Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today is reporting 166 cases of COVID-19 for Sunday (197 Saturday; 414 Friday). VDH also reported today four additional deaths from the virus. The total death toll is 652 lives lost. All four were at least 80 years old. There are 13 reported deaths in May so far. There were 18 deaths in April, which surpassed March's total (17). March saw the fewest COVID deaths since last July. Fatalities and hospitalizations increased the last part of April. According to health officials, nearly all recent deaths have been of the very elderly and/or people with underlying health conditions and "not up to date" on their vaccines, meaning that if eligible to have received a booster. 

Vermont Business Magazine Bennington College today announced the selection of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jericho Brown as the commencement speaker for the Class of 2022. The faculty speaker will be Elena Demyanenko, a faculty member in dance. The senior student speaker will be Sofia Pacheco Pardo ‘22. Jericho Brown will address the 87th graduating class at the conferring of degrees on Saturday, May 28, at 10 AM. The student speaker will address the class at a Senior dinner on Friday, May 27th at 7:15 pm, and the faculty speaker will address the community at both events. Jericho Brown has had a long and meaningful relationship with the college. In February, 2020 he delivered the 49th Bennington Writing Seminars Commencement address.

Vermont Business Magazine The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending more than $11.6 million to the State of Vermont to reimburse the costs of providing testing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The $11,640,655 in Public Assistance grants will go to the Vermont Agency of Human Services for contracting to provide testing services for the public at large and for those who needed tests to access state facilities.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University, in partnership with Spotlight Labs, has been awarded a three-year $371,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue work on the Impact of Cockpit Electro-Magnetics on Aircrew Neurology (ICEMAN) project. This grant will fund research on Phase II of the ICEMAN project after Norwich and Spotlight completed Phase I of the study.

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, VAHHS Ding, dong, the 2021-2022 legislative biennium is dead! Or, on life support until we see if the governor issues any more vetoes and calls a special session. It’s been a long two years, as reflected in the number of legislators leaving, including Bill Lippert, Chair of the House Health Care Committee. I will never forget that day in March of 2019 when he asked health care providers what they needed during the pandemic and then passed supportive legislation in about 24 hours. Thank you.