Gov. Scott: Vermont won’t have to fall back on 2020 COVID-19 initiatives

By Brent Addleman | The Center Square

Gov. Phil Scott in his address last week said Vermont won’t have to fall back on COVID-19 mandates issued in 2020 as the state moves forward by working to prevent the spread of the virus.

Scott said he joined other governors on a virtual call with President Joe Biden on Dec. 27, where “the president reiterated he is committed to working with states to ensure we keep moving forward” in the battle against COVID-19.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott answers questions during his final weekly media briefing of 2021.

“Even with omicron we have the tools we need,” Scott said. “We have vaccines, boosters, testing, and common-sense precautions we have talked about repeatedly — like wearing masks indoors and crowded public spaces and staying home when sick.”

Scott said a topic of conversation during the call was “an effort to acquire half a billion at-home tests for Americans” and he “looks forward to hearing more about that plan very soon.”

The governor discussed the distribution of “tens of thousands” of tests that were administered before the Christmas holiday and the state “plans to do so again this week” as COVID-19 numbers are rising across the nation.

Scott said he heard of “frustrations that resulted from people not getting them as they ran out,” and that the state is “doing the best we can with what we have until the federal supply chain starts flowing.”

He said the state just received a shipment of tests with the majority being distributed to schools and long-term care facilities.

“We are getting any excess rapid tests out of the door as fast as we can,” the governor said. “We hope that supply will increase and with it accessibility. We have been working with federal partners for weeks, and we hope to get final details soon.”

Scott said he is working with the Department of Education on a plan that will get rapid tests to parents for kids to be tested before they return to school following the holiday break.

“We just got a supply that makes this possible,” Scott said. “We will have more for you in the next day or so.”

Scott said the goal is to have 80,000 test kits available to parents “over the next week.”

Commissioner Michael S. Pieciek said that the national COVID-19 positivity rates and number of cases across the nation are rising and “infections continue to rise as omicron rises.”

Pieciek said that the state is monitoring spread and hospitalizations closely, as “numbers are increasing across New England.” However, he said, cases have been relatively stable in Vermont.

“We are up 4% in Vermont, and the positivity rate is over 5%, representing a 25% increase over the past seven days, similar to Thanksgiving,” he said.

Pieciek said that while Vermont doesn’t appear to see a case surge fueled by omicron, “we know it is a matter of time before we see more significant spread here.”

In Vermont, Pieciek said, hospitalizations have decreased by 3% over the past week, and that “most hospitalized are unvaccinated.”

Secretary Daniel M. French said plans are in the works to operate schools following the break and to ensure they remain open.

“We had three strategies to keep schools open during the pandemic,” French said, “and we will use the same for omicron.”

French said vaccination, contract tracing and testing, along with mitigation recommendations will continue for school operations.”

Following the holiday break, French said, schools will expand the use of antigen tests.

He said with the distribution of at-home test “parents, not schools” will be “responsible for administering home tests.”

“Schools will be a distribution point,” he said.

French said the plan is to continue PCR testing in schools, but RT-Lamp testing will be utilized as results will be provided “more quickly” and “specimens do not have to be shipped to labs.”

On the topic of masking in schools, French said the state initially has a plan to push back the use of masks when the student population is 80% vaccinated, but that date will be pushed back to Feb. 28 before it goes into effect.

11 thoughts on “Gov. Scott: Vermont won’t have to fall back on 2020 COVID-19 initiatives

  1. What should have been added to the Vermont Covid arsenal is depicted in this Canadian TV program – The History of Ivermectin. http://www.oann.com/the-story-of-ivermectin-sheds-light-on-the-history-benefits-of-the-drug/ About 4 min. in, Dr. Reider, reknown Dade County pulminologist who had an ICU patient about to go on the ventilator. Her son insisted they try Ivermectin. In two days she was vastly improved and within a week left the hospital. His team used it on 100’s of patients. They only had 2 hospitalizations and no deaths. He reported this to DC Congressional leaders in the spring of 2020.

    Sadly, this preventative that worked widely in Argentina, Peru, and in states of Mexico, countries in Africa has not been given attention by our national leaders. Perhaps because it can costs as little as $4 and doesn’t profit the Big Pharma and Medical complexes.

    Perhaps this is why Dr. Malone, inventer of the mRNA methodologies used by Pfizer and Moderna, is clamoring and getting the silencing treatment for saying 500K American Covid deaths could have been prevented. For more go to vthope.net/covid.html

  2. Useless garbage. Tests are of absolutely no use. Brain dead incompetent Cowards or murderers, perhaps both. Follow your government straight to hell. Lean in to fear, deception and death. Go ahead. I’ll watch from here, filthy with love, hope and healing. Soon it might be too late to join me.

  3. For the more astute readers who noticed that Scott doesn’t mention any pretreatments or other methods….

    https://generaldispatch.whatfinger.com/carol-hayes-uk-ivermectin-smuggled-in-chocolate-bar-saved-my-life-hear-how-doctors-would-let-you-die-instead-of-cure-you/

    They’ll watch you die for $48,000 on a ventilator. It’s just good business! Why save a soul for $20?

    Just a side not, it’s been weeks, months. Where is the VTGOP? Playing uniparty games?
    Talk is cheap but that’s not even happening.

  4. Everything these malevolent scumbags say and do is the exact opposite of reality.
    One example…PCR tests don’t work.

    You can’t fix stupid!

  5. 2022 is an election year amd there is a serious need in Vermont to be able to provide some checks and balances to unrealistic stand alone Vermont laws, such as the Climate change legislation vetoed by Governor Scott but then overriden. There is a strong need for a net gain of 5 seats in the Vermont House to make overrides a real rarity and restore a semblance of common sense and practicality.

    With over 96% of voting age Vermonters having chosen to take the vaccine, is vaccinations the issue that we want to have front and center in the next election? Warnings, such as of a mass die off from taking the vaccine will not likely win many votes.

  6. New York City has an exploding case-demic – a place where vaccine passports are implemented as well as mask mandates and the vaccine psyop in full propaganda mode. It appears our BLUE State is performing the same marathon chicken dance with the same results. Many an expert, banned and censored from social media, are warning of mass die off across the globe. Many citizens reporting dire illnesses and injuries that are not from contracting Wu-Flu – their stories also censored and banned from social media. As long as Dr. Levin and Gov Scott, et al, follow serial killer Fauci’s lead, we will see astounding numbers of folks succumbing to this billionaire funded, government sponsored genocide. Crimes against humanity.

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