>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> good afternoon and thanks for being with us. you are watching getting answers live on abc 7. this is where we asked experts your questions every day at 3 p.m. to get answers for you in real-time. of course, the big headline -- the fda giving full approval to the pfizer covid-19 vaccine. one of the many pandemic topics we will talk about this afternoon with infectious disease specialist dr. monica. first up, we want biden to share president biden's address -- president biden's address. pres. biden: good afternoon. today we have had another key milestone in our nation's fight

against covid. the food and drug administration, the fda, announced it has fully concluded its, now thorough independent scientific review after a strict process, the fda has reaffirmed his finding that the pfizer covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective and the fda has given its has reaffirmed his finding that the pfizer covid-19 vaccine is safe. so let me say this loudly and clearly. if you are one of the millions of americans who said that they will not get the shot until it has full and final approval of the fda, it is now happened -- it has now happened. the moment you have been waiting for his here. it is time for you to get your vaccination and get it today. today. it's an important moment. i want to thank the acting commissioner and the entire team

at the fda for their hard work. dr. woodcock is a true professional, career scientist who served under republican presidents and democratic presidents. she's ensured that the team follow the signs above all. -- the science. they have looked at clinical trial data and safety and efficiency data and concluded without question the vaccine was safe and effective for emergency use in december. that same thing we got those shots in arms at hthe time. 350 million in the united states and billions across the world, they kept poring over this data. the fda approval is the gold standard. as i just said, now it has been granted. those who have been waiting for full approval should yogo get your shot no. the vaccination is free, easy, safe and effective and it is convenient. for 90% of americans, there is a

vaccination site less than five miles from your home. and you can get. the shot without an appointment so, please get your shot today. julian: we are joined now by ucsf infectious disease specialist dr. monica, a steady voice throughout's entire pandemic. thanks for joining us. let's start with the big news. 200 million pfizer doses have been administered in the u.s. hundreds of millions more under the emergency provision worldwide since december. what is this full fda approval that we heard the president talk about mean for all of us? >> i think it is an exciting day. it is a big deal that i got approved for two reasons. one is what president biden said is true, there are some people waiting for this full approval together vaccine. there was a psychological kind of impediment to signing a consent form for a vaccine that you do not know is approved and

there are people who are waiting. that is great that people will get it. the second has to do with mandates. you keep on hearing more and more employers talking about mandates for their employees to get vaccinated to come back to work. it's much easier for an employer to issue a mandate for a compulsory vaccination when it is fully approved because it is no longer under that emergency use, more experimental procedure. so, you are going to see more and more companies i think talking about mandates after has been approved. julian: we are beginning to see that chevron announcing for example they will require their employees to get the shot. let's talk a little bit more about what exactly the fda had to go through to reach this point of full approval of the pfizer vaccine. maybe that will hopefully put some more folks at ease here. >> yes. so, essentially, when the fda was first approached in december, about even authorizing it, pfizer had the results for

the phase iii clinical trial with half the people on placebo and have the people on the shot and showed us they were really high effectiveness results of this vaccine. but they had not followed that for very long. the minimum amount of time they followed them was two weeks after they had gotten her second dose. and what this extra time gave us was more and more longer term safety data, and also what is called real-world studies, the cdc put out multiple real-world studies that showed us they were really effective in the real world, even against delta waves and also the long-term safety. now we have safety data for more than a year because you say, only since december. that is not true. the people in the clinical trials got their shots a year ago,. they were enrolled of july 2020. we now have long-term safety data for a year. julian: i want to hit on that

point again. it is not just six months. this is a year at this point. let's talk about the timeframe, the full approval for the pfizer vaccine coming 15 months into the trump administration announced operation warp speed that the president -- a dedication of billions of dollars in advance of the creation of an effective vaccine. with that in midnd, is this a quick approval or slow approval timeline? >> so, you know, really was not that quick. i know it may seem that way but what if the entire world came to a screeching halt in 2020 because of the pandemic, and that is what happened and we had the money, we had really a great, like a said, operation warp speed was a great idea. public and private partnerships and we have the mrna technology. it was developed in 2011. we just didn't needed because mers went away on its own. but this technology had been around for 10 years.

you had the technology, you had the ability to do clinical trials quickly because there were is a lot of covid around so people could be enrolled in the clinical trials last summer very quickly. you had operation warp speed money. and you had the will to get through the pandemic. all of that together means that 15 months, that actually was not that fast. and this is likely how any pandemic will go in this modern age. and people should be very assured these are safe and effective vaccines. nothing was rushed. julian: certainly, a comment that everyone needs to take in, that nothing was rushed or the thorough research has been done. so, instead, waiting for approval -- beginning to see that this was too fast. i want to bring in peggy. a reminder to our viewers, you can drop the comments live on the bay area facebook page. "why isn't the focus on effective treatment?" she means regeneron, like we saw

being used for the president, president trump, for example. can you answer that question? >> yes, i'm an -- heart and infection and preventive diseases better than getting the disease and having to treat it. peggy is right you should have a focus on treatment. monoclonal antibodies is one treatment. by the time you got it you have just gotten covid. and really what we are trying to do in medicine in general, not just infectious diseases prevent disease so you do not even need it. but there are new treatments for covid. there's other -- nucleoside antagonist. their other treatments being investigated. in fact, the u.s. put in $3 billion two months ago on an antiviral. so, treatment will be continued. but wouldn't it be better not to get it at all, and that is what the vaccine does. julian: we are talking about the

pfizer vaccine because it just got the full fda approval but i want to get your opinion on moderna and johnson & johnson. do you think this paints those two vaccines is less desirable for people who perhaps still have not gotten their shots yet and might be thinking, which shot should i get? >> you know, probably not for moderna. because moderna is only three weeks behind pfizer. pfizer applied at the beginning of may. and moderna applied for a full approval on may 31st. we're going to see moderna approval coming within weeks. johnson & johnson is a little bit behind, not because it is not a great vaccine but because they are waiting for their two dose trial to see if are better than one dose, especially with delta. that's going to come later. it will probably take two or three months. but moderna expected soon. i see little difference between moderna and pfizer.

there was a mayo clinic study that showed that will express -- less reinfection with mom derna than pfizer. it is not less desirable but pfizer got there first. julian: by the end of the year you are suggesting we could see all three vaccines, pfizer, moderna, johnson & johnson, all with the full fda approval. >> yes. there is no doubt about that. julian: good news there. another question before the break. the cdc releasing a study reporting the individuals who had covid are twice as lucky to get reinfected. another incentive to get the shot. can you talk about that for us? >> yes, now that was a kentucky based study. and they did get some criticism about the study because there was a little bit -- it was concerning that they just chose kentucky when they should actually be looking at reinfection across the entire country. and i will tell you this that i think that people who were previously infected getting one dose does make a lot of biological sense. and that's what the cdc has been

pushing. natural infection does provide some protection, there is no doubt about that. in other countries, who incorporated that into their passportss. they have immunity passports, not vaccine passports, that you had prior infections, you can pass and go into the building. we need to discuss natural infection and natural immunity more. but that kentucky study did show us that they are more likely to get reinfected if you had covid than if you had the vaccine. i think it is actually with delta getting a vaccine, one dose is the right thing to do. julian: we've been speaking with infectious disease specialist at ucsf. we will take a short

there. welcome back from the break. still here with dr. monica gandhi. thank you for being here with us and just shedding light on this big information we just got today about the pfizer vaccine getting thef full fda approval. i want to talk about hospitalizations as it appears we are seeing a huge surge. do you have a percentage when it comes to people hospitalized that are vaccinated versus unvaccinated at ucsf or statewide order across the country right now? >> yes. this is a great question because i have to say the cdc is not tracking this as well as canad a is. in general, what they say at their press conferences is overall 99% of people in the hospital are unvaccinated eligible adults. i have seen that in san francisco, even though they do not break it down for us and

give us the data which way think out -- which i think would be helpful. it is overall above 90% unvaccinated. this idea that vaccines prevent severe illness is persistent, meai meaning it has to do with t cell immunity ,t cells prevent us from getting severe disease. and so, it really is, it may not prevent all infection. but these vaccines do profoundly decrease hospitalizations and severe disease. and that is why we got into trouble with covid to begin with. i hope more people get the vaccine. julian: the covid majority of people hospitalized with covid are the folks who are unvaccinated. another crushing from if you are on facebook. is there any more information or statistic on the transmission of the virus between vaccinated individuals? that's top of mind for many folks who are looking to go back

out into the things that we love doing, but they also might be worried about getting covid. >> ok. this is a great question, because there was just data released yesterday that i really want to break down. this was data from a large health care worker study in the netherlands that said, if you are vaccinated with, and you get delta variant breakthroughs, are you is likely to spread it if you are unvaccinated? the answer was no. you are not as like you to spread it if you are vaccinated than if you are unvaccinated. why? because your immune response, even if you get a breakthrough infection swoops into your nose, brings on the viral note. they cultured the virus and saw that you were less infectious. you as a vaccinated person are less infectious than someone who is unvaccinated. and i want to say that i think the cdc did give us confusing messages on july 27 when they put -- they were going on this

provincetown city and didn't do all the cultures they needed to do. you are less infectious if you are vaccinated. even with a symptom at a breakthrough. julian: yes, very important to keep in mind. i want to bring mandates back into the conversation. we know the defense department now saying after it was announced that pfizer got that full approval from the fda, that they will be mandating all u.s. servicemembers to get a shot. do you think these mandates, i know you alluded to it at the beginning of the conversation, will lead to more people actually getting the vaccine? >> yes. so, they will lead to more people. let's remember the history of the united states. in 1905, there was a case called jacobson versus massachusetts were people were taking the smallpox vaccination, even though it was offered and there was a lawsuit that ended up going to the spring court where the --went to the supreme court

where they said yes, you can mandate vaccines in the setting of a public health emergency. that supreme court ruling, along with the pfizer full approval today, will allow more people, more employees to say you have to get vaccinated. and yes, it will increase vaccine uptake in our country. i will tell you that in europe they have been doing vaccine passports for a long time, and so -- where you have to show something to get into, to do what you want to do or go to a restaurant. we have vaccine passports in san francisco and starting in new york. so, these kind of things will increase vaccine uptake. it would've been better if would take it on their own. i really again hope that people will be convinced of the safety and effectiveness. julian: we are going to take a short break and again the conversation continues on facebook. search abc 7 news bay area, drop a question and we will

julian: we are continuing our

conversation with ucsf infectious disease specialist dr. monica gandhi. we want to bring some of the comments we have seen go viral. i saw your twitter and you have taken aim at some of them today. some of the comments we are seeing on her facebook live stream. did you know that if you have a vaccine you can only accept blood from those of had the same brand of vaccine and who share your blood type? lots to unpack but is that true? >> no. that's not true at all. so, essentially the antibodies of the t cells that form again the vaccine is the same whether you get the pfizer or moderna or the johnson & johnson. why? because they all code for the spike protein that make you code and you develop an antibody response. it is not like you cannot get blood from someone and you get a reaction to that. that is just not true. julian: ok.

want to stick with the disinformation fact checking here. one talking point, a graphic that you tweeted out as misinformation that show that you can still get spread and d ie from covid vaccinated but you cannot die from the vaccine if you do not get it. can you slang where this is misleading? >> it's misleading because, again, i do blame the cdc because when they told us the vaccine and people -- that covid vaccinated people can spread covid, they should have said it is a lot less we had a lot more data that came out since the cdc said that on july 27 from singapore and the netherlands. you are a lot less likely to get it. a lot less likely to get severe disease. that, to me, that is beyond, there is no dispute about this. we are so much less likely to get severe disease than 99% of the people in the hospital are on vaccinated adults who didn't get the vaccine.

that is the scariest thing about sars covid-2. in terms of dying from the vaccine, i want to say something about this. we have a really bad way for people to put in adverse effects to the cdc from the vaccine that is called the vaccine adverse effects reporting system or vers. and anyone can say, look, someone had a side effect from the vaccine and they can submit that information. we are giving out the vaccines in the biggest mass vaccination program in history. there's so much vaccines begin in out that something that happens is not necessarily related to the vaccine, it just happens. somebody died of something else. but you can put that into their system and the vers artificially looks like a lot of people died from the vaccine. they have not. these are safe vaccines. julian: want to bring in another viewer, and i think this one is important as we begin to think about the upcoming flu season. anna asking, is it safe to get the covid booster shot and the flu shot? she has two kids ages 17 a

18, they got their second shot in april and they are planning to get the flu shot in september is an important public health message. will that be safe to do with also getting the booster when folks are eligible for the? julian: i >> >it will be safe. i don't know if we need a third booster for young people but it will be safe. remember we got our childhood vaccinations, sometimes we got five shots all at once. liesel's, mumps rubella, pertussis, diphtheria -- and measles. you can get vaccine simultaneously. we did that in childhood and it is safe. julian: want to stick on the topic of young folks and kids. what you think the full fda approval for the pfizer vaccine will meet for the approval process for younger americans? >> so, it is important to say that what they said today was that it's approved for 16 and up. the 12 to 15-year-old pfizer

vaccine is still under eua. that is because we have the eua for adults on december 14, 2020, and we only got the eua for 12 to 15-year-old around may 10. remember, we need longer-term safety data to fully approve, and it is fair to get more time for the 12to 15-year-olds to have longer-term safety data. there are rare cases of myocarditis, heart inflation and young adult males, especially with the second dose. it is mild but it is the right thing to do to wait longer before they give them full approval for the 12 to 15-year-olds. it does seem like they -- but they need to follow them up. what does it mean for approval? i think you will be approval in november for 5 to 11-year-olds it will be eua around october because they had to expand the 5 to 11-year-old, the fda asked them to expand the number in

trial so that we can be reassured of the safety. it's going to be october when we get the eua for 5 to 11-year-old . julian: a lot of parents at home are waiting to hear the answer to that question. before you get shot, the mask, you best protection against covid-19. we know they have been mandated indoors but are you mask -- wearing a mask outdoors, wearing one mask, two. which two? >> i do not wear a mask outdoors because i am completely convinced of the data on how important ventilation is as a covid-19 mitigation strategy. this is a paper we wrote and many other people wrote this. there strategies, masking, distancing, ventilation. ventilation is as good as it gets. the virus does not like the outside. so, when we look around the country and around the world, really good studies that show that outside transmission is very rare. actually do not wear our mask outside. inside, because i have been

vaccinated and i'm not vulnerable, i wear one, which is a surgical mask because they are really good at repelling -- if i had my parents i wear two masks inside because they are older and more volatile and it is a surgical mask plus a cloth mask inside until we get through delta and then the mass mandates will come off. julian: great advice. dr. monica gandhi, infectious disease specialists. thank you for joining us and sharing your expertise.

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tonight, several major headlines as we come on the air. the fda giving full approval now to the pfizer vaccine and what this could mean for vaccine mandates in this country. and the news coming in from afghanistan tonight. the evacuations. how many americans, how many afghan interpreters remain? and will the president extend that august 31 gs deadline? tonight, the dally ban with a warning if he does. first, the coronavirus and tonight, pfizer now the first covid vaccine in the u.s. to be fully approved for americans 16 and older. until now, it had been given emergency use authorization, now full approval. found to be 91% effective at preventing the virus. federal authorities have long hoped this moment would help with the unvaccinated, providing additional proof of the