. hi there. i'm kristen sze. we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. we're going into the smartphone tool that notifies you if you've been exposed to covid-19. it's been run at a pilot program at u.c. berkeley for the past three weeks. we're committing coverage to the state of the arts in the bay area. the p of the aquarium of the bay talks about how you can still go there virtually. first, four area counties and the city of berkeley are on lock down today.

marin county will begin restrictions tomorrow. joining us to talk about its effectiveness, infectious disease specialist dr. monica gandhi and ash coalrod. thank you for joining me today. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> i want to dive into whether the new restrictions make sense. bmp we do that, the governor announced alarming new numbers. dr. gandhi, when numbers caught your attention? >> you know, it's aptly true that we're in a surge, we have increased cases and many areas in the state have increased hospitalizations. this is not true -- we haven't reached yet in the bay area. this is a prophylactic move to prevent us from getting into the kind of criteria that the governor explained. they were not there. it's a prophylactic move.

we have to restrict activities, and so now the question becomes what makes sense, what gets restricted and what doesn't make sense. >> that's absolutely true. many things are closing down again. indoor entertainment, outdoor playgrounds, that caught a lot of people by surprise. assemblyman, i want to ask you, you co-awered a letter, what are you asking for? what is your argument about that? >> we're asking for some flexibility and some allowances to allow families to take their children to the playground in a safe and sanitary -- at the end offed the day there's so many families that live in multi-family housing and apartment complexes. they don't have private open space. many don't have cars to drive to a regional park or a beach. it's for the emotional and

physical health of children to access playgrounds. parents should be cognizant of the fact that they should keep their kids away from other families but overall i hope we can find a path forward to allow families to do their playgrounds. >> is there an equity piece there. i think you're a mom, right? >> i am. >> so based on the data, i'm sure you're monitoring the risk versus benefit in this case very much. what does the data say about outdoors, playgrounds, kids and transmission? >> so the data has never shown increased risks from outdoor playgrounds. why? because they're ventilated. they're outside. even little kids -- you'll see this on the play ground, they're two and above and they're wearing masks. we have social distance

guidelines when the playgrounds opened, this many kids on the swings and this many kids on the slides, so they have not been a place of transmission. we've learned the importance of being outside, that you have to balance with any -- just the pathogen. we have the virus and everything else going on. the mental health effects for children like we cannot not -- not have that in the equation. there is an equity situation. some people have backyards and some people have fancy play dates. there are some places where you don't have that backyard. ice usually people who are more poor and they rely on our public spaces, so i think that compliance agrees with what you came up with as well. >> well, assemblyman, are there other aspects of the new stay at home that you think are perhaps

a lot more pain than there is gain? i know a lot of outdoor restaurants are saying look, what are we going to do here? >> it's really tough right now. i think that it's -- what we have to go into a situation where we have to stop some of the conduct and activities we've been doing and i think that restaurants are still available for takeout and delivery. i think the distinction between that and the playgrounds is if we're telling people to stay home, you want them to get exercise, you want them to get outside. as long as we can with provide some small businesses to help them get through this period, to help the workers continue to work and still allow for takeout and delivery, i think we can find that balancing act but i think the studies have shown some of the restaurants activity and socializing has caused an issue in terms of spreld. i certainly rely on folks like

dr. donby and their expertise and them informing us. they do a great job. i think for at least the next two to three weeks as tough as it might be, i agree with that aspect of the order. >> doctor gandhi, what is your thought about outdoor dining? we understand the transmission bulk of it coming indoors, households mixing. is there a way to do that without saying no outdoor dining at all? >> i do -- we have the exact same position on this. i don't think the data has shown that outdoor dining is driving it. orlando, people are socializing in ways that -- like going to the restaurant or meeting at home and going to the restaurant. if we could provide the outdoor facility and establish outdoor dining and do it for a short period of time, it could help. i think we're completely alined with it. what makes accepts for exercise,

for mental health. what can be sort of voluntary and can we provide for a short period of time before we go back to opening outdoor dining. i think the mental healths of being away from each other during the holidays, i think spaced outside activities with small family groups is safe. i think the ventilation is there and i think we can't underestimate the impact. >> the other thing i want to touch base with you is vaccines. there will be over 2 million doses in december for california. let's talk about allocation. i think most want health care workers to get them first. are there some health care workers who should be left out, who perhaps have had covid, and other groups fit in there and get the first watch?

>> it's true i agree with imneurologists who have said we're allocating someone with covid, they will have immunity for a while and they can get a boost to their immune response. if i had had covid i would have stepped back and said, ok, give it to me later. health care workers, we agree, the vulnerable population, elderly, staff and nursing homes, i want top say these vaccines are amazing. they're so exciting and so hopeful. this has been a really depressing time. it will end. i mean, as early as starting in december we're going to get vaccination. so i do agree with health care workers about covid, waiting a bit. >> this is where i'm wondering in terms of priority list where do teachers stand on that? there is growing concern with regard to the play ground that

there is an equity issue and most kids cannot go back to school where a lot of private schools are doing in person and some of the other schools are failing. isn't there something the legislature can do to try to get the parties to come together and work on this? i recognize we have a thousand school district thing and the governor has been willing to let that take its course, but is there anything that can be done? >> i agree it's an equity situation here between public and private schools. there's a digital divide issue, the capital of silicon valley we're seeing a lot of students not having a ses to the right congresswomen. on top of that, not all families and parents have the luxury to stay at home and monitor their students. absolutely, we need to safely open the schools as soon as we can. i would support teachers to be near the top of the list of

getting vaccinations. i'm not going to tell them you have to go into the class room if you're not vaccinated. i think it's unfair. when you look at the farm workerers, farm work, fast food workers, i think teachers are right there as well. there are multiple dominoes that have fallen based upon students having to be at home and learning from home. got to go far beyond just their ability to learn. i think we have to recognize that, the ability -- they check a lot of boxes in terms of getting families back up on their feet, alloying families to go to bed without their students being able to learn and we really need to get our students back in school as soon as possible so i would completely support vaccines getting to the teachers as quickly as possible. >> all right, both of you thank

you for your insight and your time today. appreciate the conversation. >> thank you. >> all right, folks. we'll take a short break. up next, a look at the state's covid-19 exposure notification tool using your smartphone.

northern newsom announced an app that will enable you to spend time near somebody that tests positive for covid. the app was first tested in the university of california system. joining us to talk about it is guy nicolette.

thank you for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. >> a lot of people have questions about this app. of course, the u.c. burky community has been using it. how did they become part of the pilot program to test out the technology? >> well, it's my understanding that uc san diego led the charge on that and ultimately five campuses joined the pilot and i think, you know, part of the impe tus to do that is we had quite a bit of folks still on campus,000 we could tap into and i think that helps out and the numbers, i think you'll see credit for about 200,000 people who have joined one way or the other, either apple or google platform. at berkeley we've had somewhere around 20,000 sign up. the more that join up, the more that participate, the better it

works. >> yeah. about 20,000 u.c. berkeley out of the community of how many people? 70,000-ish? >> right. we counted somewhere in the 0 to 70,000 range. >> yes! that was a good guess on my part. i remember from my uc berkeley days. i got the option today. i know you have to op it today . can you walk us through it on the iphone what you need to do? >> great. i'm certainly no tech expert, but on the iphone it's as easy as going to your settings and there's a slider for exposure notification system. >> there it is. >> you turn on that slider and it verifies what county your in, what state you're in and county, and if it's enabled in that location, then you're all set. that's all you really need to do. >> so then basically what would

the notification instruct you to do if it later determines that you have been near someone who tested positive? >> yeah. there's a really helpful one-page pdf that was developed and it leads you through the hypothetical situation -- i don't remember their names. i think it was alice and bob. >> alice and bob. >> ok. ouf seen it. they're having a pro tracted conversation. >> in fact, guy, i have the google video they put out. i know it's a little different for google or i done. >> our technology disguises your identity by jen ratings a random sequence of changing numbers. using bluetooth anytime your phone detects another phone nearby they exchange numbers. if someone's positive for covid-19 they can report that positive results in that app. any numbers that exchanged

numbers in the last 14 days will receive notification that they may have been exposed, without revealing their identity. >> so you find out and i guess the point of is if you know you have been near somebody, you would either quarantine or go get tested yourself? is that what you encourage your student community to do? >> yeah. the app notifies you once that notification comes up, it then tells you essentially what to do and for our subscribers, for those folks connected to uc berkeley, it instructs them on who to call, contact tracing team connects with them and then it becomes a bit more traditional contact tracing situation where you're told to isolate, or get tested, depending on the situation. >> part of the tool kit, it's one tool in helping cape covid. it's note the whole thing. >> yeah. no. i think that's a great appointment. that really there's augments

traditional contact tracing. traditional contact tracing is heavily relight on the art of skillful questions and kind of relying or trust in the veracity of the answers given and then just diligent work, kind of following the timeline and contacting those with significant exposure. the app adds a layer on top of it. it doesn't replace it but it adds a layer on top of it. and the value comes, really, in my opinion, from contact tracing the folks that case doesn't know, basically strangers, so it's helping identify folks that couldn't be identified in a typical case investigation. >> in the weeks that berkeley has had it have you noticed any glitches or false positives or anything like that? >> no. we've only given out two keys. we're expecting more as the surge goes. unfortunately, with it will come more folks that, you know, we'll get more experience using the

app. there likely will -- just with any technology like this, even traditional contact tracing, there are going to be some false positives. we're going to contact folks that really weren't significantly exposed, but that's how this system -- that's how the entire system goes, and i think that with refinements in the technology and us learning how identity h it really works and how -- where it's not best deploy deployed, we'll continue to we fine it and get better and better and better about who we ultimately do isolate and quarantine. >> google the video that we showed made a point and the governor did as well, that this doesn't track people's identities or locations but clearly some people are worried about that aspect, the privacy. was that the concern for the campus community? >> oh, absolutely. we wrestled with that quite a business. because we -- all of us value

the precisy and certainly on the medical side. we're bound by several laws, hipaa included, that really enforces the need to question the privacy and security when you're thinking about new technologies, but it was shown to us a number of times and with a number of experts in privacy and security, they felt like this was about as secure as you could get with this type of system. >> all right. so no sign of any privacy breaches. overall, how are things going at uc berkeley? it is a huge campus. i recognize most students have not been on camp ougs. how sit going? do you think people will come back in greater numbers next january? >> yeah. that's a good question. we've actually, i think through a combination of planning, some luck, and being diligent in our contact tracing, the on campus has been lower risk and lower exposure than the community. our positivity rate up till

thanksgiving was somewhere in the .2 or .3% range. p and we were -- i think we cumulatively tested, you know, 12,000 unique individuals with 60 or 70 or 80,000 tests. we're doing a lot of testing. we haven't found many positive, which is good. the restauranstudents areudentsn living on campus in dorms, which we were really worried about, there's almost no sign of transmission that's happened in the dorms, very, very little. with that experience that we've had, that led us to believe that we could probably ham -- you know, we really restricted campus sencensus quite a bit. it's my belief that we could handle more and still have low positivity rates and this app would only help. >> i realize there are lots of

unknowns but sounds like you're moving in the right direction. i'm glad to hear that maikel community is still making the rights choices. guy nico get, thank you for your time. >> thank you for having we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa

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welcome back. abc 7 is committed to building a better bay area including the arts and culture. all week we're hooking at the state of the arts in the bay area to see how these cultural institutions are holding up and how you can help them out. joining us to talk more about this is president of the akwarm at the bay at pier 39 at the bay in san francisco. george jacobsen. how are you doing? >> i'm doing all right. >> excellent to hear. you run a fabulous institution, the akwarm there by peer 39. right now it is closed for

in-person visits but tell us what is still available to people who want to get the experience. >> sure. i think as the city is asked to shelter in place, we change gears and we started creating a number of programs online. so we have our o virtual tour have a number of activities. >> tell us about the aquarium. i think a lot of people don't know the treasure that's there at pier 39, what can people see? >> well, the aquarium has been there for about 24 years. next year we'll celebrate our 35th anniversary and each year, they developed into 750,000 visitors but this year is different, as you know. we do hold 24,000 an malcollections and about 186

species. most of the animals are from the san francisco bay. we would like to show you our collections. you can find it on social media for stories about our 24,000 animals and what goes on at the zoo after it closes. we're on facebook, linked in, facebook and twitter. >> you also have a diving, program. what about that? >> this is a new program they started recently. the dive certification course. the first cohort group had a successful dive certification last month and the dives usually happen in monterey. the next round is currently enrolling. it is to train citizen scientists with specialty certifications including peak performance, underwater digital photography and you can get details at aquarium of the

bay.org/dive. >> what an opportunity. if we'll just want to help, where can they go for that? we have ten seconds. >> well, they can certainly do to gofundme. they can buy our facemasks on line. we have a store online that can show their report by buying our beautiful facemasks but gofundme, aquarium of the bay fund.org. >> all

that's going to do it for today. thank you for joining us on this interactive show "getting answers" we talked about the controversy over closing

playgrounds and the new smartphone tonight, breaking news as we come on the air on the pfizer vaccine. just days before it could be approved here in the u.s. the headline late today, "the new york times" now reporting that the trump administration passed earlier this year when pfizer offered to sell the u.s. more vaccine doses. now come outs that pfizer may not be able to provide more of its vaccine to the u.s. until next june because of commitments to other countries. jon karl standing by with late reporting tonight. this all comes with the virus surging across the u.s. 1 million americans testing positive in just five days. america now averaging about 90 deaths every hour. tonight, inside an icu at double its normal full capacity. a field hospital in massachusetts now taking patients. more than 33 million under stay at home orders