>> womack to our daily program called getting answers. asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers in realtime. today we talk with san francisco police chief bill scott about the recent rash in violent crime, leaving residents feeling fear and anger. we'll talk about the san mateo mass vaccination center that opened today and other efforts to ramp up vaccinations. but let's begin with covid. joining us is dr. monica ghandy. great to see you again. >> good to see you. >> stood, some good news i think. governor newsom mentioned in his briefing new cases down to

10,000 a day compared to 50,000 a month ago. test positivity down to 5% compared to 14% a month ago. how do you sprpt these and other numbers? do you see it as good new sns any bad news there? >> no, i think this is great news. you know, we test a lot in california. and really the test positivity rate like you indicate is how many tests that are positive per your testing rate. and everything is going in the right direction. holidays are over. some of the restrictions that maybe didn't make as much sense were lifted. and maybe people are spending time outdoors. and we are getting vaccinations in people. now 10% of the u.s. population is vaccinated ppd we're starting to see effects. >> i hope we are starting to see it already. even as the governor today opened up thetion site at pet copark in san diego appear mentioned more sites are coming. that's good. we need to ready give more

vaccines. are the vaccines coming? the governor said only about a million a week i think i heard him say coming to the state of california. at that rate, what does that mean for us. >> we have 40 million people in the state of california. so we do not want to take 40 weeks to get there. which is too long. we want more. and i think that the thing that gives me a lot of hope and see the johnson & johnson vaccine is being reviewed by the fda on february 26th. that vaccine is ready to go. it's one dose. it's going to be cheaper. and it also is easier to make. and i think it will either get the other companies to make more, or it will add to our supply. >> hopefully that will be the case. what about astrazenica, though, that's another candidate. on hold in south africa now i here. why is that? what did they find out? >> you know, it's very interesting. and sparking -- just to fut really clearly. all of the vaccines so far

including astrazenica, johnson & johnson. nova vaks and including in south africa prevent severe disease, almost completely. >> okay. >> however the astrazenica trial had not been broken down in different countries with mild and moderate disease. and the reason it got stopped in south africa is because mild and moderate disease was not stopped as much with astrazenica. now johnson & johnson aim finding was seen actually. 857% blocking severe deerz. 57% in atmosphere disease and deaths. and they didn't stop. 957% of the viruss were the b 1351, the south africa variant. it's unclear why they stopped as opposed to just playing it out. >> um-hum. >> but it does mean some of the vaccines, the south africa variant will not work as well, these vaccines won't work as well as mild to moderate. but it does work well for severe disease. >> of course the most important part, right. you don't want people

hospitalized and having the severe disease. and also the vaccine can be tweaked, no, against the variant? >> yes, you just said is right. the reason is came to our attention is severe disease. otherwise it would have been a cold. we wouldn't have known. so blocking severe disease is important. and it's all great. change the sequence, you don't have to work with live virus it's easy to change it. >> good to hear. good questioning i've been seeing from viewers. double masking, pros and cons? what do you think. >> i think that only in certain conditions. so what i mean is not outdoors. but i think that indoors, if there is high rates of transmission or it you're medically vulnerable it's giving you the extra layer of protection literally. and what people mean by double masking is not like two cloths because you can't talk through that. it's surgical plus cloth because

they block different ways with or a cloth with filter inside. it's so easy to buy. you get a cloth mask, put in the filter that's counts as double mavericking. >> i use that. >> they really work. >> what about this i had tidbit the u.s. considering requiring air travelers show negative virus tests in the near future. does that mean we have tests easily available now? is that a good idea. >> i don't like that idea for domestic travel because the problem -- there are so many problems with that. you're right about the test availability. we've been people telling don't go the places where we need to test just to test so you can go and see someone. and now boyo by requiring that we have to amp uppesting considerably. the masks, distancing and also with combination of vaccines will keep people safe. by the way, fights have never been a major place of spread with good ventilation. >> it's what people do after getting for the destination, don't led the guard counto down,

right? >> i want to ask you about prioritizing teachers for vaccine. the whole school reopening debate is fraught with so much emotion. and we totally understand why. but we want to you bring in the science and look at that. as you know, san francisco unified reached a deal with the teachers union to reopen for in-person if the county reechgso reaches the orange tier which we're only in purple right now or the red tier. but with all staff and teachers vaccinated should teachers being vaccinated be a prerequisite to schools reopening. we know many schools reopened before the guidelines out. purple with waiver or red on no waiver no vaccine? so talk about the science of needing a red tier and vaccines? >> that science doesn't add up. because what the cdc director said five days ago and see vaccination is not a

prerequisite to opening. and where she got that was from really large data the cdc from districts in north carolina that opened even during periods of high positivecy rates. and with all the masks, distancing, ventilation. it's not excess. meaning they didn't have a lot of money. they were public schools. so it was, like, minor adjustments to increase ventilation. none transmission to teachers from students. and the school spread was not -- it was not school spread was not maerm community. community spread was higher than school spread. in fact school spread was roe. that's what led the cdc director to say that. on the other hand, we -- our city has not done it. we have not managed to have the -- i don't know, courage, will, everything else, focused on low income to open our schools. and in my personal view -- i'm saying personally. if vaccination is what it takes for the teachers i would prioritize teachers but i would do it in any tier. i think this tier business has

gotten us off kilter with schools because the tier is always private schools could open in purple tiers. there are a bunch of private schools open right now. and those teachers vaccinated. i think we should separate the tier system from schools as a essential business, essential requirement. and if they need to get vaccinated, get vaccinated. i think that's a great idea and support it. but in purple np any tier they should open. >> okay. we have time for one more question. i'm going to look at this a little bit more closely. because we know about 3 million u.s. children have tested positive. that represents about 13% of all cases. we know they are less likely

but the. >> but that's anecdotal at best. what i can say is we know this to be a fact, you know, because of covid, some difficult decisions had to be made. people were released from custody, some probably earlier than they would have been otherwise absent covid. and that could have an impact on some of what we are seeing in the streets right now. you know, our role is to try to prevent it as best we can. but in the event we do have these crimes, that we have to be swift in terms of solving them, bringing people to justice, and letting the criminal justice system take it from there. the court systems and the prosecutors take it from there. >> let me ask you, you know, with the minivan and two kids. we just saw their pictures. that was so horrific and we were all so collectively worried for that father who momentarily, for hours that seemed like an

eternity lost his children until you all found them. which is great. but you haven't caught the perpetrators yet. in niece cases does it reraise the issue of facial recognition technology cameras in the city of san francisco? would you consider them? >> well, i mean, i think our elected board of supervisors and spoken and decided that for us. i will tell you this, it's a tool that's effective in law enforcement. but there is research on the other side that has shonna there is some issues regarding with facial recognition technology that needs to be worked out. i understand the balance of that. but from a tool -- facial recognition under any circumstances should be never used as a sole determiner of evidence of whether somebody committed a crime. it has to be corroborated. if facial recognition is used, where it can be used in our

city, it's just one piece of evidence. >> right, sure. >> but not the deciding factor. >> you don't rule it out completes palool ci o -- o lawmakers have. >> right. >> decided, you know, we won't have that type of technology or access to it in our city. and so i don't have a choice there. >> for now, right. >> i can just say in the law enforcement profession and policing, it is used in places very effectively as a tool to help solve crimes. >> okay. what about the funding issue? how people understand? i wonder if san francisco -- have they frozen put as many cops out there to patrol and serve as did he eternities? and see a consideration? i know a lot of police departments are not increasing budgets. in fact going the other way in many places. >> yes, it's a consideration and

it's something that is -- that we have to really manage as best we can. overtime budgets have been cut 25% last year. and those -- those cuts are real. i will balance this conversation by saying people who have to make those decisions had some really tough decisions to make. my job as chief of police is to advocate for what we need in the department, understanding there are many other departments competing for dollars. but my job is to advocate for in department and public safety. and also be a team player with our other city departments and other department heads who have needs as well. overtime and cuts in overtime does impact our operations. you know, the two people that were killed a week ago and the two kids that were taken from their parents this weekend, you know, we had -- we had to invest quite a bit of overtime to bring

knows cases to successful resolution. and it was necessary. >> um-hum. >> it was appropriate. but these are the types of things -- and those type of situations where you need the funding to be able to do the job. i think that the public wants us to do and expects us to do. it's a very relevant topic. when the funds are cut, it does impact our ability to do our job. and it does have consequences. >> so, chief scott, do you notice if any particular racial groups or age groups are being targeted most right now? >> well, the overall trends are -- the answer would be no. the answer is no. the thing that is a little complicated here is some of the high profile incidents that you mentioned and over this past

year, there have been several incidents that involve asian victims. and, you know, a lot of what when we see are really crimes of opportunity. if somebody commits a crime and the mochgs is that people are being targeted because of their race, or being victimized because of their race, there are laws that allow us to hold people accountable fogeltanz that, because then we're talking. >> chief scott, unfortunately, due to some weird technical things that happened today, we have to leave this conversation at this point. i cannot tell you how much i appreciate you coming on the show. and i hope to pick it up another day. >> okay. >> thank you. >> thank you. all right. and thank you all so very much for sticking with me during in most unusual "getting answers." we do apologize for the technical challenges. please come

tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. authorities warning americans to keep their guard up amid concern over a surge of potential infections after super bowl parties and get-togethers, and tonight also, the concern over the variants of the virus here in the u.s. one study now suggesting cases of the uk variant could be doubling every ten days here in ly becom the dominant strain here by march. and what dr. fauci is saying tonight about that second dose of the vaccine. and news tonight on the newest potential weapon, that single shot from johnson & johnson. we have it all tonight. meantime, the hunt for mutations in the uk, after they were hit with the uk variant and others. what they're seeing there with the u.s. bracing for that uk variant to become the dominant strain here. our team inside the lab where

they're hunting down th