hi there. welcome to our daily program "getting answers." we ask your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. today we'll talk to san francisco's deputy health officer dr. susan phillip as we see more reopenings and vaccine distribution. first, we had san francisco police chief bill scott on getting answers in february. our entire station had major technical issues right as about to join us. we did talk on the phone. it's not the same as face to face. we're doing it today. joining us now is chief scott. good to have you back. thank you for making the time. >> thanks for having me. >> chief scott, we are having

you on a somber day. we had the attack at the u.s. capitol. i've got to start there. a man drove into two capitol police officers protecting the capitol. the man had a knife. he has been shot dead. one of the officers died, william billy evans. i want to ask you how deeply has this shaken you as a fellow man of the law? >> the death of an officer is always impacting all of us who work in this profession. i must say first before i even go any further our hearts and thoughts, prayers go to officer evans, his department, his family. we mourn these type of strategies throughout the law enforcement community. not only on a local and regional level and national level but in an international level. the u.s. capitol is an international attraction and international target. the brave members of the capitol police and dc met roy police department protect that city and capitol

day in and day out. my heart goes out to them for their heroics. they've been through a lot in this last couple months. you know, what can you say? just a strategy all the way afternoon. >> it really is especially being the second fatal security incident at the capitol in less than three months. you talked about that being an area that could be a high target if you will. we have places in the san francisco bay area that are highly visible as well. given what's happened, are you taking extra steps here and precautionary measures here and higher alert here? >> yes, we are. this year, this past year anyway has been such a year unlike any other. what we saw after the minneapolis incident with mr. floyd and minneapolis police department, the civil unrest that resulted in that, we saw city

across the country buildings, government buildings being attacked. we saw federal buildings being attacked. we have been taking that seriously here, not just the san francisco police department but all our law enforcement partners. we work collaboratively with other law enforcement agencies, federal partners. we have to stay vigilant on that. you cannot rest and cannot let up in terms of the individual lens when it comes to those type of facilities. it can strike at any moment. look what happened today. no warning as far as we know. it can strike any moment. we have to stay vigilant. >> spiking of individual lens, the violence against asian americans was starting to reach alarming levels. your department started multiple initiatives to fight such crimes. can you give us a quick update? >> sure. those efforts are ongoing. it's really good to have such an engaged community

here in san francisco from our elected officials to members of the community. in addition to the efforts that i spoke about the last time, we started a new unit in the lain t five months. our liaison unit. they've been providing services to victims of some of the crimes you spyou that support is really important. it's bad enough to be a victim of a crime, but when you aren't supported and don't have the guidance to navigate through the system that can be bureaucratic, it's nice to have support when those things happen. that's part of what our unit does. i know the district attorney has enhanced their victim services on top of we have to solve these crimes when they occur. we have had success after the fact.

we want to see people who commit these type of heinous crimes be held accountable throughout the justice system. when they happen, we're going to put all of our resources into making sure we do everything we can to solve them. violent crimes are normally down. give us the bullet points of which crimes are up in the city and which are down compared to a year ago. >> when you look at -- can i start by looking at our year of 2020. in some areas we were down. aggravated assaults were down. homicides were up. we weren't up as much as some of the other cities

our size were. we were up. burglars spiked in 2020. car they wants went up. a lot of other crimes, larceny in general, those crimes are down significantly. the -- i want to say sometimes it is personal when we talk about overall numbers. we have to remember every one of those numbers represents a victim. whether we're up or down, we'd love to see these down. for the people that were victimized in a category that's down, it's very traumatic. definitely we understand that. i've been victims of crime myself. i understand how that feels. each one of these are important. whether or not we're up or down. we're going to do our best to keep crimes going in a

downward direction. this year, >> when you carve out aggravated assault category, we are up with shootings and victims hit this year which is disturbing and something we're pouring a lot of energy into. overall, crime is down this year with the exception of burglary we're still up in car thefts and arsons. >> can we explore a little about how the pandemic shifted these crime patterns leading to, for example, car theft burglary murder being up in san francisco.

what happened that things happen or affected them? >> a lot is an ecuador tal anecdote tal. there were less people out and coming to the city particularly air travel was down significantly. we believe that had impact on overall crime statistics. less people out, less property to take or steal, less cars to break in that type of thing. that's anecdotal at best. there are a lot of factors that play into this. there is a lot of discussion about people's state of mind during the pandemic. we saw aggravated assaults go up, particularly mid

year last year. there was a lot of concern about people's state of mind because of the pandemic. depression, just people cooped up in their houses. none of that scientific. as time goes on, we probably will have more research on exactly what has caused these fluctuations. i think that things i mentioned have played a part in it. we don't know how significantly a part. as we continue to move forward, i'm sure that research will wear that out. >> a couple quick questions from facebook viewers wanting to know about elderly abuse if you're seeing more of that. do you see an uptick still against asian americans? >> let me start with the elder views question. we've seen incidents in our city and other cities

particularly asian american and pacific islander. people from that population, they've been victimized and it's captured on camera. these incidents are bad enough as it is. when captured on camera, it raises everybody's awareness to another level. we've had a number of those incidents in the city. now overall we did have an increase in hate crimes against asians. it's not a large number, but it's disturbing because hate crimes are disturbing even as just a single hate crime. >> period. >> exactly. we don't want to see any of that. we also had a rise in hate incidents that did not necessarily rise to a level of crime but people being verbally assaulted if you will, comments such as go back to your country and those types of things. we're encouraging the public at least here in san francisco to report those

things. we want to track that. we do think that's the barometer. the hatefulness out there now, we think that's the barometer. even if it doesn't rise to the level we can criminally pursue it, we'd like to track those and track individuals and engage in that type of behavior. nobody wants that type of behavior. we need to discourage it and do everything we can. we want to know about it. we're asking people to call. we'll take a report in san francisco on that. we'll track it. if it's something to follow up on or connects to additional crimes, that connection might lead to the next categorize as a hate crime. that could be used as evidence. it's really important we report those things and track them. >> that's an important message. folks, report it. that's the take away. that way you can track it. if needed, put more resources on it and connect it. chief bill scott, i know it's

an ongoing efforts and conversation. i appreciate you spending the time with us today. >> thanks for having me. enjoy your weekend everybody. happy easter. >> you too. stay safe. coming up next, san francisco's deputy health officer dr. susan phillip will

welcome back. san francisco giants fans will watch games live and vaccines are ramping up in the city. joining us now to talk more about that and more, san francisco's acting health officer dr. susan phillip. thanks for coming on today. >> you're welcome. happy to be here. >> yeah. you know what, you released a new vaccine psa that features luminary faces that

are familiar. we're going to show that to folks. if you can tell us what's the idea behind it. >> well, i do think this is really a nice piece that some of the team here at our joint information center at covid command has put together in collaboration with a lot of other people. the idea is to get people in san francisco san francisco excited. we're at a moment of a lot of hope. we need to be careful but vaccines offer hope. it was a great way to bring together so many notable san francisco residents and luminaries as you said to really get people excited about getting the vaccine when it's their turn. >> what percentage of residents have been vaccinated now? >> we're doing really well as a city. of 16-year-olds and older, everyone eligible for a vaccine, 47% of people have been vaccinated. when we look at the population that's over 65, those are very high priority for getting vaccines.

those individuals are at greater risk for getting very sick, being in the hospital or dying if they get infected. there's up over 80% receiving a dose. little more than 60% receive two doses. we're getting there. we're not quite 100%. >> just this week, eligibility was opened up further. anyone 50 and older now. in san francisco, 16 and up. that's april 15th for san francisco, 16 and up. booking a vaccine appointment remains a challenge. what assistance is there for people that aren't comfortable online, using smart phones, maybe don't have one? what has the city done in terms of setting up a hotline? >> yes. people who need me or additional assistance, i want to say as a city, one of our priorities is work within communities and make sure that people have access. through their own local

community organizations, people are able to get connected to vaccine clinics and pop-ups and mobile testing that may not be available generally. people are also able to be connected if they can't do it online. they can be connected otherwise to be able to get appointments. i want people to remember as our vaccine supply increases, that's our major problem now. we're going to see our pharmacies and our health systems and all the places we usually turn and call for care be able to offer vaccines as well. >> great. it's nice to see this message is coming in multiple languages in san francisco. by the way, california announced indoor concerts and theater performances starting april 15th with capacity limits. will san francisco hold off or move forward along the state guidelines? what do you think? >> as we have always done, we want to move forward. we know people are very excited about events. i also want to say the

announcement is just breaking. it just came out within the last few hours. we are needing to look at the full guidelines which we have some sense of what was released. we need to look at the guidelines. we look at the data, science, current state. we want to be able to move forward. we will work to try to do within the limitation within the limitation of what is safe. >> do you see proof as a covid test like the giants welcome fans back friday for the first same since the pandemic? >> increasingly both vaccines and also testing is going to be an important part bringing large groups of people together as we're doing with the giants. we know that becomes more important when we're talking about indoor performances. ventilation is much outdoors than indoors. you'll see and hear more.

we appreciate cooperation with showing vaccine status or getting tested ahead of time. that will allow us to keep having large events and keep people safe and healthy. >> i know taking the step to get vaccinated or get tested. i see support and criticism of that approach on social media. what do you say to people that say they may not be a fair barrier. it's an invasion of medical privacy? >> i understand. i understand people's concerns. it's an additional step which is why i particularly in our statement with the giants and our collaboration with them wanted to call out and thank the fans for doing that. new york city is the i single most densely city. we are not far behind that. new york is requiring the same thing. it makes sense for the type of city we have and the populations we have in our

neighborhoods. appreciate people's doing that and we know there's concerns. it's required for travel. there's a lot of reasons why you would show testing over the vaccine. that's going to be a reality for our lives when we're doing larger events or coming together with a lot of others outside of our household. >> i want to get to the travel in a second. first, will giants fans use city testing resources, for example, i know the city pays $75 per test to get tested for example. where are fans supposed to go? should they use city resources? >> we know giants fans travel in from multiple areas. we want people to use the testing resource that's available to them and convenient for them where they live. some people we know will use resources in san francisco and that is what they're here for. we want people to use resources

available to them and that includes resources we have here in the city. >> dr. phillip, i have time for one more question. this is important. the cdc announced today fully vaccinated people can travel without taking a test first. they don't have to quarantine when they return. have you amended -- i think you amended the city's guidance on travel and quarantining. can you explain that? >> this is late breaking news. today was a big day. a lot of announcement and developments as you said. we haven't fully adopted our guidance yet to actually account for that. i will say now that we believe this is the right approach. we agree with cdc's approach. we will be messaging that more. we're starting today. we'll message that more to people in san francisco. i think the important thing is that people have to continue to mask and distance. being vaccinated while you're travel as good not a

substitute for continuing to do masking and distancing as well. it's good to not have to test or quarantine if you're fully vaccinated. we want people to get excited about getting vaccinated. there are things people vaccinated are able to do safely that others aren't wet. we want to make the vaccine available to anyone in san francisco that wants it. >> acting health officer of san francisco. thank you very much spending this friday afternoon talking about breaking news with us today. take care. >> thank you. thank you so much. bye bye.

welcome back. we're gearing up for professional business women of california virtual conference starting may 11th. one of the guests hosting the seminar is belonging in a remote work force fostering human connectionbook friendship and loneliness out on april 4t slei

we cancallu smiley, that's rig i go by smiley. >> all right, smiley. thanks for joining us. something that's identify you identify as he at a business women's conference. how did this come about? >> i've been a public speaker now for six years. once you're on the speaker circuit, i started to realized a lot of speakers out there look like me. many are male and white. it's nice to find an event where speakers are women. it's great to present at this event in may. >> i hope folks join. for those that can't, give us the bullet point if you will of how to belong in a remote work force. so many of usususus loss of human connection. some of us come from home or office. >> the key to this was

loneliness was before the pandemic. 60% of americans are lonely including 80% of gen z and 70% of americans. this was an issue long before we were working from home. it's long into the future. i think what we need to do is bring back the connection that we use to have from the office into the remote work force. employees who have the best friend at work are seven times more engaged. if they can identify and say this is my best friend, my buddy, we get lunch, coffee, take a walk, hang out on saturdays. we hang out on friday nights. that person is going to do much better work. let's encourage friendship at the work place. we need to make sure we have shared goals with colleagues. employees have shared goals, shared purpose. their company and team is working on something greater than themselves, maybe solving a social environmental challenge. those employees are less lonely, going to feel that

belonging and connection at work. especially this last one. when employees are able to be their full selfs at work. when they feel safety, get seen and hard. they show up even when it's hard. we're all going through a lot. people use to say leave your problems outside of work. this is the office where we get stuff done. now it's like i'm working at home. i have my problems with me all the time. if you've got young children or you're sick or taking care of parents or elders, we need to talk about that more. i'm hoping that the pandemic actually leaves a legacy where people are able to show up as their full selfs at work. the

breaking news as we come on the air. the deadly attack on capitol hill. a driver ramming his car into police officers at a capitol the suspect allegedly armed with a knife, lunging at police. the suspect shot and killed by police. one of the officers also killed. police swarming the scene. the national guard deploying an immediate response force. president biden lowering the flag to half-staff. pierre thomas standing by. also making headlines this friday night, the cdc issuing new travel guidance for people now fully vaccinated. health officials say they can safely fly within the u.s. without getting tested or going into quarantine. what the cdc is also warning about tonight. the news comes as the u.s. hits a new milestone. more than 100 million people now