No press briefing today (1/4/22), but there was a new modeling report. You can see all 60 slides, as always, on the DFR website. Here’s the link to today’s report: dfr.vermont.gov/sites/finreg/f…

I’ll share a few slides that stuck out to me in a 🧵. Here’s the overall summary. Cases are up, a lot. And the forecast is for a lot more.

There is no Covid press briefing today! However, Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine is going to be on @vermontedition, so I'll tweet out any salient remarks. (And tomorrow afternoon the governor delivers his State of the State address. @vprnet will carry it live.) #vtpoli @vermontedition @vprnet Governor Scott announced at the end of last week's briefing that there wouldn't be one today, because of the State of the State. (I believe the same thing happened last year, with the inauguration.)

🧵This morning on the way to school my 7yo piped up from the backseat, “I almost don’t even remember not wearing a mask!” Then he cast his mind back to spring, when he’d asked if he was going to have to go through another December birthday w/out a celebration because of Covid. 1/ “And you said you didn’t think so. And now my birthday is only 17 days away and we are still in Covid.” Then my 5yo said what she thought was a ludicrous statement: “Maybe Covid will be with us forever.” They were both surprised when I had to admit up that it probably will be. 2/

Howdy, friends! I hope you are ready for yet another #vtpoli #covid19vt press conference twitter storm. I'm only going to be tweeting the first hour today, probably up to question time, because then I have to duck out for this:

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1465725110837522437

Please join me on @TwitterSpaces at 1pm for that chat. In the meantime, answer me this: would it be helpful for me to go back and tweet the rest of the presser when I'm done, so you can have the full thread, even if it's not in real time? Or is it less helpful if it's not live?

I just recently learned that you can make perfect jīdàn gēng, steamed egg custard, in 5 minutes in the microwave and I want to eat it for every single meal for the rest of my life!! For the recipe: NYT Food featured it recently but I don't have a subscription (yet!) so I just googled a bunch of recipes and cobbled together something that looked right to me. Here's what I did: (see next tweet)

🚨🚨Heads up! Today’s #vtpoli #covid19vt press briefing begins early, at 11:30am. You can listen on @vprnet and I’ll be tweeting! Consider this an extra early start to the thread.🚨🚨 After it’s over, stick around for a broadcast of @ButWhyKids. Our latest episode of this international show for kids is set right here in Vermont, at Champlain Orchards. That will air when the post-presser analysis ends.

9/28/21
Okay, Tuesday press briefing any moment now. Tune to @vprnet to hear analysis up until it starts and afterwards. And here's a thread for those who don't want to sit and listen for 2 hours! #vtpoli #vted #covid19vt @vprnet A few asides. I got a COVID test last Thursday afternoon (I had attended a family funeral in Maine--masked indoors but unmasked for the outdoor reception, so I wanted to be on the safe side). Results came back on Saturday morning. Anyone still struggling to get timely results?

Governor Scott's weekly press conference about to start. Vermont kids are headed back to school this week, and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine just got standard FDA approval. We'll see what the assembled panel has to say. #vted #yourshotvt #covid19 #vtpoli Here's your thread! Scott says the White House told governors today that clinical trials for vaccines in kids under the age of 12 are going well and Pfizer should be submitting data for emergency approval in September. However...

Press conference beginning soon. Heads up that if the jury comes back in the Chauvin case, @vprnet will go to live coverage from NPR. I will continue to listen to and tweet the COVID press conference, and you'll be able to find the audio at vpr.org. @vprnet And we're beginning with Mike Pieciak today, as the governor is off at the weekly call the Biden administration has with state governors.

20 years ago, I wanted to write my senior thesis on the @BAA Boston marathon. I thought it was an interesting example of Emile Durkheim’s theory of collective effervescence. (Yes, that was some haircut. I had buzzed it the previous fall for a class, but that’s a different story.) Problem was, no one in Harvard’s social anthropology department would advise me. They said I should have gone to B.U. if I had wanted to study sports anthropology. (Maybe I would have liked college if I had!)

Here comes your Vermont COVID press conference thread for Tuesday, March 23rd. Human Services Secretary Mike Smith kicks things off as Governor Scott is busy on a weekly call with other governors and the White House. Smith says we could hit a milestone this week where 1 in 5 Vermonters (he may have said VT adults) are fully vaccinated with all needed doses.

Tuesday press briefing about to start. Here’s a thread! #vtpoli #COVID19 Concerning movement on case numbers that will be talked about in today’s press briefing and modeling report. Interesting to note that cases continue to decline among older Vermonters, who are, of course, vaccinated in higher levels than younger Vermonters.

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."

#vtpoli press conference coming up, and accompanying thread to follow. Governor Scott, Health Commissioner Dr. Levine, and Human Services Secretary Mike Smith are all planning to give opening remarks, and all will be remote, because of a COVID exposure. A contractor who was in the Pavilion auditorium, where the press briefings are held, tested positive for the virus earlier this week. Although the public officials at the podium were following safety protocols, they are quarantining to take all the necessary precautions.

Press conference thread coming up! If you've just started following me, feel free to mute me--there are about 50 tweets coming in the next 2 hours as I follow the Friday press conference on Vermont's official response to COVID-19. #vtpoli Gov. Scott starting a little earlier than normal. Begins by saying that he's just extended the State of Emergency for another month. He hopes not to have to continue these forever but "Now is not the time to let up, and I'm hopeful Vermonters will continue to do their part."

Long time no tweet! Time for yet another press conference. Today we will NOT hear from Governor Phil Scott, who will be absent for the state update. AHS Secretary Mike Smith begins, noting that he is not the governor. Says the governor needed this time to address some work that was postponed due to yesterday's official inaugural business.

Anyone want some live tweets of @GovPhilScott's inaugural address? #vtpoli He's starting now, and immediately opens with the "shocking attack on our democracy" yesterday in Washington. "Make no mistake, Donald Trump is responsible for fanning these flames." Scott says the challenges we face demand the very best of all of us, and notes that all of this as happening during a global pandemic. He pivots now to when we first began to learn about this virus spreading around the world.

.@vprnet is in special coverage, following the breaking news of the alarming situation at the US Capitol, where armed rioters have breached the building. @PeterWelch speaking now. We're also monitoring TV coverage. Images are unfathomable. @vprnet @PeterWelch Welch says House members were told to lie down on the floor, told to don gas masks. "I heard the crashing sounds of battering around the main entry door" and saw guns drawn by Capitol police as they tried to put barriers up against the door against "the incoming mob".

Press conference thread coming at you! (Mute me now if you don’t want to be bombarded!) Governor Scott begins, as expected, talking about the vaccine doses that arrived in Vermont yesterday. First doses are reserved for "high risk" healthcare workers, who treat COVID patients, and people who live in long term care facilities.

Hi, friends, hope you're hanging in there. Time for another press conference. #vtpoli Phil Scott begins by noting that we've lost 4 more Vermonters in the last two weeks to COVID-19, and the state will be reporting 146 new cases today, a state record.

Okay, ready for another press conference thread? (If the answer is no, feel free to mute me!) 95 new cases reported today. Nearly a quarter of the state's total cases have come in the last two weeks alone. "As you've seen, our cases have continued to grow," Governor Scott says to begin his remarks. And says that because of this growth, new steps have been enacted. (The ones he announced last Friday.)