Thread by @JaneLindholm

It's another Tuesday, another press conference updating Vermonters on COVID-19 and other issues. I'll be tweeting out all the salient information I can capture, with the ever-present caveat that I can't catch it all!! #vtpoli

Human Services Secretary Mike Smith kicks things off.

We've been told "Governor Scott is participating in a call with fellow governors and White House officials and will join the briefing immediately after for the Q&A portion."

I missed the stats that Secretary Smith rattled off at the start, but he was talking about how many Vermonters have gotten one or both of their vaccination doses. But you can see the stats here, on the state's COVID dashboard: healthvermont.gov/covid-19/vacci…

Smith says 34K Vermonters in the 75+ category have registered for the vaccine (out of about 42K who are eligible in this round). And they're adding clinics in places where appointments are mostly filled up.

Smith says about 21 people have canceled appointments for today, possibly related to inclement weather. People who cancel will be given a new appointment later this week, at the same time. (And can work with the scheduler to find a time that works.)

Smith says Vermonters who are home-bound or unable to get to a clinic should start receiving their doses by the end of this week. (I'll see if we can get more details in today's @vermontedition health update.)

Smith thanks the many many people who have contributed to make this "successful statewide vaccination effort" work. And he encourages anyone who is eligible but has not yet signed up to do so. People can register at healthvermont.gov/myvaccine or by calling 855-722-7878

Commissioner Pieciak now, with a modeling report. When I downloaded it on my phone it showed up like this. So I’m trying to screenshot on the fly from the modeling report online, which can be found here: dfr.vermont.gov/about-us/covid…

Some national stats, with good news about declining cases. Cases are declining in Quebec as well.

Regional and statewide stats here. In Vermont, cases are declining. But January was the deadliest month of the pandemic for the state.

Pieciak notes that we’re starting to see fewer cases in the highest risk categories as more Vermonters in these groups get vaccinated.

Pieciak notes the caseload in Bennington County, which continues to be quite high, with the highest caseload per capita for any county in the state since the start of the pandemic.

Higher Ed stats and Vt forecast also in these slides.

Vaccination data here, and restart Vt metrics.

Dr. Levine now. Reporting 108 new cases today. Says 7-day positivity rate is 1.9%. "We're also seeing deaths increase at a much lower rate," Levine says. "This has to do with fewer cases in long term care facilities in January compared to December."

Hospitalization rate remains a concern for the state. 64 patients hospitalized today, 12 in the ICU. Many of those are in Bennington County. Dr. Levine says Southwestern Vermont Medical Center is coping well, and other facilities are accepting transfer patients to ease the strain

Levine says Bennington County's high rates resemble counties next door in NY. As I'm listening, it seems that Dr. Levine is saying that some of the high case load is likely due to spread from New York.

He says there were gatherings known about in December, but it's unclear (to me) what impact he thinks that has on these ongoing high numbers. Says ski visitors likely account for some, but not a high amount, of the case rate.

Dr. Levine says Johnson & Johnson is expected to seek emergency use authorization for a new vaccine that only requires 1 dose.

This vaccine is not as effective in early studies as some of the other vaccines in preventing contraction of the virus, BUT it appears to be highly effective in preventing hospitalization and serious cases.

No official decision on school-based sports competition yet.

Dr. Levine and Commissioner Pieciak have both talked about cases in higher education, noting that the higher number of cases we're seeing at the start of this semester is expected, given the higher case numbers around the country, as students come from outside VT.

Dr. Levine says he feels very confident that schools have robust protocols in place, and are addressing cases, or, in the case of Norwich University, an outbreak. Says that disciplinary measures have, in some cases, been implemented when students have broken protocol.

Q&A starting now. Gov. Scott is not here yet, but should be at some point. First question is for Labor Commissioner Mike Harrington about the 1099G forms that the department revealed have been sent to the wrong people, a potentially large violation of private information.

Harrington says an error in the processing system resulted in individuals receiving 1099 documents where the name and address were incorrect either on the envelope or had the wrong name and SS# on the inside.

The department is asking people to return ALL of the 1099s that have been sent out to date. That's 80,000! 55,000 were corrupt and a smaller subset included the possibility of improper release of sensitive information. They'll be sending out stamped envelopes for this.

People whose sensitive info, including their SS#, may have been compromised will be called directly by the department and given information on how to protect their information or to enroll in ID protection. (I think he said the state will pay for that, but I'm not 100% on that.)

Is this related to the aging mainframe, Calvin Cutler asks. Harrington says it's related, but another part of it is just how many of these forms and other documents they've been spending out, and how many more opportunities for error there are with all these documents going out.

Says the department has a lot of work to do to rectify this problem.

"We obviously have an obligation under the law to notify the AG's office and the IRS," but we have a bigger obligation to notify the people who were affected, Harrington says. "At the end of the day, they were mailed by the department, which means I am accountable."

Harrington says that if someone did this intentionally, or if there are people who need to be reprimanded, that will come in time. But the first obligation is to fix the problem for Vermonters who are affected.

Harrington says there were 80,000 forms mailed, but some people will be getting multiple 1099 forms this year, so he's not sure yet how many individuals are affected by this issue. They're working on that.

10,300 vaccine doses (first round doses) should be coming from the federal government for the next 2 weeks, Secretary Smith says. They don't have any info about allocation after that. (But the governor is currently meeting with the feds, so maybe we'll hear more soon.)

Question from Stewart Ledbetter about vaccinating teachers. Secretary Smith says the administration is open to looking at various options once the state completes vaccination for those age 65+ and those with medical vulnerability.

"I think it's too soon to talk about specifics," given the unknowns around timing/future dose allocation/potential for new vaccines, Smith says, but says he's talking to the VT NEA (the teacher's union). And acknowledges the state's push to get all students and teachers in person

Dr. Levine says he may have misspoken: there are actually 54 people hospitalized today. (Not 64, as he initially stated.)

Governor Scott has arrived with an update from his call with governors and the White House. He says it was a "very productive conversation."

"Our doses will be increased another 5% in addition to the 16% increase announced last week, for a total of more than 20%" increase over where things were several weeks ago, Scott says.

Says dose allocations will be confirmed in 3-week chunks, so states can plan ahead. So the state will get this additional 5% for the next 3 weeks. In addition, feds will offer info/tools for getting the extra dose out of the Pfizer vials, which doesn't count against allocation #s

In other news, Scott says the federal government will be offering 100% reimbursement for certain FEMA costs, retroactive to January of '20, "which will mean millions for Vermont". Previous reimbursement rates were in the 70% range.

Federal government will also be doing a pilot program to deliver a million vaccine doses directly to pharmacies in the coming weeks. That should mean about 900-1000 doses coming to Vermont under that program. These doses will not be counted in our weekly allocation #s.

Mike Donoghue asks pointedly about why the Labor Department has repeatedly screwed up and where the accountability is/who is at fault. Given that people's identifying information is being improperly revealed.

Harrington acknowledges the issue. Says he'll take the ultimate blame, but says the priority is to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Says he's not trying to dodge.

Q about when long term care facilities might be opened up to visitors, and what that might look like. Levine says now that skilled nursing facility residents are fully vaccinated, "now is the time for us to find a way forward."

Says some assisted living facilities are still waiting for 2nd dose, so they're not fully done with the process. Says it's unlikely that they'll require all visitors to have had their vaccination before being allowed to visit; that doesn't seem realistic. But no plan in place yet

Q from Shawn at the Chester Telegraph: what went wrong, specifically, at Springfield Hospital, where those Moderna doses were stored incorrectly and were feared to have been spoiled. (Turned out they could still be used.)

Dr. Levine starts by saying "I'm not going to answer your question" because the specific reasons are too granular and still not totally known. Then he listed a lot of things that seemed to be problematic before saying, "Things weren't all that awry there."

I was a little confused by the answer, though I didn't have my 100% full attention on it, so I may just have missed some of it, but I think what he's saying is that there are so many elements that have to go right in this kind of situation, 1/

(cont.) and any one of them going slightly askew can cause problems. But that nothing is catastrophically wrong in the system or at the hospital. 2/2

Question about a Vermonter getting rejected for a vaccine appointment because their phone number has an out-of-state area code. Gov. Scott and Sec. Smith both say they haven't heard anything like this. Smith says he'll look into it. "If it is an issue, we'll correct it."

No word yet on whether parades will be able to happen later in the spring and summer.

Cat Viglienzoni says she's hearing from people who say they don't want a vaccine like the Johnson&Johnson one, that appears to have a lower efficacy.

Dr. Levine says: "the real thing that the vaccines should be held in high esteem for is their ability to prevent people from getting really sick...and the fact that this vaccine performs so well in those categories is really what people should take home."

Other factors people should keep in mind, Levine says, include the fact that there have been no adverse reactions to the vaccine in question, including anaphylaxis. And that this vaccine showed consistent results across different demographic groups.

He says another factor people will and should be looking at is how each of these vaccines is able to prevent new variants.

Hold tight for more info on competition for school-based sports. Scott says they should have an update as early as Friday.

Scott says the question of how to allow visitation for people in long term care facilities is "on the front burner" for his team. He knows "the emotional drain on them is overwhelming."

We still have quite a few reporters to go. I hope you'll tune in for @vermontedition as soon as this is over. We'll have our weekly health update and can answer questions you might have that are coming out of this presser.

Q about Essex County vaccine allocation and if it's too low. Scott cautions about reading into the data because it might appear skewed based on where the long term care facilities are in the state. Smith says the state has tried to allocated doses fairly on a per capita basis.

Smith says he'll look into it. And says the goal of the state is to make sure that everyone can get to a vaccine clinic within a half-hour drive from home.

Governor Scott says there will be no doses wasted because of the storm today, even if some people can't make their appointments.

Just a heads up, I'm missing a few things right now--trying to get documents printed etc. for the upcoming Vermont Edition show.

Steve Merrill wants to know how the state will determine who qualifies as indigenous under state guidelines, and asks if "high cheekbones" like Elizabeth Warren would be enough.

Can I just acknowledge how offensive this line of questioning is? We're getting into things like the one-drop rule and a longstanding racist history in this country of quantifying and qualifying people based on rubrics of race and ethnicity and who gets to "count".

Presser is over. Join us for Vermont Edition coming right up.