The Deeper Dig is a biweekly podcast from the VTDigger newsroom, hosted and produced by Sam Gale Rosen. Listen below, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
The state’s four-phase restart plan, unveiled this week, would lift most Covid restrictions by July 4 — if Vermonters continue to get vaccinated at high rates.
Public health experts say the plan could be a powerful incentive for people who are still on the fence about the vaccine. But there are risks to the state’s approach.
Pam Berenbaum, director of the Global Health Program at Middlebury College, said mass vaccination campaigns get harder as they progress. If the state’s vaccination rate slows, pushing back the reopening timeline could be a hard sell.
“I’m optimistic that we will reach those targets and the plan can go forward,” Berenbaum said. “But if it doesn’t, then it’s going to look pretty messy.”
Meanwhile, case counts remain high, with a record seven-day average recorded two days before the restart plan was unveiled. Anne Sosin, a policy fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, said rolling back protective measures during this period puts some Vermonters at elevated risk.
The state’s vaccination schedule prioritized those at higher risk of death and hospitalization. Those in younger age groups have not been made eligible, but are more likely to work in sectors with high levels of public interaction.
“Our very narrow focus on death will leave us with this population of young people that will suffer long-term impacts from a very short period of time,” Sosin said.
On this week’s podcast, Berenbaum, Sosin and VTDigger’s Erin Petenko discuss the potential impacts of the reopening plan.
Read more: Experts urge flexibility with Vermont’s reopening timeline