>> announcer: building a better bay area, for a safe and secure future, this is abc 7 news. hi, there. i'm krinlts sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." we're asking experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers for you in realtime. today, we'll go in-depth op the question we get the most. how do you know when and where to get your vaccine? it's so confusing. we'll talk about reopening schools after what's believed to be a first of its kind lawsuit. san francisco says it's suing san francisco unified school district for not reopening schools. but first we begin at the state level and in the middle of a recall campaign against governor gavin newsom. rtri whhe biden

administration and turning the oakland coliseum into a mass vaccination site supported on the federal level. >> our vaccination efforts have gone, as i said from the highgr. and when look at where we are in terms of large states, we're in the top tier as of this morning, compared to other large states. and we're just getting started. >> all right. that was governor gavin newsom this morning. and as this happens, republicans are a angling to be in a position if a recall effort is successful to replace him. so joining us now is southern california businessman, john cox, the republican nominee in 2018. he lost to governor newsom but is jumping in to replace him as recall efforts heat up. john, thank you for joining us today. >> thank you for having me, kristen, great to be with you. >> yesterday you reached out to me in a tweet, confirming that you're definitely in. so i'm just going to show that

tweet right now, because people were wondering about you. you have put money behind it. you have started to organize. tell us how serious you are. >> well, i'm very serious. i'm basically done with corruption and mismanagement. and that's the problem in california. we've got the vaccine distribution, which you just mentioned is lagging a lot of other states. you look at west virginia, albeit a small state, but let's face it that means they have fewer people to administer the vaccines. and they used the pharmacies in west virginia and achieved tremendous success. you know, kristen, we have 6,000 pharmacies in california. we could have distributed this through the pharmacies and really gotten penetration and really gotten it in people's arms. instead, we're doing these mass, huge events, which you know are just not fulfilling what we need to fulfill. same thing has happened with the management of the economy during this pandemic. we have literally crushed small

businesses. and kept our kids out of school. and kept them out of activities, which i think is inflicting untold amount of harm to our children. on top of that, we also have the old stand bis in ka california. housing prices out of sight. homelessness, lack of electricity, lack of water. we have so many issues on the table in this state, the same issues i ran on in 2018, crypts, are still there and are worse. and that's why this recall needs to happen. and that's why i'm offering to run again to offer real management solutions. i built a business for over 40 years, a successful business that i built with integrity and results. and i think the people in california deserve better results than they're getting from this governor. >> well some of the things you alluded to are certainly explanations for his approval

rating. which yesterday the berkeley study came out the showing it below 50% for the first time. but i have to ask you, what did you mean when you said corruption? there are things that people talk about him handling things optimally. what do you mean corruption. >> there were deals done with byd a cheensz company not well documented. members of the legislature alerted the media and a lot of people to these bad deals. deals for masks and ppe that were very little documentation that were ton with contributors. google, for example, a well-known company, reported record earnings the other day. they got a contract to do covid testing at over $400 a test. this is back in april. very little documentation, very little substantial. now the tests can be done for $10, $20. these were just being done by

executive order and were being done with companies that were supporters of mr. newsom. and to me that's corruption. and the -- you know, the other thing about this kristen, is that the corruption isn't just people getting cash in an envelope or anything like that. it's doing things that harm people because a campaign contributor or supporter doesn't want them to happen. frankly, our schools should have been open. mr. newsom is afraid of the union bosses, the people, you know, controlling the teachers unions. and that can't stand. pediatricians, the american pediatrician association, a lot of doctors have said that we are doing tremendous damage to our children by keeping them out of school and keeping them out of activities. yet, there is almost no effort to get the teachers back into the classrooms. and we can do it safely. i have no problem doing that. but we need to make sure we put

politics aside and actually do the right thing for our children and for the economy. >> all right. so, john, what you were referring to as corruption wsh i should point out you were talking about lack of transparency, which some point out with regard to the data dash board and covid. but that is a different word from corruption. i do want to ask you, the recall needs about another half million signatures or so. most experts think they will get there and the recall election could happen. but if it doesn't, would you commit to running in 2022 during the regular election. >> actually i had been planning to run in 2022 since the summer when the blackouts keeps going on, and the fires were blanketing the states. believe me, i was making plans to run in 2022 in any event. the recall, i think, this situation. because the crisis situation with the schools and our economy, i think brought on the recall more than anything else.

a lot of small shops, restaurants, are literally being destroyed. and many of them are not going to reopen. you're going to find that independence, democrats as well as republicans find that situation untenable. kiosko, home depot, they are doing great. but the little guy is crushed and our kids are kept out of school. and that's just wrong. >> granted, that there is a lot of frustration by people of all parties here in california. but. >> yeah. >> the state has changed a lot since, you know, voters voted for arnold schwarzenegger to replace gray davis and it's heavily democratic more than ever before. they have a supermajority in the legislature and no democrat has lost a statewide office since the mid-2000s. i'm asking if you have a real shot especially looking at the fact that you lost to newsom by 24 points. >> how is that working out for us? that's what i would ask people

in the state. i would look at the results in november. in november even joe biden won the state by 4 million votes. voters rejected a huge tax increase, rejected an effort to reinstate affirmative action, rejected rent control. they rejected the restrictions on freelance workers. i think the voters are recognizing they need a better quality of life. listen, kristen, the reason i ran for governor in 2018 wasn't a partisan reason. it was to get this state better managed. our housing crisis is literally forcing people to move out of state. people cannot afford the rents and housing prices, especially in the bay area. you've got companies that are moving out left and right, charles schwab, tesla, oracle. one of the big reasons obviously is the business climate. but another huge region is housing. i'm in the housing business. i build and manage apartments for a living.

i started this business with nothing 40 years ago. and i can build apartments in other states, kristen, for a fraction of what it costs in california. and most of that difference in cost, kristen, is government-created. lawsuits, regulations, layers of approval, delays. what i want to do as governor is cut through that, get housing built at a lower cost, so that we can afford it. and i think that will transmit through the economy and we'll have a much lower cost of living. >> yes, john, you mentioned president bade. winning the state of california by quite a margin. i have to ask you, do you think president biden won the election fairly and squarely? >> i think he won the election. he is the president right now. i'm not here to debate that. what is important, though, is that, you know, all the controversy surrounding washington politics is not there

right now. what we need to do is focused on california's issues. we need to make sure that we have enough water. you know, kristen, we haven't built a reservoir in 30 years, despite the fact that our population has doubled in size. we've got fires that are now threatening us around the year. they used to be only in the fall. now they're all over the place. why? because aren't devoting the resources to managing the forests. and once these fires get started they turn into infernos. i suggested that we buy or lease a whole bunch of jets, equip them with tankers appear apply overwhelming force the minute a fire starts so we give our firefighters a chance. but not this governor. this governor instead is spending $4 million a day on a train to nowhere in the central valley that's a boondoggle. what we've got to do is we've got to devote ourselves to the

real problems of this state, kristen, solve these problems, get away from partisanship, get away from the fighting, bring people together, build bridges and get these problems solved. >> well, john, we have a lot of viewers who are watching both on air and our facebook live stream, many of whom have questions for you which we don't have time to get to today but hopefully we'll continue the conversation another day so you can answer their questions about, you know, how you would help small businesses and how you would ensure school openings. >> yeah. >> and a lot of questions. thank you stoech for coming on today. appreciate it. >> i'd love to, kristen. please ask me back. let's work on this. >> all right. take good challenging newsom as well. and this recall effort is indeed heating up. we'll continue to follow that for you. all right coming up next we'll get in-depth details about when it comes to what you should do to make sure if you're in line for aed covid-19 vaccine,

the latest information when we come back on air.

and we're coming out on ore to have this conversation. welcome back. the one question we hear the most about vaccines is how do i know when i can get mine and where? helping us get an answer to that from the county perspective is graham knous, the executive director for california association of counties. good afternoon, graham, thanks for joining us. >> good afternoon. >> all right. look, everybody is asking. where should they start if they are looking for vaccine appointmentsn can they tell whar county eligibility is in walk us through that. >> sure, first thing, if you have a health care provider you should go to your health care provider first.

second, all counties on their home page have information about vaccine that will connect up with who is eligible, how you can get your appointment, actually the appointment system is it often readily available on the website and move through it. we need to be aware in all of this that there are currently nearly 11 million californians that are eligible to receive a vaccine. and we haven't received remotely close to that amount from the federal government yet. >> okay. so this is what's challenging, right. you go to contra costa versus san mateo, santa clara. sometimes they have different ages. why are their different ages or tiers? >> well we may have statewide priorities and messages and eligibility. but what happens on the ground may not perfectly fit that. the flow of vaccines varies from county to countyo county. some have received more than others. the provider network is different.

the population base is different. and all of that needs to be factored in as counties go towards those that are most at risk first and work from there in each community. >> okay so what if -- now there is the my turn app, which is a state level thing. but some counties have their own alert system to be alerted if you are eligible or when your turn comes up. should you sign up for both? >> you should definitely sign up for both, and continue to use what is locally available, which is the county system. my turn is promising. it's currently piloted san diego and los angeles counties. but there is a way to go before that is ready to go statewide. it will be a few weeks before that is active in terms of being able to set appointments. so use the county system that is in place now. >> um-hum. >> to ensure your place in line. >> so, you know, when each county gets its supply does it have to -- do those have to go to their county residents? that is to edo different counties have different

requirements as to whether people outside their county are eligible? >> counties are focusing on the population that they're responsible for so that will be those folks within their borders. each county is doing that. that's how our public health system has been in place in california for more than 50 years. and we're well equipped and aware how to do that locally in a way that protects our communities. >> which counties can you foipt to as role models in the way any rolled out their vaccines? >> well, there are actually quite a few. i should say that we should all be cautious relying on some of the statewide data. because we know that it's not accurate in terms of capturing what has actually occurred on the ground in a number of communities. for example in the case of santa clara, more than 90% of the first doses that they have received have already been administered in their community. they're doing that, reaching multiple languages within their communities, some siting more than 2000 vaccines per day.

contra costa is well its way to vaccinate a million residents in its community by july 4th. and alameda is similarly moving along and making significant progress. in all of these counties vaccines are dprd at the pace or even faster than they're coming in the door. and there is significant capacity to take op thousands and thousands of additional vaccines in our communities to protect our residents. >> so why is the state covid data dash board not >> we are doing something we've never done before. this is the biggest logistics in public health we have embarked on. it's a new system. there are data lags and issues. it's not perfect. we know at a local level what is happening in our community. but that doesn't always immediately translate into what

you may be able to see from a statewide data perspective. and we're working on that so that in our community and the federal government have awareness of what has already occurred so that we can continue to get that steady flow of vaccines. >> do the counties generally feel well supported by the state in each step of this process? >> it's been challenging for all of us, i think, as we have navigated through covid-19. i would say our core focused is on getting vaccines in -- through the county and into our community as quickly as possible. and so we'll continue to stay focused on that. it is hard when we have consistent changes and priority populations, or in what the overall approach is to vaccines. our focused is on finding a way to continue straight down the road.

and the more stops in the way the slower we are able to go. but -- and we're on the cusp of a broader change in the overall vaccination system. but counties remain full-steam-ahead on vaccinating our communities in the way we have been over the past couple weeks. and we will continue to do so. >> graham knous, the executive director for the california state association of counties. thank you stoech for the time and information today. >> great to see you. >> take care. coming up next, the conversation turns to reopeningo suhe sc unifich

welcome back. san francisco is making national headlines again tod school dot hinho district officials say the lawsuit is petty and insists they do have a comprehensive plan. meanwhile caught in the middle are parents sitting on the

sidelines as kids continue to sit in front of monitors for zoom learning. joining us to talk more about this meredith willa dotson. a parent and cofounder of decreasing the distance which advocates for immediate sch reopenings. thank you smu ally appreciate it w meredith. >> thank you so much for having me. >> who are the folks behind decreasing the distance? >> we are just a bunch of parent volunteers who have been contender about our children's learning and well being being impacted since the pandemic and the school closures. >> okay. so meredith, from the name you believe distance learning is not working clearly. what are the main manifestations of that? >> well, i mean distance learning is working for many families. and we have -- you know, there are challenges with distance learning. and we have many priorities that our group focuses on.

one of them we focused on improves distance learning for the families staying with it for the remainder of the pandemic which we know will be long. and also there are many challenges with it. and it -- we just saw last week we had some data published by our school district that really shows the learning loss, the challenges that kids are having, and not signing in to their zooms, and there are wi-fi struggles, you know, the hot spots that are not working in certain areas of the city. and they can't even log on. kids are getting congressed and having major mental health and emotional behavioral changes as a result of -- it's been almost a year of this. and that's a very long time for kids to be sitting at home on a screen. >> were you surprised by the city actually suing its own school district? and do you think it's a good

move? >> so i was surprised. and we were also surprised because we got a lot of outreach today. was this us? part of our group? no, it wasn't. we had nothing to do with it. and, yeah, i'm surprised -- i don't have a legal background and i don't really understand the merits of the -- this kind of legal action and how it will impact the reopening of our schools? and also, you know, i think it's -- i do -- i do appreciate our city attorney, dennis herrera for taking this action, as it's a serious year in and no real progress made towards reopening. and so there -- it's not something we would have been able to do. but, you know, it's a sad -- it's a sad place we're at. i heard someone refer to it as an embarrassment to the city today. but i think it's more of a an embarrassment that our city

hasn't made progress toward reopening of schools new york has done it. d.c. and done it. and san francisco is a city that can do things very well. and -- >> why do you think it hasn't happened yet? because in january i think the littlest kids were supposed to go back and special needs kids. why do you think it hasn't happened. >> well we had a negotiations deadline in december that wasn't met. i think there were issues between of the district and unions here. they were not able to come to an agreement. >> what is your group doing then to try to bring about a solution? >> we are trying to connect with as many families as we can from coo across the entire city. we have families from over 60 schools across the city. and trying to listen to their concerns. sometimes we feel like the district, the boortd is not listening to family's concerns. and so we are trying to lift

those up and get them heard. and we do that through a variety of ways. we're on the board meetings every week or every other week and making public comment. >> right. >> and we've been collecting feedback from parents on the resolution of the board in the past. >> meredith, i want to see school board member gabriela lopez was kind enough to respond with this message. saying we do indeed have a plan and have made progress. while the city has failed to provide low barrier testing and vaccines for our school district, both critical components to returning safely to in person learning. we thank her for that comment. we reached ut to the mayor and city attorney and other school district officials and did n ♪ ♪ we have the power to harness california's

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goodbye. thank you somuch.

uste sho"getngnswers." today. heard from former and future gushtle candidate john cox. tonight, several developing headlines playing out as we come on the air on capitol hill. the nation honoring the capitol police officer killed in the deadly siege. honoring officer brian sicknick, who died protecting the capitol, lying in honor, only the fifth person to do so. pierre thomas with the moving images from this day. and all of this tonight as republicans face a major decision over what to do about one of their own. whether to take action against congresswoman marjorie taylor greene who has promoted racist, ant anti-semitic conspiracy theories, questioning whether parts of 9/11 happened.t, we ha from the republican house leader

they will not pull her from any committee assignments, so democrats will now force a vote to republicans will