Levine unsure when vaccinated Vermonters will be immune

By Guy Page

The Vermont Department of Health can’t say when vaccinated Vermonters will be immune from Covid-19 and no longer a threat to transmit the disease to others.

Vermonters eager to move beyond masks and social distancing are inquiring how soon after vaccination they can dispense with these measures. Vermont Daily asked Health Commissioner Mark Levine at today’s press conference: “When is a reasonable time frame in which we will know whether or not two-dose recipients are immune and cannot transmit?

Guy Page

“As quickly as scientific research lets us know,” Levine said. “We have a glimmer but we don’t have the whole picture yet.” Vaccine manufacturer Pfizer is studying this question. “I can’t actually give you the timeline because I don’t know how far along they are,” he said.

Climate solutions

The Vermont Legislative Climate Solutions Caucus will convene at noon Thursday, Jan. 21 to welcome new members and discuss legislative priorities, organizers Sen. Chris Pearson (P/D-Chittenden) and Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas (D-Bradford) said. The meeting will be live-streamed. Information about the caucus is available on its website.

Last year the caucus was a driving force behind the Global Warming Solutions Act. The 23-member Climate Council established by the GWSA has met three times. At its last meeting, Vermont Executive Director of Racial Equity Xusana Davis said the GWSA’s mandated carbon emission deadlines are a “tool of white supremacy” and urged the council to extend the deadlines. The Climate Council is also the target of a bill aimed at preventing conflicts of interest.

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Governor Phil Scott has signed H.48, authorizing alternative procedures for 2021 annual municipal meetings in response to COVID-19. He strongly urged municipalities to conduct local elections by mail.

“Although Vermonters value traditions like town meetings and voting in person, I strongly urge local officials to take advantage of the flexibility this law affords by mailing each registered voter a ballot for upcoming elections,” Scott said in a statement. “Not only would it accomplish the primary objective of helping keep our friends, families, and neighbors safe, but it will also increase access to the democratic process, ensuring Vermonters don’t need to choose between their right to vote and risking attending a town meeting gathering during a pandemic.”

D.C. bus ride

The Vermont press won’t let DC bus story die. At today’s press conference, Andrea Suozzo of Seven Days asked Levine if any Covid-19 cases have been associated with the chartered bus ride of 51 Trump supporters to the January 6 D.C. rally. “I have not been made aware of any cases,” he said. “We have been looking for that. To my knowledge there have not been any cases.”

Has the Health Department done any contact tracing?, Suozzo pressed. “The only way we would be in contact is if we had a case. We have not done contact tracing because we have no reported case,” Levine said.

Undeterred, Suozzi asked if the bus company faces disciplinary action for booking over-capacity under Vermont Covid guidelines. “It turned out to be a bus company that does business in New York,” she was told. The company “was not aware of the restrictions in Vermont…..they were quite apologetic.”

The next reporter in the queue, Peter Hirschfeld of VPR, wouldn’t let the story go. “Commissioner while you’re still there, What was the name of that bus company?” In response he heard: “that’s a real head scratcher, I’ll have to get back to you on that.” Stay tuned!

Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.

Image courtesy of Public domain

6 thoughts on “Levine unsure when vaccinated Vermonters will be immune

  1. Not to worry. True to predictions, VPR, and the rest of the MSM, reported this morning that Covid cases apparently peaked last week and are, as of Biden’s inauguration yesterday, of course, now declining.

    Oh, happy day.

  2. No one expects the bus ride inquisition! Their chief weapons are fear, surprise, efficiency, and uh…a near fanatical devotion to pope fauci…….

  3. Levine doesn’t know when vaccinated persons will no longer be a threat because the vaccines weren’t trialed to prevent person-to-person transmission–only to minimize symptoms. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a vaccine, doesn’t it?

  4. DC bus ride inquisition…..meanwhile,

    10’s of thousands of people come skiing every weekend, and all they have to do is sign a piece of paper saying they quarantined 14 days prior or 14 days for their 2 day vacation.

    Not to worry, suddenly the virus will lose it’s potency in the next 30 days, Biden will have everything cured, the press will start fawning over his miraculous handling of the situation.

    • More out of state plates on our roads then in state lately. Lock us down but let in others……..it is either a pandemic or not and it makes you wonder how we can take the word of out of staters but not allow our own citizens any advantages to in state quarantining. Things that make me go “Hmmmm”?

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