a letter from their employer something that evidences the fact that they work in these occupations that make them eligible this change obviously applies to everyone 16 years and older who works in these areas remember that pfizer is the only vaccine that is approved under the euas that have been authorized for 16 and 17 year olds i realize that many people in the groups that i just listed are already eligible due to having one or more underlying health conditions that the cdc is identified as making them more vulnerable to the disease and in a high risk category our strategy in louisiana has been to vaccinate our most high risk populations first in order to preserve hospital capacity and protect those most likely to have a severe outcome from covid and certainly foremost among our objectives was to minimize the death associated with this terrible disease we are seeing some encouraging trends when it comes to hospitalizations and percent positivity i will tell you the number of deaths we're reporting every day is stubbornly high and i am looking forward to that decreasing and ultimately being able to report zero deaths that won't be today however we do know that people in the previously mentioned key sectors are more likely to be exposed to covet due to their profession and many i have not had the option of being able to work from home because they were essential front facing workers those individuals have carried our state through these most trying times and we want to make sure that they have the opportunity to get the vaccine if in fact they're not already already eligible i will tell you that i believe this will be the last expansion of eligibility that we're going to make before we open it up to the general public meaning the only move that i can see at the moment going forward into the future will be to say everybody in louisiana who's 16 and older uh who wants to have the vaccine and hasn't had it yet you're now eligible we're not making that announcement today um and i'm not sure when we will get there but it's pretty clear to us that that will be the next expansion of eligibility we know and you know that president biden has established a goal a goal of opening up eligibility to all adults by the start of may i do believe we will beat that goal in terms of getting there sooner i just don't know exactly when but based on the allocation of doses that we've been told to expect over the coming weeks we don't think that the doses available will be a limiting factor and so it will simply be a factor when we detect slack in the system that we have for appointments and for the administration of the vaccines again the expansion that i just mentioned uh to these essential workers who've been added to the eligibility list they go into effect on monday we as i mentioned are in uh continuing to see encouraging trends with our numbers related to covid19 today we are reporting 558 new cases on one thousand nine hundred ninety six new tests sadly we're also reporting nineteen new deaths for a total of nine thousand nine hundred seventy four so we're just twenty six deaths short of 10 000 in just over a year that we've been in this pandemic currently we have 414 people hospitalized that is down 32 from the number that we reported yesterday 67 of those hospitalized individuals are on mechanical ventilators and that is up one from yesterday statewide percent positivity is 2.9 percent so just a little below 3 percent that's the lowest it's been since the start of the pandemic hospitalizations are the lowest that they've been since late march of 2020 so almost a year um and and i don't know if you remember but they kind of slowly went up to 500 and then within a couple of days they were 1500 today we are just above uh 400 is what we're reporting i do uh want to thank everybody who's working so hard on all elements of covid19 and by the way testing continues vaccinations obviously continue there's an awful lot of work going on and we have a lot of good partners both in the public sector and the private sector the work being done out of the department of health and the office of public health has been tremendous and one example of the fruits of that is that louisiana's leading the nation currently in people who get their second dose on time which which is important but i also think that this is a testament to the hard work of our vaccine providers and how much the people in louisiana really want to get back to normal and to protect themselves uh and their families their friends their co-workers um and even strangers that they don't know more than a half million people have completed their covid vaccinations which is more than the total number of people with confirmed covet cases so these are good trends they're great trends actually however we remain at a critical stage in our response and this is best evidenced by pointing out that there are at least 14 states currently going in the wrong direction in terms of their positivity their cases and their hospitalizations there is growing evidence that this is due to the variance of the virus out there and and to some other factors as well thankfully we haven't seen these in louisiana but as we know and we've seen for a year now this pandemic has a mind of its own this virus does and and it is very important for us to continue to do what we can to minimize the transmission especially in light of the variants while we do everything we can to speed the vaccinations and so doing both of those things simultaneously is incredibly important that's why we have to keep wearing a mask we have to socially distance follow the mitigation no uh the measures that we know work and certainly we have to get the vaccine when we are eligible i am happy to report that as of two days ago i am fully vaccinated meaning i'm two weeks past my second shot of pfizer and people are fully vaccinated per the cdc when they're two weeks past their last shot so whether it's the second shot of pfizer the second shot of modern or the single shot of johnson johnson and like many other louisianans uh one of the things that i look forward to the most and i think i'll get this opportunity on saturday is having a nice visit with my 85 year old mother uh so that for the first time in well over a year we can hug take our mask off enjoy a meal together and have a really good visit and i mentioned that because this is just one of those things that that returns us to a semblance of normalcy uh and it's something that was relatively minor in our lives i mean it's always special to be with your mother and i'm not minimizing that but it's something we all took for granted but we don't take it for granted after a year during a pandemic really looking forward to that and to all the other benefits that are going to come from being fully vaccinated and being around others who are fully vaccinated so that we can fully take advantage of these opportunities and it's because of the vaccines that we can look forward to more normalcy on the horizon but the vaccine by itself just sits in a freezer we've got to have people's arms to put them into it's really vaccinations that are the key here and so it really is up to the people of louisiana it's up to the people of the united states of america as to how much normalcy we get to experience and when and that'll be determined by the speed at which and the number of them who decide to be vaccinated obviously we want everyone in louisiana to have the opportunity to get the life-saving vaccine just as soon as possible and so today we're also announcing a strategy to make that happen the charge of the campaign is to follow the data and work with local partners to meet people where they are to listen to their needs and work creatively to break down barriers so that every louisianan has the opportunity a meaningful opportunity to get the co vidvac team we're going to begin with nine pilot programs one in each public health region to bring the covid vaccines to communities of concern through community pop-up events and targeted outreach currently these events the around the the vaccination events are scheduled to take place of the second and third weeks of april it's a massive undertaking and it's one that that we're asking for help from partners because quite frankly the state cannot do it alone we need strong diverse trusted community partners to help break down whatever barriers may exist so that residents can make informed decisions when it comes to getting vaccinated we are excited to kick off this effort this grassroots model of vaccine allocation and outreach with 20 initial partners and i'm going to read through those aarp of louisiana the afl-cio of louisiana the covid 19 health equity task force the hispanic health equity task force the louisiana association of business and industry the louisiana hospital association the louisiana independent pharmacy association the louisiana legislative black caucus the louisiana legislative rural caucus the louisiana primary care association the louisiana public health institute the louisiana rural health association the lsu ag center the naacp of louisiana the power coalition for equity and justice together louisiana the urban league viet local efforts including nola reddy and the baton rouge health equity vaccine task force several of these partners have been doing this type of grass works i'm sorry grassroots work on the kovid 19 vaccines at the local level and we're looking forward to coordinating with them further on these efforts and this is just the start and we do welcome other organizations whether they're businesses whether they're in the faith-based community you name it to join us in this mission to ensure that no community is left behind as we work to end this pandemic so if you'd like to get involved and this involves making calls knocking on doors if you're a medical professional who's open to answering questions about the vaccines you can let us know by filling out our bring back louisiana survey ldh and i will share on our social media channels but it's also on the lbh website at covidvacine.la.gov there at the top of the web page is a button that says how can i volunteer click la click that button and join our efforts these vaccines are our best chance at restoring a little normalcy getting back our economy on track bringing back the louisiana that we know and love most importantly they're the key to minimizing transmission hospitalizations and deaths of our fellow louisianans so at this point i'm going to turn it over to dr cantor he's going to speak about this campaign and why it's important but also tell you more about covet and the variants when he is done i will come back up to answer your questions and as always i would ask you to address your questions to dr cantor before he leaves the podium thank you governor thank you for your leadership good afternoon everyone um very excited to be to be sharing with you what um what the government just just just previewed in the campaign and i'll also add um i'm actually my wife and i are hosting my mother right now who's in town fully vaccinated and um you know she got to spend some time with with her granddaughter who's young and first time in 12 months that she was able to spend it without a mask without distancing and i mean to me and her that's just worth everything in the world and um what this campaign is about is letting other people experience that extending that to everyone in louisiana because it's time it's time to do that so that really is why i'm so excited to be talking about the bring back louisiana campaign as the governor mentioned up until now and perhaps for another week or so we've been real limited by supply of vaccine that's really been the limiting factor and how quickly vaccine has gotten out to the people of louisiana thankfully that's going to change and in repeated conversations with the white house and operation warp speed they are predicting to us that by the beginning of april we're going to have significant increases of vaccine across all lines particularly with the johnson and johnson which is which is so easy with the one shot and you're done looking ahead to that we have our work cut out for us to make sure that the people of louisiana feel empowered to get the vaccine that they've had an opportunity to have their questions answered and that they feel comfortable that's what this campaign about is about is enabling those type of conversations in every pocket of louisiana and i really do mean every pocket of louisiana because with the transmissibility of this virus and particularly with what we know about asymptomatic transmission it is clear now that when one community is left behind we all fall behind and this campaign is going to be about bringing all of louisiana on board with with vaccination it's how we're going to get to hurt immunity and we could not be more excited about it um the change with supply increasing is going to be a challenge that we're going to meet with creativity and unconventional approaches and what is new about this campaign is we will be marrying the data that shows which communities are doing better and worse with vaccine in what their social vulnerability is with actual outreach and access to the vaccine and we'll be marrying that outreach with vaccine events the ability to get the vaccine so imagine canvassing efforts and people knocking on doors and reaching into communities not only to engage and talk about the vaccine have questions answered but offered to sign people up for an event coming the next week in their own community that's what it's going to take to reach every corner of the state and that is the campaign to bring back louisiana campaign that we are launching right now the goals of this campaign will be to increase awareness and build confidence about the vaccine to provide safe spaces for people to ask questions talk about what they're unsure about and get evidence-based answers to those questions to amplify the really great support that already exists in communities and leverage those resources to the maximum benefit to offer a warm handoff to other resources that exist and most importantly to help eligible residents get signed up to get the vaccine that's what this is going to be all about i will share that um just this week the cdc put out um an interesting study showing that to date communities that are more vulnerable as measured by the social vulnerability index to date are less likely to get vaccinated that certainly fits with what we've seen so far in some pockets of louisiana and i think we're going to need a creative grassroots boost on the ground campaign like this to really address that i'll tell you in some way this comes a little bit full circle for louisiana because the social vulnerability index that we're looking at and that is the standard right now used by the cdc to gauge how vulnerable a community is particular to particularly in times of disaster that index was actually created as a result of hurricane katrina so there's a special connection to us in louisiana we're going to be looking at that to identify vulnerable communities we're going to be marrying that to granular data of where vaccines where vaccinations have already occurred and using that in an evidence-based data-driven fashion to drive this type of outbreak i want to talk a little bit about the model itself the first step in this is is using data using data to identify the target census tracts of where we need to do more work to get people vaccinated we'll be using the cdcs as i said social vulnerability index um mirroring that with our vaccination data and looking at racial demographics as well that's what's going to guide where the nine pilot sites are that's where it's going to guide where the efforts are after that as well we'll be doing ongoing and rapid evaluation the louisiana public health institute will be partnering with us because we want to make sure that what we're doing works and if it doesn't work or if it's not meeting the measure we'll be changing it midstream so there'll be rapid and real-time evaluation of these efforts going on the next step in this is to plan cover 19 community vaccination events and we'll be looking to partner with at least one community-based organization for each event because i think this is important to have the backing of state government the backing of the health department be based in good data but on the ground be led by trusted messengers and community organizations that know the community know what is needed and know where the people are to be frank and the last part of this is targeted outreach ahead of time up to two weeks ahead of time leading to events it's not enough just to host an event you have to have the ground game you have to have outreach ahead of time to let people know about it give people an opportunity to ask questions have conversations be connected with an expert if they would like to and that's the real linchpin of this of this initiative there'll be activities including phone banking door knocking canvassing working with face-based leaders and local businesses to accomplish this proactive outreach we'll be looking to community partners who will be able to provide facts and data help interested residents sign up for upcoming vaccine events and to connect them with other resources that might be helpful and then of course we'll be employing both paid and earned media to promote these events so it's going to be an all-inclusive wrap-around effort this is what we think is needed to really get over the hurdle and again looking looking forward two or three or four weeks down the road supply vaccine thankfully is not going to be the limiting factor the limiting factor is going to be how well we've reached people in louisiana how easy we've made it for people to get vaccinated and this really is a novel approach because we're marrying the data with the outreach and actual vaccine events in communities so we're really really looking forward to this i think the bring back louisiana name is perfect because that's what we're looking to do we're looking to get back to normal and that's not going to happen until we get enough of our neighbors and community members vaccinated and i think this is how we're going to do it so i could not could not be more more excited about this i think it's going to be novel it's going to be data-driven it's going to be important and i think it's going to be fun because this is going to be how we get back to normal step by step let me talk a little bit about what is going on with the pandemic itself and then with with vaccines in general as the governor has said we have a lot of good news to share right now and a number of historic lows for louisiana which which is encouraging we have the lowest number of hospitalized coveted patients and hospitals throughout the state that we've had really since the first surge 12 months ago that 414 we've not been below 500 since that first surge in march we have the lowest percent positivity right now of 2.9 percent and this past week we've had the lowest number of new nursing home cases identified in nursing home new coveted cases identified and nursing home residents to date all of this is evidence that we're doing a good job of stopping the spread good job of using the mitigation measures and that the vaccine strategy is working because as we have driven vaccine first and foremost to the most vulnerable people the people most likely to suffer complications if they get infected with coven we have now seen a commiserate reduction in hospitalizations that is really encouraging news it's even more encouraging now that we're able to expand vaccine eligibility even further the last remaining step before we get to full open that is very very exciting news for us this is all about access today all about access to vaccine and how to connect people to vaccine the one area that i am concerned about uh i'll say is the lake charles area and we are seeing increases in cases right now in lake charles they've been going up for about two weeks it's also the area of the state with the biggest burden of the be 117 or the uk variant which we believe is driving part of that outbreak i also know people in southwest louisiana have had just a heck of a time this year and it's been incredibly challenging rebuilding from the storms and i know that covet is probably not always first of mine and there's a lot of fatigue but where we are right now in this race against time you know trying to get as much vaccine coverage out there before these variants really spread further i i got to encourage people particularly in the lake charles area just just hold on a little bit longer this this really is a crucial three or four weeks for us it's a make or break three or four weeks for us so i am watching very closely the lake charles area we have directed additional resources that way some more vaccination strike teams really trying to get ahead of it i want to encourage the folks out there to stay vigilant a little bit longer because this is really really a crucial time for us i'll also let you know that we are adding two additional retail pharmacy partners to the federal retail pharmacy program this is initiative of the white house and it's a mechanism by which we drive additional vaccine supply to louisiana so currently walmart and cvs have been participating in this program for us and participating really means that they get the vaccine supply not through our state allocation but from a dedicated federal allotment directly from the feds to them as of next coming week we'll be adding southeastern grocers which is the parent company of winn-dixie they have 21 stores across the state that have pharmacies and they'll be participating and we'll be adding walgreens as well we had been supplying walgreens through our state allocation this will supply walgreens directly through the federal allocation this is all about getting more doses into louisiana quickly the federal retail program to date has brought 185 000 first doses to louisiana on top of what we've gotten on the state allotment this is going to add even more to those so we're excited about that looking forward next week will be week 15 of the vaccine rollout our allocations from the feds are flat so no change from this prior week's allocation that means for pfizer we'll be getting sixty-two thousand and ten doses for monderna we'll be getting 45 000 doses and for johnson johnson we'll be getting five thousand two hundred doses for a total of a hundred and twelve thousand two hundred and ten doses we are employing a maneuver to bring an additional fourteen thousand seven hundred doses into the state for next week we're transferring the 14 700 from the long-term care program into our state allotment as that program goes through and gets closer to completion we're able to predict how much might be left over so we feel comfortable moving 14 700 over into the state allocation so the effective total that we'll be allocating as a state in the coming week will be 126 910 doses i continue to have concerns about um about the b117 variant or the or the uk variant to date there's 123 confirmed or suspect cases of the varied in louisiana it continues to be a tip of the iceberg scenario where we just don't do a lot of sequencing yet in the country so when you have 123 you know you probably have many many more that you just haven't fingered those 123 come from every region of the state except for region 8. um the bulk of which is in the lake charles area followed by region 1 or the greater new orleans area the cdc has put out some interesting data they've used they've used routine blood samples to estimate the prevalence of the b117 variant in a number of states including louisiana so they estimate right now that of all covavirus circulating in the state 2.9 percent of it is the uk variant compare that to florida which is 8.4 percent compare that to texas which is 1.8 currently the uk variant is in 49 states um probably in 50 just haven't haven't identified it yet we have not yet identified a case of the b-1351 variant that's the one that was predominant in south africa it has been identified in 25 states the closest to us us being texas florida tennessee georgia north and south carolina we have not identified a case of the p1 variant that's the very that was circulating in brazil it has been identified in 12 states the closest to us being texas oklahoma and florida as the governor mentioned there's at least 14 states now that are experiencing increases in their outbreaks including mississippi and alabama so i think despite all the good news we have every reason um to be vigilant looking at what's happening across the country looking what's happening in europe right now and with what we know about these variants it is a race against time we got to get vaccine out as quickly as equitably as possible and again that is why i'm so excited by the the bring back louisiana campaign because at the end of the day once the supply picks up for us it's going to be us to make sure that everyone in the state has had an opportunity to ask questions understands the facts and more importantly knows where and how to go to get vaccinated and at the end of the day that's what this campaign is going to be all about could not be more excited about it go pause there be happy to answer any questions if there are melinda an update you mentioned taking some of the doses from the long-term care partnership program over where are we in terms of how many more weeks are we expected to have doses even diverted to that program and what's the uptick percentages in both residents and staff i think ballpark somewhere between one and two more months until the program totally ends a little bit depends on how they get scheduled they had to reschedule a couple dates from the storms before and then every now and then something comes up to make a team have to reschedule total administrations to date this is all first and second doses in residence plus staff for the program is eighty six thousand eight hundred and seven they're just about completed the third visit for the nursing home part with the part that went first and then they'll finish up they've been doing the part b which is assisted living in group homes simultaneously just a little bit delayed so they'll be finishing those up over the next month or so we have asked them you know they they did a three visit so um first visit to a facility a second visit a month later and then a third visit and sometimes on the second visit people say i want to get the shot who didn't get it before so they give a first shot we had asked them on the third visit to continue to make first doses available to anyone who couldn't get it the first two times or didn't want to or whatever so there will be an opportunity to follow up with those individuals in nursing homes for example who got a first shot on that third visit once that program ends and those will be done by connections to local pharmacies nursing homes and staff and nursing homes that have hasn't changed much since the last time we talked it's about 82 uptake in in residence of nursing homes and about 36 to 38 uptake in staff of nursing homes yes sir last time eligibility was expanded there was a push to you know not end a week the week with any vaccines on the shelves um what are you guys seeing from providers as far as you know getting shots and arms are there is there still slack in appointments or what are you guys seeing on that front what we've heard is is not not slack or not waste dosages but the time it takes for someone to schedule might have been three or four days out a week ago and now it's you know maybe the next day so it was kind of a signal that's probably a good time to expand um have not heard of a lot of doses you know going unused i think providers have been really good you know if they put aside a certain number for a day and they don't get that number on eligibility we've asked them listen if you get close to the end of the day use that on anyone that you can find and they've done really good to that i can tell you for wastage dosages the total right now is 1782 waste dosages that's on a total number of shots administered to date of about 1.5 million and a lot of those waste notices are human error a vial drops a vial was broken in transport those type of situations okay thank you a change that i wanted to make you all aware of is that after more than a year of doing this uh i've instructed secretary courtney phillips at ldh to report covet data on a daily basis monday through friday so we will not be reporting on saturday or sunday and we haven't been reporting on saturdays for a while now but we're going to go to monday through friday reporting and that's effective as of now so on saturday and sunday you're not going to get the daily update you will get an update on monday that will apply for three days it'll have three days worth of information for you our next press conference will be thursday of next week at 2 30 unless we have a reason to call you in before that in which case we will and with that i'll take questions i thought for a moment you didn't have a question for the first time melinda i was trying to write at the same time um in terms of it it sounds as though this outreach effort is to address a lot of vaccine hesitancy and i'm listening to the nursing home staff numbers and again those are really low i guess i'm wondering which kind of communities are you seeing the most hesitancy in and and who are y'all trying to target the most with this outreach campaign well there there are hesitant um population centers that are in rural areas and we have them in urban areas and we have them across demographics in terms of african-americans and whites um and the outreach effort is certainly an effort to make sure that we're engaging with people who may be hesitant but it's also an effort to make sure that we are making vaccine available everywhere that we need to by identifying communities that maybe haven't had adequate access up to now or there's some barrier that we are unaware of and that sort of thing but the outreach is hugely important you know i continue to be uh confident that over time more and more people will overcome this hesitancy and get vaccinated uh because uh polling has been consistent that an ever-increasing percentage of individuals will signal their willingness to get vaccinated but they want some passage of time to happen and we don't know what that is and certainly they're using that to learn more about the vaccine the safety the efficacy but also to observe those individuals that they know whether their family members or coworkers or whatever who have been vaccinated so that they can see what happens to them but the further we get into the vaccination program the stronger the track record is with respect to how uh infrequent uh serious side effects happen um and and the efficacy of this is very clearly demonstrated now with respect to for example the case growth in our in our nursing homes that he just mentioned so we have more than 80 percent of our nursing home residents vaccinated that explains why uh the number of new cases this past week was the lowest that we have recorded thus far so it really does work it keeps people safe uh it's it's uh and it's and it's safe in and of itself and the more people understand this the more they're gonna be vaccinated but obviously we have to do a better job of communicating that to individuals and as important as us speaking to individuals we have to give them an opportunity to share with us what their concerns are so that we can in a fact-based approach satisfy those concerns because we want to be honest with people and and look i don't think we're ever going to get to 100 percent on vaccinations but but we've got to get better than than we are and there are certain areas where quite frankly i i am troubled the the low percentage of staff in nursing homes who decided to take advantage of this vaccine is very uh concerning to me and we're working with those uh the nursing home association and those owners uh to provide more information webinars and asking their medical directors to engage and so forth uh and this is gonna continue for some time again it's my expectation that over time many more of these individuals are going to step up and agree to be vaccinated and and this vaccination program isn't going to run for just another month or two or three and in fact you're probably going to be dealing with covid vaccines and booster shots for a very very long time yes sir we saw a number of uh attorneys general um including jeff landry raised concerns about um the uh tax cut provisions in the new coven bill i was wondering if those were concerns that you also shared and maybe some of your thoughts about that no i don't share those concerns i'm very uh thankful uh for the bill that congress passed and quite frankly we have been exploring revenue neutral tax reform in this fiscal session for a long time so it hasn't been a goal of mine to to engage in tax cuts right now so the the language in the rescue bill that precludes tax cuts is it's not a hindrance at all to what i think we should be doing in louisiana and why do i say that because we know that we have point four five cents of sales tax that goes away in 2025 that's half a billion dollars and so we we we know that that's going to happen the other thing is we have um i believe it's the fifth lowest tax burden in the united states of america here in louisiana when you look at state and local taxes i think everybody including the tax foundation legislative leadership the business community they know that our tax burden is low it's unnecessarily complex and that's why we should engage in tax reform to reduce the complexity so that the nominal rate and the effective rate are much closer because right right now there's a big disparity and then that will also aid in the ease of administration as well so there are numbers numerous areas of tax reform that i absolutely agree with and that's what i think we should be doing now but we ought to be doing it in a revenue neutral way so that we don't create a structural budget deficit like the one that i inherited when i became governor i refuse to go back to where we were in 2015 and 2016. it doesn't make any sense and so it's not a concern that i have and i'll leave it there yes sir governor obviously as vaccinations continue to ramp up the supply remains steady or will increase in the coming weeks and you announced an easement of some restrictions a few weeks ago and little pieces of normalcy are coming back what do you kind of expect at the rate the state is going the next pieces of normalcy louisianians could see obviously you mentioned sporting events yesterday in your radio call what are some of those pieces um people could start seeing of normalcy sooner rather than later yeah you know it's a great question and and i'm just very reluctant to try to paint a picture and assign a timeline as to when we're going to get there but we know that over time we're going to achieve more and more normalcy you've already heard me saying i've been saying it for years i'm sorry for months it seems like years that that when our kids go back to school next year i think it will be very different uh than it has been uh because the teachers will have been vaccinated and and uh you know their clinical trials now uh with with uh children in fact louisiana's participating in a clinical trial with moderna i believe pfizer is going to be applying for an amendment of the eua that they already have to go down very soon to go down to kids age 12 and above and so over time just more and more people are going to be vaccinated and we're going to have opportunities to get back to a greater sense of normal so you've already seen the cdc come out and discuss the issue of whether if massed properly school kids can can distance it less than six feet and i think the answer is yes at three feet uh yeah potentially so that hadn't been that's what they're looking at right now but that's in in and of itself is is a greater sense of normalcy um and then aspirationally i was asked yesterday and i think this is what you're referring to there are certain individuals not the least of which is the athletic director at lsu is interested in having a full tiger stadium sometime next fall when they start having these these home football games i would love to see that as well i hope we can get there you know i can't tell you today that i'm that i'm absolutely sure of that but what i can tell you is that if the people of louisiana really are interested in getting back to normal as soon as possible they will avail themselves of the opportunity to be vaccinated at the earliest opportunity using whichever vaccine is made available to them first because they're all safe and effective and it's not until a big enough percentage of the people get the vaccine that we're going to be able to actually achieve that normalcy so we we continue to encourage people to do that i'm optimistic that over time more and more people will take advantage of the opportunity and we're going to have more normalcy but you know we're starting to see it already and i've already mentioned this and i'm going to mention it again because this is this is a big deal i suspect you already have people who before it was safe and before the cdc said they should do it they have been gathering together without masks and indoors and so forth um but they've been unnecessarily exposing one another and people they don't even know to the virus and that has led to people getting sick that's leaded people being hospitalized and to people dying now we can do it without the threat of any of that happening and and and what better way to to visit your loved one than to know that it's absolutely safe to do it and and i'm going to be able to do that now with with my mother for the first time in over a year but this is an opportunity that's being afforded to everybody over time at least because we still have some people who have not yet been deemed eligible for the vaccine but this is what we're trying to make available to everybody is to be able to do it safely and to reduce the number of people who are getting sick and going to the hospital and that ties into what dr canner mentioned a while ago there are 14 states that are going in the wrong direction so if people just out there and they say oh well the state's doing well i don't have to participate because because our numbers there there's no guarantee that our numbers stay low and that we don't reverse course and start having increased positivity in cases and hospitalizations again that easily could happen which is why we need to reduce transmission while we maximize vaccinations and that's that's what we have to do over the next several weeks i really believe that that there's a tipping point coming in in several weeks and if we're successful we're going to get on the other side of the threat that i just discussed but we're not there yet and and i hope that people will take this very seriously and i also want to remind people that there's going to come a day when the pandemic is going to end but it's not just going to go away i know there have been some people who over the past year who said well it's just going to magically disappear that's not going to happen the pandemic will end and then we will have an endemic situation and the coronavirus is still going to be here covid is still going to be here people are still going to contract the disease and get sick and go to the hospital and people are still going to die but not the people who choose to get vaccinated yes ma'am talked about reading the hush blackwell report and obviously there was a legislative hearing about it and there is another one coming and several legislators have said that they think lsu's disciplinary response is too weak and that they think people should have been fired after that report um what do you think after reading that report do you think your board members on the the board of supervisors or that president galligan should be firing people and acting more directly in response to the allegations of how people hand mishandled things in that report yeah well first of all it's it's a great question i have read the report and i will tell you when you read the report you cannot help but conclude that people needed to be fired but over the passage of time the the people who most obviously needed to be fired are no longer there and and so the question becomes of the people who are still employed by lsu do what is the right punishment if you will the right sanctions to be taken against those individuals i believe what was done by lsu was reasonable in light of all of the information that i was able to to gather from that report and i think it's helpful uh to understand that those allegations i think go back to 2013 then that may be the year um that was two presidents ago that was a previous athletic director that was a previous uh football coach and and others and the board of supervisors i think there are two left of the 15 that were on the board at that time and and those two didn't have any knowledge of what was going on there with coach miles and in fact that report concluded that only three board members knew and for some reason they thought it was appropriate to keep it a secret from other board members and for some reason the president at the time and the athletic director of time thought it was appropriate to only inform those three board members and all of that just defies common sense to me and and seems incredibly inappropriate named who are still on the staff at the athletic department and elsewhere in the university system who are named and it is suggested pretty strongly that they mishandled some of these allegations from students so do you think those but i believe i believe the two that that applies to have been addressed uh by the the administration the current administration um with uh suspension without pay for for some period of time uh and i and i will tell you that the the it's my understanding at least that hush blackwell who did the report and does this all over the country at various institutions of higher education discussed those individuals with the current leadership of lsu as to the range that that was most appropriate based on what they've they've seen uh elsewhere and look uh i think reasonable people uh can disagree and some think it should have been harsher some people think can think it should have been less harsh i'm not going to take issue with what lsu has decided to do i will tell you that we are insisting in fact they've already agreed i think it's all 17 or 18 recommendations i can't remember the number in that report they've decided to adopt and fully implement and i think that that's going to go a long way i think you're going to see some efforts in the legislature to address this in the upcoming session and i look forward to to working with the legislature to make sure that we fashion some things that are uh responsive to what we've seen here and by the way the report deals with lsu but when we when we pass statute they apply statewide because we're concerned about student athletes and staff and faculty all over the state of louisiana without respect to a particular institution yes sir follow up on that you mentioned yesterday at the radio interview that you have every confidence that the board will um make sure we'll get dissolved and you know follow through with this um looking at the way the board is constructed do you feel like um when you were putting it together you should have put more than two women on that board um you know looking at it today i wish i had i hadn't i was probably much more intentional about diversity on the board as it related to race than gender i think everybody that i have appointed to the board are really good public servants and and and that they do a fine job on the board for lsu that board does not represent the gender diversity that it should um and and that's that's just a simple fact of the matter looking at it today uh especially in light of what has been transpiring over the last few weeks so we we will have our next press conference on thursday of next week at 2 30. and we look forward to seeing you then i continue to appreciate you all covering this and presenting information to the people of louisiana and i continue to appreciate the people of louisiana especially those who are doing everything that they can and should to to limit transmission by engaging in all the mitigation measures like masking and distancing and so forth and then honoring the restrictions that we still have even though they're the least restrictive uh restrictive uh measures that we've had in place throughout the pandemic they remain important because if you put too many people too close together we know that there will be more transmission so we appreciate everything that everybody's doing the most important next step is that we continue to do those things as people get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible to do so so thank you all very much and we'll see you next week