>> announcer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. hi there, i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." we're getting answers for you from experts in realtime. former law clerk. author of best selling novel, front row view of how taiwan is winning battle against covid as well as personal insights the late justice ruth bader ginsburg. we want to begin with the latest on the pandemic. as the u.s. hits a sad

milestone, 6.8 million cases, 200,000 at'sorth world wnd the combined. u.s., about one-fourth to one fifth of the world's number of cases. although we do have a big popul population but overrepresents in the number of cases. so we want to explore what is happening there and we have a doctor with the johns hopkins university center for health security who will be us or we had him, lost him, getting him back. we want to talk about flu season coming up, a lot of doctors fear the twindemic. we want to check in with dr.

alok patel who talked about the importance of the flu shot. >> let's get right to dr. patel because i got my flu shot yesterday, right? i posted about it on social media and i was flabbergasted at some of the responses i got. and ight, w t dress th i not controversial that i got a flu shot and i got some really earnest responses, dr. patel, from people who were spreading myths about the flu shot and i just want to clear this up with you today. so one of the first myths that someone came to me is that, i've seen this research online that shows that flu shots somehow make you more susceptible to covid-19. >> they are two different viruses and the flu vaccine is specifically formulated to protect you against the seasonal

flu. that doesn't even make sense. it makes me believe that the conspiracy theorists are out there. not true. >> what also happens is there's a kernel of truth. >> that was my midday co-anchor talking to dr. alok patel. but right now, dr. amish joins us. johns hopkins university for health security. thanks for taking the time today. >> thank you for having me. >> it's been six months since the w.h.o. declared a covid pandemic. where do we stand now? >> we really have a hodgepodge of different policies and levels of control around the world and across the united states.

but areas where you see the percent above and then taiwan, basically back to normal versus places like spain where the outbreak is out of control. i think that's what we would expect based on a virus that transmits efficiently and people having different levels of public health actions that come and go as hot spots go and this is probably going to be what we see until we have enough of the world's population vaccinated against this virus. >> interesting that you mentioned taiwan. it's pretty much a post-pandemic world right now, everything back to normal. we are going to talk to bay area woman author who's in taiwan right now. she's going to take us through her quarantine routine as she arrives as a visitor. i want to ask you, dr. fauci weighed in today saying it's reasonable to assume that this virus can spread by aerosol and you know friday, the cdc acknowledged that yes, that could happen but the cdc then blaming it on the failure of process. what do you make of that? why is there so much back and forth confusion, at this point?

>> i think there's a lot of conceptual differences in the way that infectious disease doctors and public health experts use the word airborne aerosol in the way aerobiologists do. the main way they get infected through the respiratory route. coughs and sneezes. some are droplets and some might be aerosols but doesn't change what we need to do. still social distancing, face coverings, avoiding crowds. that's the important message. this kind of semantic war we're having between different groups in our field isn't something the public needs to worry so much about because it doesn't change our advice to those people are. while it's clear there is some aerosol spread going on, we're not seeing the epidemiology spread the way, for example, measles or chickenpox or tu banglade berculosis. i think sometimes the difference is confusing to the general

public. >> what kind of additional challenges or risks do you think cold weather will bring? we're going into fall now. >> when it gets ocolder, less humid, this virus can accelerate transmission because of the environmental characteristics and also true that people change their behavior. less able to do activities outdoors and we know the outdoors is less likely to lead to spread than indoors so we have to prepare. as the weather changes, for an acceleration of transmission. so we have to make sure that we have adequate testing and tracing, and isolation capacity as well as personal protective equipment at the hospitals because it is likely that we will see an uptick in cases. >> right. and flu season is coming up as well where, you know, i know doctors are concerned about the one-two punch. what do you think it is people should do to protect themselves? >> the best way to protect yourselves from influenza is to get the flu vaccine and it's really important this year because the less flu we have, the more room we have to deal

with covid-19. covid-19 will compete for the same hospital beds, icu beds, ventilators, personal protective equipment, even diagnostic testing agents. so we want the space to deal with covid-19, so it's very important this season to get your vaccine. >> you want to try to keep yourself out of the hospital for the flu or anything else because you know there will be some covid cases there as well. i want to ask you, i read a new study today that shed some light on the long-term impact of covid on survivors, people who recover. can you talk more about what we now understand about the long-term impact? >> so this is an active area of research. most people do get covid if they had an uncomplicated case without hospitalization or the icu do okay. but there are some people, even when they have mild cases that can have chronic symptoms. it may be very fatigued, difficulties with their activities of daily living. they may also have difficulty concentrating, and this is an important group of people that

even though it's a minority of people who recover, it is something that we're trying to understand why that happens. and it's important because when we think about covid-19, we can't just think about the deaths. we have to also think about the long-term effects, disability that might occur, the morbidity of this infection and something we need to calculate. if you've been in the hospital or icu, you can expect your recovery is going to be prolonged over a year and that's true for many people, any condition requiring an intensive care unit on a ventilator. >> trick or treating is coming up. we're talking about the onset of fall. the cdc of course did label it a higher risk activity that's best avoided, at least the traditional way. do you agree with that and can it be done safely? >> i do think it's a higher risk activity versus other activities but no activity in the era of the pandemic is without risk. you can take some measures though to minimize that risk by trying to follow social distancing, face coverings, have

the candy picked up instead of physically dispersed to children. i think some places where the virus is under control, trick or treating can go on with some kind of modification. other places might be difficult but it's important to remember if you do go trick or treating, that the virus is going to be there with you, so you have to make sure that you still follow those social distancing recommendations in order to just avoid having the virus ruin halloween. >> we're chatting today in part because we're marking the six month mark. i wonder, what do you see will happen in the next six months, if you will? i know it's a little bit like having a crystal ball but taking in all the factors, what we know, people want to know about the vaccine, but what do you see for the next half year? >> the next half year, we'll continue to see an ebb and flow with different hot spots like getting up in some places maintaining control. i suspect that the new york/new jersey/connecticut region will have very well controlled number of cases with robust contact

tracing. i think we'll see better tests, maybe home tests where people can know their status beforehand and use that as a tool to decide what activities they want to do. i think we'll start to see people get better at risk calculation, being much more responsible about what activities they do. they won't necessarily need public health laws to tell them it's not the smartest idea to go to crowded places and then the vaccine. i suspect end of this year, they'll get access to the vaccine but into 2021, the general public will start to see the rollout of the vaccine as a priority groups and probably better treatments. things like antibodies to decrease the mortality of people admitted to the hospital and that will something very important. it will change the risk perception of the disease and more tools over the next six months. i think it's still going to be a challenge and public health emergency and the developingelog world, they may not have access will be hit pretty hard with covid-19. >> not done with us yet, that's

for sure. thank you for the forecast. dr. amish with johns hopkins health security. thank you for your time. appreciate you joining us. >> thank you. >> folks, we're going to take a short break. when we come back, a bay area author in taiwan right now, we're going to talk with her about her experience in how taiwan is

welcome back. in contrast with the number of covid cases in the u.s., one place that has held the pandemic at bay where life is essentially normal is taiwan. despitnd beingred miles off the china, taiwan with its 23 million people has had only 500 cases and seven deaths. it's been averaging one or two new cases a day since april.

joining us now from taiwan is the bay area author who penned the best-selling novelbest-selll >> thank you so much for having me. >> long overdue. where exactly are you in taiwan and why are you there? >> i am staying in a hotel in tye way. it's one of the government approved quarantine hotels, here 14 days part of the process for keeping the country safe or taiwan safe. >> right, okay. so i want to talk more about the whole elaborate protocol there. you'll show us around the hotel room but last time you saw us here, march 11st, the last guest studio bore everything locked down and we n n to the reconnecting, there it is. we're showing folks our interview, we had on tape all this time.

i'm glad we're reconnecting now because unique insight between the covid protocol and taiwan here in the bay area where you experience from the moment you landed or even before because i know you had to take a covid test briefly. >> i did. it's quite an involved process. so the reason i'm out here is actually working on book two for love boat taipei, set during the moon festival. always planned to come out here and i didn't think i could go anymore and then what i found out is normally you don't need a visa for taiwan but what i was told, the borders are closed and then at first, actually moving very quickly in realtime, and then i couldn't get accurate information if the borders were s ou need to get a special , i visa. so fortunately, i was able to get invitation letters within the country to hold book events and other speaking events and harpercollins wrote me a letter and i was able to get a special

visa to come. so the requirements, in addition to the visa, you need to take a covid test three days before your flight. so i did that and when i got on the flight, i wore my mask, pretty heavy duty. a surgical mask inside andab wes before i couldn't take it anymore. everyone else was wearing surgical masks and my section of the plane was less than 25% full and i flew at 1:00 a.m. everybody was sleeping the whole time. felt very safe. so we landed in taiwan. >> how did they start tracking? >> yeah, as soon as i landed, i brought an extra cell phone just for it but i was required to buy an taiwanese sim card to have a taiwanese phone number. every day, i get an email or text message from their central epidemic command center to check on my health and still in quarantine. they use this to track my location and make sure i haven't left. i know people in quarantine, if they don't touch their phone for a certain amount of time, they'll get a phone call to make sure they're still staying put.

know? you left your hotel ro, >> well, the hotel would know and those in quarantine in their parents' home, the phone would let the center know if they're actually leaving their location. >> so you're at this hotel for two weeks, right? and if you're in the clear, you can get out. show us what they're doing to make sure everything was contactless. >> so it's pretty amazing. i came in and sent you a video clip. i was put into the service elevator and went down to the basement. came out and somebody sprayed me from head to foot with alcohol. my bags were sprayed, head to foot and went up another elevator to my room, no keys because i'm not leaving and here i am. so they've given me thermometers to take my temperature twice a day. someone checks on me and actually keeping track of it as part of a contract they gave us. a testing contract, there's all my temperature scores and then they've given us

ls, a pair of spoons and a bubble tea straw, which is great and my meals are delivered three times a day on a hook at my door and our garbages, we stick it out in a bin outside the door as well. i could show you around. >> please, walk us over there. would love to see how it works. >> walk us over. here we go. >> so they lea your food, right? do you get a choice? >> i don't really have a choice. but here is the hallway where they'd put my food. you can see my neighbor's trash who i have not they gave us this basket here, this is for our laundry, our own dishes because they don't have laundry service. >> got it. i guess for an author, it's fine because you spend time writing

or researching but what's your big plan? when are you allowed out? >> i am coming out, my last day is midnight on friday over here, so then i can go out and pretty much free to go out and i'm so excited. actually, i feel already just being in this hotel and being away from the need to daily decontaminate and worry about being exposed to covid, all that stress is just removed, and excited to go out and have life as normal. so the first thing i'll do is a massage and a facial and a haircut. those are things that i haven't felt comfortable doing in the united states. >> where are you going to go for that? a glimpse of your sequel. >> yeah, so a lot of being here is really just kind of being immersed in the world that my characters are in. i came for a similar trip for the first book when i really connected with my characters to understand, how do they feel being back here in this country with their parents, but plan to do a number, and then see a lot

of the festival activities going on for many people, it's about having meals with their families, exchanging cakes and picnics in the park. observing those type of things and then, of course, like different festivals that i'll be attending which i love. >> where does the sequel pick up? will it feature the same central character ever, i think, the chinese american high school graduate, the love boat program in taipei? >> right, right. so that's everwong. the sequel, this hasn't been announced but going to follow the viewpoints of xavier and sophie, two of the main characters in the first book and rick will also make an appearance and it's actually a story. it takes place almost immediately after the events of the first book. so continues the journey and have another adventure here in taipei. >> that sounds amazing. don't go away. when we come back, your

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we are back. we'll continue our conversation with bay area author in taiwan to do research for the sequel to her hit novel, "love boat taipei ". abigail, turns out before you were writing, you were a lawyer. worked on the senate judiciary committee on the dc circuit and had met the late justice ruth bader ginsburg on many occasions. so tell us about what you recall from your meetings and the conversations that you had with her. >> justice ginsburg was a student at harvard and columbia law school, so the first time i met her, she came for her portrait hanging ceremony. it's a thing with judges, not only in institutions in the academy but as part of one of the ceremonies they do as a judge or justice

her husband marty. it was quite an honor to have that opportunity. so i had a number of amazing conversations with her. for example, both of her were mothers during law school and we talked about how that was kind of an unusual thing at the time and she told me and i totally agreed that jane improved her grades in law school and it was true for me. while i was a first or second year student, and i think having child in law school requires you to focus on what's important and i probably would have overstudied but instead of thinking about most material to my work. >> interesting. going to law school, being pregnant actually made you a better student. i love that. a lot has been made of rbg's ability to connect with people, based on their traits rather than political means. friend with a staunch

conservative, late antonin scalia. what did you witness? you shared a picture that i love dressed in opera gear. >> i think that's the story most people are familiar with. she would go to the opera with justice scalia and justice thomas. they were friends across philosophical differences and her death is bringing that to light now, because everybody is mourning her across both sides of the aisle. it really showed that she was part of a time and an era where it was much more collegiality and much more interest, we're all still in this together as human beings even if we have differences. >> i think you were an aide to ohio senator, right now with the confirmation. >> right, so the work of the senate judiciary committee, one of the responsibilities is the judicial nominations, so they're

going to be holding hearings, preparing now for the hearings and possibly barbara, if she comes forward. the work is to prepare the questions, do the research on the candidates. and in this case, the candidates that trump is considering have all been vetted already. they've all recently come before the senate so i think a lot of that work is going to be already done, and that actually gives him an advantage for certain in bringing his nominations through. >> so because of that, is there enough time, you think, to go through the process and hold the vote before the election? >> it's tight, but i think it's' they have the numbers in the senate. i think mitt romney was the last person people thought could potentially be persuaded to hold off, and as i said, the candidates have been recently vetted. so there's a lot, i think, that's going for a swift confirmation. >> all right.

abiga abigail, i want to thank you for sharing all this with us. good luck with your research. congratulations on almost being done with your quarantine and i want to circle back once you're able to get out and about and get that massage, enjoy that market delicious food out there in the harvest moon festival. we definitely want to get that glimpse of what a post-pandemic world would look like. >> absolutely. i'm enjoying it already. >> thank you so much, abigail,

and we are back. thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive "getting answers" show. we talked with a doctor from the

johns hopkins university center for health security about the u.s. reaching 200,000 covid-19 deaths. we also took you live to taiwan and talked about how they're tonight, the u.s. officially reaches that grim and heartbreaking milestone. 200,000 american lives lost. the u.s. has 4% of the world's population and more than 20% of the world's coronavir each number, an american life, a family forever changed. president trump overnight saying of young people, it effects virtually nobody. dr. anthony fauci calling the numbers sobering and stunning. and tonight, 33 states with cases rising. wisconsin now declaring a new public health emergency. and the fda tonight, the new move and what it now likely means when it comes to a vaccine in this country near election day. the other major story tonight, the supreme court

battle. senate republicans sick nalling they have the