moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: i am kristen sze are watching "getting answers," where we ask experts and get answers in real-time. one of time magazine's most influential people of 2021 will be joining us live. also, this week the biden administration east international travel restrictions, leading time to start planning a european vacation. talk to a travel expert in italy to explain everything you need to know. first, cdc vaccine advisors just cited to greenlight the pfizer booster, following an fda vote

this week. this come after lots of debate and disagreement from doctors over whether it is needed and who should get it and when. joining us to discuss the latest is ucsf infectious disease expert dr. monica gandi. people are happy to see you today, because they have got questions. the cdc just endorsed giving pfizer boosters, but not everyone. just certain groups. tell us which groups those are? dr. gandi: it is basically anyone over 65. that is the cleanest category, anyone over 65 can get a booster , as soon as the cdc director signs off on this. then, have-risk adequate conditions. that means like, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney

disease, obesity, things that put people at risk for severe disease. they even said 18-49-year-olds are restricted, but there is a -- but if there is a real reason to do it, the doctor could prescribe it if they are at high risk, like if they are immuno compromised. and if someone isn't health care worker or has been around a lot of people, they did not approve the booster. kristen: right, that is the notable part to me because they voted against the booster for people in high-risk occupations, such as yourself, or caregivers to immunocompromised people or jailed individuals, seniors, and i thought the fda was more behind that. what happened? why was this more conservative? dr. gandi: it may have been the risk that you are seeing even among first responders and health care workers depends on how much circulating virus there is. and we have reached the peak of delta and are coming down. so, by the time this is old

outcome it may not be that a health worker is not much risk, and they want to see if there is another surge, which hopefully there won't be, because delta caused a lot of immunity. i think it was contagious, the epidemiology and the risk. because health cases are coming down, i am not at risk to see covid. it could be the epidemiology of. kristen: what else is behind the decision. is it, we think the vaccine is great, just take two doses and that is what we should stick with for most of you? dr. gandi: i hope what people get from this is that there is confidence in the vaccine. the fbi meeting went over 74 studies and showed really great protection, maintaining fo severe debt -- maintaining for severe disease with the two shots.

70% of the 10,000,000,000,000,00 are over 65, it is about one and one million chance of dying from covid if you have had a shot. to put that in perspective remember the covid fatalities before in vaccine, and there are one in one million if you are vaccinated, it was 87% on the most everyone was over 65. so getting them to those over 65, i hope it is giving people the confidence these shots work really well. kristen: but there was also argument, some people say with this decision comes -- with this decision, those who have the means will get the booster anyway. it becomes an equity issue. is that a valid concern? dr. gandi: that is a valid concern. people have gone into pharmacies under ready gotten the third

shot before the fda even discussed it. that is a valid concern. i would say the cleanest way to ascertain if you need a third shot is not to do that. but everyone is going to decide for themselves. i think they should have been more clear about what the condition is, because it is going to cause a lot of leeway. just like it did at the beginning of the rollout, where it was people who needed it medical conditions and then people who had means would go get it. nothing about covid has been clean or not messy and this is another messy one. kristen: no getting. you said the cdc director needs to sign off, assuming she does that in the next day or so, i guess booster shots could go into arms in a couple days? dr. gandi: absolutely. this weekend or monday. -- or monday. for over 65. kristen: what if you got the modernity shots originally --

moderna shots could they even get the pfizer? dr. gandi: there is looseness to the system. but moderna is holding up really well. a cdc study friday showed 93% persistent protection against hospitalizations regardless of age group. it was a little lower, 88% for pfizer and even lower for johnson & johnson. that means moderna is holding up well and they are looking at a booster with a lower dose. so, i would wait if you have had moderna. i am going to wait and see. kristen: the pfizer booster is supposed to come six months after the primary series. tell me what that means, does it mean six months after your second shot, and why six months?

earlier, we were hearing maybe eight months. dr. gandi: the reason it is six months after the primary is extrapolation, extrapolation from the human papilloma vaccine, where we give it a zero baseline for one month than six months. that is a standard vaccine schedule. it is extrapolating from what is standard. kristen: if you are marginal, let's say you don't meet the criteria set today, let's say you are 48 but feel like you have some condition, but maybe it isn't technically considered really high-risk, but let's say you are on the margin. could you talk to your doctor and as long as your doctor says you can get it, you can get it? dr. gandi: yes. there will be now a lot of conversations between doctors and patients in deciding whether they need another shot. exactly what you should do, talk

your doctor. anyone over 65 is easy. beyond that, discussions. kristen: his doctor and wants to know what you say to patients who are hesitant to get the vaccine. dr. gandi: if they have gotten the two shots, i am really confident in their two shots. over 65, i am confident and fi look at the data, i am convinced in how well they are holding up. if you really want another shot, wait until we get more data on the lower dose for moderna, even if you get -- even if you originally got pfizer. you really don't have to get to booster. there is going to be people who wanted, people who don't want it. i am happy for the people out there with two doses. kristen: vivian wants to know, our-type one diabetics considered high risk?

dr. gandi: risk factors prior to covid are not necessarily the risk factors after you are vaccinated and then get a case of covid. they are seeing risk factors afterwards. obesity is coming out is a big one. so they have not ever actually broken down the data for us and said the severe breakthrough is 10,000, tell us how many have diabetes. so, it is going to be one of those on the fence questions. if you are older and have type 1 diabetes and you are 50, you are more likely to get it. kristen: do you think there is a chance cdc director rochelle walensky will allow boosters as a matter of course in people in high-risk workplaces, even though today the cdc committee did not decide on that?

can they deviate from that course? dr. gandi: she can't. it is extremely rare. i don't remember a case when they haven't listened to their committee. i think that would be the same with the cdc advisory committee. i very much doubt that she will, actually. but if you are a high risk but have a medical condition, you can go right back to the former for terry for 18-49 and get it. kristen: brandi wants to know, if you got johnson & johnson, can i get a pfizer booster? dr. gandi: this committee did not weigh in on that. there were supposed to be a meeting to weigh in on that, but i would say a lot of johnson & johnson people are going to get a pfizer jab. and i think that is great. the johnson & johnson data in the cdc article showed a 71% protection against johnson & johnson from hospitalization,

that is the lowest. so everyone is looking at johnson & johnson data. johnson & johnson put out booster data this weekend they are going to give two weeks and then give a recommendation on johnson & johnson. they are ok waiting weeks, and there will be a clean recommendation for you. if you want to get the pfizer, go ahead. kristen: i know you are busy, but lori wants to know what is the difference between a booster and a shot? and i wonder if that will become harder to define. dr. gandi: it will. they used to be a primary series that was studied in literature and a group of patients and in this case, the primary series tw is -- is two, and the booster would be the third. now, dr. fauci is saying, maybe they should have been three in the series. that is extrapolating from hpv

and may not be needed for these shots. because we can glance at people's lymph nodes and see wonderful d cells growing, evidence that these work really well. they really work well. so, i don't know if we are going to need three. kristen: erica wants to know if pregnant women are considered high risk. dr. gandi: yes. kristen: dr. monica gandi, i know you have patience to work with and thank you so much. we appreciate your time. coming up next, we talk to a local professor who is one of time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2021. we talked about 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.

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kristen: welcome back. "time" magazine released its 100 most influential people of 2021 including president biden, harry and megan and russell jeung. joining us now is the san francisco university professor and one of the cofounders of stop aapi hate. thanks for joining us. how does it feel being on the list? professor jeung: great. but it belongs to everybody that stop aapi hate. kristen: time wrote this, they created a place where asian pacific islanders and asians could chronicle racism in our communities that have gone unreported by government

agencies and the media, and unnoticed by others. do you think those things have changed, that is, do you think the stop aapi hate movement has influenced the path we take? professor jeung: this urge continues, sadly. we continue to get support. maybe we always had that baseline level of racism working against us. what i think what has changed is attention given to the issue, policymakers addressing the issue, the legislature in california just passed a budget to address racism. so, we are seeing change on the governmental level. . kristen: that is good pig changing human -- that is good. changing humans is harder. it starts with people talking about it. since you started having people report and track attacks on asian-americans, how many incidents have been reported? professor jeung: we received over 9000 incidents the end of

june. really, that is a fraction of what is happening. other surveys show 45% of asian americans have experienced racism during the covid-19 pandemic. kristen: as you look at that trend, is the graph slowing down or is it on the increase? professor jeung: it is really hard to say right now. we are getting continued reports because primarily people know about us now and want to report, seeing how it is effective to report. kristen: you did a study the foundation americans are stressed more by anti-asian hate than even by covid-19? professor jeung: yeah, a chilling fact, we are more concerned as asian americans by other americans' hate than we are by a pandemic that killed over 640,000 people. that shows how widespread the racism is, how traumatizing it is and how concerned we are about the long-term impact. kristen: do you know if other

races and people of color are being attacked in larger numbers? and of those numbers correlate with their population westmark professor jeung: -- population? professor jeung: hate crimes are up and hate incidents are up. epidemic proportions. but especially since asian and china were blamed for covid 19 come asian americans have been particularly impacted during covid-19. kristen: and that added on to come as you said, anti-asian sentiments that have been there since the exclusion act going back to the 1800s. it is a long history in our country, which i hope all kids learn about in school. it starts there. but i want to bring it to the communities because we have seen even in the bay area, san francisco and oakland, many attacks on asian americans and some people in the community say the answer is more policing. but others in the community

disagree. i know you believe in holistic solutions. i wonder what you think that entails -- is it police, partnerships, what do you think? professor jeung: we do want to approach the issue comprehensively. it starts with prevention. we want to promote ethnic studies that students really do learn in the krause room -- in the classroom about the sources of racism and the contributions of asians and asian pacific islanders. most of the incidents are hate crimes, so more policing and enforcement of hate crimes aren't necessarily going to address the large swath of problems. we are getting verbally harassed, denied public accommodations at stores, we face online harassment, so more than hate crime enforcement and more policing, we need civil rights protections to be enforced. we need the community to stand up to intervene when they see things happening. and they need to work together for community safety for all.

kristen: to find out more go to stopaapihate.org and being on this "time" list of 100 most influential people of the year hopefully that will keep the work going as well. thank you. up next, we are turning to travel as the holidays are quickly approaching. we will talk about the best deals on what else you need to know is the biden administration

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kristen: this week, the biden administration announced at that sometime in november, the u.s. will allow vaccinated international travelers to enter, including those from previously banned countries. this, as people plan family visits across the pond. joining us to mixer we know the details before you buy airline tickets is willis orlando with scott's cheap flights.

great to see you. thank you. you are joining us from italy? willis: i am joining you from italy. a little past midnight here. kristen: i was hoping your backdrop would be michelangelo. you are clearly in a room [laughter] . i wasn't it getting there from the u.s. -- how was it getting there from the u.s.? tell us what prerequisites you had to meet? willis: i have been here for a month. i entered spain in the spain requirements at the time were less than they are now. i brought my cdc card, filled out a passenger locator four, standard across countries. i came from spain to italy, went online, entered my information so they could contact me if anyone on my plane was infected. pretty simple stuff. the checks at the borders were all very straightforward. nothing took more than an extra five, 10 minutes. the most complicated thing was the flight to leave from the

u.s., the airline had trouble working through documentations, so we had to wait online longer than usual. kristen: in europe, can you as an american freely move about the various countries of the eu? willis: it is a little complicated because each country has its own set of rules. in my experience, it does very because other europeans are allowed to move from place to place. once you have been here for two weeks, the european rules i am no longer someone who has been in the u.s. in the last two weeks. kristen: the biden administration changed travel rules coming in november. what will be different, i know it is aimed at welcoming back vaccinated foreigners? willis: exactly. the old rules have outlived any usefulness. we were following a guideline

for march 2020 and here we are at october 21 almost, and we were icing out people who were having trouble in march 2020. someone who was not vaccinated from a country that was doing fine in march 2020 was welcomed. now, anyone who is vaccinated anywhere in the world who can supply a negative test will be welcomed to the u.s.. kristen: and it is not like they had to get one of the vaccines approved in the u.s.. if it was approved in their country, they are vaccinated, right? fully out, there is a list of approved vaccines. astrazeneca here is a big one that we don't offer in the u.s. i assume that would also be accepted in the u.s. kristen: are airlines responding to this change with more deals?

willis: this is one of the best things we have seen. whenever countri -- whenever countries open up, airlines scramble to capitalize on that demand. so they have a lot of new planes on these routes, which increases the supply of seats overall, which pushes prices down rapidly. there are some amazing deals and i am expecting this new announcement to double down these incredible deals we have already been seeing between the u.s. and europe as demand has ramped up. kristen: if i want to go to florence where you are, how much are round-trip tickets looking? ? at right now? -- round trip tickets looking at right now? >> last week we saw 290 three dollar round-trip ticket between san francisco and florence. kristen: gas for a drive to los

angeles is almost more than that. looking ahead to thanksgiving and christmas, when should people book? for the best deals -- book for the best deals? willis: for the holidays, book now. winter holidays, there is always more demand. things are looking better at home and i would say start looking right now and jump on these deals. there are a lot of great deals right now. last week, $113 round-trip between sfo and new york city nonstop, round-trip. that is amazing stuff.

kristen: thank you for joining us on this interactive show,

"getting answers." we answered questions about boosters now that is tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the deadly shooting at a grocery store near memphis. shoopers and employees hiding inside freezers and officers. also, breaking news from the cdc. boosters will begin. and the fbi at this hour with an arrest warrant for brian laundrie. ambulances at the scene of that deadly shooting at a kroger grocery store outside memphis. 13 people shot, at least one dead. pierre thomas with late reporting. the other major headline, the cdc voting yes on pfizer boosters for adults 65 and older. and for anyone 1 a8 and older a high risk for the disease. but tonight, the one part the