By Tiffany Tan and Alan J. Keays/VTDigger State health officials learned something in October: An animal sedative is increasingly contributing to opioid overdose deaths among Vermonters. The drug, xylazine, is used as a sedative, muscle relaxant and pain reliever in animals such as horses and cattle. It is not approved for human use. In people,…

By Sarah Mearhoff/VTDigger Vermont state lawmakers joined health care workers, teachers and others during a Monday afternoon press conference, Oct. 25, to increase pressure on Gov. Phil Scott to reinstate an emergency declaration amid rising coronavirus case counts in the state. The calls for a mask mandate and other mitigation measures come as Vermont continues…

By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger Since starting school roughly six weeks ago, students at Bristol Elementary School have broken the school’s piano, destroyed computers and dented cars in the parking lot. In the Missisquoi Valley School District, more staff members may be added to handle an uptick in hazing, harassment and bullying investigations.   And at a…

Vermont Everyone Eats (VEE), the innovative Covid-19 response program that provides meal assistance to Vermonters while supporting local restaurants, farmers, and food producers, has received an extension to continue through December of this year. Program managers had anticipated that meals would end on Sept. 30, but with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),…

By Ethan Weinstein After a week of falling case counts, Vermont’s Covid tallies rose to near highs in the last seven days. Amidst the surge, Gov. Scott at his weekly press conference did not announce any changes to mitigation policies. Rutland County reported 24 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the 14-day case total to 357.…

By Brian Ricca Editor’s note: Brian Ricca is the school superintendent in St. Johnsbury. There has been a great deal of discussion in the abstract about the impact of the Delta variant in Vermont schools since the academic year began. Here in the real world, with real students, faculty, staff, and families, it’s been excruciating.…

By Mike Dougherty/VTDigger As the pace of vaccinations slowed this spring, some experts began floating a new vision of Covid-19’s future as endemic. Rather than focusing on herd immunity — the threshold at which enough people had been vaccinated or previously infected that the full population would be protected against the disease — endemicity provided…

Down slightly over last week’s record By Erin Petenko/VTDigger and Polly Mikula Vermont reported 1,448 Covid-19 cases within the past week, a slight decline from 1,520 the week before but far higher than the 1,050 cases reported just two weeks ago, according to a state data presentation. It was still the second highest week of Covid cases ever…

By Grace Benninghoff/VTDigger Vermont’s legislative leadership has called off plans to reconvene this October due to substantial delays to President Biden’s federal infrastructure bill. The decision likely forecloses the possibility that the Legislature could seek to enact more stringent Covid-19 protocols this fall, as some Democrats have urged. As the 2021 session wound down in…

Vermonters 65+ and 18+ with underlying medical conditions or who work in certain occupational settings are eligible Staff report Vermonters 75 years of age and older are now eligible to schedule and receive Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine booster doses. Registration started Monday, Sept. 27. Beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 29, that eligibility expands to any Vermonters 70…

By Marvin Klikunas, M.D. Editor’s note: Kilkunas practices medicine in Williston. As I write this commentary, the seven-day rolling average of daily Covid cases in Vermont is 209. Even during the depths of last winter, before a vaccine was available, the daily average as plotted in VTDigger never reached 200. Forty-eight people were hospitalized with…

By Ethan Weinstein Despite a call from Lt. Gov. Molly Gray to issue stricter pandemic measures, Gov. Scott remained firm during his press conference Tuesday, Sept. 21, that he would not provide pandemic measures such as an indoor mask mandate without a state of emergency. “I know there are some who would like to see…

By Steve Costello Editor’s note: Steve Costello is the vice president of Green Mountain Power. Time and again, Vermonters amaze and inspire with their kindness and generosity — from our communities’ strength seen throughout Vermont during the 10th anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene just last month, to the seemingly endless acts of kindness that have…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger Amid a rise in cases, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray on Sept. 16 called on the Scott administration to take “greater measures” to dampen the spread of Covid-19. The Vermont Dept. of Health reported a record-setting 314 cases Thursday but said an IT problem might be partly to blame for the day’s spike…

By Lola Duffort/VTDigger Surveillance testing has been touted by Vermont officials as a cornerstone of its Covid-19 mitigation efforts in K-12 schools. But only a little more than one-third of Vermont’s public school districts and a quarter of its private schools will have actually begun testing by the end of September, according to figures provided…