>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: you're watching getting answers live on abc seven, hulu live, and wherever you stream. we ask expert your questions. today, we talk to marin county health officer after they and san francisco decided to ease mask mandate in certain indoor situations. that began today. also, we'll look at a survey that shows the majority of bay area residents planning on leaving in the next few years. what are the factors that they're citing? but san francisco based ventu capitalist is back on terra firma after having gone to space aboard the latest mission.

joining is now to talk about this is the cofounder of planet labs partner at d.c. venture capital, former nasa ames researcher, and new space traveler. great to have you on. welcome back to earth. >> great to be home. kristen: i see the video behind you. i bet you want to relive that over and over. it's been two days. all systems back to normal? you feeling good? >> i still feel a little out of body experience at the moment. it was a very interesting and strange experience. kristen: i would like to say i understand but i really don't because you have reached somewhere few have gone before, through hooded 47,00 -- 347, above the ground. five people have reached that? >> just under 600 at the moment

when you think about the -- about the 700 -- 7 billion people on the planet. kristen: you have been probably dreaming about this for a long time. space geek? >> my whole life. kristen: so let's talk about this since he dreamed of this moment your whole life. what was it like? i know you were up there from launch to landing about 10 minutes. walk us through it. >> there's always this fear when you have something you've jumped about that when you get it it isn't what you thought it would be, but this was so much better and so much different and i talked to a few astronauts who were on site for the launch and nasa astronauts have been to the space station. i asked them, you have this problem explaining what it's like? they say secretly, we don't tell anyone this but what we felt because we can't find the words. they all unanimously said that and i understand that finally. kristen: i can imagine because we did hear from william

shatner. he got very emotional. he talked about seeing the atmosphere as a comforter of blue that wrapped around the earth and i think we have video of that when he came back. definitely realizing, he said the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me. talk about the emotional journey for you. did you feel something similar? >> i'm just so glad bill was there because he's a trained actor. he knows how to communicate emotion. i'm in engineer and it takes me a long time to process things. what he said is how i felt and it was magic to hear him pouring it out in the most pure form right on the spot and even in training, there were tears because the simulator was so realistic. but once we got to space, we were all sobbing up there. it's hard to describe how deeply moving this experience is. kristen: i'm looking at video

right now, not sure which one is you, but talk about being weightless, what that felt like. >> it was so natural. i unbuckled my seatbelt and there was enough to just push me out and then i instinct if lee did a somersault because i could. and i did another one because it was really fun. it feels so natural. nothing strange about it at all, the most beautiful natural feeling. everyone should try it. kristen: what about the g forces? did they do a number on you? >> on the way down, yeah. on the way up, it's actually pretty calm. it is a smooth and quiet rocket. not a lot of shaking. it was a beautiful, smooth ride. coming back down, because we were in space and we get the atmosphere, they say it's like when you throw a stone in a river, the stone stops at the service of the river and floats to the bottom gently.

we hit the atmosphere and we hit about five g's and i got a free botox treatment that day because my face was pulled back behind my ears. that was unexpected and something you can't train on the ground. terrifying and so much fun. kristen: i can imagine, but also the fun part. i saw jeff bezos in that video greeting you guys as you landed. what did he say to you? >> he said that what we were doing was very important to him and he was more excited about our flight than his own because he has a dream of creating a road to space, which is also a dream that i share. in his mind, we were the first passengers on that bus. and so he saw his dream coming true through us and that's what he told me. it was something i really believe, as well. kristen: in addition to william shatner and the vice president

of blue origin, there were two of you that were paying customers. do you mind telling us how much you paid for the trip? >> i can't tell you. it was a little expensive, but it's like going to a show on opening night when all the celebrities are there. that ticket is expensive but i think prices will come down and it will soon be something we can all afford. kristen: look, there is a lot of criticism of space tourism, commercial trips to space, the most recent high-profile one coming from prince william in britain. many feel like those who could afford it should put their resources where they would do more good. how do you respond to that? >> i think this has been an argument for hundreds of years. i think the first balloon pioneers have thought the same. anyone who does something new is weird and strange and is criticized because it is not well understood. i've worked my whole life to open up the space frontier so we can receive the benefits that space can give us and there is

no tourist attraction in the world that is as risky and dangerous as getting on a rocket. and i wanted to be one of the first to go because i was willing to risk my life to make a point that space is valuable and important and we must go to space if we are to save this earth. kristen: i know your company collects data imagery through satellites orbiting earth. how does this trip add to the company's mission and believe that your trips to space can do mankind a lot of good? >> when we started planet, our idea is if we had more information, we could be better stewards of the planet. you can't fix something if you don't know about it. by mapping the whole world every day, we can find stuff going on that no one knows about, and we regularly do. we can go and proactively take care of it. i imagine nasa puts out a report about ice that was lost last year in the arctic. that already happened.

it was a year ago. with planet labs data, we can see this happening in real time. if you watch it and you see what is happening, you can react. the whole point of that is to allow people to take control of looking after our home. kristen: i want to ask what is next for you. i wonder if you are checking out elon musk and his promise of taking people to mars. >> i think mars is a little far for me. i would be happy with the moon or a giant space station in orbit. when i took this trip, i wondered, will this be me checking the box and the highlight of my career? or will i keep going and try to do something else? i feel more strongly than ever that we need to go to space as a species and i want to make that happen. kristen: all right, space traveler. i can't call you and asked because they changed the rules on who can be called an astronaut, but still a fantastic, amazing experience. look forward to having you back in the bay. take care. >> thank you.

kristen: starting today, masks can now be off indoors in certain situations in certain counties. we will talk to

kristen: starting today, you don't have to wear a mask in offices, gyms, indoor college classes, and religious gatherings if everyone is fully vaccinated and there are fewer than 100 people. joining us to talk about this and why it's happening and what is happening next is dr. matt willis, the health officer for marin county. thanks a lot for your time. dr. willis: thanks. to be with you. kristen: i think it's important to know this isn't a general lifting of mask requirements,

that is still part of the bay area framework and they will keep indoor masks in most situations until several metrics are met, right? dr. willis: that's right. that's an important point. this is really the beginning of our tiptoeing back towards normalcy. we're beginning to peel back restrictions that were imposed at the beginning of that surge in late july, early august, imposed mask restrictions that we think now because we are doing so much better in terms of case rates and transmission rates, that we can begin to carefully peel those back and take us one step in that direction. kristen: all right, and by saying case rates are good, i think you are talking about new cases averaging less than two dozen a day, one to two dozen a day? is that right? dr. willis: that's right. we're looking to the cdc tracker to determine what our case rates are, to monitor case rates. it's a tiered status the way we

did with the california blueprint. we're looking to have at least three weeks in the cdc yellow tier in order to lift the mask mandate as a whole. that would be less than 18 cases per day. right now, we are about 16 new cases per day, and that's the lowest case rates in the state where the first county to be in that yellow tier. we achieved that about three days ago. kristen: so with this new rule today, i mentioned off the top that you don't have to wear masks anymore and offices, gyms, and religious gatherings. but there's some caveats. for example, if everyone is vaccinated. whose responsibility is it to ensure that is the case? dr. willis: it's the host or organizer or employer in each of those settings that is responsible for verifying that they meet that criteria. so we want to make sure that every single person in a given setting is fully vaccinated. without any exemptions.

emptions, any children who can't be vaccinated . they wouldn't qualify. we want to make sure every person is fully vaccinated and it's a stable cohort of people. you are saying the same people day after day, not a public setting. those are the conditions if it's verified by the host or organizer, where those individuals could remove their face covering knowing their risk for transmission is much lower because they are all fully covered by the vaccine. kristen: so i work in an office. let's say there's someone in my building with a religious exemption. does that mean only that person has to keep their mask on? or me, too? dr. willis: unfortunately, this is all or nothing. we are only allowing places where we know every single individual is fully vaccinated for everyone in that setting.

obviously in any setting, someone chooses to wear a face covering, they may even if they qualify. but in those settings where there may be anyone who is not fully vaccinated, they do not qualify for this exemption. kristen: ok. those places that we mentioned, college classes, religious places, gyms, what about in the elevator or the cafeteria? dr. willis: that's right. those are settings that would be outside that closed, confined -- we want to make sure people have control over their access points to those safe settings where people can remove their face coverings. one outside, they should hook -- continue to cover their faces. kristen: i got it, ok. it's the control. i was going to ask what is the analysis behind the but you do have to wear one with another person. it's the verification, not the number of people. do you fear some people will

miss the nuance and take this as a signal that it's not ok to go mask list in indoor settings that are perhaps riskier? dr. willis: i think that's one of the reasons why we want to be as clear as we can in the specific criteria here that we're applying. the fact is that we are probably three weeks away at the earliest for lifting the mask mandates as a whole. there are places where you have stable cohorts whether they are fully vaccinated, indoors together, and we think because of low transmission rates, it makes sense to reward those places in some ways to allow them to continue through their workday or that work out experience or whatever it might be, without having to cover their faces if they choose. kristen: how soon before marin county can expand the easing of the mask mandate to grocery stores or retail stores? dr. willis: the earliest that

would happen would be on november 3. that's three weeks after we entered the yellow tier. we have three days under our belt in the yellow tier. we stay there for three total weeks. on november 3, we would be able to lift the mask mandate as a county. we would be crawling back to the state max mandate. we are only talking about the local mandate. the state road required people who are unvaccinated to continue to cover their face. in schools, the state requires that everyone continue to cover their face and then cal osha, which is an occupational regulation, would require people continue to cover their faces. masks will be with us for a long time and remain a critical tool for us but the earlier's we would lift our general mask mandate in marin would be november 13. kristen: grocery stores and

retail stores would fall under general. does that mean you also expect for you already met the 80% of the total population vaccination requirement? i know that's part of the framework, too. dr. willis: there's three basic things, the case rate, hospitalization rates less than 15 feet towards the hospital and we see that declining and most importantly, vaccination rates. and that's 80% of the entire population rate need to be fully vaccinated for us to move forward. we did achieve that benchmark on friday of last week, so we've already achieved two of the three. kristen: wow, even before the 5-11's get their shots. that's incredible. do you worry a little bit about moving forward along with san francisco but not read -- the rest of the counties, with that create confusion?

for the most part, you like to move in unison. do you think this could confuse things just a little? dr. willis: i think we're trying to move in unison from the criteria we're using, so we can look at the county level to determine where policies will be. that makes sense from a logic standpoint and a scientific standpoint to see that consensus regionally. i think we've had a lot of success as a bay area, having those conversations with health officers. we are at different stages in terms of case rates. you might expect we would be able to move forward at different rates. because marin has lower case rates, we may move forward more quickly than others. we are using the same criteria although we may move at different rates. kristen: makes sense. of got november 3 circled on my calendar. thank you for clearing that up for us and best of luck. dr. willis: thank you.

kristen: apparently the majority of us are planning to leave the bay area. we will talk

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kristen: do you want to leave the bay area in the future? people are planning to do just that. is it all doom and gloom? what are the factors? joining us is the ceo of joint venture of silicon valley, russell hancock. nice to have you. russell: thank you for having me. kristen: more than half the people surveyed said they plan to leave the region? russell: pretty startling. 56% is the number. are you making plans to leave the bay area in the next couple of years? 56% responded saying yes. kristen: has that percentage grown since the last time you took the public pulse? russell: this is our first time putting the poll in the field,

but there was a similar survey before the pandemic and the answer was 46%. that's 10 percentage point since the pandemic broke out. kristen: interesting. and you rib -- warded it interest -- worded it interesting. do people in the tech sector feel differently? there's a sense that tech is booming here and those folks are they feel differently. russell: we asked a question of them, as well. the percentage was the same, or negligibly less, so 53% of tech workers said yes, i'm also considering a move. we're surprised by that. russell: let's look at the factors for that. walk us through some of these -- we are going to show a graphic and tell us what you found here, reasons for leaving. russell: look, it's perfectly

clear. it's the cost. the fact that drives it up his housing. there's no question about that. people are upset. people are disillusioned. they're certainly discouraged. they don't feel it's a place they can achieve their dreams because who wants to come to silicon valley but live without a roof over your head? that's what is happening. the pandemic did nothing to improve our housing situation. in fact, it got worst. kristen: right, especially in the suburbs were a lot of people didn't leave the region but wanted a home with the backyard. that's expensive. there are positives you found in your study. can you walk us through the response to some of these? we have another graphic to show you some of these factors that seem to be stable or improving. what you think? russell: yes, seems like the pandemic has put people in touch with their core values. that could be driving this other thing. they are planning to leave because they're realizing there

are other things more important than a paycheck. those core values are your mental health, your sense of security and serenity, your sense of well-being. all of those things are hugely important. so we asked how people were feeling since the pandemic broke out and a lot of people self identified as distressed, feeling alienated, feeling alone or isolated. we also asked people how they felt about working at home. what we learned is that people like working at home. they actually want to keep working at home. large percentages say this suits me. i'm finding work life balance and other things important to me. so people made it perfectly clear we want to keep doing this although we also want the flexibility to go to the office. we want to be able to do both. kristen: based on all this, what should regional leaders, policymakers, and business leaders do with this

information? what is the takeaway? russell: i think it's perfectly clear. it's housing, housing, housing. we need housing. employers can't attract the kind of people that they need if they can't put a roof over their heads. in all of the sectors, including those important front-line jobs. we nd bbltoouse our workforce and that has just become out of reach for far too many in the bay area. if our policymakers are serious, that's where they will start. they will say how can we add to the housing stock in our communities? kristen: we have about 45 seconds but i'm wondering if you saw differences in the way men and women felt, gender differences or generational differences in their outlook. russell: i'm going to confess i was fascinated by this and totally surprised. there is a difference between the men and the women. the women are more concerned about things. the men are saying it's not that

big a deal. we'll get through this somehow. women are far more concerned about racism, about climate change, and about their sense of security and well-being. kristen: there's a lot i can say about that, but i won't. how about generational? are the young people feeling optimistic about the outlook? i'm going to ask you to take this answer over onto facebook

pumpkin. thank you so much for joiningorg us. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on livestream answering your questions. world news tonight is coming up next and i'll see you right back here at 4:00. have a great weekend.

tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. for a second straight night here, a major new decision on boosters. that key fda panel now voting on the johnson & johnson booster today. unanimously voting yes on a second shot. when to get this shot and this time a major difference when it comes to who should get it. and a second question, should the johnson & johnson shot should have been two notes so begin with? what you need to know tonight. news on former president bill clinton in the hospital for several days in california. what we now know about his condition. hillary clinton visiting him in the hospital and matt gutman is there. tonight, the first capitol police officer charged with obstruction of jus