this is abc 7 news. taking a live look outside right now in san francisco where temperatures are slightly cooler today. but other parts of the bay area, including marin county, will soon be facing another red flag warning. good afternoon and thank you so much for joining us. i'm dion lim. and i'm kristen zee. thanks so much for joining us. in about three hours, fairfax road in marin county is going to be closing due to the fire danger coming our way. it is going to be shut down between meadow club and highway 1 between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 88 a.m. wednesday. >> it has cooled down quite a bit in most areas from the weekend's intense heat, it's getting warm out there. it's dry. it's getting gusty over the higher elevations and the gusts are going to get string going into the late-night and overnight hours. right now in the hills, gusts of about 12 to 15 miles per hour and a red flag warning for high

fire danger in effect from 11:00 tonight to 8:00 a.m. wednesday for many of the higher elevations of marin county, parts of napa and sonoma county and lake county, wind gusts could reach 40 miles per hour or higher. once again, this is in the higher elevations and for the nxt two days. fires can start and spread easily under thesications. for the remainder of the bay area above 1,000 feet, a fire weather watch in effect from wednesday into friday. similar conditions, only we expect only occasional gusts during that period of time, not the stronger, steadier gusts we're expecting the next two days. >> all right. we will be watching it closely. spencer, thank you. we are just 15 days away from the election that will decide our next president. and so far here in the bay area voters are responding in record numbers. ballot boxes and election centers are swirling with activity, all of this as today marks the deadline for registering online in california.

here's abc 7 news reporter laura anthony. >> reporter: the election may be two weeks away, but the action is in full swing at the contra-costa county elections headquarters where by day's end registrar debbie cooper expects she will reach a new milestone. >> i think contra-costa's going to go over the 200,000 ballots returned mark. it will be nearly a third of our registered voters and it will be the most received we've ever received this early in the process. >> reporter: the ballot boxes around the county are filling up. almost as fast as election workers can empty them. >> i saw you give the box a little pat there. >> yes. just praying for good luck. >> reporter: tonight is the deadline to register online, but it won't be the last chance to register in person. >> otherwise, we will have opportunities here at our main martinez office or one of our 17 regional early voting sites and then, of course, at all of our 150-plus polling places on

election day. >> reporter: besides the deadline to register online, voters should also be aware of another deadline that is october 31st to make sure they get their ballots in to be counted on election day. it's a reality that many voters told us they consider a top priority. especially this year. >> we want to vote early. to make sure that our ballot is counted. >> i have never voted by mail or early ever, just felt really important to get that in the mail early this year. >> reporter: at the current pace contra-costa expects turnout could exceed the record set in 2008 when more than 80% of registered voters cast a ballot. in martinez, laura anthony, abc 7 news. >> voter registration totals in three of the larger bay area counties are massive. santa clara county has more than 1 million people registered. that's an 83% total of the total numbers of eligible voters in the counties. alameda county is close to 1

million as well with 961,000 people registered to so far. san francisco has more than 520,000 people registered for next month's election. now to a look at one of the many crucial state propositions that are on your ballot this year. proposition 19. what is it and what's at stake for you? abc 7 news anchor liz kreutz takes a closer look. >> ballot titles usually give voters some idea about what the measure is about, but proposition 19 is about so many things, it was given a vague title that says "changes certain property tax rules." proposition 19 could be good news for homeowners who are 55 or older or who are disabled and feel trapped in their home because they can't afford to pay new property taxes if they move. prop 19 would allow them to transfer their current tax assessment to a primary home anywhere in the state without paying higher taxes as long as the home costs the same or less. victims of wildfires or natural disasters could also apply the tax rules. proposition 19 also makes big changes in property taxes on a

home inherited from parents or grandparents. under prop 19 a child would have to live in the inherited home as their primary residence or they lose the big tax break. proponents say this would generate millions in new property tax revenue with the lion's share going into a new fund for fighting wildfires. the state will lose some and gain some tax money under prop 19. voters will need to decide if they like where the money is going. >> and for more information about the state propositions, just go to abc7news.com. we also have mail-in ballot first in-person voting information and key dates and deadlines. a polarized electorate and the possibility of a contested election. both are raising concerns that they will be a drag on an economic recovery after covid-19. stanford researchers say they have studied patterns globally and abc 7 news reporter david louie takes a look at the troubled road ahead.

>> reporter: telltale signs of a troubled economy are everywhere. retail stores have closed. restaurants have either closed or are limping along. people are moving because they can remote work from almost anywhere where it's cheaper to live. the pandemic is the number one reason for uncertainty. business leaders tell researchers so is politics. >> number two is the election. and, you know, anyone that watched the presidential debate and sees how opposite the candidates are in substance and in style, you can see how this real matters. >> economic recovery could well be slowed by three to six months because of uncertainty. companies are unsure whether to hire, lay off, reduce office space or invest. >> the economy is roughly 10 ms do % down, but back up to 5% down. catching up the remaining 5% is going to be hard. >> reporter: besides the election, there is the potential of a lame duck period where congress could be facing its own uncertainty. polarization among voters even after the election could impact consumer confidence and impact holiday spending. >> if christmas sales are very poor, i'm nervous they're just

going to kind of limp on with this dreadful economy that isn't truly as bad as it was in the summer of 2020. >> reporter: uncertainty could also be prolonged if election results are contested as happened in 2000 involving george bush and al gore. historically uncertainty then was not as heightened as it appears to be today. >> it was an era in which voters didn't view the parties as nearly as par apart ideological as they view them now. >> reporter: so both professors that work for stanford's institute for economic policy research believe the months ahead will make the post-covid recovery prolonged. david louie, abc 7 news. happening now, a memorial's being held for a san francisco firefighter who died in a training accident. first responders from many agencies started arriving about 45 minutes ago as police and firefighters escorted the body of jason cortez to saint ignatius church. this is a private celebration with only cortez's family and guests with an invitation

allowed inside. this is a leave look outside the church on parker avenue. the service is expected to conclude at around 9:00 p.m., and the san francisco fire department will do an honor salute afterward. now to developing coronavirus news. we've now reached more than 40 million cases worldwide. and abc news analysis finds hospitalizations are rising in 41 states. 1/4 of the nation's hospitals have 81% of icu beds full. yesterday the transportation security administration says it screened more than 1 million passengers, the highest number since march. 7 on your side's michael finney will have more on that coming up. today governor newsom announced that a group of 11 california scientists will independently review the safety and efficacy of any vaccine that receives fda approval before it's distributed in the state. >> we will do our own independently reviewed process. with our world-class experts

that just happen to live here in the state of california. treasure trove of experts. >> the covid-19 scientific safety review work group is a key piece of the state's initial covid-19 vaccine distribution plan, which was submitted to the cdc on friday. the group's chairman is dr. arthur riangold, the division head of epidemiology and biostatistics at uc berkeley. governor newsom says we shouldn't anticipate mass vaccine availability until 2021. a "usa today" investigation found that asian americans in san francisco are dying from covid-19 at a higher rate than other racial groups. asian americans account for 34% of the city's population and 38% of the city's covid-19 deaths. now, keep in mind, the sample size is relatively small, as the city's overall death toll is at 133. community leaders worry asian americans in san francisco may

not be receiving adequate health care. covid information in their native languages and that many live in large households or work in high-exposure jobs. another free pop-up covid testing site is now open in the east bay. b.a.r.t. is partnering with bay area community health to provide tests today, tomorrow and thursday in the parking lot of the union city bart station. the site is open from 9:00 until 4:00. appointments can be made through the bay area community health website, but walk-ups are also welcome. san mateo county's newly formed covid compliance team hit the streets today to make sure businesses are enforcing the mask requirement. the team is made up of eight people with a primary goal of working with businesses to keep the public safe, but businesses that don't comply could face sanctions. >> if they're not, they'll be warned and they'll be told how they can comply. if they fail to comply after that, they could be fined through administrative citations

or they could face criminal prosecution. >> fines can be as high as $3,000. now, we've made it easy for you to keep tabs on the rules and what's open where you live. this interactive reopening tracker is on our website, abc 7 news.com. our america, living while black. we kick off the week-long special event today at 4:30. and free speech. the controversy over social media and just what rights you have on their platforms. and sierra statue. it was t

the pain is always around the corner.o

new details on free speech rally that turned violent over the weekend in san francisco. we want to warn you some pile might find this video very disturbing. a watsonville man has been arrested for the attack on phillip anderson. anderson organized the event. you can see him in this video here. he had already been punched once in the face and then is punched again. anderson ended up having two of his teeth knocked out. now, that free speech event was organized to protest alleged censorship and bias by twitter, facebook and google against conservative users. the tech companies were criticized after the 2016 election for not doing enough to stop disinformation. but now some say their changes

have gone too far. abc 7 news reporter luis pena spoke to experts about what tech economies are actually allowed to do. >> reporter: just weeks before election day, social media giants are facing criticism from conservative voices. some users claim new rules are censoring their free speech, but twitter and facebook say that's not the case and they claim section 230 of the communication decency act protects them. >> who can be held liable is whoever produces that content, right? so what section 230 really did at its core, it really opened up the internet and allowed free speech to flourish. >> reporter: but conservatives claim freedom of speech is being violated. they point to last week's "new york post" article about alleged communications between joe biden's son hunter biden and a ukrainian company adviser. the article was blocked from distribution by both twitter and facebook. >> as i understand it, their rationale was not necessarily related to the content of that

post, but that the way that the information had been gained through hacking. >> reporter: after backlash, twitter said it would update its policy. facebook's communication lead responded. "while i will intentionally not link to the "new york post," i want to be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by facebook's third-party fact checking partners. in the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform." >> are these social media platforms also opening themselves up to legislation by choosing what type of content is distributed? >> absolutely. again, they're effective monopolies using a public resource, and once they decide that they're going to push their own views to the exclusion of other views, i think it calls out for government regulation. >> reporter: uc hastings constitutional law professor matthew coles says section 230 works as a shield to protect these private companies. >> section 230 was designed to

allow them not to be liable if they made decisions about blocking people, and that's precisely what they're doing. >> reporter: now tomorrow the senate judiciary committee is expected to vote on whether to subpoena facebook and twitter's ceos to test about alleged anti-conservative bias. in san francisco, luiz pena, abc 7 news. all right. time now for consumer news. >> yeah, 7 on your side's michael finney joining us now with a look at today's headlines, starting with some not so good news on the streaming front. >> that's very true. one of the very best deals, free trial deals consumers have ever received, now no more. netflix says it will no longer offer its 30-day, i should say, free trial. for years the streaming giant offered the free trial to lure in new subscribers. for two years now netflix has been phasing out free trials all around the worrell. it's now simply america's turn.

and here's another free trial that has come to an end. mashable is reporting that tesla's week-long return policy is no more. tesla sells cars without franchised dealers and part of that unique process has allowed buyers to return their car after essential days, or i should say before seven days, for any reason whatsoever. mashable says there was no major announcement but the return policy was apparently scrapped last week. the transportation security administration, the tsa, broke the 1 million passengers screened in a day mark this past sunday. yesterday. for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic outbreak began. the last time the tsa screened that number of people was on march 17th. the tsa also says the proceeding week saw 6.1 million people screened. that shows that more and more of us are traveling. whether or not we feel safe in the air, we're actually taking to the air. back to you two.

>> all right. thank you so much, michael. all right. turning to the weather now. all eyes on the wind and i guess cooler temperatures eventually, spencer. >> eventually, yeah. so later in the week, dion, but right now we have another offshore flow developing over the hills and that means, you know, dry, sometimes gusty wind and that, of course, adds to fire danger. right now we can see the surface winds are basically calm. most locations have under 10-mile-per-hour winds right now. but look at the gusts in the higher elevations we were talking about, 10 to 15, maybe up to about 20 miles per hour. those gusts are likely to intensify during the late-night hours and as a result we have a red flag warning that will be in effect from 11:00 tonight to 8:00 wednesday morning for many of the higher elevations of the north bay. this includes lake county, parts of napa and sonoma counties and marin county. wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour. dry fuels all those add up to high fire danger. san francisco under blue skies

right now. currently 62 here in the city. 60, rather. 72 across the bay. in oakland we have mid-80s in mountain view and san jose. 87 in gilroy. 55 at half moon bay. mount tam showing a little finger of fog to push out over the bay through the golden gate right now. so the marine layer is returning. 82 in santa rosa. 95 in concord. 89 at livermore. nice view from our rooftop camera looking out over the embarcadero from abc 7 and these are our forecast features, cooling marine layer tonight will expand a bit during the overnight hours. north bay fire danger, as i just pointed out, in effect through tonight and tomorrow morning. we'll have cooler days by the end of the week. right now we're looking at the overnight. forecast animation showing the development of a bit of a marine layer that will expand over the bay. not likely to make it too far inland. for tomorrow, sunny breaks along the coastline and lingering

clouds as well. low to mid-50s. cooler in the inland valleys where some locations like santa rosa will drop into the upper 40s. tomorrow look for highs of 69 in half moon bay. 74, san francisco. 79, oakland. and some upper 80s to about 90 in the warmest inland location. here is the accuweather seven-day forecast. so the next couple days, inland highs around 90, 92 degrees in the warmest spots. notice this red flag warning in effect actually into wednesday morning. i'll remove that flag. going into the latter part of the week, friday, saturday and sunday, we'll see a nice cooldown with temperatures feeling a lot more like fall and that will be some relief. dion? >> all right. thank you, spencer. calls for justice after a

but i can't say i expected this. because it was easy. to fight these fires, we need funding - plain and simple. for this crisis, and for the next one. prop 15 closes tax loopholes so rich corporations pay their fair share of taxes. so firefighters like me, have what we need to do the job, and to do it right. the big corporations want to keep their tax loopholes. it's what they do. well, i do what i do. if you'ld like to help, join me and vote yes on prop 15.

. the fallout continues of the desecration of a statue of father junipero serra. descendants of native americans say he has blood on his hands. here is abc 7 news reporter wayne freedman. >> reporter: just two weeks before the election and there's know scaping politics, even in the parking lot at marin civic center. >> i think law and order has to be appreciated. >> no justice. no peace. >> reporter: and so this march into the building heading for the district attorney's office and all in reaction to this, one week ago, the pulling down of a statue of father junipero serra in san rafael on indigenous

people's day. they want the five people arrested to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. >> it was vandalism. it was illegal. >> wanted to open up a dialogue with the church basically, and it kind of just got out of hand. >> reporter: she was there but not charged. she's of native american ancestry. since the incident. >> i've been threatened. my life has been threatened. my family has been threatened, do you understand that? >> reporter: back outside the d.a.'s office, marchers waited for an audience. they want lawyered? consistency. >> if a mosque was attacked, these people would be prosecuted for a hate crime but because it's a catholic church, they don't want to prosecute. >> reporter: but today the archdiocese of san francisco says it does want to prosecute. in fact, it held an exorcism right here to rid the spot of its evil. >> is she willing to speak to us? >> reporter: as for the protesters, they never did see district attorney. a spokesman delivered a statement saying "they're

waiting for all of the evidence." >> did you expect anything more? >> no. >> reporter: with a saint stuck in the middle. in san rafael, wayne freedman, abc 7 news. disney is recognzing the racism in some of its classic movies. when disney plus streams "dumb b "dumbo and debt 1953's peter pan" they'll be preceded by an advisory. the idea is to acknowledge and to learn from the harmful impact of this kind of material. disney is the parent company of abc 7 news. when we return we kick off our week-long special event "our america: living while black." today we focus on health care

uber and lyft are like every big guy i've ever brought down. prop 22 doesn't "help" their drivers-- it denies them benefits. 22 doesn't help women. it actually weakens sexual harassment laws, which are meant to protect them. uber and lyft aren't even required to investigate sexual harassment claims. i agree with the la times: no on 22. uber and lyft want all the power. so, show them the real power

is you. vote no on prop 22.

♪ today we're launching "our america: living while black," a special week-long series on the american experience told by black families through a collaboration of eight of our abc stations. the stories will bring to life truly alarming statistics, but the stories are also about surviving and thriving and working toward a better future. we start with a story about black families at risk of -- because of health care disparities. putting pregnant black women at a higher risk of dying. in california, black mothers are nearly four times more likely to die in pregnancy than white mother. part of the reason is the growing number of so-called maternity care deserts, including this one in chicago that illustrates the risks for many pregnant black women. >> he's just kicking.

you never know how things are actually going to turn out. now he's trying to ball up. so you're just pretty much walking by faith and praying for the best. ♪ this is my baby's little face. his little hand waving. i'm shocked she was able to get these pictures because he did not sit still. i'm seven months pregnant. my due date is december 28th and i'm having a boy. i will be delivering this babe at mercy, so that's kind of far. i am going to have to commute all the way there and just hope there's no complications in between. it's -- it's very -- it's inconvenient. >> reporter: while covid-19 has highlighted the racial inequalities in health care, those disparities start at birth and the delivery room black mothers die nearly 2 1/2 times

more often as white mothers and have 2.3 times the infant mortality rate. and one of the reasons is the growing number of what are called maternity deserts in black neighborhoods. >> maternity desert has become a popular name for an area where there's no maternity wards that are open currently. this area like on 85th and saint lawrence is kind of the midof the south side. it's a great family-oriented area, children, three generations. so we're kind of smack dab in the middle of a maternity desert. if you were in labor, had any kind of ob emergency, you would have to go 30 to 45 blocks south or go 40 blocks north just to get care because the labor and delivery units are not currently open in this neighborhood. ♪ >> we have an access issue. we have a quality issue. we have certainly transportation and childcare issues. people's just everyday life

issues intersecting with all the issues of the health care delivery system not necessarily being responsive to the fact that people have really complicated lives and are poor and don't have, you know, a lot of other things like they live in food deserts and pharmacy deserts. all of those things are overlapping with ob deserts, right? >> reporter: nationally, 2.2 million women between the ages of 13 and 34 live in areas with no access to care. this makes it especially dangerous for a black women to give birth in the developed world. the u.s. mortality rate is high and has been on the rise in recent years. cdc figures from 2018 show black mothers died 2.4 times as often as white mothers. ♪ >> it could be a pulmonary embolism. it could be cardiomyopathy, so a heart condition, preclampsia, my

legs hurt. to make sure it's not something that is lethal or end up in a bad outcome. 70% of those are preventible. that's the scary part. we shouldn't be dying at the rates that we're dying. ♪ so right now we're on, what, 83rd and king drive, which is the middle of the south side. and for a pregnant mom who had any kind of emergency, this is the way that they would have to go pretty much 30 blocks. sometimes you have to realize how privileged you are to just have a car, you know? so i've been a physician for 19 years. i grew up born and raised on the south side of chicago. so my mission has been to be in underserved populations and to take care of the patients that generally don't have a voice. being an african-american woman first and foremost, it's a challenge.

being an african-american physician adds even more challenge to it. for me because i've always wanted to take care of my people, my population, and for those that are underserved, it just makes it very challenging to give the best care that i need to give and i want to give with some of the limitations that we are presented with currently. >> hello there. >> hi, how are you? >> good. how are you? >> i've seen personally just the racial bias that has been encountered with a lot of patients with providers that were not of the same upbringing or racial background, and a lot of times, you know, patients will walk out of the office not understanding anything having had their problems addressed and feel like they're just swept under the rug and not cared for. ♪ >> it's devastating. it's concerning. it's very concerning because you want to make sure that these people have your best interests at heart. i need to actually pick these. it's hard. when you are being told that you have to travel so far just to go

to prenatal care, just to get your medication, just to see a doctor or you may think that you're having contractions or whatever. and not a lot of people have the option of being driven. where you have to rely on your assuran insurance to pay for transportation and it's not guaranteed that you'll get it. >> you know, it's always been there, these racial and ethnic disparities have always been there. we push them under the rug. i think all of a sudden people wke up, this is a serious issue. >> the biggest thing that needs to change to make this problem not as big of a problem is education. just knowing when something is wrong and speaking up. not feeling scared to tell your provider what's really going on because that is a big issue. i don't mind you asking me questions. you should ask a question. it shouldn't be i'm telling you this, okay, well, you said so. just getting the care that you need -- >> it is very scary. it's like you're just stuck with whatever we're stuck with. we're getting pretty much the

end of the barrel at this point. >> and that should not be the case for these mothers. now, up next, a deeper look at how we got here from the hospitals to the neighborhoods for people with heart failure taking entresto, it may lead to a world of possibilities. entresto helped people stay alive and out of the hospital. don't take entresto if pregnant;

it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if you've had angioedema with an ace or arb. the most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. ask your doctor about entresto. when was the last time your property tax bill went down? or high blood potassium. what? never. are you kidding me? for years, the residential burden has gone up. while the corporate burden has gone down. prop 15 reverses that.

it closes corporate loopholes and invests in schools, small business, and firefighters. and when the big corporations pay more, your tax bill goes down. that's right. a savings of a hundred twenty-one dollars a year for the average home. give homeowners a break. vote yes on 15. i just add a spoonful to my marinades...llon? ...to stir frys... ...sauces... just whisk it in... ...brush it on ...sauté it. it adds a "cooked all day taste" ...that doesn't take all day. better than bouillon. don't just make it. make it better because when i get home, we like to play crocodile on the floor. promist max's pad removes over 99% of bacteria, with just water. better cleaning with less waste. o-cedar. it feels great to feel at home. the average cost of having a baby in california is more than

26,000 pds that's 75% higher than the national average. for some hospitals it's not worth having maternity wards. that coupled with covid-19 is creating an even more dangerous environment for expectant black moms. >> in the 1980s we had close to 200 deliveries a month here, but over the years we've seen a decline in birth rates. last year alone we went from 100 deliveries to 50 deliveries a month. >> hospitals are businesses and have to survive and have to have a certain volume to be able to maintain an ob delivery unit. the volume has decreased. when rahm emanuel closed 50 schools people said, why am i staying in this neighborhood? i don't have a neighborhood school anymore. >> reporter: it's all connected. hospitals like any business look at their services like line items to determine what's profitable and what's not. when birth rates decline like they have in recent years across the country, their ability to recoup costs falls below

desirability. community hospitals like st. bernard hospital on chicago's south side have to make a tough decision. and in a pandemic and shifting state and federal funds to recoup these costs, that tough decision comes much faster. >> the patients we're delivering here on the hospital relied heavily on medicaid as their insurance coverage. and with medicaid, it really doesn't pay for the cost of the care that we provide. so we rely heavily on the government for that support. right now the funding is just not present. ♪ >> also today, plans for dismantling the alternate care facility at mccormack place. >> reporter: it took $66.5 million taxpayer dollars to build the facility. about 1/3 of that came from the city of chicago at $26 million. the care facility was equipped to treat thousands, but after being open for a month, only 38 people were treated.

>> when they built the mccormick for covid patients, why didn't say say to every hospital we're going to keep the birthing centers open. they could have strategically thought about this. >> a lot of our moms are high-risk. a lot of them have hypertension. they have gestational diabetes. they have a lot of issues that other women may not have because of socioeconomic environments that they live in. >> a woman who is poor may not have access to good food. there may not be decent grocery stores in her neighborhood and would have to travel far to get decent groceries, so she might eat poorly and be likely to be overweight or obese. she might be stressed because she lives in a neighborhood where there's a lot of community violence and all of those things put her at risk for hypertension, diabetes, conditions that affect her well-being prior to pregnancy and then during pregnancy. we need healthy women before we can have healthy babies. ♪

it should not be a trade-off between one kind of patient versus another kind of patient. this patient's profitable, that patient isn't. we at least need to give rates of reimbursement that make it in the hospitals' best interests to support women during pregnancy and delivery. >> i think the government has to pay attention because the focus is on us now. ♪ >> so what can be done to fill the void of maternity care deserts? when we return, the

♪ if i could, baby i'd ♪ how can i, when you won't take it from me ♪ ♪ you can go your own way ♪ ♪ go your own way your wireless. your rules. only with xfinity mobile.

for expectant black womans living in maternity care deserts, midwives and dulaa can provide the attention they need. 230 here in the bay area. however, the majority of births still happen in hospitals at a rate of just over 98% nationwide. >> so if i was currently pregnant in the world as it is right now, i would be scared to death. i mean, i'm just being honest. like, where would i go? how far would i have to drive in an emergency to get the care that i needed? ♪ so i think we also have to look at the stress that is put on these patients, first of all, they're pregnant. that's stressful in itself. but then the access to care and

the resources, i mean, i would probably be going crazy. like most of our patients are. >> i was in labor for 57 hours. >> just 57? >> it was 57. i though. >> people do lots of things for 57 hours straight. >> yeah, i was in labor for 57 hours where my contractions were less than ten minutes apart the entire time. >> back-to-back. >> now i'm really at my weakest and most vulnerable. i am at the point where i'm delirious, i'm tired, i am exhausted and i am in full physical pain. aww. >> can i hit this light? >> yes, let's turn the light on. >> we eating and day, right? >> he is eating and pooping a lot. this is his umbilical cord. >> it's still on?

>> it fell off yesterday. >> just a little residue. >> throughout my entire pregnancy, december through august, everything was up in the air. folks didn't know were we going to shut down. how are you going to go to the doctor? they were talking about not even letting folks come into the doctor's and doing conference calls, which i didn't feel like that benefitted me. i wanted somebody to touch me or see me and physically feel that i was, like, being heard. and so my options was finding a doula and a midwife. studies have shown that access to doula care can reduce factors that lead to morbidity and mortality among women of color. >> i think it helps and it's a wholistic approach to the patient because it's not just taking care of their medical problem, it's kind of getting to the root of other things that may be going on that is affecting them from getting the

care that they need. >> i have to be mindful of the things that she might be doing at home that could cause stress on her body. is she moving around? is she trying to take her dogs out? is she trying to make food for herself? is she trying to clean up? she also lives with her mom. is her mom doing these things also? because the truth is we think that the scary part of maternal mortality can happen in the hospital, but there's a year after someone has a baby where they're at risk of any type of complication, a sickness or an illness or an injury, so we like to be extremely mindful, even up to 11 months, 12 months postpartum. you're allowing your body really, like, a year to heal. because it needs that long. i need that long. i am exactly the person that i'm trying to help. this is where you work, you live. and there are no hospitals there. it feels like, man, am i supposed to be doing this?

does my city or, you know, does my neighborhood, does my environment care the most about me being and feeling well and then having a safe place to birth my baby? and then bring my baby home to our access prenatal care. if i have any time of emergent care that i need to seek. >> there you go. >> thank you. you're the best doula ever. >> you're the best mom ever. >> man, what? >> yep, right about there. this way. you just squeeze it right on there like that. >> and it's supposed to suction cup on. >> yep, it will suction on. you can catch the milk and turn it and feed the baby like that. >> i fed him like that the other day, it was so cool. i was like, you ever seen a baby drink out of a cup? >> i told ya. ♪ >> we're severely, severely overlooked, and i knew going into the hospital on a regular basis without me being pregnant that i generally have to

advocate for myself. you generally need someone to advocate for you or advocate for yourself in those spaces. so i felt it was important i had a black doula who was into actually caring for black babies and black moms because it's more relatable. >> we have a medical system that places people like akeva, people like myself who are black, maybe look a certain way, present a certain way and they say, you don't hold the same value that i do. so because we have a medical system that functions that way, we can't pretend that everybody's going to get equal care. we can't pretend that way at all, and i think it's a slap in the face. one of my favorite midwives, she says you cannot make anything else from a dented pan but dented bread. so as long as the system is banged up and broken up, it don't matter what type of formula you put in it, it's going to come out that way, so we are laboring ourselves, black women, black people, we're

laboring ourselves trying to make something out of this system but dented bread. >> and today we focused on black moms like akeva who we just met there. tomorrow what it means to be a black student in america in part ii of "our america: living while black". we'll examine the systemic racism through the eyes of black students, families and educators who are challenging the system and making it work for them.

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his book topped the sales charts after the george floyd protest. he talked about the difference between the terms racism and racist. >> it's inherently systemic and structural. and so the question that your black studies professor, my black studies professor, you know, it wasn't black people. it's the group who have historically been engaging in racism. and i would actually agree with that. and then i would add that black people as a group have historically been engaged in anti-racism, which is also structural, which is also systemic. black people collectively, i should say generally speaking,

have been supporting anti-racist policies that could lead to equity and justice for all. black people have been supporting policies that can reduce inequities. they have been defending or specifying anti-racist ideas. there's nothing wrong with black people. so i think it's important for us to recognize that collectively as a group black people have been engaged in anti-racism, while white folks have collectively as a group been engaged in racism. but when you distinguish racism from racist, racist is individual. so whether individual policy, individual idea, or individual person. and the question for the individual is, am i upholding or

challenging the system of racism? that's the fundamental question. and there's only, really, two sort of ways for the individual to go in any given moment. either that individual is challenging or upholding this larger system. one of the things i've been trying to argue and show with my work is the ways individuals relate to the larger system. >> that's right. >> so what people think i'm doing is, oh, let's not talk about the system anymore. no, no, no, ino, ino, asking what should i do or not do? and essentially what i'm saying is, well, you know, when you're doing nothing in the face of these policies and powers that are maintaining injustices and inequities, you as an individual, you're being racist. >> that's right. >> but other individuals that

are challenging those racist ideas and policies, who get into positions of power with anti-racist policies , that individual is being anti-racist. and then the other thing about this sort of structural -- is when you look at sort of again, as a collective, systemic form, white people are benefiting from racism. black people are not benefiting vis-a-vis white people. white people have privilege as a result of racism. black people do not have privilege as a result of a system of racism. >> he has a new book out called "be anti-racist," a journal with questions for the reward. he calls it for a journal were awareness, reflection, and action. you can watch "our america" all k an abc7. you n find mor resources and

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new numbers on covid-19. top officials say there's reason to be confident, but they warn of a deja vu and now we'll need to be more cautious. plus, ground zero in the fight against coronavirus, handing out 50,000 masks to those who may need them most. also ahead, the deadline to register to vote online now just hours away. this turnout is already reaching record levels. gusty winds and high, dry conditions. high fire danger is back. abc7 news meteorologist sandhya patel will be here with the time line. >> building a better bay area for a safe and secure future. this is abc7 news. we begin with optimism about coronavirus in california eight months into this pandemic. the state appears to have contained its transmission.