find solutions. this is c 7 news. kristen: i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" live on abc seven and wherever you stream. we ask experts your questions to get answers for you in real time. we are talking with the director of homeroom, a new documentary spotlighting a graduating class at oakland high school. it follows their journey through the pandemic in their efforts to remove police from school campuses. first, new covid-19 developments. the biggest happened during our midday live show today. governor newsom announced california will e achehool stafd or face weekly testing. abc seven news special correspondent joins us now. hello, dr. patel. >> hello, kristen sze.

how are you? kristen: it is great to see you. a lot of big developments today. i've put on my thinking cap. you can't see it but it's there. folks are watching this on facebook live, please put on your thinking caps because we will start with two truths and ally. >> that is how we start. we have a brilliant audience. you may need their help. round one, tell me whime w these is not true. is it a, according to a recent kaiser survey, 63% of parents were against school mask requirements for unvaccinated people? or is it b, last week, children represented roughly 15% of all newly reported covid-19 cases across the nation? or c, 30% of those ages 12 to 15 are fully vaccinated. which one is not true? kristen: ok.

30% of kids ages 12 to 15 are fully vaccinated. i do believe that is true. so the lie, let's see, i need your help, facebook live viewers, we are up now. if you can help with this question, it is a tough one. daniel says, and i agree, children representing roughly 15% -- i'm going to say b is the live. it is kind of a guess. but i actually think children represent a higher percentage of newly reported cases because more of the elderly are vaccinated. so they are representing smaller percentage of the new cases. i will go with b. >> is that your final answer? kristen: wait. rochelle says a. pam says yes. brenda says b. tom, a. debbie, b. there are enough b's that i will stick with my final answer. >> b is actually true. there was reporting earlier that

it was roughly 20%. the new data shows it is somewhere around 15%. which is horrifying for two reasons. that number is high. the amount of pediatric hospitalizations throughout the country, which we will get to later, is also high. schools are not even open. a is not true. 63% of parents were in favor of school mask requirements. kristen: i should have known that. >> that is positive news. c is something w kristen: >> gets true. kristen: i'm happy i was wrong. because i am happy nearly two thirds of the parents want masks and schools for the unvaccinated. a bunch of you said a. congratulations to you, jessica. good work. we have another round. there are a lot of headlines. i know you want to help us learn all the facts. we are ready to redeem ourselves in round two. >> this one is more of a grab bag, if you will.

which one of these is not true? a, a city in eastern india has vaccinated every eligible adult who lives there. or is it b, new data shows b, ne increase rates of miscarriage after the vaccine? the cdc has strengthened its recommendation that pregnant women. . should get its shop c or, have been sharing a belief that vaccines can turn people into werewolves. kristen: oh, well. ok. i know b is absolutely true. as the cdc strengthened its recommendation for vaccines for pregnant women. in part because data shows no increase rates of miscarriage. that is easy to rule out. folks, i need you to jump in here to give me your thoughts with regard to a or c. a lot of you think c is the lie. i do know that a conspiracy theorist believes that people can be turned into chimpanzees.

since the animal is not what i remember, i will say c is the lie. although -- >> i had not heard that one about chimpanzees. kristen: really? i'm sure there is a werewolf myth out there as well. but i will go with c. >> c is actually the light. you are correct. if i can take 45 seconds here. a city in eastern india is the biggest city, where my mom is from, in that city, there's a grassroots effort to go into some lower income areas and address vaccine hesitancy had on and it worked. b is so incredibly important. it strengthens what we already knew. there is no increased rate of miscarriage and pregnant women who get the covid-19 shot, which is important to address because pregnant women are at an increased risk. we have to faction in those

myths. conspiracy theories is about people turning into zombies. and they were spreading this based on the movie "i am legend." which is a movie in which the film director went on and said dude, everyone needs to calm down, it's a movie, i made it up. you can't turn into a zombie from a vaccine. it shows you the depths of what is spreading out there on the internet. kristen: by the way, can we give noel her props for getting zombies? and mimi as well. >> two finger snaps. kristen: there is a chimpanzee going around too. that is obviously just as false. let's go back to the governors move becoming the first state in the nation to have such a statewide mandate for the vaccine for teachers and schools. they talk about all public employees are that does not apply to private schools. where is this one well. talk about why this is so important to still have this mandate.

the cta teachers unions is about 90% of their membership is already vaccinated. is getting the additional last 10% really critical? >> personally, i think it is important to get all teachers vaccinated. i also think it sends a very important message into fold about how much we are prioritizing having kids going back into in person learning. it prioritizes the need to protect people, especially as we have a contagious variant spreading. the people out there who may be coming into contact with it. kids under the age of 12 are not vaccinated. and they could absolutely still have and pass this variant. a lot of teachers out there tend to be older, have underlying medical conditions. i think we are not only protecting teachers, we are protecting students, communities. we're making sure we're doing everything we can to keep those schools open. kristen: right. this gives us our best chance to keep the schools open, denim eyes any outbreaks or transmission. very important. to that end, governor newsom was

also asked about vaccine mandates for students. his response was, we will consider that if necessary. do you think it is necessary? and soon? >> let me back up row qui up row yes, the vaccines are important. so are the under levels of mitigation. even without a mandate, i think we can safely open schools. regarding mandating cap vaccines for kids, i think that is something we will talk about especially after we get the fda approval. for anyone out there who was watching who might be shaking their head and saying no forced mandates at all, we already have these in place. we already have these mandates across the country at schools, universities for health-care workers, for a lot of people. mmr, polio, these are vaccines that are already required. this should not be something new and this is why it is a very thoughtful process to mandate that. . i don't understand why this is getting so much of the online

community as this huge shocker. we have been doing this for decades. kristen: in terms of vaccinations, requirements for entry to school, to ensure public health, sure. you probably saw in the last couple of days so many videos from across the country, states like louisiana, tennessee, arkansas, parents chanting at school board meetings "no more masks, no more masks." forget the vaccine, we're just talking about masks. dr. patel: and i understand the side of the argument talking about i'm a parent, it is under -- up to me to make decisions about my child. the analogy i will give is what about the health of everybody else around you? what about the health of your own child? we are seeing increased number of children getting hospitalized. especially in those states that don't have mandates. there are these extremely depressing videos and testimonials coming from children's hospitals in louisiana, arkansas, missouri, florida, children winding up the -- winding up in icu. i ask some of these parents who

have directly asked me the same question, why can't i have autonomy over my child? and i say if your kid has a peanut allergy, other kids at school do not bring peanut class -- peanut snacks into that classroom. we are a community protecting one another. kristen: we should be anyhow. we're going to take a short break. when we come back, we will ask dr. patel about new breaking developments today, including a study. his mentor no more effective than pfizer against the delta variant? we will look into

kristen: we are back with abc 7 news special correspondent dr. alok patel. dr. patel, we addressed governor newsom's vaccine mandate for teachers and school staff.

now let's talk about something else. a few studies today. one i found interesting. . it seems to suggest moderna may be more effective against delta than pfizer appeared what do we know about that? dr. patel: this was breaking news. i just learned about it a few minutes before we went on air. the important thing is both vaccines, according to this preprint study, still showed above an 80% efficacy against severe illness from what i read. we need to further evaluate this. people should not read this as pfizer not being effective or johnson & johnson not being effective and they must get. numbers are changing. if you have the option, get any shot available to you. . it is possible that right now, given this delta variant season, in this preprint study that moderna might be doing better. kristen: also breaking news today, the fda supposedly will be authorizing booster shots for immunocompromised individuals. we here in the next 48 hours.

is that right? dr. patel: that is correct. this is also what we predicted last week. this is what the cdc and they were talking about this. this is no surprise. the important thing for people to know is this is for people who have a weakened immune system. who may not have the same robust immune response to the first set of vaccinations. people out there who don't have underlying medical conditions don't need to freak out and running get a booster shot. if you have questions about conditions you may have, chat with your doctor and see if you are someone who should get a booster. if and when it gets fda approved. kristen: can you tell me what the booster would mean? let's say you had two shots of moderna. you get a third shot? they nix it? dr. patel: as of right now, i don't know from what i've heard. i believe it is a third shot of the same vaccine. it would be moderna or pfizer. i can't confirm that. i know there was talk about

boosters being the same shot or stirs being a specific one. i have not heard anything. i've heard things about the original mrna shots be given again. previous studies have shown that that can boost antibody levels, which may be important for somebody who is undergoing chemotherapy or has hiv or another immunodeficiency. kristen: is there another study or any new studies out that may suggest waning protection is happening after a few months of getting your full vaccine? or we do need a higher level of protection against delta? dr. patel: there are studies and reports of what people say are waning antibody levels. i rely on my colleagues to talk about this. there are two arms of your immune system. we expect antibody levels to go down with any vaccine. then you have the memory component of your immune system. the part of your immune system that will remember the blueprint of the spike protein around the coronavirus and your antibodies

will ramp back up when your body needs that to happen. we cannot just look at waning antibody levels and say on my gosh, everyone needs boosters. we know regardless of the studies, the vaccines are still working in great numbers against the delta variant right now. kristen: i want to get to elizabeth's question. so many people are asking this. doctors, should we send our minors, are kids come into school right now? yes or no? i know you can't answer for everyone. but what is the right way to evaluate that for yourself? dr. patel: if you are going to make me just say this in one sentence, i will say yes, we can safely send our children back to in person learning, provided that the schools are doing the right thing and being safe. there are a lot of parents out there who have children with underlying medical conditions. that's ok. i think a lot of schools should be offering a hybrid learning model, especially if they cannot be safe. this is a different conversation for parents here in california

versus parents who are in florida. where there are multiple reports of there being no protection at all in schools, which is why we are seeing outbreaks. kristen: aren't there numbers or something like 400 people per 100,000? i think ours is like 150 people per 100,000? in my right in the ballpark there? dr. patel: are you referring to overall cases or pediatric cases? kristen: i missed that. dr. patel: you referring to overall cases or pediatric cases? what we are paying attention to is the pediatric cases which are winding up being severe, orchids being hospitalized. when we are seeing above 140 kids hospitalized in the state of florida, that is alarming. over the past year, people have almost downplayed seeing positive cases. they say, yeah, my child is positive, but children do fine. they are immune or a symptomatically. when we now know that if you have more children getting infected, you will inevitably cause more spread of the virus. kristen: going back to

immunocompromised and what it means with the fda on a -- on the verge of approving boosters, our type one diabetics considered immunocompromised? dr. patel: type one diabetics as is are not. but i will say that anyone who has autoimmune disease, and this is -- i'm expanding beyond type 1 diabetes. . people who have autoimmune disease may want to talk to their doctor if they are on certain medications. when in doubt, chat with your doctor. anyone with type 1 diabetes is at an increased risk. anyone has a condition who has not been vaccinated, please do so. kristen: probably heard breaking news as well. los angeles moved toward requiring vaccine proved to get into indoor places like bars, gyms, restaurants. the city council is drafting an ordinance. new york city is doing the same already. do you think bay area cities should absolutely do that as well? and maybe the city should take

the lead instead of putting it on the businesses to require that? dr. patel: i definitely agree with you on the latter. i think that city should be taking millie. and the citywide mandate does take the onus off of these bars and restaurants. think we should be having mandates here. if we want to curb the spread. i might be jumping into your next question. but cities have the right to do this. . businesses have the right to do this. people out there saying that violates my privacy, my have our rights, that is not true at all. hepa does not protect any employer or business from asking you about your vaccination status. kristen: i'm so glad you clarified that. a lot of people don't understand what hepa means and covers. good to know. great of you to join us today. thanks so much. i will see you soon. dr. patel: thank you, kristen p likewise. kristen: coming up, then a ups -- up close look inside the district and the strength of its students navigating both a pandemic and social justice movement. we are taking a break on

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kristen: a new documentary is out on hulu tomorrow called "homeroom." and follows a lot of drama over the past two years with an old unified school district from life as a student in a pandemic, to pushing for systemic change. here is a preview. >> i'm one of the that represents our citizens of the district. we have stuff that will impact her students. >> the district spends $6 million on police. >> we don't feel safe with police. it can be very triggering. >> i don't feel like they do anything to serve and protect us. films director, peter makes. welcome. and congratulations on the film. you are on mute, i think. if you want to hit unmute. there you are.

welcome to the show, peter. peter: thank you for having me. kristen: this is your third film on oakland after you won awards for "the waiting room" and "the forest." what did you set up to do with "homeroom"? peter: part of a trilogy we knew from the beginning that we wanted to look at the three pillars of one community, being oakland, california. access to health care, the criminal justice system, and education. trying to see how we are performing various ills of our society, looking at those holistically. a series of films would allow us to gain insights into how these institutions work or were not working for our community. kristen: you were embedded with oakland students for quite a while and tried to look at the world through their eyes. what did you discover about them, about their reality, their worldview, and their particular problems and motivations? peter: i think right away, we

recognized that this was a remarkable stage. these were young people that are often misunderstood or not properly -- we have a distorted sense of how we can determine the potential for success and our country. where you go to college, etc. these were students that struggled with all that, the achievement gap and all of these issues that face the students leave them with a very poor internal narrative about their potential for success. at the same time, they havel this remarkable kaleidoscopic beauty to them and resilience. we noticed that right away in hanging out with them and getting to know the student. kristen: tend to think of this generation as being not very politically engaged. that was not what you saw. tell me about one of the issues they really took an interest in. that of policing on campus, and what they wanted to do about it, and how they went about it. peter: actually, there were two

issues. we did not fully realize what was happening until covid hit, because the initial impetus for the film was more to explore the emotional lives of young people coming of age in a rapidly changing world, and what it is like to be a young person particular have color today. when covid hit, we had not fleshed out all the character arcs of all the ensemble students. . we were not just following student leaders. we were following kids on the verge of dropping out, stoners, the whole spectrum of youths. when we had to stop ■filming, we had to go back and look at our footage and realized this group of student leaders have been. out of their school district, removing the school police entirely, and an initiative that would allow young people 16 years of age and older to vote for the school board. those are the two initiatives we saw and we were working on. we were impressed by how engaged they were. the global conversations on

black lives matter but in the wake of what they lost after covid, how they file -- found their voice with these goals. kristen: what about during covid? let's talk about that. kland not g bk into their sools last year. anything that hit oakland students extra hard? pete massive trauma, collectively. a loss of sorts. trying to understand what covid meant initially. it was not fully understood at first. kids thought they were going to be out for three weeks. as time wore on, the realization dawned that this was going to be going on for a while, and that they were not going to have problem, they were not going to walk graduation, their senior trip was canceled. this is a student population that has handled generational trauma for years. these are kids who have lost

friends to gun violence. who have dealt with violence insecurity, food insecurity, come from the foster system. prominent difficulty was no stranger to them. it is just the way that it acutely hit everyone at the same time was really remarkable. kristen: peter nicks, i should mention this film was executive produced by ryan kugler of oakland, there was also behind "black panther" and "fruitvale station." we will talk more about that during commercial break on facebook live. congratulations, and the

out of time. thank you for joining us. congrats. thank you for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers paired we broke down the big announcement from governor newsom that teachers and school

staff must get vaccinated or be tested for covid weekly. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on livestream answering your strings. see you tonight, the breaking news as we come on the air. abc news now confirming the fda is now expected to authorize booster shots, a third shot, for immunocompromised people within 48 hours. tonight, the new reporting here on how quickly this could happen, this booster, for some who have already been vaccinated. and it comes amid a horrific surge in covid cases across much of the south. we're inside hospitals tonight at a breaking point. the u.s. now averaging more than 110,000 new cases a day. our team inside one icu when the alarm sounds. tonight, the breaking headline from texas, what the governor there has just revealed amid the worsening situation in that state, as they now see more than 10,000 new cases a day.