The holidays are OVER and we’re back to the ban on household gathering, Gov. Phil Scott said.

Gov.Phil Scott opened the spigot (a little) on behalf of our holiday enjoyment and mental health.

Apparently the outdoor public lighting of a Christmas tree, with cocoa and marshmallows for the kids, was just too much of a public gathering for the State.

Gov. Phil Scott and Health Commissioner Mark Levine say data and science drive their policies to ban multi-household gatherings. But leading epidemiologists like Julia Marcus of Harvard University say it does no such thing. Even the Vermont Health Dept. data says social gatherings account for only about 20% of outbreak-related cases, not the oft-cited 71%.

Every college student coming home for Thanksgiving-Christmas vacation must quarantine. But the family members in the same home don’t need to, state officials say.

Non-essential inter-state travel now requires 14 day quarantine or seven day quarantine with negative test.

Gov. Phil Scott Friday issued a “strong recommendation” that people limit private gatherings in their homes and elsewhere to 10 people or less. This follows last week’s decision by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker to issue an executive order limiting private gathering sizes of 10 or fewer, with a 9:30 curfew and a $500 fine for scofflaws. Gov. Scott said at his press conference that his ‘strong recommendation’ isn’t a mandate - yet. His press release from Friday appears below.

Vermont’s tough school reopening guidelines may soften slightly next week, if the six-feet social distancing requirement is cut to three feet.

Gov. Scott said he hopes there is not an outbreak stemming from police brutality protests, at which social distancing was encouraged but not required by state officials. But - big picture here - Vermont is safer because “there hasn’t been as much violence.”

Phil Scott is making an unfair exception by allowing police brutality supporters to ignore social distancing, challenger John Klar says. Unfair for everyone else, that is. But really - what else could Scott do?