>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. >> you are watching getting answers live on abc seven, hulu live and wherever you stream. we ask experts your questions to get answers for you in real time. today, we get into college applications as the season to apply is underway. we have tips from a top area college counselor. we will talk live with the latest marvel movie. to see how they did it. first, reports of a new variance in the bay area. it is one of the many covid-19 headlines today. joining us as the chair of the department of medicine at ucsf.

great to speak with you. >> thanks so much. >> we we first heard about the new variant a week or two ago. we have confirmed cases in the bay area. how does this compare to delta? >> the new variant is called mu. i position it so far as what we sometimes call to the scariant. these variants pop out and have slightly scary attributes. it might be able to evade the vaccine. a little bit more than delta does. there is no good evidence yet it is going to take over. delta has the superpower of being so infectious it sort of dominates the field. it is 99% of all cases in the u.s.. no good evidence it is going to take off that way. >> when you say may be able to evade the vaccine, does that mean it is more transmissible or does that mean it could potentially -- i don't want to say deadlier but could produce more serious effects in people

who get it? >> three different things you have to wonder about and ask about with variants and v transmissibility. the second is severity. the third is, can it evade the immune system? they are all three different things. each variant can do its own thing across those three dimensions. with delta, much more infectious than the prior variants. still debatable about whether it is more severe. evades the mean system a little bit like the vaccines work a little less well against delta. with mu, what we see is the kind of mutations you see might make us worry by evade the immune system. we don't know whether it is more transmissible and if it is not, it will not outcompete delta. that is the thing that determines what the dominant variant is. that is why delta became the dominant variant. >> is the delta waves subsiding

now? >> not subsiding so much. cases are beginning to plateau a little bit nationally. see certain states where it is starting to come dumb. other states where you get a hint it is plateauing. in san francisco, it has come down. we were averaging 350 cases the a day. that is against where we were on june 1, which was 10 cases a day. it went way up and it does seem like it is coming down. with delta, you have to work hard because it is so transmissible. very high vaccine rates we have in the bay area plus with people being a little more careful the last couple of months does seem to be capable of beating back this variant and i am hoping that is what happens all over the country. all we are seeing is cases beginning to plateau. they are not coming down yet. >> president biden will outline

his latest strategy against covid tomorrow. we will be covering that. his press secretary said there will be six steps. tell us what you know and think about them. >> i don't know anything about them yet. i am ready -- i am wet -- i am waiting with baited breath i have not seen a leak on twitter to tell me what they are going to be. clearly -- one of the things that has been forgotten and not emphasized has been testing. hearing what is happening in other countries where you have very ready access to cheap antigen test that can tell you whether you are infectious or not and people are routinely using them before they go into a restaurant or schools and even go into the store, i am sure that is going to be one of them. we have emphasized that enough -- we have not emphasized that enough. a lot of questions will be around boosters peered out of the interested to see what they

say. the boosters have become a kerfuffle with the white house saying we need them with some scientist saying we do not to my personal bias is we do need them particularly for older people that got pfizer. i happen to be an older person who got pfizer so i am interested in that part. will be interesting to hear what they say over the booster strategy. >> there is international disagreement about that. going back to what president biden will announce tomorrow now we have established you don't have the inside track and you are not on the phone with present -- with the president today, but i think we might have an idea when jen psaki said he said it is going to affect you or if you are unvaccinated. sounds like new measures targeting unmeasured -- unvaccinated americans. what is within their power to mandate? could they mandate vaccinations if you want to fly, if you want to take the train? what is within their power? >> the federal government regulates interstate travel. there is some power in terms of

travel. they could also be helping by creating a trustworthy system to be able to know who has gotten vaccinated. the fact i am still pulling out my little cdc card, which is starting to fray after nine months out of my wallet when someone wants to know if i'm vaccinated i could buy them online for 15 bucks says if we want a trustworthy system to tell whether someone is vaccinated, we should one that and we should be mandating vaccination in places, particularly high risk places like health care settings and schools. we needed better system to tell who has and who has not gotten vaccinated and a booster. it will not surprise me if there is something there. their ability to mandate vaccinations for anyone other than people who work for the federal government, we have already done it in the v.a. system. it is quite limited. it will be interesting to hear what they say they will be able to do. >> if you can address, i got the

pfizer. i'm 49 years old. do you think i have the booster yucca -- do you think i need the booster? >> that is getting to be a close call. the pfizer vaccine without a doubt has lowered effectiveness over time. still pretty good but it goes down. wishes start with the highest risk people. we are already with immunosuppressed people. we should go to people over 60 or 65 and health-care care workers who are being exposed to people with covid. once we get all those done, we should have much better data about younger people. everybody is going to need a third shot. certainly everybody who has gotten pfizer. i'm guessing everyone with j&j will need a second shot. i would hold my horses on that. be careful. let's look at the case rates in your community. i think inevitably certainly

everybody over 40 will end up getting boosters if you got pfizer. >> sean has a question. if the vaccinated or if if the vaccines work, then why is a booster needed? talk about that. is there a lifespan or is it that the virus evolves? >> it looks like two things have happened in the last several months. one is that these vaccines, we gave people two doses quickly. it was a reason for that because it was killing a whole lot of people. the two doses quickly probably do not get you the durable immunity we want. we have seen the efficacy, the effectiveness of the vaccines does begin to wane starting at about five or six months to wanes to a point that is meaningful. we are seeing more breakthrough infections. we are seeing a small increase in serious infections. the second is that the virus we are battling is much more infectious.

if the pfizer or if any of the vaccines were waning in their effectiveness at six months but there was not much virus in the community because in the bay area 75 or 80% of the people are vaccinated, we would not be having the same booster discussion. it is a combination of winning efficacy times a virus that is much better at its job than the old one that leads to more cases and i think a real need for boosters. >> kind of a mixed bag of new information with regard to children. on the one hand, the account for more cases now. a 250 percent jump. on the other hand, they seem to avoid the most serious outcomes. what do we make of that? when you consider that, what does that suggest policy wise? >> i think the first thing that has to be said is that we should be doing everything we can to keep our kids safe and we really want the kids in school. it is one of the lessons from 2020. keeping the kids out of school

was not an unreasonable decision at the time but carried tremendous cost particularly for underprivileged kids. we got to try to do both of those things and it is hard for our brains to get around both of them but i think they're both doable. it says we should vaccinate the kids who can be vaccinated and work as fast as we can to get the vaccines approved for the kids who are younger. it says everybody who can be vaccinated in the schools were going to be around the kids need to be vaccinated. i believe it says everybody should be massed in the schools until the case rates are so low that we are not worried about community spread. it says there needs to be a better ventilation in the schools. and i think it says we should be doing more testing in the schools. if you did all of those things. vaccinate the people who can be vaccinated, improve the ventilation, nevers will masking in the schools and had everybody in the schools tested twice a week, you can create a very safe

environment for the kids and that should be our policy goal. protect the kids as much as we can and also make sure they can stay in school. >> many will say that is very doable. it is within our control. we will see if we can get that done. thank you so much for your time to really appreciate it. coming up next, we'll talk about the college application process as applying seems to be more competitive than ever. guidance and tips coming your way next.

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not like free with purchase either, like free-free. mission accomplished. now that's time well spent. explore floor and decor in person or online at flooranddecor.com >> welcome back. college application season is underway for current high school seniors. the process is more stressful than ever. given the uncertainties caused by the pandemic and a record number of applications at the uc's and elite universities last

year. joining us to offer much-needed guidance, the dean of college advising the jewish community high school of the bay in san francisco. great to see you. >> great to see you as well. >> hope you had a good summer. here we go again. a new round. this year, seniors are going in having seen how high the number of applications were last year and how low their dream schools acceptance rates were. do they seem extra stressed-out to you because of how things played out last year? >> i think -- yes. there are some big emotions as we enter back into the school year. it is hard to tell how much is about the college of process and how much is just sort of being outside again and learning to get back to kind of normal life. but yes, i do think there is a heightened sense of everything. >> let's take some of the stress out by having a step-by-step process.

build your college list. what should kids think about and any covid considerations? >> any good college list is going to have some of those dream schools that might have the lower acceptance rates on it but also places that are going to be more realistic, little more broad access so that you have got some sense that you will have options when we get to the spring. when we think about financial considerations, it is always smart to have some california publics on the list as those in-state tuition dollars are going to go a little bit further than they might with out-of-state private schools. as we think about covid, the biggest factor right now is thinking about geography. we have had a very specific experience here in the bay area but what are the state and local city policies about covid in the places you are thinking about going? and what are the institution's

policies? things can vary widely across the country. it is important to your family, where vaccination rates in masking is required, you might want to see what some of those local issues are. >> when we went through that last year, we had to think about it that we did not think that would be the case this year. rice university in houston, we looked at the fact it is in texas and they have had to go virtual with their classes due to the case rates. give us kind of a timeline, suggestions for how to stay -- how to stay on track. i know deadlines vary but what should be doing right now? >> a lot of the applications are open. the common application, the uc application, the coalition application, all of these opened august 1. students can begin at least the data entry. i usually like to suggest students like to get control of

the common application essay or the coalition as they come with the big essay, 650 or so words first. that can take a lot of energy and drafts. once that is done, you're looking at smaller pieces of the shorter uc questions are supplemental questions. you should organize yourself around deadlines. see the first places if you're looking at any early decision or early action deadlines in early november. tackled those schools first. but those under control and polished up by sometime in october so then you can turn to the uc's and other things that are due later in the -- that are due later. >> the deal with sats and 8 -- and acts? >> while we are in a slightly better place, if you define better as the ability to take a standardized test, then yes. students have a few more choices

and a few more options this year. because of some persistent cancellations because of the inability to secure a sitting. i know some of my students logged on the day registration opened and still could only find a seat in reno or somewhere far from home. students have more flexibility. most schools are staying test optional. if you are able to secure a seat and you are a good test taker and you want to give it a shot and hope to be able to summit a strong score, i would say go for it. other students, you can kind of decide first of all. see if you can get that sitting and if it is not canceled. but also be looking at your list and be thinking, do i have a lot of test free schools here? am i looking at a lot of uc's where they do not even consider the test? then it might make sense to find some other ways to spend your time if your scores are not going to be terribly impactful.

there is a small handful of schools, some that never went test optional. the entire state of florida, those public institutions remain requiring test scores because it is an issue with their legislature. some other schools who have always been dependent on testing, so the service academies, georgetown, they have reverted to the requirement. it is important to read the fine print and not assume everyone is being flexible although the mast -- the vast majority are. >> this came up last year. many college applications know have a space for you to answer how covid impacted you. there is conflicting opinion as to whether every student actually needs to answer that or should answer that what is your advice? >> so i think for those covid specific areas, if there is something major that happened with your family for better or for worse, that is a great place to say something about it. don't feel like you have to put

something there if you experienced the pandemic in kind of the same way as a lot of your friends and neighbors. some students are not quite sure if they should write their full essay about something from the pandemic. while that can be an obvious choice, i think it is going to be will tread ground. i would only go with that around if you have got something sort of special. i had a student last year who ended up starting a mask chain business during the summer of 2020 and discovered she wanted to be an entrepreneur and that made for good fodder for nsa. for some families, there might have been on the satyr side, something really formative that happened with an illness or loss of job and that feels important to write about. for most other students, they are so much bigger than the pandemic and have so many other things to talk about that would enrich their application and i would say run with that. >> thank you so much. i had so many more questions

from financial aid to college tours and all that, so i think we will have to schedule another time. i'm very aware that your kids need you so we will see if we can make that happen. thank you so very much. we will take a

>> like many people, you might be marveling at the amazing fight scenes in the latest marvel movie. responsible for this dizzying and dazzling action is with us today. we are talking with the fight coordinator, veteran stuntman and director, andy chang, has worked with jackie chan. they go back a long time. he was a stunt double for jackie as well.

there you are. coming to us from budapest, right? hello. >> hello. how are you guys? thank you. >> so great to have you. you are a large part of the success. many fans and critics call that scene we showed one of the best battle scenes ever. tell us, it took a long time for you to pull that together, right? >> yeah. the sequence, took almost a year. really a year because the pandemic should -- because the pandemic. i remember the early ones, the first scene we started. >> i heard there were like four buses in australia and two buses in san francisco. >> yeah. in australia they put into a different machine. the bus keep moving on the road.

one is lower-level so it is normal driving. one is in the high level. that one kind of like a roller coaster. you can do all kind of moves like turn sideways and all kinds of things. it is a big set up for that lot of people look at this and sees shades of jackie chan and i know you coordinated a lot of jackie's fight scenes. do you see shades and did you try to bring a little bit of that in? >> from the very and the director -- unfortunately has passed away, when we started talking about the character, it depended on the tone.

don't want to fight like a real man so we come up with something. hiding his skill. when he does that, lead into the people thinking about jackie chan. people know him. he is dodging and jumping around and juggling and do the stunt. when you have that kind of action with the comedy, the first person people would think is jackie chan. we don't have the intention to make it like jackie chan. we try to avoid that. we went to make shang-chi have its own style. that sequence, he still tries to hide his skill and that is why it will be like jackie. >> does he use a stunt double

for that scene or no? >> ucl the big stun, that is everything he does. even -- any actor onset when wee are doing stunt with them, we make sure they don't get hurt or something because it will stop the production. we have a stunt guy to take the heat. >> don't go away. let's continue to chat on facebook live because i have to ask you about the way that scene

tonight, the coronavirus and the alarming new numbers and the questions over this new variant. the u.s. now heading into fall with four times more covid patients hospitalized than last fall. some hospitals now at a breaking point. in idaho, where they're now rationing care, forced to decide who gets treated first. we're with ems workers tonight responding to covid calls and the number of them coming in from the unvaccinated. more than 1 in 4 new covid cases now children. and tonight, the new mu variant, now seen in at least 28 states and concern over whether it could evade vaccines. and are booster shots coming soon? dr. jha is here to answer your questions on it all. also tonight heergs in the northeast, still recovering from those deadly floods and tornado,

tonight, the new ser