building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. hi, they are, i am kristen sze. we are getting answers live on abc7. we ask experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. we will speak with the chief of emergency medicine at second medical center. but first, more on the masks. h bay area public health officers issued a new indoor mask mandate today. even for vaccinated people. this starts at midnight. that includes a city of berkeley and the 7 following counties. alameda, contra costa, marin,

san francisco, semi-san mateo, and sonoma. thank you so much for making the time for >> thank you for having me. >> this mandate begins at midnight tonight. when we wake up tomorrow, things will be different. so, where will we need to where masks starting tomorrow? i work, at school, shopping? it's only been about 7 weeks, but refresh our memories. >> it will be and any indoor public setting. that would be at your work if it is indoors. even if you are in a cubicle environment. it would be in any retail indoor malls. hair salons. any indoor setting. that includes government offices. >> how about waiting for your food at a restaurant? >> while waiting, absolutely. everyone should wear facial

coverings. the exception will be if you're eating or drinking, because you cannot wear that mask or facial covering at that time. >> why is this necessary? what are you seeing in your count that makes you want to join with these public health officers and say we are doing this and going back. and we know that some people will be very unhappy. >> thank you so much for asking that. we have seen a big increase in our case rates since june 15 when we opened up. sonoma county's 7 day average case rate includes 5.7 new cases per 100,000 per day to 14 new cases per 100,000 residents per day. we are seeing a much bigger increase in case rate in unvaccinated individuals. the kids are in unvaccinated individuals is 27.8 individuals compared to 5.6 new cases per 100,000 per day fully vaccinated. we're also seeing an increase in hospitalizations back to

where we were last february. we now have an average of 4545 patients in our hospitals and our icus, also we are seeing an increase and we have seen 15 deaths, actually, 16, in the last 3 to 4 weeks. all of these things very concerned. >> the numbers are a. i hear you on that. what percentage of new cases and what percentage of actual hospitalizations are actually made up of vaccinated people? a tiny percentage, right? >> it's a really good question. that also is increasing. about 80% of our cases are occurring in unvaccinated individuals. but that is up from 95%. that was a month ago. in the hospitals currently, 83%

of hospitalized patients are unvaccinated. but that a 17% that are fully vaccinated. i'm happy to say, however, that 100% of patients that that are vaccinated, vaccinated individuals are not in the icu units. the majority of people are still detected by vaccination and it is still the correct thing to do. >> so what i'm hearing you say is vaccines work because if you get the vaccine and you to catch covid, which is more unlikely, or severe infection chances are very low. so that is the case, i want to ask, isn't it a drop in the bucket to ask people who are vaccinated to mask up in terms of how many cases could actually be prevented by having this indoor mask mandate for all? >> we know that fully vaccinated patients can get covid and we also know that fully vaccinated people who have covid

to others. whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. so with the amount of community transmission that we are now seeing, the substantial widespread immuno transmission, it makes sense for us to protect the entire community by having both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons mask in indoor settings. now, we are seeing that people with underlying medical conditions and those people who are older and fully vaccinated are more likely to get covid as well. so i would say that if you're in that category, this really also applies to you to take care of yourself and make sure that you are not putting yourself in any situations where you are not masking or exposed to others. >> i've heard it suggested that this universal mask mandate, which is back in the bay area, is really aimed at stopping the unvaccinated from taking advantage of the honor system and going on mass. do you agree that is part of it or a lot of it? >> actually think that now, with what we are seeing with the data and with transmission

even with the fully vaccinated individuals, that it really behooves everybody to wear a mask indoors. because, you are not completely protected just because you are vaccinated. you may be protected from the more severe manifestations. you might not get as ill, but i do think that we need to protect ourselves, our families, our communities and it makes sense for either everybody to mask indoors. >> racing an uptick in new vaccinations now? >> i'm happy to say that we did see an increase in people who want to get vaccinated. in the last couple of weeks. we have had a lot of information out about the delta variant. >> okay. york county i think has a very high vaccination rate. give us latest and how much more you think you can pick up and where might those pickups be in your community and how we reach them. >> about 70% of people are fully vaccinated. in and an additional 8% are partially vaccinated so we have

reached about 70% with at least one dose. however, want to also underline the fact that if you're partially vaccinated, with just one dose, you are still at high risk, especially with the delta variant. so we would like, if possible, to pick away at that number and add to it and get another 10 to 15% of the county vaccinated. >> i want to ask about this because schools are starting up and sonoma county and other counties. have you issued any orders with regard to school protocol, or are you leaving the decisions to the school districts? >> we are working very closely with the sonoma county office of education to ensure that schools will open safely. so, we have weekly calls and we have been doing that since the entire covid pandemic and working closely with the superintendents to make sure that kids can get back to

school. that is really important. >> as far as you know, our schools in the county, are they all following the state recommendation to require masks indoors? can you talk about that and maybe things like weekly testing if that is something you are considering, or perhaps, separate seating areas for unvaccinated kids and vaccinated kids in middle schools and high schools were kids cannot get vaccinated? >> right now i think the universal masking in schools is the most important. we know that that is effective and it is easy to accomplish and we support the state in doing that. so as schools reopen, we will follow the trends and look at what is happening. what is the data. how many cases everything in schools and then we will see whether we need to do anything more to protect our kids and staff. >> we have to go but i have to squeeze this in because i'm dying to know. if this does not work, what is the next lever you might pull? >> again, we have to follow the data and look at the trends. hopefully we will get good

compliance with everyone, with the indoor masking and of course, if we need to move to other strategies, we will go there as well if we need to. >> little we will not need to. thank you so much. you are sonoma county's department of public health. we appreciate your time and your insight. don't go away because we will take a broader look at covid-19, vaccines, and more. all of the signs stuff. get your questions in right now hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. -what, you mean-- -mhm. -just like that. -wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we?

no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. it could be the death of someone you know or a health scare. that's why today could be a great day to call for free information about colonial penn's $9.95 plan. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance starting at just $9.95 a month. there are no health questions so you can't be turned down for any health reason. this is permanent coverage. just pay your premiums for lifelong security. the $9.95 plan is colonial penn's number one most popular whole life plan. options start at just $9.95 a month. that's less than 35 cents a day.

your rate can never go up. it's locked in for life. don't put it off. take the first easy step. call today for free information. and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner, so call now. (soft music) ♪ ♪ hello, colonial penn? okay. i am okay with being mask

indoors. erica never stopped. all right. there is a lot to cover regarding covid-19 so let's keep the conversation going. we have my questions and yours. please asked them on facebook live and we will try to get to some of the questions. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you for having me today. >> what is your reaction to today's bay area indoor mask mandate, even for the vaccinated? >> i welcome it. i realize this is tough news to take for community that had been really good particularly in san francisco, really out ahead in this country and getting vaccinated and i realize that they really welcome the idea to take off the mask and enjoy that process but this delta variant has thrown as a curveball here and has given us something that we really do need to address head on and part of that is going to be wearing masks again and it's going to be important to be vaccinated as well. >> let's talk about the

metrics. what are the numbers that warrant perhaps an indoor mask mandate again, even for the vaccinated? and if we know that, maybe we know at what point it will go away where we stop doing this where we turn it on a little and then turn it off a little. >> the numbers that we have to look at include those that are not vaccinated and we still have a still significant number, as much as we are doing great, we stop a significant number that are not vaccinated. even of those who are eligible and we are now learning more and more about how this delta variant can past two vaccinated and unvaccinated people. the numbers are reduced when two people wearing masks indoors, we do know that and we do have good data that's when you have people that are all mask indoors versus people who are not mask, the virus is so

much less contagious. masking and the distancing are the two biggest things that we can do when the virus is out. >> you see a lot of patients at your hospital. i know the numbers have been going up in terms of cases and icu. can you make clear to people what you are seeing in terms of infected people who are vaccinated versus unvaccinated. what are the notable defenses and symptoms or outcomes? >> there really notable and this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. not that it does not involve the unvaccinated, but that the differences dramatic. we are seeing patients that are vaccinated having symptoms and every once in a while, particularly in somebody who is elderly, immunosuppressed, has underlying medical conditions, every once in a while we do need to admit them to the hospital but it is essentially

unheard of to need to them to the intensive care unit or to intubate them or put them on a ventilator or have them died. there are numbers across the country that even vaccinated, that has happened, but the difference is dramatic. the patients that we are admitting to the hospital, particularly those in the icu and any patients that have died of covid since a vaccinations started have almost been exclusively in the unvaccinated. >> on to get the viewer questions. we have so many. glenn wants to know. i'm sorry, not that i do not love your question, but i want to ask one that i'm seeing more of. mary wants to know that everyone is still masking in the bay area so what will it accomplish? i see this when i go to the grocery store. pretty much everyone is messed up. >> we do go through a period of time in june and july where the mask mandates would come down and masking went down as well. we are seeing outbreaks in

indoor situations with people who are not masked. i agree that we are seeing more and more people mask now as we get the word out but there have been far too many in close quarters indoors that are not masked. the mask mandate is trying to address the situations. >> sally was to know if it is too early to know if breakthrough cases can end up being long haulers? >> what we are finding is yes, there are longer symptoms. it is too early to know if they are similar to those who were infected prior to vaccination. i want to say, with what we are seeing, in longer-term symptoms, they are not as severe but there are patients that have been vaccinated and have gotten covid and are having longer-term symptoms. we do need to know more but it does look like there is a possibility. >> we keep hearing that the vaccines we have work against the delta variant and other

variants. faith wants to know, will there be a new vaccine for the variant? >> yes. there will be. this is important because for two reasons, the vaccines that we have work against this variance, particularly against severe disease and death. it is only a matter of time as we see it mutate, that eventually they're going to overcome this vaccine so it will be important to keep up the precautions we talked about, and more importantly, as we learn more about the variant, they will be developing booster shots specifically targeted to those. i believe that this will probably be a fairly regular occurrence just like we run into with influenza and the flu shot. >>

a second shot, either of moderna or pfizer. >> interesting. there is really no -- are we back on tv?

we are back on tv. dr. chris cowell, we were chatting on facebook live and now we are back on television. we were talking during the break about whether you know people who have gone out to get a booster, so to speak, even though the cdc is not currently recommending it. you said yes and i asked what are the circumstances were could make sense for someone. give us that response because i see that asked a lot. >> there isthere isthere isther this and in fact, an article was published last week in the journey of the american medical association that said this is a very specific group of patients who have been through kidney transplants and been through immunosuppression's because of that. they had a third dose of one of the mrna shots that the third shot showed a significant increase in the antibodies. so, there has been, and it is consistent with other evidence

that an additional shot does seem to invigorate the immune system in a way that does seem to be positive. we do not have proof of this yet . we do not have huge numbers for the data and it is not approved, but it does make sense and the research would suggest that it is something that we really should think about. >> and just today they okayed it or suggested or mandated that? >> it is suggested. it came to the medical executive committee for approval as to whether or not to approve. so far looks like it will be unanimously approved. those that got to the j&j shot get an additional, or are approved to get an additional mrna shots, either pfizer or moderna. it is not mandated. it is not clearly data-driven yet, but the data does support this. >> you will be turned away? if you're just a regular person and you supply your information and you are ready in the database, i know some people. >> as of today.

>> you think that will change soon? >> as of today, yes, but what we will do at san francisco general as, probably by the end of the week, approved for those who got the j&j, if they would like, to get an additional of pfizer or moderna. >> i know some people struggle with that in terms of the ethics or morality. nobody wants to take away from anyone else but right now supply is not the issue. we have plentiful supply of vaccines. >> that is very important. that was initially the issue and now it is out. the supply is not the issue. what we need to do is get people vaccinated. we need to focus on the unvaccinated but in situations where people could be immunosuppressed or otherwise be vulnerable, we want to be sure that we have the community as vaccinated and as protected as we can. >> i was going to ask if it was

safe right now for vaccinated people together indoors without masks. that seems to mirror our viewer's question. she was wanting if she should be concerned. she is fully vaccinated and wore her mask most of the time at a gathering. >> answer to that is that she is very very detected by being vaccinated and even better vaccinated by wearing her mask most of the time. however, that is the exact scenario where we are seeing breakthrough infections. whether does indoors or somebody will end up testing positive. this is happening very very frequently. so, it is another reminder as to why wearing masks is important. the fact that she is vaccinated makes her very protected. particularly against getting a severe form. >> i want to ask you if there are activities or locations that you personally would avoid now. >> any situation where you are crowded together and you cannot

control your environment. that is something you need to be careful of. like an airplane, that is, and they do a very good job of keeping airplane situations and environments protected, but other areas, and i would say bars, areas where you are close quarters, you cannot necessarily control how close people are getting to you and there are large numbers of people that are close together indoors. that is an out risk environment. >> alexis wants to know people going back to double masking. certainly in the hospital. i have a couple doctor friends who say they are going back to double masking or the n95. what you say? >> absolutely. i use an n95 and a surgical mask over that with any patient encounter because it is now that we are seeing this surge. >> i've heard a lot of things about the vaccine slightly.

a lot of them are untrue. misinformation is a big part of the problem leading people to be hesitant. the latest seems to be that the delta variant was caused by the vaccines. can you explain why that is impossible? >> that is a great point. there is the difference between a virus that normally mutates and other viruses have done this. influenza and others. the delta variant is like that. it is a normal mutation of the virus. is not capable of causing a variant because it is not the virus itself. it is important for people to understand that they are not getting the virus injected and when we talked about the mrna technology, particularly from the pfizer and moderna standpoint, the new technology that people are worried about, it is important for them to understand that they know that the vaccine cannot cause a

viral infection or variant. >> can you catch the variant over and over again? >> yes, it does appear that you can, though if you get covid-19 as a delta variant, you are going to be somewhat protected against that as well so although it is possible, it is very very unlikely. just as we are seeing that those who got the infection and got the vaccine are probably as protected as anybody, even though we know that the vaccine, of the two probably is most protected. if you have both, you're probably most to protected at all. >> i know this is asking to tell the future, but for the folks who are expressing how frustrated they are, that we are going backwards, what does it take to end this? where does this end? like you said, it could become like a flu shot thing where we have to get it annually. does that mean it never ends? >> i think we need to be

prepared for that. the masking will and. the sooner we can get on top of this and get to the point where we have true community immunity, we talked about herd immunity and weather net we can get that, but we will get larger numbers of our community immunize and that is when we can talk about getting away from the mask. but in terms of the end where we do not talk about covid anymore, we need to be prepared about it being like influenza where it is a regular part of our discussion and we do face some of this every year. and that we anticipate that we

okay. jenny, i love your question about the indoor gyms. sorry cannot get to it.

thank you for joining us on this interactive show today. we went in depth on the tonight, the new major milestone in the battle against covid-19. but coming one month late. the u.s. finally hitting president biden's goal to have 70% of adults receive at least one vaccine dose. this as the delta variant fuels a worsening summer surge. the u.s. on friday recording more than 100,000 new infections in a single day for the first time in nearly six months. the country's daily case average jumping 532% since mid-june. nearly 80% of counties reporting high on substantial community transmission. near austin, texas, just ten icu hospital beds remaining for a population of millions. louisiana facing the nation's highest infection rate and rising cases