>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc7 news. >> you are watching news getting answers, live. we are asking experts every day at 3:00 to get you answers. today, celestial happenings. we looked at the skies this week. a near total eclipse of the moon will be seen. our favorite astronomer will help you make the most of the viewer. as five-year-olds to 11-year-olds get vaccinated, some school districts say they will defy the vaccine mandate for students even if it means losing money. a law professor will break it down for us. new information on booster

eligibility changes, long covid, holiday travel risks, and whether vaccines are enough to get us out of the pandemic. joining us to discuss this, ucsf infectious diseases experts, dr. monica gandhi. if you have questions, not sure if you should get boosters or get your child vaccinated, you can post your questions on our livestream. the boosters will be soon. something the biden administration has been pushing since august and california has been sanctioning it for over a week. some doctors say it was a mistake for the fda and cdc to limit booster eligibility initially. do you agree? dr. gandhi: i don't actually agree with that. i think the process the fda advisory committee went through on september 17 when they

deliberated on boosters for all versus selective groups was thoughtful. they have good reasons they put in data slides about why they are only authorizing this for over 65-year-olds, including study showing the two mrna vaccines are very effective, in 74 studies, including in the u.s. i think it is political and there is a lot of back-and-forth. at some point the fda will say yes, but there was a process where they limited the groups for selection. kristen: in the bay area everyone is trying to get an appointment. they are hard to come by. it sounds like if you are a healthy 30-year-old or 40-year-old with no health concerns, not in a higher risk environment, you would pass on the booster if you got your two original shots? dr. gandhi: yes.

there was data from new york state that came after the fda meeting that looked through the data. they looked through anyone else who had insurance and the vaccine effectiveness against hospitalizations was totally [indiscernible] it was only after 65 you saw the delta variant decrease effectiveness, only in over 65's. the johnson & johnson, anyone who got a first dose should get a second dose. vaccinated is what will decrease transmission. that is on -- this is unlikely to make a change. kristen: a lot of people are struggling to get a booster shot and some are having a hard time and wonder if they should lie because some pharmacies are

going with the cdc and it has not eased the booster restrictions yet. others because their websites have not caught up with the rapidly changing rules. do you have thoughts on the ethical question for people who really wanted it as to whether they should lie? dr. gandhi: at this point we have ample supply for everybody. this is not something the u.s. decided to figure out equity. there is ample supply. you could easily lie and get it. it is past the point of our doses going abroad. i think it is fine to do that. i do think it is safe and i don't see any contraindications to getting a booster. kristen: questions from our viewers. randy wants to know, if i had a reaction to the moderna vaccine, would you recommend a booster of another kind? dr. gandhi: yes.

i would not recommend pfizer for you because there are certain elements, compounds in both types of mrna vaccines. if you want a booster, i would get the johnson & johnson. kristen: colette said, i got the pfizer booster, had a fever and chills. was this a bad thing that i had such a bad reaction to the booster? dr. gandhi: it is not a bad thing. this happens with increasing your antibody levels. you will feel ill for a couple days. this is why the fda advisory committee did not want to approve it. they did not want people to have adverse effects if they were fine with their immune system. if you have a high immune reaction, you may have side effects for a couple days. kristen: vivian wants to know, should my 17-year-old diabetics

type one get a booster? he is at school in person and it has been more than six months. dr. gandhi: this is only approved for over 18 because there is an increasing risk of adverse effects with young males. this is not going to be improved -- approved for 12-year-olds to 17-year-olds yet. kristen: gretchen wants to know, i need the flu shot and the booster. which is more important to get first? dr. gandhi: a study in the u.k. said it is fine to get both. that was on adverse effects and antibodies. if i had to choose, i would get the flu vaccine, instead of the booster, if you are not over 65. the flu is coming back. there was a big flu outbreak at the university of michigan. you are likely already protected

from covid. kristen: we are hearing a lot of people are reluctant to get the flu shots, and that a lot of children have not gotten their measles vaccines as a result of responding to the covid shop. dr. gandhi: i am extremely worried. this is partially why, all you have to do is listen to the fda meetings. they did not want to approve it for all. they do not want to have reluctance on other vaccinations when people get side effects. flu shots are extremely important this year. there areflu outbreaks -- there are flu outbreaks in this country. measles, 2 million children did not get their dose. we need to maintain control of the infectious diseases we already have. let's start thinking about other infectious diseases as well. kristen: i want to ask this question because i wonder if

long covid will happen with breakthrough infections. give us the details. dr. gandhi: this is a great question. i would encourage everyone, i can send a link and maybe you can post it -- this week in virology, episode 88, long covid, there was a discussion about how 2000 doctors were surveyed and they are not seeing long covid symptoms except for a slight loss of smell that goes away, if you get an infection after vaccination. that is good news. probably because you already had an immune response and the virus does not get to spread everywhere to cause long covid symptoms. it does not look like we get long covid with breakthrough infection. i will give you a reference if anyone wants to talk about it. kristen: chris wants to know,

should hiv patients working in retail get the booster? dr. gandhi: yes. anyone with hiv around a lot of people, that is a population i consider not always immunocompromised, but i would encourage them to get it. kristen: at what point are we going from a pandemic to an endemic. the pfizer pill which asked the fda for emergency use authorization to treat covid, is that a big part of it? the biden administration is buying enough for 10 million patients. dr. gandhi: that bill will be huge. and deaths by 89%. if you had moderate covid, where

unvaccinated, and got this pill within five days. that is pretty profound to prevent severe disease. in those who decide not to get vaccinated or those who have a breakthrough infection. kristen: this might be our last question because of time. mark wants to know, when will it be necessary to get a covid shot annually like the flu vaccine? some european countries

next time. dr. gandhi: thank you. kristen: coming up, the longest

kristen: you have probably noticed gorgeous, moony nights this week. even more moon events in the skies and you don't want to miss it. joining us to talk about the near total eclipse of the moon

is andrew, an astronomy professor at the university of san francisco. so good to see you. andrew: nice to be back on the program. kristen: i know this is exciting. what is happening and why is it a near total eclipse of the moon? andrew: during an eclipse of the moon, the moon and the sun lined up in the sky and you have a full moon. people have been looking out at the sky the last few days, the moon is almost full. just as we have a full moon, the earth's shadow falls on the moon. the earth gets between the two, the earth's shadow falls on the moon and it goes dark. that is a total collapse -- eclipse. we will have a 97% eclipse.

there will be a sliver of light on the southern edge. this is a very democratic thing that anyone can see in the sky. bernie sanders would say it is for the 99%, not just the rich people. that will be happening late thursday evening and early friday. kristen: what is the best viewing? what hour of the night should i go out with my binoculars, hot chocolate and everything? andrew: it is also goo someone with whom you like the spend time in the dark. the best time to go out unfortunately is kind of late in the evening. the partial eclipse, the beginning of the shadow portion on the moon, starts at but does not get to be fully dark until closer to 1:00.

the maximum eclipse will be at 1:03 a.m. friday morning. that is hard for people who go to work or school the next morning, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices. kristen: what if you woke up right before sunrise? could you catch a good view? andrew: the whole thing ends by 2:47 a.m. you need to be awake during the times we are dying to sleep, but if you are a night out will or don't mind being sleepy the next day, i would say from 12:40 to 1:20 is the best time, a.m. kristen: how rare is this? i read that every two to three years he could get a total eclipse of the moon but we said this is unusual in that is is

the first in 600 years. andrew: you are right to make that distinction. lunar eclipses are pretty common. we will have a total eclipse of the moon may 15, 2022. there is another one coming if you miss this one. what makes this one rare is that eclipses happen while the moon is in the furthest part of its orbit. therefore, the eclipse takes longer than typical eclipses. it will take hours for the shadow of the earth and moon to move across each other. it is the slowest eclipse, the longest eclipse, for 600 years. kristen: there is a chance i may not be around 600 years from now, so i will try to catch at this time. i wonder if the moon might take on even in shadow a color or tint? andrew: you are right.

for a total eclipse of the moon, when the earth's shadow falls on the moon, when the moon is completely covered, red light from the sun is bent by the earth's atmosphere, like a giant lens, and it makes the moon red. this time we will will will will sliver of light at the bottom and the red color may not be quite as knock your eyes out, but you will still see it from the refracted light. that sunlight bent for red, blue. kristen: we are almost out of time. it is safe, right, to look directly at the eclipse? andrew: yes. it is the solar eclipse that are dangerous. this is safe and everyone is invited. kristen: it is exciting and

there is so much it teaches us about our world. always great learning talking with you. thank you. andrew: nice to be with you. kristen: some california school district say they will defy governor newsom's student vaccine mandate. we will discuss the legalities of that with a law professor. we

kristen: in october, governor newsom announced california will add covid-19 vaccine added to the list for schools, becoming the first state in the country to do so. some schools say they will defy the mandate, which will have major repercussions. here to discuss employer mandates, law professor and expert in vaccine mandates, professor rice. thank you for your time. some schools that announced annd

will not enforce these are in the sierra valleys and shasta county. would those school districts lose state funding? is it even legal to strip them of funding? prof. rice: right now, nothing is going to happen in the near future. if schif schif schif schif schih state mandates, they could take away some funding, but it is based on licensing for 12 and up. pfizer has not submitted an application. once it is submitted, the review will take a few months. nothing will happen in the near future. by the time it is licensed, we may be in a different place. right now, defiance will not cost anything.

kristen: it could be months before this happens, but it is california's intention to put it in place once it has full approval, not just emergency youth -- use authorization. since there are personal beliefs and medical exemptions anyway, why does it matter so much if families have a way out? prof. rice: it matters in terms of school compliance. and for records. without collecting data on whether people are vaccinated or unvaccinated, we do not have a good picture of the school. one thing to e thing to e thinge school has good data. people submitting an exemption are on record for the vaccine and helps the school know what

is going on. kristen: if the s the s out its threat to take away funding, it is not all or nothing, it is per student not in compliance that you don't have the data on that. i want to say that approach, that contrasted sharply with school districts like oakland, where students must get the shots by january 1 or be forced to return to distance-learning or homeschooling. is that approach legal by the school district? prof. rice: it is unclear. there is tension between principles. it may be tested in court. historically, the state requires the vaccine. there is an argument cannot do it on their own. districts have broad authority to regulate their own school,

including for safety. which will be more important depends on the court. there are cases in relation to the san diego and los angeles mandate. they may not fully expose the issues. the court could go either way. kristen: let's talk about the workplace. the biden administration set a january 4 vaccine mandate for companies with over 100 employees to take effect, though the court has blocked it for now. we don't know if this will prevail. is mandating vaccines in the workplace legal? prof. rice: there is a debate about that. my view, it builds on histori hi precedents of safety in the workplace.

for example, sanitation regulations. on the other hand, emergency temporary standards, which has to hold a high bar of grave danger in the work place and that the mandate is necessary. if a global pandemic killing thousands in the u.s. is not a grave danger, it is hard to think of what is. there is argument that standards, emergency tempo, em standards, or legal. kristen: and you don't mandate the vaccine, say you are smaller than 100 employees, so you don't , if you have an outbreak on site, do you have to pay? prof. reiss: first of all, your

own employees can use worker's compensation, they consume you. and a customer could show it shs from your facility, that is not easy. it is often hard to trace,ce, if it can be traced to your facility, you may face legal losses over that. kristen: uc hastings law professor dorit reis

kristen: thank you thank you us on this interactive show, getting answers. we talk about booster

eligibility and covid-19 mandates, plus, see a partial lunar eclipse tomorrow night. tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the dramatic turn in the ahmaud arbery case. the defense calling its first witness, one of the defendants, travis mcmichael, who was seen on video firing the deadly shots, killing ahmaud arbery. you will hear what travis mcmichael says on the stand. the other trial the nation is watchin, kyle rittenhouse. today, with deliberations under way, the defense calling for a mistrial amid a key question over that drone video. and all of this as jurors returned to the courtroom, no cameras, after a request to see the video again. tonight, the coronavirus and could boosters for americans 18 and older be approved as soon as tomorrow? and you'll see the lines in several states already where authorities are moving forward on their