. >> building a better bay area, for a safe and secure future. this is abc 7 news. >> hi there and welcome to our daily program calle getting answers. today we will talk to a spokesman at uc davis, because they are offering to pay students to stay home for spring break. we will continue our week-long focus on building a better bay area, centered around learning loss and find out how a marin citigroup is ensuring students stay on path towards college. improving covid numbers across california. three more counties moved into

the less restrictive red tiers. the only that remain in purple are sonoma and contra costa counties. dr. george rutherford, thanks for joining us. >> pleasure. good to see you again. >> with most of the bay area now in the red tier a lot of people are celebrating. it is certainly in the realm of possibility. we have not had a lot of infections in the bay area.

it is a race. what we do not need is to be tempting fate by having a lot more transmission and getting more mutations that we have to deal with. >> given that, it takes me to the next topic. just because more indoor activities are now open, does it mean we should engage in the activities? breaking news, alcatraz announced it will reopen next week for tours. i love alcatraz. do you encourage people to dinee theaters >> i think exercise caution. if you are 85 years old and had

i, i would not be at a restaurant or gym. that is not go to take that long. i think you need to be prudent. just because you can do it does not mean that you should do it. >> okay. you should look at your own risk level, and probably how well that business is managing their limits and adhering to protocol. >> exactly. a risk/benefit equation. 20% of disneyland, i am there. i don't care. >> i am right there with you. now you jump into the gng to as. for the viewers that had not heard, disneyland is looking at

most likely late april for reopening and the governor made it possible a few days ago when your county is in the red tier, the amusement parks could open up with capacity limits. you don't have concerns about that? yes, a lot of outdoors but you have indoor rides and the fact that there are people. they are going to enforce them. you have to tell people to put masks on and toss them if they don't. how easy is it to eat with a mask on? it is pretty tough, honestly. when you are wining and dining you need to take your mask off.

>> if you have a question for dr. rutherford on facebook live, you can put your question in and i will try to get them answered. i want to address the blue enty in california sofar, kern county, signed the contracts and agreed to be a part of the program that the governor touted as a way to speed up vaccinations, right. santa clara county executives say they have serious concerns about the plan run by a third party. do you share the concerns? >> i couldn't tell you exactly. i like the idea of having a third party contractor focusing on this as a single task. >> dr. jeff smith says that we encourage the state to

prioritize efforts to acquire additional doses. the county of santa clara's covid allocations have decreased recently and are expected to drop further. vacci we are hearing governor newsom touting the johnson and johnson making a difference coming in. then we are hearing this and people not being able to get appointments. it is all changing in real time. give it a week. what we don't want to be doing is sitting around and wasting vaccines. >> basically i hear you saying that we do not need to worry about a vaccine shortage in a few weeks. >> that was tinkerbell.

>> i know. we wan t visit her. i am with you there. i want to ask you what you think about the cdc's new guidance with regard to what vaccinated peop i mes sense, right. a lot of the people are saying why is travel still recommended. >> i mean you can say why didn't they go farther, you know. point of fact, cdc as a federal agency, really they only control travel at the international borders. so, that means they need the canadians and the mexicans to agree to it and the british and the japanese, right. it is a big deal. if states want to say we do not like this. we are going to continue to demand testing coming in. that is not the federal government's role. i think they thought that it was the next step. that is my reading of it.

i would expect in a couple of weeks we will get clearer guidance on that. alex wants to know if fourth of july festivities will be able to open? >> that is cutting it close. i would say more towards the end of july, it might happen. >> we have a viewer that wants to know if your second dose is being delayed will the vaccine still be as effective? >> absolutely. in fact, it probably works better if you wait longer.

>> all right. don't panic if you are delayed a few weeks. sandy wants to know if you have to still wipe down your groceries. >> no. give it up. >> hand sanitizer. >> that doesn't hurt. we probably cut way down on influenza. it almost disappeared. people washing their hands and using hand sanitizer all the time. it is all good. >> that is one of the good we hope come out of the pandemic. how about vaccine passports. do you think they are a good idea. you know there are countries discussing issues vaccine passports, you prove you got both doses. you can travel. you can come in. i think the state of new york is starting to explore that. >> first of all, it makes a certain amount of sense.

if i am someone that hasn't been able to get vaccinated because i live in rural california or i am having problems using the internet. you know, i am at the bottom of the list. i can't, you know, i have not been able to be offered the vaccine yet. you know, it is, i think, it is a touchy issue. i think it does create inequities and disparities.

>> you can imagine, kind of urban rural divides and health plans one versus another. those are the sorts of the things we are trying to fix. the governor said that we are going to push 4 million doses of vaccine out to the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in california where most of the transmission is going on. let's get those out. let's get transmission -- and then we can jiggle around the tiers and make it assier to get to yellow or orange based on how successful we are at moving vaccines into the highest rates of transmission.

>> one last question. only 20 seconds. i want to ask you if you think that 17-year-old, 16-year-old, high school students will be vaccinated come fall to enter school safely? >> yes. moderna vaccine. pfizer looking down to age 12. we might be able to get people vaccinated during the summer. these are emergency authorizations. >> i appreciate the timeline. it is helpful for our planning

purposes. thank you so much. see you later. i probably heard uc davis getting attention after a $75

>> rht. u ar on live uc davis is offering students $75 not to travel this spring break. that is right. paying students money now to ta is uc davis' melissa lux. thank you for joining us.

>> thank you for having me. >> your spring break coming up in two weeks, march 22nd. you are paying students not to travel over spring break. what is your ultimate goal here? >> the ultimate goal here is to help keep our community healthy and reduce the amount of covid-19 that is spreading in the community. >> okay. so, to do that you are offering, you know, people an incentive not to travel. tell us who qualifies and how many people can qualify. >> sure. uc davis, the purpose of the grants is to encourage uc davis students not to travel during spring break by giving them alternative activities to do during the week. we actually have four for these in the form of a gift card to local davis businesses. they have to be used during spring break, which is march

22nd through march 26th. the different categories include an active grant, artsy grant, a stay at home grant, and a home improvement grant. >> i see. this is not $75 cash but really vouchers to be used in the local prevent. trying to prevent something and promote something. >> exactly. we have found that positive promotion is a much better way than telling people what not to do. we had grants in the fall for halloween. halloween was a time people were concern concerned about mass gatherings of people. the students were creative in the kinds of things they did with that amount of money. you might think what can you do with $75.

people had drive-through haunted houses, online costume contests. pumpkin carving contests and other things. we are looking forward to seeing how creative that our students can be with our spring break staycation. >> who is paying for the grants? >> the university and the city of davis have a partnership called healthy davis together which we launched last fall. we have been able to secure private and state and federal funding to help reduce the amount of covid-19 in the davis community. this is a part of the initiative being paid for through the helping davis together initiative. >> i have heard about the initiative. you also do testing for people

in the community. >> we do testing for people in the community. and actually as part of the grant, one of the requirements is that the students who get the grant schedule a test during spring break week. what we have found is that asymptomatic testing is essential to helping reduce the amount of covid-19. cdc says that 40% of people that have covid-19 do not have symptoms. and by testing people in the community we have been able to find more than 800 people who have tested positive for covid-19 but don't have symptoms. those people have been able to quarantine and they have not transmitted covid to other people in the community. it is very powerful. >> i was going to say, no doubt testing and contact tracing are the biggest components to

keeping outbreaks from happening on college campuses. why is it needed if your campus is mostly virtual in terms of classes and most kids are not even in the dorms. >> actually, we have about 5,900 people in our dorms. and we have even more students than that who are living in the community. we had a number of people that did return to campus. and so that is a big part of it. and then, as you said the testing is also in the community. so the idea is that we still have professors and stuff, and people who are on campus because the campus still has to run and with the students on campus, we still have dining. we still have the dorms that are open. the grounds crews need to be working. >> sure. sure. >> and so, yeah. so, having that infrastructure and then being able to do the regular testing of

student along with the community helps us to look at keeping the community healthy. >> that is awesome. i am sorry melissa. i don't want to cut you short but my producer says to youthi. i am won the recipients are chosen.ave 750 t. >> it is the first people that qualify who are going to get the grants. >> thank you. definitely under 20 seconds. not like a big uc davis college application process with the four essays and only if you get super lucky. i appreciate the information an doing at davis to keep the community safe. take care. >> all right. coming up next we will take a closer look at

joinin u to talk isesxecuti dir. hi, lisa. >> thanks for having me. i want start with ngrats, brie e prep isanniversary. >> exactly. >> people don't know about you guys, they really should. tell us who you serve and how you serve them in terms of ensuring college is not just in their dreams but in their reality. >> great. thank you for asking. we focus our work in marin city, a wonderful community right off of the 101. as you said we have been there 25 years and we have, over that time, worked with thousands of

students in marin city. we work with kids literally from the time they are in kindergarten all the way through college. and we do everything from having college printouts all over the walls, taking kids on field trips to college, talking about college from the time they are young, focusing on skill gaps, focusing on what does it take to make the transition from eighth grade to high school and high school to college. >> all right. we understand that you not only kept up the tutoring that you do and the supporting that you do during the pandemic. you also expanded your program to ensure that students thrive at a time when so many are struggling with distance learning. right. how are you doing that? >> we have done so many things. one of the biggest changes is that we had a learning hub open in person since september. the community really came together. the administrators and the

faculty as well as other community groups. we started to meet in the summer when it was clear school was not going to open up in the fall. and as i said we have been open full-time, all day, every day since september. only one positive case of covid that actually did not transmit. we have seen excellent results where the students were able to attend the learning hub. we have food. we have special treats. great wi-fi. some of the teachers come from the high school to meet with the students. it is a powerful way to meet the kids that needed that who it wouldn't work to zoom in all day from their homes. are worry parents struggling what advice would you give them in 20 seconds? >> well, i have a senior in high school last year. i was there last spring. you know, its is important to o

listen, make the space. don't try to solve it, because you can't. if you are really worried about their mental health i would seek professional advice. when it comes to a student suffering with a d or an f, help them self advocate with their teacher and help them write the e-mail saying what can i do to change the grade where i can

reveal. thanks so much for joining us for this interactive show. bay area figure skating kristi yamaguchi joins us.

another one of our special features as we build a better bay area by addressing learning loss. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and live stream tonight, the new images from the fbi captured the night before the attack on the capitol. the fbi releasing new video of the capitol hill bomb suspect wanted for leaving potentially deadly pipe bombs outside the dnc and the rnc the night before the attacks. ves lling attention to the wayuspectlk seen in a residential area carrying a backpack. on camera sitting in front of the dnc. a bomb later found in a bush next to that bench. a short time later, the suspect walking down an alley near the rnc, carrying what authorities believe is another explosive device. and what else the fbi is now revealing tonight. pierre thomas standing by with late reporting. with vaccinations on the rise in this country and that

promising new guidance from the cdc that grandparents who are fully