>> welcome to our daily program, called getting answers. we are asking experts to get answers for you in real time. we will cover covid-19, an historic day here in the u.s. it's being given to those that need it the most all over the country and here in california. this comes amid a sad backdrop, if you will, we have surpassed 3 oou,000 deaths, in fact, so we will be talking about it in a minute. but right now, as you know, today is the day the

college meets and we will start with that can and joining us now is our guest lonnie chen, always great talking with you, lonnie, so it's done, california's electoral college have met and done their job. >> they have met and have put joe biden over the top. he now has the number of votes to officially be elected. those votes will be certified next next month, that's the latter part of the process. it is official, joe biden is the elected president of the united states. >> no faithless eelectrleelect c time. >> there's been a couple of states cracking down. faithless electors, is when they

go and instead of voting with what the popular vote was in the state, they go and vote for whoever they want to. some states have put penalties in place, some do not have pebls but have severe language that said, you should not do it, but we may have expected to see it, didn't see it this time around, people wanted a clean election and result, and that's what we got. >> there were abnormalities today the, there were secret meetings in some states due to threats of violence, unheard of really and met. >> the threatened violence is unprecedented and many people don't know who they are who are getting together to cast the

votes necessary to select a president and vice president of the united states. you know, that, that threat of violence is something that has been stoked about a number of different sources. certainly the rhetoric coming from the white house has not been helpful in that regard. so, that is something that we have had to deal with, that is really sad, frankly, it's a sad statement where our democracy is, where electores who are doing their job are confronted with violence. what you have seen are alternate groups of individuals. usually what happens in each state is that there are a lit of electors given that correspond to a particular candidate. so is, here in california, you can go to the secretary of state's website and see who are the individuals pledged to be electors to do this candidathis. so there's a list of trump

electors and biden ele arectorse ones for biden are the ones that picked the electors for the california vote. but other states, they can get together and try to engage in whatever situation their state law allows for that may allow them to cast for an alternate slate. it didn't mean the meetings can not happen. really, it's something fundamentally dictated by state law. >> but, if there were the alternate elertors is, do their votes do anything? are they just for show. you mentioned the next step is in january, and they open up the votes and make it official. can they do something on that day? >> members of congress can't do anything really in an official way. they could lodge a protest or figure out a way to express

their displeasure with the results. in terms of overturning the results, no, there's not. but to go back to the states for a minute. in some states, their potentially was a provision that allowed for a contest of electors, they could say, the official slate should not be official and here's why. if that situation where there's an official conflict, it would have gun to the state's legislative body for consideration c consideration. we have not seen that happen, at least not that i'm aware of on. so the remedies of the state are limited or none. so when the congress gets ready to vote, those remedies are limited as well. >> the democrats control the house, and the republicans the senate. if the democrats the not control the house, could they then do something different there had? the did dems did not control the house? >> no, there too.

the only time it would have been an interesting and by interesting more academically interesting. if the electoral vote was tied d then the house would be deciding who it is. but they would be voting by state delegation. not by the shear number of individual represents. they would be looking at what party has control of over more states of the house, only situation -- but we don't that, joe biden won a clear majority of electors in the electoral college. >> other states went tore biden and held the elections illegally. what is left had, anything?

>> it doesn't mean the noise is doing to stop. you can get people out there and say things and do things. the noise will continue, and so in terms of things that can official be done for the outcome. i don't see it. at this point, the result is what the result is. and people ought to accept that. >> and look, you mentioned the noise may be there, how much? do you expect at this point, republican leaders will start to come around and publically accept president elect biden's presidency? >> i hope so. i do. i democracy. it's not that people might wish it came out a different way. but that is democracy.

but when the decision is made, it's important to respect the will of the people. it applies regardless of whether republican or democrat wins the election. it's not a partisan question and so, now, it is time if for republicans to say, look, we may not like the outcome. we may have wished it went a different way in some cases but joe biden is the president elect, and on january 20th, at 12:01 p.m. eastern time. he will be the president of the united states and it's important for people to understand that, to respect it, and to see what we can do to come together. >> all right, for you west wing fans out there, lion, you were sounding a lot like arnold vinick, the race -- >> great show, great show. >> right? it's like they were -- it's over 20 years ago, i had to remind myself. a lot of what we are seeing today, there were seeds planted back then and you have seen them grow. anyway, we should do another

show about west wing. lonnie, thank you very much. >> he with should. >> appreciate it. >> thanks. >> vice president, president elect biden now will be speaking at 4:30 p.m. our time, and we will carry that live here on abc7, as you know, he has passed the 270 threshold with california's 55electors, our attention turns to the vaccine when we come back, the

. and we are back, there's no doubt that today is historic, in terms of the pandemic. we saw the first person get vaccinated in the u.s. with the authorizationed pfizer viontec vaccine, a critical care nurse at long island's medical center.

now, it's being distributed to 145 hospitals nationwide. to join us is ucsf disease specialist, good to see you. >> good to see you again too. yeah, so, you know, big day today. we saw l.a. county can hospital workers get the first shots in california a few hours ago. i'm sure you watched that. it fees so momentus tmomentus t this throughout the time. what thoughts went through your head as you watched the video? >> i felt really joyful, it was like we have won a war. even though we have not won the war yet. butit's, it's on the path to winning the war. and the enemy of course is the virus. and you know, it's something i've waited for all year, and to have it now, in our grasp, it's really, you know, emotional.

>> yeah, i understand that san francisco general got 2,000 doses today. how about ucsf, when do you expect your first shipment and first shots? >> we expect them in the next 24 hours. we are expecting to get a thousand and the first shots will get out on wednesday or thursday here. >> wednesday or thursday. okay. according to the california public health guidelines, phase 1-a, that's the first phase, how long do you think realistically to vaccinate them all? everyone in the group? >> so in the first phase, 1-a, probably won't, you know, i will be happy if we get it by the end of this calendar year, and the reason is, that i probably wouldn't have been as optimistic before, but we heard that we will be getting moderna vaccines as well. of course they are coming a different route, but never the

less, we should get that, actually something like 25,000 to ucsf alone by the end of this year. >> okay. that's a lot more than what you are getting of the pfizer right now. that is great news for we have a betwequestions from v. so the -- get the vaccine after the health care works get it? >> i think we are thinking of the frontline of the frontline in and if the administrative health care worker is near the emergency room, the intensity care unit and involved in that administration, that person would be included in the site, it's not really based on who you are, like a clinician, a doctor, ar nur a nurse, it's how often you is have pro longed contact with somebody who may have covid. it could be the janitorial staff or the transport person and that equity is really, really important. >> oh. okay. that's interesting.

so, it's exposure risk, not necessarily the job cat gerhart. is that just for ucsf or just for california or is that the cc cdc guidance. >> i don't think the cdc specified, it's implied in the tiers but i know for ucsf is being equitable about it, and that is really heartening for me to know, and i would rather forego my own vaccine to make sure that somebody else who is at higher risk than myself would get it in front on me. >> do you know when you may get it? >> i'm hoping and crossing my fingers for the next week or two. >> okay. okay. hey, have they given you some guidance or advice based on with getting the vaccination? for example, you may suffer side affects or plan on a day of of -- day of doing nothing? what have they told you? >> it's interesting that that

aspect is being worked out operationally. so in any one site, no more than 1/3 will be vaccinated at any given time, that is for the reason you mentioned. you don't want everyone calling in sick, at the same time, in case they have like low grade fevers or muscle aches or feel like they, you know, they have a lot of inflamation going on. >> interesting. alare, better to bel ght cautious. you certainly wouldn't want to wipe out the health care crew at once. a question here, people who allergic to eggs and don't have to take any vaccine can those people that have covid infect other people that have been vaccinated? >> so, that's a really interesting question, so, if somebody had covid, for example, could not get a vaccine, could you infect somebody who has

gotten vaccinated -- i would extend it first, could that person then transit it to somebody else and the question is that it's not known. and that's actually a central question, because if we knew that answer, then the person who got vaccinated would not have to wear personal equipment or masks or anything. but because we don't know that, we are anticipating that even if you have gotten vaccinated you still need to be protected because you are going to be protecting others. >> interesting. so, i guess that answers the next facebook question, i think, which is do you still need to wear a mask once you get the vaccine and the answer is yes. okay. >> yeah. >> so, how about people who have experienced severe reactions before to vaccines or you know, injectable drugs? do they still, can they still get this had pfizer or moderna once their turn in line is up? >> so, that's a great question, and for right now, what i'm telling patients and people in the community when have asked me is that if you have a serious enough allergy to carry an epi

pen with you, you want to talk to your doctor first. those, the only two cases in the 10s and thousands and suddenly we are very much now know those that got severe allergies, both carried epi pens andhad a severe history offaler g. al lergaller to talk to your health care worker. the quick and dirty metric is if you walk with a epi pen, you check with your doctor first. >> how long do the side affects last? >> the side affects last only about a day or so, and what we have learned is that, people, many people don't even need to take anything for them. so, the side affects being mainly headache and fatigue and th then, in some people and fewer people even, low grade

temperatures and muscle pain. so, these are all like your immune system being trained question with. the -- trained again. the vaccine is not live. it's bits of genetic material learning what to make. the symptoms you feel are not covid, and are not infection, unless you had covid before and didn't know it. >> no live virus means you cannot get sick with covid, by getting the he covid vaccine. want to make it clear. right? >> correct. right. >> let's do a few quick yes or no questions. no cost to anyone, yes or no. >> no cost to anyone. covered by operation warp speed. >> and this make the vaccine useless against that strain, we are hearing about a strain, you know, a possible mutation of covid-19? >> people have been talking about mutation for a long time. if you remember,

vietnam, for example, all of the talk about mutations happened to be in a place where there's a lot of noses and foumouths together. so in places like new york and london, it's confounded, there's probably other factors to why it's transmitted so easily basically and that really has to be with crowds and proximity of people. there's been studies showing there's mutations in the lab that may be more transmissable. but it's controversial whether or not that is actually true. it's just, a bunch of people getting together. so, the bottom line is, it might be true, but even if it were true, there's no evidence that it makes it more deadly. >> okay. or making this vaccine useless? i mean, a lot of people are starting to fear that oh, my gosh, finally light at the end of the tunnel, what if it does not work anymore because of the mutation. not to we are about that? >> no, because when we develop antibodies towards a specific

spike for a protein, which is this thing here. you develop lots of different flavors of antibodies that target different aspects of that configuration, so it's not just like one root thing. if there was a mutation, you may have lots of -- and that's the idea. you have a lot of other antibodies in your body that would not matter about that mutation. >> okay, thank you, i cannot say that covid-19 stuffed animal is cute, but it helps us in terms of instructing and helping us understand. >> it's my muse and my punching bag when i feel like it. >> yes, i can see that. >> we are going to punch it and defeat it, but now, keep your mask on. >> totally. >> appreciate your time. all right, folks we will keep the conversation going next. over facebook live. but also, when we come back, we will check in on how about poor fred wilson? what a shame. so soon after retiring.

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welcome back, jenn ashton is holding a town hall right now with a panel and answering viewer questions along with the experts. right now, they are talking about racial disparity and covid-19. one of the guests is bing chen, founder of gold house. let's listen in. >> in history in medicine, in particular, in american medical history, i'm a jewish woman, and when i heard that, i thought, i, the pfizer vaccine was developed by a german company. the germans were responsible for exterminating 6 million jews in the holocaust. and i -- as the conversation, the dialog that i had with myself. i may have initials after my name, but i still have the same fears, questions, you know, thoughts that any person has.

myself dialogue is the following. we can't change the past. we can change what we do today. we can change the future. but, just like it would not be fair for me to hold an entire country of german people responsible for the actions of the nazis in the holocaust, i would hope with every fiber of my being, that the black community does not hold the scientists and researchers today responsible for the actions of the people who were at the hands of -- and i'm sure there was more. just like the holocaust was not the first religious persecution of the jews. so, that is my dialog and i think that we are in a time

where we can't afford a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror. people are dying and getting sick today. >> so, let me share, i agree with you, the challenge that we have though, in the african-american community is that, the racial disparities concerning health and health care per assists. -- persists. >> when you have a higher infant mortality rate, with black americans with sickle cell a neem i can -- anemia, have problems -- >> getting diagnosed. >> -- yes, and in pain. let's talk about the infection rates. hospitalization rates and did death rates. and sometimes the lack of full appreciation for how the densely populated communities the types of work being done as well as

other factors that determine your health and well being, how they often work against black morns. how all of of of that came together to create these disparities in health outcomes related to covid-19, the fear, the fear is informed by present day realities. what i'm trying to do is to help people center on, and this goes back to -- >> all right, dr.

that town hall on abc social. and we are back, thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show getting answers. it's been a major news day, electors from joe biden as president elect and we saw the first distribution and shots of the covid-19 vaccine including here in california. we will be here every week aat

3, on air and live stream, answering your questions. world news tonight is coming up tonight, several breaking p headlines as we come on the air. the first vaccinations for the coronavirus here in the u.s. the moment america has been waiting for. an icu nurse here in new york among the first in the u.s. to be vaccinated against the virus. you will hear from her tonight. images this evening from across the country. the front line workers rolling up their sleeves, from new york to connecticut, florida to texas. the biggest vaccination effort ever seen in the u.s. how many americans vaccinated by the end of january? when will most americans have access to a vaccine? and how long is the vaccine effective? dr. jha is here to answer your questions tonight. the first vaccinations come as the u.s. reports a grim new milestone tonight. more than 300,000 american lives now lost. and in the hospital right now, more than 109,000