>> building a better bay area for a safe and secure future. this is abc 7 news. >> hi everybody. welcome to our daily program called getting answers where we are asking experts your questions each and every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. coming up the director of covid response and a author of a letter urging schools to reopen. and we are so honored and thrilled to welcome our first guest, the son of martin luther king jr. workout further adieu, thank you so much for taking the time on this important day. >> thank you. >> we talk so much about what the day means to each of us.

the answers vary so much. it is appropriate to ask what does this day mean to you? what is the significance? >> well, unlike traditional holidays where you have taken off, we have seen it as a day on to recommit ourselves to finishing the unfinished work that martin luther king jr. started. the fact of the matter is that at this particular hour, perhaps there is no more significant opportunity for to us be engaged, not just in service projects. because that is a part of it. it is about making the community better for all of our nations citizens. especially because we are divided. this unlike any other year. we have never seen the type of activity. we have never seen a more divided united states. my father wanted us to have a

united states of america where we were turning to each other, not on each other. used to say that we had to find a way to have hope. the hope is that the united states of america. americans came together, 81 million and elected new leadership at the presidential level. in just a few days the president-elect and vice president-elect will be inaugurated and the nation will begin the process of coming back together. it is going to take some time. but the beginning is important. and the commander in chief sets that tone. >> i think so oftentimes it feels like we are taking two steps forward and ten back. i want to recap, you said it is a day on. i said it so much because san francisco mayor breed said a few days ago it is not so much about taking selfies and showing your

support with pictures and online, but actually doing something. that is why i like what you had said. it echoes her own sentiment. moving forward, your father's "i have a dream" speech at the march on washington happened 58 years ago. how close are we to making the dream a reality? i know there is a lot of work ahead. >> that is a very good question when we talk about how far are we. when you look at an area like income inequality and disparity. prior to that the average income of whites was 75,000 and the average income of blacks was 15,000. that shows you how far apart it is that has to be addressed. it will take a large part of the community working together to address that. that is just one metric. that is one of many, many more. whether it is in housing, health care, education.

when you look at the urban education system, they must be shored up. we have got a lot of work to do. it doesn't mean we have not made progress but we are nowhere near where we need to be. i think my father would be greatly disappointed in where we are as a nation at this particular moment. but he would not give up on the nation. he believed in the power of people and the power of young people and the power of change to come. >> yeah. there is so much perseverance still out there in the world. you know, your father started the speech at the lincoln memorial with "i am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation." and then you compare it to less than two weeks ago with what we saw in d.c. what could be considered one of the worst demonstrations in the history of the country, the insurrection at the capitol. what was your reaction to this

when you saw the news coverage, especially contrasting with the words from your father? >> so, number one i was -- first of all, i was not surprised because we had a commander in chief who was calling people to the capitol. they generally do whatever he tells them to do. so i was not surprised. greatly disappointed. greatly disappointed with a commander in chief that would intercept an official process in the nations capitol and encourage people to come in to be disruptive in that way. there is a constructive way to be -- t -- t -- t -- t - saddest days that i have ever experienced in my life. because i know that we as a

nation, we are better than this. we are a much better nation than the behavior that was exhibited then. you know, taking a noose and hanging it, acting like you were hanging someone. how do you take a period in time that was so dark and so awful and so unfortunate and then use that in our nations capitol or use it period. it should never be brought out. that just goes to show how much work that we have to do in our country. not a country called great again. that period never existed from my personal judgment. i don't know when that period was. >> i think many people share that very same sentiment. it was horrifying to see the amount of disrespect and how the writer rioters have become emboldened to further spread the message of

hate. we have seen a tremendous amount of incidents surrounding race. george floyd, the push to end that racial injustice. continuing racism on a daily basis is in the news cycle. what can we do to push change forward? oftentimes we talk about banding together. perhaps tangible steps and what people can do on a day to day level. >> number one, in the school system we need to have diversity e sensitivity training that needs to start in kindergarten and go through 12th grade. that has to be mandated and people have to say that is what we want. i think the tone begins to change how the commander in chief chooses to command and be a chief. so we are going to see a different leadership we have not seen in four years. i think that will be tone-setting. and the president-elect automatically say bridge builder

and reaches across the aisle to say even though you are an adversary, not an enemy, but one who did not support me. i want a place at the table for you. we have to work together to move this nation forward. that is going to go a long way. it is not going to happen overnight. but that is going to go a long way towards changing the trajectory in the country. i believe a vast majority of people want to see us move in another direction. we have to stamp out racism and sexism and homophobia every day. >> i know there are a number of programs that are starting to make their way to the forefront addressing exactly what you are speaking of. hopefully we will see more of that in the coming days, weeks and months. we only have about a minute left. can you share with us one of

your favorite memories of your father. >> my favorite memory, that would be difficult to do. what i can say is that there were a number of occasions. my brother and i travelled with my father several times. when he came home he played football and baseball with us in the front yard. he used to take us to the ymca when he would get exercise, teaching us how to swim. those memories we will always hold dear. we used to ride bicycles in the neighborhood with my dad. those are things that i will always remember. >> yeah. i feel like it is the little things we hold on to going forward that are always imprinted into our memories. all right. stay with us. we are heading to a short break. much more with martin luther king iii and his thoughts on a new documentary exposing the intense

commercial. thank you for staying with us everybody. we are back with martin luther king iii, talking about the new documentary that was just released based on newly declassified files showing the extensive targeting of your father by the fbi and paying informants to spy on him and taping him in hotel rooms. it is so eye-opening. did you know about any of this before the files were declassified? >> my grandfather was very close to the chief of police. he also told my father.

what probably hasn't been said yet is the fbi hired actors and actresses to engage in, you know, sexual activity. the fact of the matter is that some things may come out and some may not. you have to question it. it is not something that is not known. that is what makes it perplexing that is being discussed. i didn't know anything about this. but as an adult, yes. there is nothing new here that has come out. >> now as an adult reflecting back on that period of time what does go through your mind. what goes through your mind when you hear those things happen? >> well, again it was no

surprise. there has been an effort whole campaign was designed to discredit and diminish individuals as well as who organizations were. and people infiltrated the organizations for that intent. that is very unfortunate, but it is the reality of what and where we are and have been. back then it was totally illegal. because of the patriot act and other things today, all of what is being done is not illegal anymore. but it certainly was illegal at the time that it was done. >> learning the history has been so important for many americans today and they have a better understanding how we got to the point. speaking of history, i know that we all know the i have way

dream. that speech. is there something else your father has said to you when you were a child. not necessarily in something so formal as a speech that particularly struck you which you have never forgotten? >> i would have to say family, community, love of god. that as a formula, while you are not mandating that is what people should do. that is what worked for me. when you understand and you have a love of your community you don't accept homelessness. you don't accept a poor education system.

when you have a love of your community you don't accept drugs running rampant because you know that your society can do better. and so, you know, as i said we believe that is so critically important. and i am so thankful that my parent parents s enparted that to me. >> i want to get back to a question i asked you on facebook live. i asked you about your reaction on the first black senator being elected in georgia. once again, what went through you when you learned that it became official? >> first of all, there were a lot of people working and a lot of credit goes to stacey abrams as the nucleus. but there were a number of grassroots organizations, the peoples coalition of georgia to black voters matter.

a number of organizations and all of them worked in conjunction to help bring the vote out. the fact of the matter is that i was involved and many others in encouraging people to vote. you know, we had a great victory when we first won on november when president elect biden and vice president harris. when warnock -- it was a coalition of blacks and whites and yous and latinos and hispanics and asians and young and old. it was a great victory for the state of georgia and a state victory for the nation. now certain votes. the george floyd policing act now can be heard because the majority of senators are

democrats. the john lewis voter registration restoration act can now be heard because the majority are democrats. the responsible gun legislation can be heard now. mitch mcconnell would not allow any of those pieces of legislation to come through the senate floor. that day is going to change right now. we are very excited about the prospect of what can happen in our nation. >> i like your optimism and i like your dedication to moving forward. we only have about a minute. what can we all do to honor and celebrate the life of your father. i know you mentioned earlier it was a day on. what should the day on entail? >> it means we should be involved in service projects, cleaning up our community. whether it is mentoring young people. whether it is tutoring. whether it is helping our seniors. whether it is feeding in our community. the reality is that if we all just did a very small amount,

365 days a year and at the end of the year we would have a dramatically different nation, and probably even a dramatically different world. but it is all of us doing a little something around service. not just in the king holiday but throughout the year. that is why we call it a holiday. it means holiday. taking a take back, chilling. this is not about that. this holiday is about reengaging and recommitting and redefining what the priorities are for our nation and for our communities. >> taking the small steps to making the world a more equitable place. thank you so much for taking the time. martin luther king iii. well, when we return schools should reopen in two weeks. that is according to a group of ucsf medical professionals. we will talk to the lead author of an open letter about this and $9.95 at my age?

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>> reopen school campuses february 1st. the first line in an open letter from a group of medical professionals at ucsf. the lead author is the director of covid response and joins us live. dr. noble, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> outstanding president donald trump was calling for months to reopen schools, but he was receiving a lot of push-back. so much has changed. why is that? >> well, we know a lot more now than we did in march. trump's push to reopen schools was not data-driven. we assumed kids would be the primary drivers of covid. we thought kids would get covid more and sicker and transmit it more. kids are not the primary drivers of covid. they are less likely to get it and pass it on to others. now we know that, our schools, there is a lot more data behind school opening than there was in

march. >> you shared with me last night on abc 7 news at 11:00, some of the data coming from marin because they have been open for a while, 85% or something of their schools. can you give me an idea of transmission rates, because that serves as proof if schools were to reopen across the board. >> the marin data is reassuring. 40,000 students and 5,000 teachers back for over 450,000 student days that many bodies on school for that many days, seven campus-based transmissions. really, really low numbers. four high schools open, no transmissions in the high school. this tells us schools can be operated safely. >> in addition to the safety of the transmission, let's also talk about the other underlying health issue that is so important. you gave me a stat about the

hospital in oakland and the turmoil kids go through being isolated at home. >> right. this is the other side of the equation. most of the dialogue about school closures or reopenings focuses on covid transmission. that is only part of the equation. the other thing we have to look at is the harm being done to kids by closing schools. that needs to at least be part of the equation. we have really seen a mental health crisis. the cdc released data several weeks ago showing kids under the age of 11 were having more e.r. visits increasing by 21%. it increased by over 30%. right here, want own data from the children hospital of oakland, it reflects the national trend. we do the asq, ask suicide questions. all kids coming into the e.r.

are asked of recent thoughts of suicide. 6% of e.r. visits coming to the e.r. screened positive, meaning reports they had had recent thoughts of suicide increasing to 16% by september. that is just the tip of the iceberg. thoughts of suicide or suicide attempt is the worst case scenario. other are referrals for mental health counseling, eating disorder, social phobia, cutting, there is a lot going on out there that needs to be a part of the dialogue. >> that is so eye-opening. we will have a lot of consequences going forward for a long time, even after the pandemic is "over with." what has the response been to the letter? have they taken notice and accepted the findings of the data? >> i think they have taken notice. i do not know exactly what the

outcome will be of the increased attention. school leaders have reached out to me. what we really need though is a redaction of our current state mandate. we do have new guidelines that came out by the california department of public health about a week ago liberalizing the prevalence rate with which kids can go back to school. if there were more than seven cases per day that put us in the purple tier. the recent iterations it has been moved from 7 to 25. now 25 new daily cases per 100,000 and k-6 schools can reopen with the higher rates. seven graders are completely left out of the revised guidelines. they are the ones that are suffering the worst part of this mental health crisis. >> doctor, stay with us.

i want to remind everyone that we are monitoring your comments on social media and facebook.com/abc7 news. one semi retired teacher named ruth wanted to comment saying she got her first covid-19 vaccine today and once schools reopen she will consider subbing again. many retired tea

welcome back and thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we talked live with martin luther king iii, the son of martin luther king jr. he urges people to use the

holiday to finish the work his father started. we will be here tonight, two days before the inauguration of president-elect joe biden, the massive security in place and the scare today. sheltering in place for a time. and news tonight on president trump and any self-pardon. 25,000 national guard troops in d.c. for the inauguration. and in a sign of how on-edge the nation's capitol is, the scare today. sheltering in place for a time. and tonight here, the new video coming to light. released by "the new yorker" showing the rioters threatening police, telling them to stand down and that we are listening to trump, we're here because of your boss. rioters hunting party leaders, shouting, "where is nancy?" and then inside the senate chamber, the threatening message for vice president pence, saying, it's only a matter of time. much of this now likely evidence in the senate impeachment trial. also tonight, federal