building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc7 news. i'm kristen sze. you're watching "getting answers." we get answers for you in real time. today we'll talk stop san francisco mayor london breed live. we'll look into the plan to keep tourists and residents say also after the space plight we'll look into the space praise. first, with news from the cdc that the highly contagious delta variant is making up 83%

of all covid cases. people are being asked to mask up indoors. joining to us talk about it and to answer your uc berkeley infectious discease dart john swartzburg. welcome. >> are we still still still sti coded system. then alameda and contra costa county would be in the purple tier and the rest in the red tier. >> after living with the color codes for so long, they know how significant the changes in color coding s i think this jerked us back to reality when we thought, we were doing so

well but we're in the purple category for alameda and contra costa county and the red for some other. i think it was a wise thing to do and a wakeup call. >> what's driving it? is it the delta variant or the reopening on june 15th? >> or is it both. clearly the june 15th reopening has played a role in the number of increased cases. public health experts knew it would increase the cases. california health department knew it would increase the cases. the governor knew this would increase the cases but the numbers were so low that they thought there would be a few more but people would have a lot better life. the cdc's change, what they heard was not the accurate message. what they heard is the pandemic is over and we can go back to

behaving like we used to. not a good idea. >> that's why the public health officers in the barbecue are asking people to put their masks on indoors. many people don't want to do that. they say, look, i'm vaccinated. i don't have an unvaccinated person in my household. i accept there's a small chance i could get covid and a tiny chance i would get sick from it. so, no, i'm not going to mask up. what do you say to that? >> the problem is you don't know who's vaccinated and who's not vaccinated because we have no way of verifying that, unfortunately. when you're in a store and you see people in masks, you don't know if they are not vaccinated or if they're unmasked and are willing to take a small risk.

the problem is without knowing would the would the% who's vaccinated and who's not it leads to a tremendous amount of confusion this makes this simpler to say everybody should be masked. then we know that the unvaccinated people are masked. >> going back to the argument posed by some folks who are unvaccinated, i don't care they are unvaccinated. i'm vaxed. if i do get it, i wouldn't get very sick. why should i put my mask back on. what do you say to that? >> it's a price that you and me are paying. this is a way to get everybody who potentially could be a

super spreader to have a mask on and prevent those terrible kind of events. >> i want to ask about dining. if we are in purple and the numbers say we should restaurants would have to stop indoor dining. would you dine indoors? >> no i wouldn't even consider it. >> and you would advise families with kids under 12 not to do so? >> absolutely. >> a lot of this is a because the delta is transmissible. is the delta more potent or less potent? >> we were talking about the

reason. it's more potent in terms of transmittibility. it's twice as potent as the virus that's caused so much damage and disaster to our society and human beings in december and january so. it's potent in that respect, transmissibility. whether it's he tent in terms of making you sicker than the variant circulating previously, we zoo have a good answer for that yet. there's some evidence this might but the bulk of the evidence suggest jests it's not more potent in making you sicker. >> has delta changed how we we to herd immunity. >> yes. >> how. >> the higher the number is we have to get to, the higher the percentage to have community immunity, herd immunity.

the number goes from 80%, 85% to 90%, so it will go up. >> debra on facebook live is asking a question. she wants to know how many breakthrough cases until we get booster shots like jerusalem did. i was going to mention that israel is now doing boosters. talk about the breakthrough cases and whether we should get boosters. >> sure. we have to be careful when we talk about breakthrough cases. are we referring to people who get infected but aren't sick? are we referring to people who get infected and get a mild cold or are we talking about people who get infected and get so sick they wind up in the hospital and might die. so most -- the vast majority of breakthrough cases that are occurring are causing either no symptoms at all or mild symptoms. almost none of the hospitalizations that we're

seeing are being caused by breakthrough cases. people are getting admitted to the hospitals. people are going on ventilators. people who are dying are those who are not vaccinated. it's important to pars out the elements. what we all care about most dearly is getting hospitalized and dying. so aisle get to your answer. i promise. we don't know how many many man are having breakthrough cases and are asymptomatic. we're not doing swabs on them so we don't have data on. that when people have symptoms, those people who decide to go and get tested, we could have some information about those people, but the vast majority of people who get symptoms of a cold it could be sars covid

two, we don't know how many are occurring. >> do we know if vaccinated people are protected against long-term symptoms, should they get covid? >> we don't but i can give you an opinion. my colleagues that i've spoken with and certainly my understanding of the pathogen they sis of this disease suggests if you're fully vaccinated, the chances of you having long covid are much reduced. we don't have much data, so that's only an opinion at this point. >> doctor, there's so much to talk about we could use up the whole show. i will have to leave it here and invite you to come back some other time. thanks for your insight. >> thank you. bye-bye. coming up, san francisco's mayor london breed will be

joining us. we have a

welcome back san francisco is one of the counties urging everyone to put their masks back on there even while vaccinated. joining us now is san francisco mayor london breed. mayor breed great to see you. you shared a tweet in the past hour with data i think everybody should here. go ahead and tell us about that. >> the data centers around those who have contracted coindividual since last year. we had over 1800 people

contract covid. those cases none were vaccinated. six who were vaccinated contracted covid and none of those six people actually died and i think that's the biggest you hear from us. we're trying to save lives. if we continue down this path and don't see adiscussional people getting vaccinated we believe 250 more people will die. the message is clear. get vaccinated because it will save lives. >> you've asked residents to that end to mask up indoors, even while vaccinated. that is a sacrifice. what do you say to the 70% of those who are vaccinated why they need to do that right now? >> well, that number is actually 76%. >> that's great. that's even better. >> i'm proud of that number but we are at least 83% of san

franciscans have received their first dose. even though it's great, it's not where it needs to it be. for those who are vaccinated, you can still potentially got the virus, but, again, it's the difference as dr. colfax said last week, getting the sniffles and being hospitalized. we want people to proceed with caution. we do not have a mask mandate other than those who are unvaccinated. we're asking them to wear a mask indoors. if you get vaccinated, things will be a lot easier for for fo >> the chronicle pored over data and found neighborhoods in san francisco that are mostly black and latino, why do you think that is and what is the

city doing about it? >> i think one of the challenges, with the african- american community, the tuskegee experiment that occurred where people were not in the 1930s there number of sharecroppers in alabama who were not provided with a cow for there's a lot lot lot lot lot l those stories have carried over. they don't feel comfortable or trust the vaccine and who it would potentially do for them. we've come a long way. in 2021 things are a lot safer. what i say to all those folks

it's about saving lives. those are african-americans in the hospital disproportionately more than anyone else. those are the ones who sadly will lose their life as a result of the virus. that's why that's important that we do everything we can to educate to talk, to communicate the very best we can to get vaccinated. >> all right. mayor, i also want to address crime. you announced a new safety plan. the center place of that plan is more police officers in major tourist areas of san francisco. what's the idea behind it? >> for example you see all these car break-ins at alamo square park and other place. how could this have been prevented. where is the police? we are placing officers strategically in locations where we know there's the potential for high crime and we want the crimes not to be

committed in the first place. we know officers are a deterrent. they don't stop crime but they are a deterrent. hopefully people will feel safer when they visit san francisco. our position is to keep residents safe. >> are you seeing tourism returning slower than expected because of fear of crime? >> i think we're seeing a lot of tourists from around the bay area return. i think that a lot of what we don't see is the tourism and conventions returning because of the covid and the variant. >> tourism in other areas, how do you balance that against worries that policing, it's not universally popular. many people want to to police interactions with members of the public.

a poll showed the majority of san franciscans want more police officers. what we don't want are police officers who are not properly trained and have issues bias that perpetrate some certain behaviors that makes spokesperson communities people uncomfortable. community policing is important. respect for one another is important making sure relationships exist is important. san francisco has done a very good job with our antibias training, de-escalation traying. one of the other things we've done is reduced officer- involved shootings. so make sure the department is properly trained to work with the community is what's going to help to put more officers on the street, bumped community trust and cut back on the number of incidents that should not be occurring >> okay. mayor you released the mid-year

crime statistics along with police commissioner bill scott. numbers are down in several major categories. let's just talk about them rape, larceny and robbery but up in gun violence, car break- ins and burglaries. let's compare the mid-year numbers to burglaries. 2019 we had 2,360 2020, which was a weird 3300 something. 2021, mid-year, 3,717 so. that's up. auto thefts, you can see the numbers but basically an increase from 2019 to 2020 and a jump from last year to this year. do you reject headlines that say rising crime in san francisco. >> as you know, san

is a major city. it's one of the densist cities in the country. what your' seeing on videos is making people look at san francisco in a way that doesn't accurately reflect what's going on but if you're the person who's victimized, yes, it's a big deal. we want to make sure people are not victimized. we want to make sure we prevent these crimes from happening in the first place. looking at the data has a lot to do with make sure these crimes are prevented. i think it's unfair to look at these issues. i talked about the man who road his bike in walgreens. that went viral but most people don't even know that that man has been arrested by this same san francisco police department here in the city and hopefully will be prosecuted and held

accountable >> speaking

and we're back today we watched a historic trip top space including jeff bezos, his brother the oldest and youngest. you were up early. it looked like new shepard's flight went according to and. many critics say this is the latest billionaire space vacation. it's all for vanity. look at bezos throwing a ping pong ball. do you see this that way? >> one thing i would say there's some evidence that tourism has helped fragile businesses in the past. to the degree that some day there may not be enough government support for space

exploration, it's nice to know that tourism money might be able to help but overall i agree this is just billionaires doing what they want with their vast amount nothing of of scientific was grind at the apex right before you start to fall, that's you experience weight lesness. >>lessness. >> as you fall to your doom you would feel weightlessness. they do this in hold movies like apollo 13 they let an airplane drop. if billionaires want to do it, there are cheaper ways >> i wonder if bezos made a good case for space tourism. that's fun.

i want to do. it do we as humans actually need space tourism? >> i don't think we do. we need space exploration and space science. contrast today there's a ten- year study on all the exciting things that space telescopes could do for us. the mysteries of the universe for a fraction of the cost, so we should have a more measured approach to this but you can't stop rich people from doing stunts >> you're right, if the democrats proposed maybe a tax on space flights not related to research, so if that tax supports other space exploration as you say, perhaps there's something there. i want to ask you about something bezos said and branson said, going up there seeing the world from up high changes our perspective and could motivate others to do good for those on earth. what do you think of that argument? >> i think that's a good

argument and based on the apollo 8 astronauts who made it. it's true and that's been done. contrast that to the fact we have the hubble telescope working again, this 31-year-old instrument, which is sending back amazing pictures of distant galleries and how the structures intertwine. >> how excited are you about the next billionaire venture. spacex has been at it a long time elon musk ahead in terms of technology and the ambition. wants to go to mars. talk about that. >> i think going to mars is a pretty dangerous enterprise. it will take a lot more thinking than these short hops. i'm much more excited, frankly, about the fall launch of the james webb telescope which is the replacement for the hub criminal will give us incredibly new eyes in space

and will allow us to see things in the universe we've never seen before. so if we can perhaps at the same time that we admire these billionaires also keep our eyes open for science, i think that will be an equally good thing for inspiring young people. >> we have to figure out how to make this sexy. maybe get the young singer olivia rodrigo to talk about it. thanks so much. >> my pleasure. >> so going to ask you. would you go up if you had money to

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i want to thank you for joining us today on this show we answer why tonight, history in space. millions watching. tonight, the images from inside that capsule. also, the accounting for 83% of cases in the u.s. could the johnson & johnson vaccine be less effective? what we know so far. first, jeff bezos and three private citizens blasting off, 66 miles up. the images from inside. on board with bezos, his brother, and the oldest and youngest astronauts to ever fly in space. all weightless above the earth. for