if we do something that it's done too quickly so we don't want to make the same mistakes other states have made in the past and we're just being careful so we're just going to continue to monitor this we might have an update on Tuesday but at this point in time I just we haven't made a decision as to what we do but but it is a very very high priority from from my standpoint understood and when you mentioned the case count these metrics need to differ from current levels for those restrictions on sports and gathering to change what levels do you have in mind is it happened much as recently less than that I'm getting a sense from folks that like they might appreciate a sense of how far away they are and if they're monitoring those numbers to be able to be prepared for the moment and that might turn in their favor well again as you as you can remember back in the early during the summer and during during the fall we had numbers in the single digits almost on a daily basis and then we started around the Halloween time we mid mid fall let's say they started ramping up significantly and we took a number of different actions to counter that but they were up in the you know mid 100s up to over 200 at one point in time and we we were encouraged actually to see them level back out to around you know 100 to 150 and then start to drop as I said my opening remarks I was encouraged to see we're down to 61 day in the 70s another day and then all of a sudden they shot back up to 138 I believe in the following day so yesterday again we saw that they came down to around 86 and again that's moving in the right direction and one day as I steal from Dr. Levine one day doesn't make a trend one way or the other and so we're watching we don't know what happened on that one day when we went back up to 138 but we want to make sure that we don't follow this up today with 86 if tomorrow we're going to get back to the problem but if it's continues to level out and decline a bit then we might be able to open things up and I think we can on as as long as we're safe and smart about this especially with school sports and I hope I hope that we continue to at least stay where we are today and under 100 and if we can do that consistently I believe that we can open the recreation sports in our education system thank you Ian Wallace Allen BC Digger this question is not unlike the sports question except it's about lifting quarantine which is something that a lot of the lodging businesses have been wondering about now that we have seen the advent of a vaccine they're wondering if this is going to enable the governor to have any better idea when the state might lift its travel and quarantine restrictions for people from out of the state yeah it really it really is about the data and you know when we start doing the modeling and starting reverting back to our travel policy the way we were doing it I thought was effective and that's the way we'll work our way back out of it so once we start to see the numbers decline throughout the region and then we'll start to start doing the the travel map again and opening up counties as we did previously even five months for the for the vaccine to have an impact in terms of infection rate do you think that maybe lifting the travel restrictions will follow that same kind of timeline well I would I would say you know we were we were we enjoyed a period of time when we were able to travel freely throughout the northeast and that's what was the long before the vaccines that came into play and so you know this there's an opportunity for both of them to work in in our favor so the vaccines come into place we put into into place mitigation strategies in all of the states around in the northeast throughout the country but particularly in the northeast so we're hoping we'll see decline in the positive cases and when we do that we'll be in in conjunction with the vaccines I don't I'm hopeful that it won't take as long as as you have described I believe that with both of those things taking place simultaneous to each to one another that we will be able to get to a a point where we're able to open up the travel map map sooner rather than later hopefully in the next month or two but it's hard to say it all depends on the data thank you very much Steve can you hear me we can oh great thank you one for the governor one for the doctor if I may governor you mentioned gathering data about the five part community and that question specifically about the indigenous data well with a large number of of French Canadian population that we have and the fact that the early French Canadian early French settlers didn't bring their own you know women along with them how would you how would you gauge the the indigenous population I mean with a DNA test would you need 25 percent Avanaki DNA 10 percent Avanaki DNA how how would that work exactly yeah no I mean we're not going to get that granular in a lot of respects we hope this is it would take longer to gather the information than it will be to vaccinate everyone so our our whole a point here is that we want people who identify as from those communities we want to be able to get them the relief they want as soon as possible so we're not going to take any DNA tests to to determine that we're going to rely on them being truthful and open about who they are and what they're well it isn't what you identify as I mean even though I'm like half half old Yankee if I identify as indigenous sure does that make me indigenous sure in this in this instance what we're trying to do is just trying to make sure that we were there to help and vaccine is available to those populations just as soon as possible so if that's what you identify as that's fine from my perspective Steve did you say you had a question for Dr. Levine? Yeah yeah Dr. Levine I was reading the the Vax trials by Moderna I didn't get to the Pfizer one and there are three protocols they allow asymptomatic results to be considered the same as non-infectious to be considered COVID-6 for the Vax efficacy results they need both a symptom and a positive PCR test were needed so if Moderna and the FDA don't consider asymptomatic people infectious or dangerous then why keep the lockdowns in isolation that are killing killing our small businesses and you can see part of this on Moderna's political study the protocols on page 96 at ModernaTX.com Yes let me answer your question um pretty directly the the outcomes of these studies are to reduce sickness so one arm gets the vaccine the other arm of the study gets a dummy injection that's not vaccine and at a point in time when they develop symptoms and our PCR positive they've achieved the outcome and both studies showed that dramatically less people who got the vaccine develop symptoms and were PCR positive than the other arm it's not really their commentary on asymptomatic people or their their goal regarding asymptomatic people it's really trying to prevent people from getting sick from this virus and having any of the other kinds of worst outcomes they might get because they got sick with the virus from a public health standpoint we want to reduce the number of people who are walking around without symptoms but still capable of transmitting the virus by coughing in your presence or sneezing or even singing or talking in your presence or breathing in your presence but these vaccine trials really aren't set up to figure out if we're able to do that with the vaccine as well that's the next question that's being asked is will people who got the vaccine be less capable of transmitting the virus if it happens to get into their nose from breathing it in or whether they still be able to transmit it even though it won't make them sick so we need to get at that information but it's really nothing philosophical about how the studies were set up or what the companies are trying to achieve or not achieve it's really very pragmatic have less people become ill and suffer from this virus and we'll see how that pans out in terms of the transmission ability but secondarily to that there's been articles in the New York Times and the Lantz that the American Institute for Economic Research et cetera and they suggested that six months worth of data showed that the lockdowns don't work and the recent case outbreaks both in the U.S. and Europe and were in places with the strictest mask policies and lockdown policies and even Carnegie Mellon had a Facebook survey of over three million people that confirmed this also so it doesn't this data and the science shows it that the virus is going to do what the virus is going to do regardless of the lockdown policies yeah that's a whole other question that will keep us here to 130 all I'll say is what we've learned over time is very strategically directed mitigation strategies do seem to work and the lockdowns did work when they were when they were present but then people had a the populations had after a point in time an upsurge all the lockdowns worked strict as they were but it wasn't a durable effect and to get a durable effect you suppress the virus and you vaccinate the population and that's that's really our pathway to success for the future all right Steve we gotta move on yeah we're gonna we're gonna go to Lisa the Waterbury roundabout thank you Lisa good afternoon can you hear me yes we can hi um my questions have to do with um not so much organized recreation but unorganized outdoor recreation we just got this nice new snowfall and I'm wondering if there's any thought to sort of clarifying the guidance around people going outside to plan the snow essentially whether you're out in a snowmobile or you're going to go skating or take your kids to a sledding hill um there's a lot of chatter right now that I'm seeing where people are concerned about whether you know going to the same sledding hill with their kids and standing out on sleds etc to go out at the same time is that considered a a multi household gathering if you've got your kids outside bundled with their faces covered on separate sleds and that sort of scenario yeah I think uh again I think that's all healthy and we should be encouraging any anyone getting outside to recreate and those in that manner and just making sure that we're uh masking up staying separated and so forth is is key but uh secretary moore can you uh can you comment on this we've talked about this a little bit in some of our meetings yeah sure sure we'd be happy to get up in the room but we are working on guidance to make some clarifications the last time we tested the outdoor recreation guide was was back in the late spring in early summer and so clearly thinking through but but just as you indicated it's just people need to to serve those physical distancing recommendations and be masked up what we we love for people just to be outside similar to the summer guides so this is in a time for crowds and really encourage people to sort of arrive play and then leave and not engage in social gatherings whether it's at the bottom of a flood hill or a trail pad or at any other outdoor facility well that's definitely some more more clarifying and I think that's helpful because it's definitely shifting now with the weather changing and there being different opportunities for people to get outside but also being dressed in a way that will be easier to to have masks and safe coverings et cetera so thank you for that I guess we'll maybe look for that sometime soon hopefully yeah we'll we're going to we're going to talk about that a little bit more in the next either on Tuesday or Thursday okay great thank you very much one of the Vermont standard hi everyone I have a including close to your really just a question about clarification on the on the vaccinations in the group 1A for Dr. Levine over the last two days I've spoken with medical officers at both different hospital in Randolph and Mount Stutney Hospital in Windsor and it's my understanding from them that their vaccine allotment also provides for them to vaccinate EMS personnel in their respective catchment areas and I'm just wondering of that is the distribution mechanism around the state is it to the EMS personnel through hospital yes the answer is absolutely yes it also includes primary care OBGYN offices dental offices so a health alert notification is either on its way out or going out this afternoon so that all the clinicians and hospitals in the state will be aware of how to go about vaccinating those people who aren't really really employed by the hospital but they're in the region of the hospital and EMS is high on that high on that list for sure okay thank you very much that's our point thank you we're sure of questioners and thank you to Greg for agreeing to connect with us separately about his fellow questions so we'll say okay that's it we'll see you on Tuesday and then because of the the Christmas being on Friday we'll have a press conference on Thursday so it'll be Tuesday Thursday next week thank you very much


There used to be a time when I was the number one warrior in the world No, no, not the kind that fights with people not that kind of warrior But the one that worries a lot the one that finds everything negative the one that is so good at it His whole life. It's marred by anxiety Today I'm not like that We have made a video just hot off the press You can watch in a YouTube YouTube channel mental wealth TV that talks about our experiences around anxiety and How bad it can be how bad it can get but what is the things that can be done in a very very Practical way right from the horse's mouth. You can apply if you want to But go and watch it I'm sure that if you have a little bit of anxiety or you know somebody that suffers from anxiety It's gonna be God sent See you soon


My name is Rachel Aluala. I work for Communications Authority of Kenya. I'm the Assistant Director for Communications and External Affairs. The Communications Authority of Kenya is the regulator for ICT in Kenya. ICTs today have become central in our lives and in all sectors. In fact, in Kenya, ICT as a sector is taken as an enabler for other sectors. So in fact, the relevance of the theme in WTDC this year, ICTs for SDGs, is very key because it speaks to our needs. We're talking about connectivity. How can we make more people and ensure more people are connected to ICT networks and not only connected but are able to access the service? These are the questions that we ask. And when we come to WTDC, we're looking for answers. It may not be in full, but through the discussion with other counterpart countries and looking for global measures, then we will be able to also address issues and activity in our country and the region as well. Africa, as you know, is very quite underserved with more unconnected people. So we're looking at connecting more. And with respect to the WTDC itself, there are many areas that we have made proposals on, which we hope to maximise the benefits from there. For instance, we submitted regional initiatives and one of those was to build digital economies and digital innovation ecosystems because this is a growth area for us in Kenya. For instance, we have a lot of innovators coming up and it is a promising area for us. So we have to look at ways to grow it and we're hoping that through these initiatives we can also build our capacity as a country and be able to get the support that we need for these particular areas. But there are other areas that are of interest to us that we're also looking at to grow as a country and as a region, for instance, connectivity to high-speed and high-capacity broadband. And for now, Kenya, for instance, a lot of people need to be connected on 3G, 4G. We have a 2G connection, maybe a penetration of over 80%. But we are looking at now the high-speed. And through these models that we can be able to develop in these kind of forums, we hope to have more people working on networks. And then another area that we are also very keen on is also enhancing the use of Spectrum for development. Because Spectrum is a very key resource, but we need to know how to use it better to reach more people who have access. And through the WTDC and their initiatives that are being agreed on by members, we are hoping that, again, more Kenyans and more African people from Africa can get connected to ICTs and benefit from it for their lives. Thank you very much.