MORE TESTS: The Biden administration wants to spend $1 billion to purchase and distribute in-home tests. Gov. Phil Scott’s administration is for aggressive testing as well.
At the governor’s weekly press conference Tuesday, Vermont’s high COVID case counts continued to dominate discussion, and the state’s aggressive COVID testing could be one reason for the spike.
Throughout the briefing, officials from the Scott administration noted that case counts go up or down based on increases and decreases in testing.
“Vermont’s cases have increased — we did see an increase following the Thanksgiving holiday after a somewhat artificial decrease in cases with lower testing,” Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said.
“It is important to point out that with the increase in cases, we did see an increase in testing this week,” he said, adding that there was a 53 percent increase in testing compared to the week prior.
On Sunday, the Vermont Department of Health reported a record 641 cases of COVID-19. The prior high was 635 cases recorded on Dec. 1. Saturday saw 561 cases, but notably Vermont had only 246 cases on Monday, because the state conducts fewer tests on weekends.
The Health Department’s Vermont COVID-19 Data Summary report for the dates of March 5, 2020 through Nov. 3, 2021 show correlation between number of tests and seasonal virus spikes in fall and winter months.
The gray lines on this chart from page 7 show the daily number of tests conducted throughout the year. Those lines spike to between 8,000 and 15,000 tests in fall and winter, when the state’s COVID cases have also been highest. Testing frequency drops significantly in summer, and lower virus case counts get recorded.
As the graphic also shows, the percentage of tests that come back positive stays consistently around 2 percent to 3 percent, with occasional spikes above 5 percent.
Gov. Phil Scott said Vermonters could be paid by the federal government to get more COVID testing.
“You might have seen that President Biden is working to allow Americans to be reimbursed for at-home tests in the new year,” he said.
The Department of Financial Regulation has issued an emergency rule on Tuesday requiring that commercial insurers cover take-home COVID tests, Scott added, noting that Biden’s approach to the pandemic has influence on Vermont policy.
“[The President] also discussed the importance of making testing widely available, which we’ll focus on here in Vermont,” Scott said.
Scott said the Omicron variant was seemingly “less severe” according to data from the Centers and Disease Control and Prevention.
He also took a moment to memorialize Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, as Japan’s attack on the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941, changed history and brought the United States into World War II.
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
The cat is out of the bag when people being tested cannot get an answer to the question “how do you know what I have?” They just say “positive” or “negative.” The medical establishment cannot tell because the virus is not isolated. The testing protocol has no sample to compare. The virus sample is a secret. We know some, but not all the components. Like the “vaccine,” we don’t know exactly what it is. Also, the Los Angeles Sheriff Department refused to test employees because the lab was turning over the results to the CCP. The contract with the lab advised it was sharing the test information. All of these tests contain DNA. How many labs have taken test samples and sold the results to 3rd party labs? We have no idea. What are they doing with these tests? We have no idea. The plandemic has many nefarious and devious players attached and all is being played against humanity.
The apparatchiks in Vermont continue to milk the Chinese virus for for all they can. It’s all about government control of the masses through fear. And what it truly pathetic are the number of “useful idiots” who keep clambering for more and more government solutions.
More tests more cases. Less tests less cases It’s freakin math, duh.
Turnoff your tv and stop testing, suddenly the pandemic is over!
Use ivermectin and you can save 90% the lives of all grand parents infected.
When you worship power and money, it’s tough to turn away from all the control given by the Feds, it’s tough to turn away from all the “free money”. It’s tough for our hospitals to practice medicine when they are mandated and given money for treatments that profit themselves (ventilators) and kill people.
The truth will come out, VERMONT will conveniently sweep it under the rug.
I would encourage readers to listen if they can to the Governor’s weekly press briefings held at noon on Tuesdays and broadcast live on Vermont Public Radio. They are a comprehensive update on the current Covid situation by State officials as well as answering tough questions by reporters from around the State including some connected with TNR. The best place to hear directly what is happening and the administrations actions and reasons for doing things.
I will particularly miss in these briefings the input from Mike Smith, who will be stepping down as the
Secretary of the Agency of Human Services at the end of the month. Mike served in the same capacity for Governor Douglass and as a past Republican member of the House and past Deputy Treasurer for the State. Smith earned a reputation over the years as one who got things done and did not mince words. In his parting remarks, Mike, a former Navy Seal, gave his boss Phil Scott the ultimate compliment from a Seal, saying ” Phil Scott is one that he would choose to go into combat with” .
Not surprisingly Steve Howard, Executive Director of the Vermont State Employees Association, has choosen to go negative. He faulted Smith for having little sympathy for state workers who Howard says have been run ragged by the pandemic .
Gee, it’s really simple, stop testing and the virus will go away.
I have read the tests cannot differentiate between a cold, flu or the covid virus.
follow up
What happened to all these cases? Are they dying in the hospital, are they recovering at home?
How many are in the ICU, or are they just taking their ivermectine and recovering like the chinaman in Ill
so which test are they relying on? Is it the PCR test, or the “at home” test?
This is critical to the knowledge base!