>> building a better bay area. moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. >> you are watching getting answers live on abc seven, hulu live, and wherever you stream. we are asking experts everyday at 3:00 to get answers in real-time. today, we have a chamber of commerce representative sounding the warning about the new indoor vaccine mandate for restaurants and shops. we will talk to an infectious disease specialist about the pfizer booster now being given out in the bay area and when the vaccine may get authorized for kids 5-11. first, we have new information coming out of the bay area. joining us now to talk about it is the san mateo county deputy

health officer. thank you for joining us. now that the pfizer booster's are going out, how is it going in san mateo county? are you seeing a huge demand? do we have the infrastructure? any issues, challenges, long lines? >> fortunately, the infrastructure and supply is much better right now than it was six to nine months ago. pharmacies and primary care providers, community clinics, and we will still have our county vaccination clinic. they will not be the mad dash and low supply from back in february and april. there is now plenty of supply and you will be able to get it. kristen: if you are in one of those eligible groups. for folks 65 and up in long-term care situations, folks in high-risk occupations where they

have a lot of exposure. remind me, i am blanking out on the last one. underlying medical conditions. if you are in one of those groups, would you go to a county website, california website, call your doctor, pharmacist? >> all of those options are available. i think the one thing to clarify is that we agree with the cdc recommendations. those who are 65 years -- there is a should category and there is a may category. the science is clear that certain groups of people should get a third dose. number one, the immunocompromised. those recommendations have been in place for the last several weeks already. the second group is those who are 65 years old and older, who have received pfizer. they should receive a straight shot. the third group is those over 50 years old, 50-64, with underlying medical conditions.

they should receive a booster shot as well. the cdc also offers that other groups may receive a booster shot. those are those 18-49 with underlying conditions. and those who are at occupational risk in their jobs of getting covid. there is a may recommendation. those are because the cdc is looking at the science as it happens. the delta variant has only been with us for the last several months. they are utilizing that data immediately to make these recommendations. anybody who may want to get it now, they can get it now or wait a little bit longer to see more fully about the safety profile. we are very clear that this vaccine is very safe, very effective for the primary, first and second doses of the vaccine. kristen: san mateo, lucky for

you, is a highly vaccinated county. i think 94% of those people eligible have been vaccinated, one of the highest in the state. are you seeing a direct relationship between the vaccination rate and a spittle as asians as deaths? curtis: -- and and deaths? curtis: people who are getting vaccinated are still getting infected, but fortunately, they are not getting hospitalized at great rates. what we are seeing in san mateo county and across the state, those people who are unvaccinated have a 15 times more likely to die and about 10 times more likely to be hospitalized. and about five times more likely to transmit the disease to somebody else. so, the vaccine is still very protective at an individual level to protect yourself, and

it is quite effective in terms of preventing infections to other people. kristen: even though it is very effective against the most serious illness, isn't it true that you have evidence even in san mateo county of more breakthroughs with delta. a higher percentage of infections now appearing among the vaccinated? curtis: that is true. about 18% of our cases are from vaccinated individuals. 18%. but, when you consider that 94% of our population that is eligible is vaccinated, you would expect that 94% of the cases would come from the vaccinated group. in fact, it is only 18%. when we do the math, it is actually about five times more protective than if you are not vaccinated. i think the big take-home message, for those people who are vaccinated, just to keep in

mind that you can still get infected and you can still transmit to your loved ones. still very important if you are developing symptoms to get tested. kristen: i think transmission rates are coming down now after hitting the late-summer peak. given that and your high vaccination rate, i wonder if san mateo county will consider lifting the indoor masking mandate, when you go to restaurants, movie theaters. instead coming soon? curtis: it is not coming very soon but something beheld officers in the region discuss at least twice a week about those parameters. they do relate some of the things you talk about. the overall case rates and hospitalization rates. those are things we are considering. also, within several weeks, children be eligible for vaccines as well. we also want to make sure that

the case rates continue to drop so that children do not need to be -- so that children are not infected in schools and do not need to be quarantined from schools. it is really important for us to make sure that schools can stay in session and that kids can be healthy in school. kristen: do you think that when it does come time to lift the mask mandate, will it be a general lifting or more surgical, like it is lifted for certain categories of people? curtis: i think the help officers understand that there are certain groups of people in certain indoor settings where we know who our close contacts are at our workplace. let's say i become positive at my workplace. i know who i have interacted with. and i can let them know, i was positive. you should be -- i am letting you know that you might have been infected. in indoor spaces where we are

not exposing to the general public, that is a criteria in which that could be lifted earlier. but, in indoor spaces where we don't know who the close contacts are, and there is a lot of mixing of people, that could lead to a lot of infections and transmission? kristen: might you consider an indoor vaccine mandate when going to restaurants the way san francisco has and i believe contra costa county just started it last week? curtis: we are not considering an individual county health officer order for that. we appreciate businesses and employers who are trying to protect their clients and their workers. so, i think those are things that help public health and i think those are things that can be implemented. kristen: dr. chan, we have about 30 seconds but i would like to

get your prediction on this holiday season, if you think it will look a little more normal. do you think people will be able to travel and have family gatherings? curtis: i think so. i think, because the vaccine has been distributed to so many who are fragile, elderly, i do not think we will have the bad public health impact of traveling in celebration as we did previously. so we will not have the same travel restrictions or holiday restrictions as we did in the past when we had a chance of harming grandparents in the community. i think right now we are trying to get the information out as clearly as possible through the cdc and state health departments locally to be smart in our decisions. get tested and make sure you do not expose other people. if we do those things, we can make sure we can live with covid in the future. it might be that simple. kristen: thank you so much for

your time. coming up next, we will have ucsf infectious disease specialist joining us, answering your questions about booster shots.

kristen: today, the pfizer booster is being given out across the country to people 65 and older, people living in long-term facilities, people with underlying adequate conditions, and people with high exposure jobs. someone who falls in that category is president biden. he got his pfizer booster very publicly today, urging eligible americans to follow suit. joining us is a ucsf infectious disease specialist. great to see you. >> thank you for having.

kristen: president biden got his vaccine very publicly today. it has been about eight months for him, i think. how long should someone wait after their original series? >> i would put it into three categories. red, amber, and green. the red group should get it whenever they can. i would say that is the over 65 age group. the amber, you are above 50. the green is everybody else. you can pretty much get it anytime after six months. it is not an emergency, it is just really a good idea for that group. kristen: underlying medical conditions is a broad category. can you help people understand who that covers? >> when we think about underlying adequate conditions from the literature of who would progress to bad covid, that includes people with heart disease, lung disease, people

with diabetes, people who are obese as defined by a higher body mass index, i would say over 25 or so, but you know the definition changes based on where you live. those are at higher risk for not just acquiring it but doing badly if you get it. it also includes a broader risk of categories included neurological disorders. it is different from immunocompromised. a much higher level of risk for not getting protection because of who they are. but they are not necessarily at risk for getting bad covid. kristen: there is some thought that a third dose might bring on a bigger immune response. given that, do you worry that there could be a greater chance with heart inflammation as well with the third shot, especially in young adult males, we have

seen the cases more likely in? >> we just don't know. personally, i don't think so because a long time has elapsed since the second dose and it is really stacking one after the other that increases the risk for most people. the average age was 30. it was after the second dose, not the first dose. this booster is several months apart, so the body almost forgot what is coming, and that is almost likely first time for the antibodies. kristen: that is a good point about the time difference. carol wants to know, should i wait for the j in j booster or take another one? >> i would say, it depends on who you are. if you are immunocompromised or over 65, i would probably get one additional dose. if you are everybody else, you can wait for the data. we are not seeing a lot of breakthrough j and j people in

the hospital in united states right now. at some point, that data will be released. i think for the immunocompromised, older people, i would not want to wait necessarily. kristen: if you are over 70 and got your second modernity shot in march, should you get the pfizer booster shot now or wait until they release the moderna booster? >> i would say if you are 70, you can go ahead and get the pfizer. it is pretty much the very same vaccine. moderna is looking at a lower dose. we just do not know the data for the lower booster shot from moderna yet. kristen: pfizer says it started testing an oral antiviral drug. tell us about that. >> the next i think leap in in i medicines for covid is these

oral drugs. many are similar to the hiv inhibitors. they are kind of like very easy to take. i am very excited about them because you can give it to somebody early on, you can use it as exposure prophylaxis, postexposure prophylaxis. there are many other uses for it potentially apart from treatment. whenever there is an outbreak, even though people are vaccinated, we would give the people around that person like in a nursing home, that oral medicine. it has been shown to prevent transmission. i would safer both treatment as well as prevention, i could imagine this drug being used if the side effect profile is good. which it appears to be so far. kristen: pfizer announced today

it will -- the cdc will the vaccine for children ages 5-11 within days. quickly dose for kids ages 5-11 is one third the dose for adults and at the same efficacy as when they looked at ages 18-25. so, we expect a fda approval for this, or amendment by halloween, as a conservative date. hopefully sooner than that. kristen: here is your trick-or-treating candy, and here is your shot. do you urge the state to make it mandatory for all schools, for kids to be vaccinated? >> i think eventually, that is the writing on the wall. we have so many vaccines that are mandatory for schools to make it a safe environment. it is part of the school

tradition i think that this will eventually be in the cards. scum -- some school districts have indicated for older kids. for younger kids, i think it will also have a very similar pathway at some point. kristen: new data out today, i guess we should celebrate this because california is the only state now out of the 50 with moderate rate of transition -- rate of transmission, that is the lowest in the nation. i want to ask you if you're feeling good about where we are and what your predictions are? >> i am feeling excited about it. amongst california, the bay area is even better. we are like the star student. in san francisco, we just have about 70 cases per day on average over seven days. much better than the hundreds that we saw in the delta search. the test positivity rate is about 2.1%, down from about 6%.

a lot of reason to celebrate but not too much celebration because we are still at a high level. moderate is still not low. my prediction is that we will continue to go down. holidays will be pretty good in the bay area in general because a lot of people are vaccinated. kristen: thank you for your time and insight. always great talking to you. coming up next, we will be talking live the executive director of the lafayette chamber of commerce in post-acosta county. we'll take a short

kristen: it has been almost one week since contra costa county's vaccine mandate for businesses like gyms and restaurants went into effect. the county joint san francisco where a similar mandate took effect last month. since then, 60% of san francisco

restaurants reported losing business according to a survey by the golden gate restaurant association. another survey by the same group showed more than 80% of restaurants i think a few issues with customers over the mandate. i suppose that means 20% did have issues. joining us to talk about the mandate is the executive director of the lafayette chamber of commerce. thank you for your time. >> thanks for having me. kristen: i want to ask you, contra costa county's indoor maxine mandate -- indoor vaccine mandate just took effect. what are you hearing from restaurant owners in terms of the mandate and what has it done in terms of business? >> absolutely, it has had some impact. this time around, with changes to the protocol, everyone had about a week to get prepared. at least there was a chance for people to sort of get ready and train their employees on what to

do. the first two days last week, wednesday and thursday, were horrendous. kristen: how so? >> people arrived at restaurants and/or gyms, and did not even realize that there was this mandate, and were disappointed, got turned away out the door. over the last couple of days, there has been a lot more media attention attributed. actually, over the weekend, most of the restaurants i talked to and a couple of gyms have really not had that many problems. it has really turned the corner. kristen: that is really great to hear. i wonder if this also means that a corner has been turned from the stance of the customers, like if they do not agree with it, have there been confrontations? the worst thing is for a restaurant owner having to play the role of police when they don't really know how and then

seeing their employees may beget verbally criticized or things like that. >> usually a manager of a restaurant has been trained in how to deal with that sort of thing because they deal with similar situations. to put a hostess at the front door or having the server reminding people they have to keep their mascot unless they are eating or drinking, it is unfortunate that employees have to do that at this point. but, again, with the increase in the amount of discussion about this, it has really made a change. have there been confrontations? yes. but not many. kristen: have business owners been given guidance about how to handle i don't want to just say confrontations but even agreements about such matters? >> you have to do this with civility and compassion. people have the right to do what

they think is right for them when there is a mandate that you can't go into a restaurant or a gym without a mask on, you have got an option. you don't have most of our restaurants have had extended outdoor seating in people who are not vaccinated yet or fully vaccinated can still sit outside and dine at their favorite restaurants. kristen: what is your message i guess to both customers and to the county? >> to the county, it is all about communicating the message. that this is in effect. and i think we came out of the gate where a lot of people did not realize customers, i think we just need to look at what the statistics are.

a mask mandate, a vaccine mandate, very important to the safety of themselves and the employees who work in these businesses. i think there is a small percentage of people who are having a problem with this. i think the rest of the community is very happy that we have this. kristen: don't go away, we wil 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. -just like that. -wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today.

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♪ ♪ hello, colonial penn? kristen: thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers today. we answered your questions about booster shots, ran through cases, and business vaccine mandates. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00. you will want to tune in at ben interview with dr. mark galli

talking about all things booster and what the state is doing with mandates. you will want to join us then. have a great day. world news tonight is next. tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the verdict in the r. kelly trial here in new york city. singer r. kelly guilty on all counts, charged with sex trafficking and racketeering amid decades of allegations of sexual misconduct with minors. the jury deliberating just nine hours. he now faces decades in prison. the coronavirus and president biden today receiving his pfizer booster shot, as tens of thousands of americans eligible for their booster now line up. tonight, if you got moderna or johnson & johnson, what is the timeline for boosters for you? and how soon could there be these wit cruci vot5 to . domestic agenda. two separate infrastructure

bills a