kristen: you're watching getting answers live on abc 7. we asked experts your questions every day at three to get answers for you in real time. we will talk to a former contestant on jeopardy to get her take on who should be the permanent host. and her personal insight on the late alex trebek. andy ousted host, mike richards. we will talk to the oakland unified school board member who is proposing requiring all eligible students be vaccinated. first, we are following lots of news when it comes to covid-19 vaccines. joining us

thank you for joining us today. you reached back into -- reinstating mask mandates and counseling against travel, the single most effective policy for preventing covid spread was quietly ignored. what was the thing that was ignored in your opinion? dr. raven: the thing that was ignored was a vaccine mandate. we all know we started vaccinating but in order to achieve adequate population level immunity that can stop surges like the one we have been experiencing with delta, we need more people to get vaccinated and the way that can happen cost-effectively is through a mandate. >> we do have some as you have seen, certainly various like restaurants and gyms. is that not enough? >> correct, it is great.

i am glad some public spaces are doing this and mandating proof of vaccination. it is not enough yet. we really need all public spaces from schools and gyms and restaurants as you mentioned, also small businesses, anywhere that is a public space to be mandated through immunity. >> the state does require its employees and health-care workers to be vaccinated. basically you're saying we like to see the state. you want to see them mandated everywhere like on all levels. decent job but a piecemeal approach when it comes to something like covid-19 is not sufficient. kristen: most of these mandates still have an out if you will,

the weekly testing option. what do you think about that? dr. raven: i think it needs to go. weekly testing does very little to prevent transmission and so it is just not effective and it is not even close to effective as a vaccine. dr. raven: what -- kristen: what about the fact that we have not moved on the widespread catch all vaccine mandate. what do you suppose is the reason for that? was it politics? the recall? others? what do you think? >> at think there is a political aspect to it. i think in our country, people are hesitant to mandate many things, anything. i think that is reasonable when it comes to lots of different things. when it comes to a pandemic and public health problems, like covid-19, it is impacting so many vulnerable people.

it does not need to be choice when we know these vaccines are incredibly safe and very effective. >> i hear see the state take more impactful action. what about the federal government? you heard president biden say that he is going to urge become just require vaccinations for employees. it sounds like more are in the works. what would you like to see the federal government do? >> i would like to see a federal vaccine mandate. i think that is going to get our country where we need to go. that is out of this pandemic. it will get kids back into schools, it will get them unmasked so we can -- they can express themselves and learn the way they should be able to. it will prevent immune compromised individuals from being infected because they often can't mount a response

even if they are vaccinated. i would love to see a federal vaccine mandate. for that happen? it is very doubtful. i think at the end of the day, we are going to need a little bit more. >> many people also say a vaccine requirement is an infringement on their freedom. you wrote that from your vantage point as any our doctor. there are more consequential freedoms that never ending covid searches will continue to restrict. like what? >> that is right. as we all know, we have not been able to go for long time frames into indoor spaces unmasked. more important than that, people are forced to wait outside. they can't visit loved ones in the hospital. they can't communicate with physicians and other providers

at critical times during critical illness without a mask on. those are important things that are being infringed upon, almost like a collateral damage of the vaccination. kristen: i am seeing, is online that people say it has to be our choice. these vaccines don't stop the spread or stop people from getting it. dr. raven: that is the t t that is out there a lot and here is what i would say. the vaccines present severe disease in hospitalization or death. those are the things that we want. that is generally the level of symptoms that a vaccinated person would get if they had covid. matter is the vaccines are safe, they are very effective and

more people that are vaccinated, that means the less the virus can mutate and spread so that we don't have to experience another variant. in order to do that, we have to get more population level immunity. kristen: even if california were to take more action, do you think that will help stop the pandemic if other states don't have similar mandates or don't believe in the vaccine as a way out? dr. raven: california can serve as a leader in this movement as we have in public health.

doing the best job we can where we live locally. think we need to vaccinate in order to return to normal and prevent future variants? taking into account the natural unity that is out there and not often acknowledged? dr. raven: it is such a great point. it is true especially if you had more severe infections, you probably have pretty darn good immunity to covid. we should not discount that. if there are more sophisticated symptoms in place, i would be in favor of people who have been infected with covid being able to show that and show they have

immunity. even if they don't want to get that vaccination that has been very strongly recommended. one additional shot. can you repeat the rest of your question? >> i do understand your point about that. i would very much hope you can address where you stand on boosters. even amongst mental -- medical professionals, there is disagreement about whether a booster is needed. even as the administration is making plans to roll ahead. dr. raven: i think if you are in otherwise healthy person below the age of 60, you probably don't need a booster. you have really good memory immunity called cellular immunity and your body will remember and it will mount the antibody response in needs to. if you are older and health care worker who is frequently exposed, i think the same thing to do is get a booster.

i don't think we have enough data to prove it is absolutely necessary. i think that is reasonable. for others, if you're not immunocompromised, i don't think it is necessarily shown to be backed by data. kristen: dr. maria raven, chief of emergency room operations in emergency medicine, i appreciate your time and insight today. dr. raven: thank you for having me. kristen: we are seeing more and more vaccine mandates by county but what about schools? that is starting to become a thing. that debate is raging in the bay

they are considering following

los angeles possibly to and requiring that all students ages 12 and up get the covid vaccine. joining us now is vice president sam davis who proposed this measure. i know this is still under under escutcheon. tell us what you're proposing. >> i am just proposing to set it as a policy goal. we have seen asking, ventilation. that would keep the virus levels down. those numbers would be zero.

>> there is pretty good vaccination compared to the rest of the country. is closer to 90%. i can see where you hope to booster numbers a little bit. why do you suppose the vaccination rate amongst your students is not higher? >> there is a lot of vaccination myths circulating on social media. we have to counteract those. we also want to be sensitive in how we are doing it because we don't want to force anyone out of school. we don't want to exclude people from education. we want to use this as an opportunity to educate about the

vaccine. i don't think there is a lot of anti-vaxxers in the bay area. a lot of people were on the fence, they were skeptical. maybe they saw some myths online. they really need to speak to a medical professional. myths. it was really effective to get those students that way. quite in addition to dispelling myths, will the district be facilitating students actually getting vaccinated? >> we have been working with the county and bringing mobile vaccine clinics. we have not seen the numbers lately at those free vaccine clinics on our campuses we should be seeing.

people are skeptical or had not been convinced yet. we really need to give them that little boost. you have mentioned you saw some cases since school began which is respected -- expected. have you had to quarantine kids or cancel classes or have a whole grade level go remote? >> it has not been a whole grade level. there have been individual classrooms that have had to quarantine. we are seeing the numbers of cases going down. i think it shows that school is a safe place to be when we are using all of our measures in place. we do see some cases and that is really reflective of the level of infection in the community. kids are much more likely to get infected at social events on the weekends than they are at school. kristen: some families are not

comfortable sending their parent -- their kids to school in person. hundreds more are opting for more remote or independent study. what are you seeing over in oakland? >> we are seeing that here as well. we had a huge influx when the delta virus outbreaks started to increase right before school started. we went from 350 students asking for online learning to well over 900. that is a huge shift in resources and it is a bit of a scramble. i think we have them all online now and it is getting better. it was difficult to do at the beginning of the school year. >> because you are a bigger district and you have the numbers, are you able to offer those remote kids synchronous learning? kind of like what we had last year? with your teacher, your classmates.

it is synchronous learning online. >> do you want to expand to five to 11-year-olds? >> i think what we saw with this age group is that millions of students have gotten those across the country and locally and see very few side effects. i think that is where i want to start. i would understand. my son is in 10th grade. he is fully vaccinated. but parents might still be a little leery at first. in some cases. i hope as many of them as possible do. i don't think it would be a need to mandate it. kristen: talk about how you will tackle this proposal. will you take input from parents , students and teachers? >> i was talking with students today. i think we do need to hear from the community about what they

feel and what their concerns are. i have heard a lot of support from it, teachers and staff and from parents in the district. we are all concerned for our students. we don't want them getting infected and spreading it to other people but i do want to see the superintendent bring it back. that is the point of the board meeting, to discuss it and see what exemptions we need to make, what the timeline will look like, but the limitation will look like. it is a lot of big questions. >> thank you so much for sharing thus what you are considering there and keep us posted. >> thank you so much. >> coming up next, a local jeopardy contestant weighs in on the host debate and she takes us behind the scenes of what it is like to be on the show. we are taking a

heard today that jeopardy will be hosted the rest of the year by interim hosts.

mayim bialik and ken this as the host search continues. mike richards was named host for a second until his old demeaning comment about women were uncovered. we all have opinions. joining us is audrey francisco. >> i moved to san francisco a couple of months ago from oakland. >> you are very bay area. before we asked you think should be the permit host, tell us when you are on the show and had that picture taken with alex trebek. >> i was on the show january 1 of 2020. i filmed with alastair back in

2019. >> he already announced he was battling pancreatic cancer. how was he in your interactions with him and your observations of him? >> he seemed to be pretty energetic and great, incredibly professional, you could tell everybody onset, a lot of longtime employees adored him. i was glad to say that my impression of him on tv was exactly the same way he seems to be in real life. the interesting part of the show is that during commercial breaks, he asked does some sort of q&a session with the audience. he mentioned how painful and annoying chemotherapy had been for him. that was the only time where he shared about his medical condition. >> he did not talk a lot about himself as he quietly and bravely fought because he always made it about the contestants and the game.

did you interact with mike richards? he was ep when you appeared -- did you have any interactions or impressions? >> maybe he was there but he did not talk to anybody. there were other producers who were handlers that we engaged with a lot. >> went alex passed away, did the former -- the community of former contestants talk about who should take over russian mark i don't want to say replaced because i think he is irreplaceable but whose name came up? >> i was really surprised that nobody from the clue crew were given the opportunity to host jeopardy formally. they are the ones who hosted the rehearsal for us so they know exactly how the show works, they have been there for a long time and i was disappointed there were not given the opportunity. ken jennings is always going to be the front runner.

people were also curious to see buzzy:. another very popular and successful contestant. i think both of them did a great job. >> after watching the plethora of guest hosts rotate through, where they still your favorites question mark -- favorites? >> yes. i thought david did a great job posting. kristen: what was the reaction among you former contestant types when mike richards was announced? >> i it was shock. there were people who had him as a guest host. they thought that was great but it seemed there was some sort of deception at the show when he announced that he was going to be the guest host. he appeared he was just going to be filling and last-minute for somebody who could not do it because of covid related reasons. we thought sharing the fact that

he had ambitions to be on the show as a host -- without sharing the fact that he had ambitions to be on the show as a host. >> it sounds like you would not be too disappointed if they end up with ken jennings but are you at all concerned about his old tweets that reportedly took him out of contention? he tweeted some things he apologized for including nothing sadder than a hot person in a wheelchair. what do you think about that? >> good point. i think the issue with mike richards is that i do not feel lucky proper -- properly apologized. the thing that stuck with me is nobody who worked on previous shows with him ever came to his defense. clearly the people who worked with him did not really like him. the way that i feel people appreciate ken jennings. but you are right. he should not be tweeting,

saying or thinking those things. >> about 30 seconds on air. you were on one episode, no winnings. but you have taken that. what are you doing now? with the money? >> with life, you have an interesting career. >> i work in food. i work for a small company called free trees. we are in about 2000 stores across the country if you ever want to try, just let me know. >>

>> thank you for joining us. getting answers, today we cover covid-19, vaccine mandates across the state and in schools.

we will be here every weekday at three. answering your questions. tonight, the crucial fda meeting in the next 24 hours on booster shots in this country. deciding on the pfizer booster first. the fda's critical decision expected as early as tomorrow and tonight here the new data out of israel. and what it shows. a third pfizer shot researchers say provides ten times more protection against covid and severe disease. and what it shows for adults 60 and older. all of this amid the dire numbers here in the u.s., more than 2,000 deaths in the u.s. in the last 24 hours. the highest number in seven months. whit johnson with late reporting tonight, how soon those booster shots could begin and what new york city is staying. authorities securing the u.s. capitol ahead of that protest in support of the hundreds arrested in the january 6th attack on the capitol.