>> building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc 7 news. hi, everybody. i'm dion lim and welcome to our daily program called getting answers. we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get your answers for you in real time. today we will talk to our special correspondent dr. patel because we do have a lot to catch up on when it comes to covid-19 and the vaccine. first, president biden has signed a flurry of executive orders in his first 24 hours in office. what are they and are the orders official? joining us now to make sense of it all is kimberly welly, a professor of law at university of baltimore and also the author of the book thou read the constitution and why sounds like

a book that i really need especially because of the refresher. it's been a long time since high school and college. kimberly, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. right away, we've seen a number of these executive orders everything from climate change to immigration and of course, covid. how does this work? do these orders automatically take effect? >> well, they do in terms of undoing what president trump did. that is pretty typical, but keep in mind that if the order is trying to do something that really is a job of the united states congress it wouldn't necessarily take hold. so it really depends on the specifics of each order how much president biden can actually do and a number of the orders are aspirational kind of saying i'm going to potentially, for example, use the defense production act if we need it to battle covid. i want my staff to sort of review a bunch of stuff. some of it is setting policy agenda. some of it, like stopping the

border wall takes effect immediately. >> i see because when you hear the word order you sometimes assume that it is a done deal and set in stone. with that being said, how extreme can these executive orders get? >> well, president lincoln, the emancipation proclamation was an executive order, but we saw a lot of back and forth about the deferred, the daca back and forth between president obama and president trump. when executive orders are about traditional executive power and that is like a law enforcement officer, a police officer and a prosecutor. the president saying i'm not going to kick out people that were born here or brought here as children, for example, as a matter of immigration. that's squarely within the power of the president. when the president tries to make new laws by executive order that

gets trickier and for the most part the supreme court has deferred to the president and it's not in the constitution that it can do these things and since george washington president has done lots of things by executive order. it seems like especially with enacting a new law that would require many levels of others weighing in to make it actually happen. you can see him right now, president joe biden live at his desk with that huge stack that he is about to sign. we saw former president donald trump reverse obama-era policies with executive orders. now president biden is it going to open pandora's box when a new party is over. the difference, really here is the fact that the congress in the last few years has really not been functioning to past substantive legislation. what we've seen because there's

so much polarization. we've seen a lot of the lawmakering go to the executive branch either for executive orders or through what we know, and people who are conservative about the constitution believe that it really should be congress, but you know, the water will find the crack in the barrel, right? and so if laws need to be made and congress is so stalemated that they're not doing anything, then it moves to the president's pen and regulatory agencies are not accountable at the ballot box and that's a legitimate concern and the answer is to stop the gridlock in the united states congress and maybe we'll see that with the majority leader because chuck schumer is more likely to bring things to the senate floor and mitch mcconnell was notorious about blocking legislation even if it had powers and support in the house. >> this could speed things up, is what you're saying. having someone in the senate to let both houses actually

consider legislation. mitch mcconnell stalled covid, the second covid package and stalled, you know, widespread voting rights reform and election reform that had been pending since 2018 and stalled gun legislation and basically said in my power to calendar things i choose not to put it on the calendar and that really functioned as a unilateral veto by the senate majority leader who is not even mentioned in the constitution. so i think we need to get back to bipartisanship, compromise, that's what the framers anticipated and of course, when congress does stuff, we, the people, can go to the ballot box at the next election and say i don't like what my congress person did, when it happens in the executive branch and the agencies it's trick dwroer voie with your feet as regular citizens. >> i do want to remind everyone watching on facebook on facebook live/abc 7 news. if you have questions with kimberly welly, anything to do

with these executive orders or in general how government works, this is a good place to ask those questions and i'll get them answered for you. biden ordered all of his appointees in the executive branch to sign something called an ethics pledge ask will this help restore trust in government and what is an ethics pledge although i think i know what it is. >> it is very fascinating to read. i was in the federal govern chlt and there are many, many ethics laws that bind people that work in the federal government, but we still have so much of that breakdown under the trump administration and many of them are just norms that you act with a certain level of decorum and decency in office. he's basically making a political, a policy statement. we are going to do things the old-fashioned way and there will be accountability if people try to use their positions in the federal government for personal gain. so there's bans on lobbying that

probably extend beyond pre-existing bans and it's essentially saying i'm going to do my job if i'm signing this as a matter of law and on the basis of fact, science and evidence and not on pure politics and frankly, lies which we just saw corrode government in a way that frankly led to january 6th and the reason that january 6th happened in part is that we've gotten so used to our politicians and elected officials lying about the consequences and in the old days, if somebody tripped up and people, the media in the party pushed up and they'd get on public tv and apologize and explain why they made that error. biden is saying, listen, on my watch, this is how we'll do things with integrity and ethics and congress also needs to step up and pass some new lgegislatin to re-establish guardrails that sort of plug the holes that we

saw during the nixon administration and now the trump administration. >> you know, i'd really love to get your opinion on which order stuck out to you. which do you find important and other ones can be moved further down the list? >> you mentioned an important one and it's more obscure, but as a scholar that's absolutely crucial because without integrity and ethics everything falls apart, as we saw. i think it's important that he re-established our relationship with the world health organization. that he is re-entering things like the paris climate accord, and that he is going to sort of reinforce the daca and the approach to immigration that's not shutting the borders because that doesn't actually grow the economy. that's pretty important. some others that i think will be controversial. he has an order basically saying that gender is not biologically based and that's consistent with

a recent supreme court decision concerning a particular statute and we are seeing pushback particularly in the area of sports. so say you were born a female and then there is a girl who, you know, changed from biological male to female might have some physical advantages and there might be some pushback on that from the courts and as i indicated, any order that maybe is a little shaky in terms of what the authority is from congress. we saw this week out in the d.c. circuit the court strike down the attempt under the trump administration to pull back on environmental regulation. the court said no, you're limited to what congress said you can do and that will apply to biden, as well. >> certainly lots to keep track of. kimberly welly, also the author of the book "how to read the constitution and why." thank you for joining us.

i feel like we just scratched the surface. >> thank you for having me. >> when we return, a lot more to cover with covid-19 and vaccines with dr. elok

all right. we appreciate you so much for staying with us. we have been so focused on the inauguration and change in administrations. of course, we can't forget about the pandemic. yesterday was the deadliest day in the u.s. since the start of the pandemic. we lost, believe it or not, 4,13lis. so joining us now is abcs special correspondent dr. elok patel. don't forget, if you are watching on facebook live you can always ask your questions for dr. patel and will try to get them answered for you.

as always, thanks for being here. >> thank you, dion. good to be here. i'm talking about the sobering numbers in the beginning there. with these new records of deaths tell me what you think the short-term outlook for the country is. are we reaching the top of the curve? we've been asking this question for the past year, it seems like. >> i hope we are. it's possible we're reaching what people are calling debt plateau. what's alarming is even if we are reaching this plateau we need to step back and realize according to the department of veteran affairs americans lost somewhere around 405,000 people in world war ii. we have passed that number. so based on modeling right now, even if we're at the very top and start going down, we could still see a lot of lives lost. in fact, modeling's predicted we may lose another 100,000 within a month. we should be cautiously optimistic that we're possibly reaching the worst end, but we have to remind ourselves that we headed into this recent surge from a bad place because of all

of the holiday traveling. and so i think we're on the right track. people should stay motivated and remember we still have a ways to go. >> i hope people aren't desensitized to hearing these numbers day after day. >> i worry about that. >> maybe lessons. they've thought about how severe this problem is. >> it does. you take into the fact that they're hearing the same headlines over and over again. the fact that we lost over 4,000 people yesterday and this was any other year from any other cause the nation would be frozen right now. you take that and add on quarantine fatigue and the fact that people are ready to be out of this and it's a recipe for people dropping their guard a little bit, but we're almost there and we're doing the great job and we have the right tools and leadership to get it done. >> sadly, i see the quarantine fatigue and i see people picnicking without their masks and large groups. do you feel optimistic for us, at least? >> i do feel optimistic about

the bay area. it looks like we hit a plateau in the winter surge, as well and hopefully there will be no other surges from traveling or get togethers and we saw the horrific stories coming out of southern california. our icu numbers have gotten better and we went from 3% icu exist to a little over 7%. we know the magic number is 15% so i'm begging bay area residents to stay put, stay calm and we will get there. we'll get our businesses back and we'll hopefully get schools re-opened and we'll get there. >> i feel like we can't hammer this home, and we learned about how hard it has been and believe it or not, it was the first covid-19 case was and this is near seattle, and a patiently that man did survive and we did

surpass the $400,000 very much and i know you were engaged in watching it yesterday. is there anything that president biden can do to change the vaccine distribution to change our trajectory? >> it really is. i don't expect you to sincerely read all 200 pages of the national strategy towards fighting covid-19 and pandemic preparedness, but this is a multi-pronged approach by the white house and it is not just related to vaccination doses and getting them out there and there is a lot involved in terms of communication which is going to be really important in terms of transparency and making sure they trust the response and the defense production act which will help with testing ppe. there's also a real big push on making sure we're gathering enough data. there is a push to make sure that communities with a lot of resources are all being equally targeted and making sure they're getting the right information, as well. i think with all of this put in place including the push for

everyone to make masks that we'll get the change we need to see. >> dr. patel we're getting good questions in on facebook. dr. patel, what is the person's immunity once thai have recovered for covid-19, five months in some cases is kind when you're hinting at. there will be previous coronaviruses and they'll be there for per tan a year. your hype thet beingly you'll make, and te may differ where you're in the hollow when we know what your -- and is that the test that can track where you are with your immuneity? >> it depends. if you have the antibody test and just looking for the

presence of antibodies and you've had the infectious in the past. it won't give us clear-cut answers like are you immune? it's not quantifying how many antibodies you have in the test. >> we're running out of time and my producer says it's time to play two truths and a lie and something i have not engaged in so i'm excited and nervous at the same time. >> you know how it goes. >> get ready to cast your vote. dr. patel will give us three statements and you will need to spot the lie. so with that, take it away. >> my wording may differ from what you and the viewers see, but here we go. two truths and a lie. this is all based off the 200-page national strategy lan. so tell me come one is not true. a, the defense production act will be invoked to fix shortfalls in vaccination, ppe and tefrtisting supplies. b, included in one of the goals is a plan to establish a

covid-19 health equity task force. or c, re-opening schools is included in this document, but there isn't an actual executive order to support it. >> oh, boy. so those questions --? one of these is not true like dr. patel said, there are two truths and one lie. it's funny. justin writes in to say dion, don't be nervous. okay. the pressure is on. >> right-on, justin. >> if you want to weigh in we have at least three, four or five now for letter c and this is a lie, re-opening schools is included in the document, but there is no executive order to support it. my producer is saying everyone now. is everyone just copying everyone else or do we really think it's "c"? i have to go with "c "qwest as well because i don't want to deviate with what the viewers think. can you explain what is the right answer? >> drum roll, you are all

correct. it is, in fact, "c." i don't remember how many executive orders he signed yesterday, something like 15, but 10 were directed toward the pandemic and one of which is about re-opening schools and again, it's not just about controlling the actual spread of the virus. we have to make sure we're doing right by our children and local businesses. >> so an executive order is included. c is not true. a, we talked about the defense production act earlier and it is important that we'll bolster up supplies and making them important for people and dion, i know you've been i am so glad there is a task force that we're getting them out to all communities regardless of background and resources. >> i'm exceptionally happy about that one, as well. i have to say most everyone on

facebook, congratulations. picked "c." great job to all of you, stay with us. we are taking a break on the air and the conve

all right. once again we are back with abc 7 news special correspondent dr. elok patel, and i am glancing at facebook and we are seeing a lot of your questions about moderna. what happened with that vaccine in super california because they had to pause distribution. shed some light on this for us. >> they did. it was a scary headline because people were seeing this cluster of potential allergic reactions. here's what happened. that a lot of moderna vaccines was distributed to something like 37 states. thousands of people got it, but in san diego around seven people seemed to appear to have an allergic reaction. so it is really important for people to understand that this is why these cases are reported and taken very seriously. so the distribution was stopped. the case was looked at. it was under ten people and it was about seven. no cases of anaphylaxis were

identified and more importantly there was nothing found to be wrong with the actual vaccines themselves. and so as of, i believe yesterday, the green light was given for these doses to go back into distribution and it is important to get as many safe doses out as we can. >> that was important because i have seen some comments not only in the facebook thread, but online, sharing mistruths about the number of people affected and big difference from what you just said. i want to hammer that home. going along with the question i asked you earlier about if you are immune. cheryl wants to know if you had covid should you still be vacci vaccinated? >> you should. you should. this is a recurring question weave hea we've heard earlier. even if you had covid-19 we can't for sure say what your immunity looks like or what it will look long term. >> we do want to play another

game because what we are doing is trying to separate fact from fiction and one way that you do this is something called slam the gram. how does this work? can you help me here? >> what we're doing. i don't want to alienate anyone who has questions about the vaccines, but i am literally crowdsourcing these -- this misinformation from social media. so today i'm going to take a comment i got from instagram and producer eric has named it slam that gram. because i would like to slam this misconception. basically somebody wrote to me and said i'm worried about the long-term side effects presumably from the vaccine and a lot of people are writing saying hey, it's experimental and we don't know what will happen long term. the truth is we're approaching one year since the first person got one of these vaccines and there have been no reported long-term side effects whatsoever. throughout history, most side effects, mysterious side effects

happen right away after you get your shot which is why you have to wait 15 to 30 minutes or six weeks. remember, in clinical trials every single side effect that was reported they have to present two months of safety data and mere they are with millions of doses delivered and there are 11 reported cases of anaphylaxis and it goes without saying that covid-19 itself is way more dangerous and worse than a theoretical risk from getting the vaccine. >> you know, we should do a segment called look at the book because on facebook right now there are a lot of, i guess, rumors that need to be dispelled. i'm glad you mentioned that one and i've seen it a couple of times already. >> we can do a look at that book next week. the president's goal of 100 million vaccines and 100 days and it sounds promising and that's a lot of vaccines to distribute. >> it is, but i think it's realistic because you look at the plan and you look at the

steps in place and it not only involves getting doses and it involves fema getting involved and it involves making sure the states have funding and we have enough trained personnel and it's a multi-pronged a prepproa getting out of the national level and make sure that we can get all of our vaccines by the end of june. it's important people know that the federal and state governments are looking at all of the variables needed for a mass vaccination campaign. dr. elok patel, great to have you and thank you very much for joining us and for helping me with my first game. >> you're a rock star.

as always, thanks so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we'll be here every week day at 3:00 a tonight, president biden, the first full day. his new plan on the pandemic. calling it a wartime effort. president biden warning the american people, things will get worse before they get better. that we will likely reach a half million americans lost to the virus by next month. the president saying he will use the defense production act to help get this vaccine out. mass vaccination sites. his plan for 100 million doses in his first 100 days. mandating masks for all interstate travel, including planes and trains. and anyone flying to the u.s. from another country will now need a negative test before getting on the plane. and tonight, the president's covid chief on what they have inherited from the trump administration, saying, it is so much worse than what we could have imagined. and dr. fauci tonight and his

candid words about what it was