not today, dry eye. next at 5:00, the new push to reopen schools. just moments ago dr. fauci said schools can be safe from covid-19. but what do teachers have to say about that. one district is upset. they say it feels like officials have already thrown in the towel. also coming up, a first look inside the lab where stanford is tracking the south africa variant. what they discovered in the first few studies. how this case showcases a problem with prolific offenders. when you look at the history of how this virus is moving in schools, it seems to be less spreading there than it is in the community. >> and we begin with a debate

intensifying over how and whether to reopen schools. top level officials are pointing to the low risk of catching covid-19 if precautions are taken. precautions are part of building a better bay area. president biden is hoping to reopen a majority of schools in his first 100 days, but many wonder how that would happen. we had a conversation with a lot of schools about this. lyanne melendez tells us about that conversation. >> thschools help us with guidelines on how to open safely and uniformly. let's being on the same page. that's what they wanted, and today it didn't happen. dr. fauci said go do it on your own doesn't work. that's why he's optimistic this

new administration has a better approach when it comes to this mammoth effort of getting kids back to school. back in july, dr. anthony fauci said we should try and get children back to school for their psychological welfare and the good of families, but he said this was paramount. they were counting on dr. fauci's expertise to make sure the necessary school safety standards are in place. this is what he told the big teachers' unions. >> the american rescue plan is something that hopefully will provide the resources for masking, for better ventilation schools might need to protect the students and the teachers. >> we need the cdc guidance, we need these rapid tests, we need to make sure we have the accommodations and the vaccines. i hear all four of those things a lot. >> as you know, i have a personal interest in this because my daughter is teaching science in the third grade in

new orleans. >> reporter: it will cost more money than what the federal government has already allocated. president biden wants congress to dedicate $130 billion to help schools get the necessary resources to reopen. fauci said that would help keep the infection rates low so that schools wouldn't have to shut down every time there was a surge. he also made it clear that vaccinating teachers would help students stay in school, especially those who work or live in underserved communities. the united educators of san francisco have said that teachers would feel a lot safer if they were vaccinated. >> they can't be just every teacher, it has to be every school employee in the school building. because we know that transmission between adults is the highest form of transmission. that's what we know so far. that's not in dispute. >> reporter: whether schools can reopen within the president's first 100 days in office is a big test for the biden administration.

>> and, dan, as the white house press secretary pointed out, nobody wants to be having a conversation in may or june about why schools are not reopened. >> lyanne, how realistic is it to think that kids in larger districts, such as san francisco or oakland, actually be going back to school this semester? >> well, because there are so many moving parts, i couldn't even begin to guess, dan. but let's say that a teacher, for example, gets vaccinated in mid-february. he or she would have to wait three to four weeks, maybe longer, before getting that second vaccine. so now you're talking march. now, after that second vaccine, then they have to wait several weeks after that. so now we're iapril. will every school have, at that time, the necessary resources in time? remember, school ends in may, early june, but again, to answer your question, miracles are known to happen. >> that's true, they are, and sometimes they don't. i guess we'll have to see, lyanne, thanks very much.

>> sure. in the east bay, some parents are holding a rally outside pleasanton unified school district headquarters as a board meeting gets underway. they're upset about a plan that could keep kids in remote learning for the rest of the school year. >> i get to see my friends on zoom and that's about it. >> reporter: jackson is a sixth grader in the pleasanton unified school district. his classes are all on zoom. >> i only get to be in school three or four hours and i only get three classes a day, and i'm worried about my college. what am i going to be when i grow up? >> reporter: now parents worry about the plan that seem to keep schools from reopening to improving school instruction for kids in grades 6 through 12. >> i'm disappointed. i feel like they threw in the towel and have given up on our kids. >> that means they're giving up

on bringing the secondary kids back to school at all for the rest of the school year. >> reporter: in december, the president of the board approved bringing in remote learning for all of the county. some kids may return in the purple tier, but the older ones have to wait much longer. >> that does not mean grades 6 through 12 will not go back in person. right now our proposal is based on what we know at this moment. we haven't given up. >> the biggest concern is the change that i'm seeing in the kids in our community, kids that used to be happy, kids that used to be good students, they really liked school rk, they're gettin more failing grades. we're putting our kids in counseling. >> reporter: the local teachers union did not want to make comment, but discussions about kids going back into classrooms will be made fwebetween the two

labor unions. santa clara county cleared up the confusion of what school sports will be allowed since it moved into the mostly restrictive purple tier. they want them to stay 20 feet apart, but they will now remain 6 feet apart. football is banned but cross country, golf, skiing, tennis, and snowboarding will be allowed. >> youth athletes should wear a face mask when participating in sports. face coverings should also be worn in activities of heavy exertion, unless the face covering becomes a hazard. >> the county will also require student to quarantine for ten days if they travel outside the county. new information tonight on the spread of the coronavirus. according to an abc news analysis, the average case of daily cases in the u.s. has declined by 34%. that's the steepest

non-holiday-related drop since the summer. california has seen the most drastic drop with cases cut in half. today the state reported 16,696 new cases. but the coronavirus variant identified in south africa has not officially reached the united states. two cases have been diagnosed in south carolina. and tonight we are getting an exclusive look at the stanford lab where researchers are on the hunt for the new covid variants. high-tech robots identify positive covid tests and doctors then study the results. we told you about this research last week. the researchers have not seen the south africa strain in california but have seen the u.k. variant and a brazil variant as well. as for tracking the new california variant in the last few weeks -- >> it's in about 17% of the samples we sequence, which is in line with what others have been reporting, maybe a little bit higher. i think the concern about that variant is that it was associated with a large outbreak

in san jose, so there is question about whether it is more transmissible. >> dr. pinksney reminds us we all need to continue to exercise caution, but there is room for optimism as cases decline and vaccinations increase. now to a burglary unlike any we've ever seen. the suspect returned to the scene of the crime and confessed to the homeowner. he said he's a parolee. but as diom lim >> the burglary you're watching happened in december at a san francisco home. >> my son is nine years old. that's something that keeps me up at night, was that my son was literally on the other side of the window. he had his headphones on.

>> reporter: siam's chicken cam caught the burglar taking several thous thous thous thous of items. >> a computer and other items. >> reporter: what makes this case so bizarre is what happened the very next day. >> i opened the door and it wasn't the police, it was my perpetrator. >> reporter: heard on camera, a full confession including he's on parole. >> i'm going to get punished more and i know that. >> reporter: and that he was taking his daughter to school and he would make things right. >> i'm gonna find everything. i'm gonna hunt it down and bring it here and change everything about my life. >> reporter: but when her belongings never returned, she called police and started following other burglary arrests. she had a twitter profile to chase him over these crimes.

after the tragic double hit and run on new year's eve, i interviewed bo why are you blaming the patrol >> reporter: mayor london breed asked for a record of those on parole. i asked for a copy copy copy coy 2019, which cases went to parole. the amount of time a defendant spent in custody also jumped 51%, to just 18 days. >> i'm curious to see how the d.a. will handle this situation if my suspect is apprehended. >> reporter: sian has this message for other victims. >> i think we all have to stand up and start doing something and saying something. otherwise more people are going to die. >> reporter: request for comment

to bodine's office was not returned. in san francisco, dion lim, abc7 news. still ahead, the local babble over gamestop. investors can't stop fighting how a bay area company is in the middle of this gamestop issue and they're planning to hold a hearing over ah tll the chaos. hei'm morgan, and there's more how to me than hiv. more love,... more adventure,... more community. but with my hiv treatment,... there's not more medicines in my pill. i talked to my doctor... and switched to... fewer medicines with dovato. prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. with... just 2 medicines... in 1 pill,... dovato is as effective as a 3-drug regimen... to help you reach and stay undetectable. research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed... and get to and stay undetectable... can no longer transmit hiv through sex. don't take dovato if you're allergic to any of its ingredients...

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robinhood's headquarters. we talked to one of the upset traders and how they found themselves on the same side of this movement. >> reporter: robinhood, the investment app that many love found investments to buy gamestop found themselves outside their offices. that's because gamestop restricted it. >> it's our hard-earned money that we put into this, so this is someone's car payment, house payment, and gamestop is changing the rules. >> reporter: as it's been bought out by small investors, the order to put it on the brakes started a lawsuit. >> it puts confidence in a playing field which they can make their own decision whether to buy or sell, and now someone else is making the decision for them. >> reporter: robinhood responded

in a blog statement saying, these requirements exist to protect investors and the markets and we take our responsibilities to comply with them seriously, including through the measures we have taken today. starting tomorrow, we plan to allow limited buys of these securities. the rapid rise of meop punishing short sellers with millions of dollars at stake. a short seller buys shares and sells them, betting the stock will go down. the stock is repurchased at a lower price and the dimfference is a gain. if a stock goes up instead, he buys it at a loss. they said the scrappy small investors were carrying out a huge strategy. >> they wanted to make money. at the same time, however, they really liked the idea of having access to wall street while they were doing it. >> reporter: there were two idealogical opponents, alexandra ocasio cmi

also planned to hold hearings. david louie, abc7 listen to that down pour in alameda this afternoon. look at people were afraid i was contagious.

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imagine seeing all this snow. this is how one woman in the sierra started her day, seeing her trees buried in piles of snow almost as tall as she is. we assume she spent the day trying to create a path out there, or maybe staying inside and avoiding it all. lots of snow we got. let's check in on our weather situation with sandy patel. >> much needed in the sierra, we got several inches of snow, to be precise. that has boosted the snow to 58%

above average. we are tracking rain right behind morgan hill, gilroy, downpours in the region. moderate to heavy rain around coyo coyote, 101, and street level radar into deer valley road on antioch highway 4 seeing modest pockets of showers. how did we do over the last four hours? try half a foot of rain in the santa cruz mountains. many areas in the south bay area between one and two inches, in oakland and san francisco, an inch and a half. san jose you did not miss out. over two inches of rain there, same thing with vacville and livermore. on lake tahoe, a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. dangerous winter travel

conditions. one to two feet of additional snow is expected, up to three feet for the highest peaks. temperatures right now in the 40s and 50s. you'll notice that things are beginning to quiet down across parts of the bay area, but done yet. so ili it's a level 2 for tonig. burn scar threat remains even though that flash flood watch was just dropped at 5:00. any additional rain on saturated ground could cause problems at least for the next few hours, so we'll keep it in the forecast. as we look at the hour-by-hour timeline around 9:00 p.m., still showers tomorrow morning, isolated showers between 4:00 and 7:00 a.m., so we really don't have to worry about much after that. it's going to be done and moving on out. additional rainfall totals, up to a third of an inch for weather locations, a few hundredths temperatures will be dropping to freezing or near freezing for

some parts of the inland valleys, so definitely bundle up for the morning. temperatures will be in the 30s and 40s. tomorrow afternoon you're looking for highs in the 30s and 40s. still a lingering cloud cover but you'll see sun as well. observiakland and fa fa fa degrees. saturday's system is just a chance for the north bay. it's not going to be everywhere, and same thing with sunday. our next storm really gets here for all of the bay area on monday. it's a level 1. it will be breezy, it will be wet. scattered showers for your tuesday and then we're going to a dryer pattern the middle of neweek. still ahead,

finally tonight, a medical

whodunit. >> it's a secret hidden in the family's genes and how it uncovers a drug that could help thousands of heart patients. carmen vera and her kid onth fi a decade-long detective story. enhey agreed to provide blood and skin samples to a doctor in san francisco. it was the beginning of research into rare congenital heart conditions, like the ones affecting at least 20 members of carmen's family. >> so it was really important for me to be able to understand why. >> reporter: the doctors's team used a nobel prize-winning technology, first turning those skin samples into stem cells, and from there into living, beating, heart cells. since those cells were identical to the heart tissue of each family member, the team began probing for clues. >> that's how we were basically able to scan the whole genome of

the whole family and find a single gene that was a responsible mutation and a single gene that was responsible for their disease. >> reporter: but the work didn't stop with the barren family. they have followed a trail of similar families. and now in a new breakthrough, they've honed in on a specific condition responsible for tens of thousands of heart surgeries every year. it's a hardening of the vavrlve of the heart. >> we took the mechanism by which the disease occurs and then used that to screen for a drug that might stop that from happening. >> reporter: using artificial intelligence and help from collaborators in russia, they identified a single candidate. it appears to stop the hardening, not only with the tissue in specific genetic mutation, but potentially for thousands of other patients as well. >> i think it would be the kind

of drug people might take for a long period of time to prevent geolr.rom happening when the >> reporter: part of the baron family's defect is hardening of the valves, it might come from them. but the cooperation from the family is also getting her children to possibly avoid passing the gene on when they have their own families. >> my daughter, hopefully praying i could start that process so she could have a healthy child. >> truly remarkable work. the gladstone team is now hoping their data can be used in human trials in therely impressive wo. promising. >> world news with david muir is next. >> from all of us here, thanks for watching. we'll see you again at 6:00.

tonight, the coronavirus and the new variant. this time, from south africa, now detected here in the u.s. this is the variant dr. fauci has said he is concerned about. will the vaccines work against it? two cases of that variant discovered in south carolina. neither patient had traveled nor do they have any connection to each other. the cdc tonight warning it appears to be more contagious. dr. fauci and dr. jha, we hear from them both tonight. what you need to know. and on the vaccines here in the u.s., why are shots going unused? the cdc tonight now reporting 13 states have used less than half of the vaccine doses sent to them. amid the pandemic, president biden signing a new executive

action today, reopening e