ship announcer: building a better bay area. moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen:ten:ten:ten:ten:ten:ten: day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real-time. he has seen a wave of smash and grab robberies in the bay on friday night thieves hit the louis vuitton store in san francisco union square as well as other. nurses. rodney with the san francisco chamber of commerce will be joining us to talk about what is changing. but first, thanksgiving is almost here, and for many, it will be the first time traveling or gathering indoors for the pandemic. the difference is we have vaccines this year but, there

are still concerns about a winter surge. joining us is dr. chin-hong from ucsf. always a pleasure to see you. >> always a pleasure to see you, too, kristin, happy thanksgiving to you. >> they are the first around here to lift mandates completely. now they are going back. why? dr. chin-hong: i think they are looking at the future. progress has stalled and they are frankly worried. a lot of the bay area has ptsd from last winter. even though the numbers themselves aren't absolutely looking bad, like a few weeks of months ago, i think the trend is concerning to a lot of pull. again, it is subject to interpretation. a lot of counties are looking at the same data and viewing things differently, and i think santa cruz is different, for example, from monterey county very close by who is going in the opposite

direction. kristen: and i should say, i believe this includes vaccinated people, too,. if you are at the grocery store, you have to put your mask on. will there be compliance given the back-and-forth all the time? dr. chin-hong: i think it will be very hard for people to all do this as a population. i think there will be a group of people who will. we know that cases are going up over all, or at least not going down substantially. if you are in a crowded area and indoors, probably not a bad idea to put on your mask even for a short time. whether you are outdoors where it is less crowded, doesn't really matter what you do. kristen: you talk about data. look at california today, seven-day positivity rate just under 2%. but icu's and

hospitalizations seem to be down slightly. what is the story? dr. chin-hong: the story is that it is at a very, very high-level still. we are not all the way down in the mountain. we are not exploiting in cases, but we are at a very tentative point. it is like walking on a tight rope. we can easily fall. but i don't think we will ever get to last year. enough people are vaccinated to where we will not see overwhelming hospitalizations except for the influence of influenza with covid. for the most part, you will see a big rising cases. you will see it creep up and hospitalizations but probably not to the same extent. kristen: which brings me to the booster conversation. the wall street journal reviewed data from the states which seems to sharpen the picture of who really needs a booster, that is, who is most likely to get serious infections after full

vaccination. so tell us, who are the most vulnerable? dr. chin-hong: if you want to get compliant, it is age. age over 65 zu to hospital with a breakthrough i infection but it also brings an increase in dying. 85% of the deaths of people who have breakthrough infections are in that population. outside of that age group, if you have diabetes, if you have diabetes, heart disease, those comorbidities, you are at risk of going to the hospital but not necessarily of dying, if you are younger. kristen: which are the chronic diseases that tend to be more linked to breakthrough cases? dr. chin-hong: lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease, particularly people on dialysis, that has frequently been linked with a breakthrough

infection turning to breakthrough hospitalizations. kristen: so those are the folks that you as a daughter hope to see good boosters right away. dr. chin-hong: definitely. kristen: so cases are still being driven mainly by the unvaccinated, but data also shows vaccinated people accounted for a larger share of cases why. ? is it tied to waning immunity? dr. chin-hong: if you think about how we rolled out the vaccines, it started out in the most vulnerable group. and yes, if you look at over 65's, for example, more than 70% of them got their vaccine more than six months ago. . we know that waning immunity starts around the six month mark, so it makes sense that that group, already vulnerable, is really driving hospitalizations and three infections. kristen: how many hospitalizations and deaths among fully vaccinated people in the u.s. this year? do we have the raw numbers? dr. chin-hong: fully vaccinated

people, it is still very, very low. but the data is not great. i want to say 1% to 2%. but i don't have the numbers. at the tips of my fingers. that is the point. a lot of the states have it hidden. the wall street journal is really the first to look at this in the u.s.. kristen: what percentage of the vaccinated have gotten boosted? dr. chin-hong: it depends on the state you live in. the data has not really kept track. i know in the bay area, people have been rushing recently so it is harder to get appointments. kristen: yes. dr. chin-hong: but until last week or so, in california it was 10% of eligible people getting booster shots. you look at other states like missouri -- not missouri, minnesota, north dakota, they are like 30%.

so california, new york, new jersey, we are at the lowest of the u.s.. probably because we weren't really feeling like we needed to. but people like minnesota are seeing a lot of cases swimming around some of the other states with a lot of breakthrough infections leading to hospitalizations. colorado and new mexico were also having higher startup take rates. this is surgeon a little bit. kristen: that is interesting. i wouldn't have expected that. i thought because the bay area it is hard to get an appointment, we must have a really high star booster rate. i got mine yesterday after getting two shots of pfizer in april. this time they give me a choice so i opted for moderna because, we had talked about the potential benefits of mixing. i will say, what was interesting for me, even though i didn't have any side effects with the pfizer, this time i woke up overnight shivering like i had a fever, and i had a headache. i popped a couple of tylenols

and now i feel for the most part, fine, just fatigued. so i guess my first question is, what do you think about that? is it unusual to get side effects for the booster when you did not get it the first two times? dr. chin-hong: for some reason, anecdotally, i have been hearing about a lot of people having some sort of reaction in a positive way, meaning, the immune system is saying, "i see what you're trying to do, let me respond to that." similar symptoms to what you mentioned, kristen. by the absence of reaction does not mean you're not having an immune reaction. but something about reminding the immune system every time makes it announce that, yes, i do remember and that is what you are feeling. i don't know what it is out moderna, but i have been hearing anecdotally, a lot of my colleagues who have gotten moderna also saying the same

thing. kristen: so it could be the third shot effect, or the moderna effect. the merger and understand, his half the dose of the original -- the moderna booster, i understand, is half the dose of the original. dr. chin-hong: it is kind of equalized now, half moderna and the regular pfizer. kristen: because it is the middle of the night, i just popped the painkiller tylenol. is that ok. ? i remember early on in the pandemic there was something reported about covid and tylenol. i don't remember, but i made a note to ask about that. is that ok? dr. chin-hong: definitely ok. particularly because you are just reminding your immune system now. it will not prevent it from mounting a response. kristen: ok. don't go away. when we come back, we will talk about the vaccination effort going on for kids, and also talk about having a thanksgiving that

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kristen: we are back on it with dr. peter chin-hong of ucsf, answering your questions. erica has one. if you have a j&j vaccine and a booster with moderna, how long does it protect you? dr. chin-hong: good question. we think six months if not longer. you will follow people over time. something about getting a j&j shot, period, hits you with a very steady immune response for many months as opposed to pfizer , which kind of goes down. the combination of the stability

cross the booster will carry you at least six months if not longer, is my prediction. kristen: down once to know, is it true that repeated vaccines can increase side effects like inflammation or claddings, regardless of age group? dr. chin-hong: that is not true. there is only one vaccine associated with clotting. that is the adenovirus vector vaccine, either astrazeneca or j&j. if you get the mrna pfizer armor donor, there is no risk with clotting for those vaccines, and the risk of clotting is very small or general. if you got one j&j followed by another experience so far, it has not increased the risk of clotting over all, but we will continue to follow that. kristen: all right. how is the vaccination effort going for kids 5-11 in california? they just became eligible to couple weeks ago? dr. chin-hong: california is going gangbusters.

already, 1 in 10 have gotten vaccinated. but if you look around the state, 10% of the kids in l.a., 40% in marin county, 25% in san francisco. can you believe marin county, 40%? kristen: not surprising, that is marin county. cases are inching up nationwide as thanksgiving arrives. officials are not saying do not gather or celebrate, the message is more celebrate as safely as possible. what are examples of doing that as safely as possible? dr. chin-hong: it is kind of knowing who your group is. for example, if you are going to meet with a family group that includes elderly relatives, and you have your unvaccinated kids with you, it may be a little bit harder if they are not boosted. but if they are boosted and everybody else's vaccinated and there are some kids around who may have partial vaccinations, it will be fine.

again, the larger number of people you bring together, and the more unknown risk you bring together, you will increase the risk. but in general, it is a very different place from where we were last year. kristen: i heard one example of a friend who is going to have everyone come. not everyone is going to get the rapid tests, the antigen once you can get at walmart or the grocery store, but may be one representative from each family gets it. so i guess the implication is if you are fine, then, everyone else in your family is fine. dr. chin-hong: i think that is a clever and cost-effective solution. i had another solution which might make people cringe a little bit, the idea of family pool testing. you just pass the swab around in your family and you use it once. [laughter] i would not necessarily recommend it to everyone. kristen: yes. i love my family very much, but, mm! [laughter]

it is a novel idea. anything is worth considering. in australia -- i understand cases are going back up in europe. i want to look at with things they are doing. they are locking down, with 66% vaccinated. in the u.s., we are 59% vaccinated. can you cs going back to lockdowns? dr. chin-hong: no. i don't think we will go back there as a country. kristen: and we wouldn't need to, right? with the antiviral pills coming up soon, right? dr. chin-hong: we will see original surges. for example, right now, nothing is happening in florida. all the action is in michigan and minnesota, vermont and new hampshire. may be some new mexico and colorado. but it is not going to be the whole country on fire. so i think that will happen again, if it is happening in the wintertime, and it will just move around. we will move around resources. and we have a lot more therapies at hand for breakthrough

infections. crossing fingers, things will look different. kristen: ok. before you share this new cdc study that tells us something about the delta variant and childbirths? dr. chin-hong: yeah. the cdc released studies on friday showing that not only can pregnant people get preterm labor and early birthss, but they can actually have fetal loss. stillbirths were described by the cdc in two studies. 0.5% pre-delta. during delta, it will pregnant. kristen: dr. chin-hong, thank you very much. now that i thought about it more, i share a can of soda with

my family, what is sharing a swab, right? [laughter] dr. chin-hong: i know, that is what they call pool testing. kristen: thank you so much for your insight and advice. happy thanksgiving to you and your family. dr. chin-hong: seem to you, kristen. kristen: thank

kristen: welcome back to "getting answers." no doubt you have seen the video right now, people streaming into stores and cleaning them out. in san francisco union square, numerous videos captured to crime as it happened. thieves cleaned out the louis vuitton store, just one of several businesses targeted. joining us is rodney fong, with the san francisco chamber of commerce. thank you for joining us today. veronica: thank you. kristen: before we get to solutions, have you talked to these businesses, whether they

are louis vuitton, we know there were others that were also hit, bloomingdale's, et cetera. how much was the total loss? rodney fish i have not had direct conversations with those that have suffered a loss, but we have been in constant contact with retailers in san francisco who are frustrated and scared, very concerned about the safety for their employees and businesses and obviously, the loss of merchandise. but it is larger than that, it is about consumer confidence in san francisco. we live in a lovely city. union square is a great place to holiday shopping. when we start to deteriorate the confidence of consumers in san francisco, that is very concerning. kristen: the timing could not be worsep you just put up the ice rink and the beautiful christmas treep people are coming to enjoy the sights and sounds and feel the mood of the season. but you look at video like that, and people will not want to

come. have you heard from businesses that were hit? i know you said you did not talk to them directly, but do you know if some are considering closing? i know that some are considering shortening their hours. have you talked about what they might do as a result? rodney: i have not heard about any of them threatening to close in the immediate future, but they are concerned. as you pointed out. the ice rink is up. christmas tree lighting's are happening throughout the city. this video is awfully disturbing for all of us. but it does not happen all the time. right now i am down at fisherman's wharf and jefferson street is packed with visitors and locals enjoying the time off school or work. and i think union square is probably enjoying the same thing right now. this is not a continuous presence occurring in downtown san francisco, but that event on friday night was very unfortunate. kristen: but it does not take too many isolated incidents if be dd.appen enough for people to the mayor has said this is

unacceptable. so has police chief bill scott. obviously action will be taken. what concrete things do you think should happen? rodney: i think the mayor and chief scott have done a great job in response to these particular incidents, setting up a command post. for all of us whether we are business owners or employees or consumers, having the police presence is very important. knowing that they are watching out for us, watching out for each other, having the streets crowded with other shoppers and other employees is really important to look out for each other. so i applaud what the police department is doing. i know they could use more resources. the chamber of commerce will be absolutely supportive of more resources for law enforcement, and for the use of technology potentially to help solve some of these crimes and deter them kristen:. kristen: we do have the technology available, right?

there are license plate readers and facial recognition, but i believe the board of supervisors, we made a conscious supervision to not employ those technologies that are available. do you believe it is time to revisit that? rodney: i believe so. we live in california and we have some great technology. i respect privacy, but when it comes to public safety and the cost of deploying humans is very expensive. . we can use technology to help aid and deter criminal activity, but also to be on the eyes of the street we need to have access to rewind the tape. i am a proponent of technology. so we are, i think, at a time in san francisco where we are looking at the great reset as well.

the current government standards and policies that we have now have worked for us for many years, for decades. but the world is changing, and we need to adapt. kristen:. kristen: here in san francisco as well where do you think the bigger problem is? not enough arrests? not enough persecution? or just the law itself? for example, prop 47, which made that if you stole things under $150, it would be a misdemeanor? rodney: of the above. i don't think there is a particular resolution. prop 47 is not helping things. but i think also, reforming the justice system and of the police departments as well. we need to re-examine how we are going to run our cities. san francisco is a great city. san jose is a great city. sacramento, los angeles. we want to make sure california remains a safe state. because many of these laws are statewide, not local. but san francisco, i know that we can do better.

the residents of san francisco know that we can do better. . this is a world-class city in all aspects, including law enforcement. kristen: there is a regional task force that has been formed to deal with this, the retail theft. can you shed some light on how it will work? rodney: i am not sure of the results, but i know that in the last few weeks, one supervisor has reached out to many folks in the hospitality and tourism world to try to partake in how we can try to thwart retail theft. it has not been the primary reason that nurses have closed, but it has certainly given -- that businesses have closed, but it has certainly given people pause. the real folks that will pay the most are the small businesses. the mom-and-pop who cannot afford additional security, who opens the store themselves or maybe has their cousin or relative opening and they leave themselves vulnerable to thefts

and maybe even violence. that is a scary thing especially when your livelihood depends on that. for small businesses, for a lot of people, that is the only resort they have, to providing income for their family. kristen: absolutely. they can't go online. in mission, north beach, chinatown, out of that. rodney: right, that is a way of life for many generations,

kristen: thanks again for joining us for this interactive show, "getting answers." we will be an everyday at 3:00 on air and of livestream,

answering your questions. see you back here at 4:00. tonight, the major new developments after the deadly christmas parade tragedy in wisconsin. a man driving right into the parade. tonight, police identifying the suspect behind the wheel and horrifying new images emerging of the red suv speeding through the parade, right into a marching band. at least five people killed, more than 40 injured. six children in critical condition tonight. the police chief emotional today, reading the names of the victims. ages 52 to 81. and what we've learned tonight about the man behind the wheel. this evening, the news on covid and boosters in this country. the long lines. and not everyone having an easy time finding a booster. with covid cases on the rise just as we head into thanksgiving, what you need to know tonight. the thanksgiving getaway now

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