ou. >> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. dion: --kristen: hi, there. kristen sze. we ask experts your questions. today, we look at the annual holiday heroes events that helps people across the area, back at oracle park this year. the first, president biden laid out his plan to slow down the omicron variant and covid-19 in general for the winter season. is it enough? joining us is dr. patel. good to see you. dr. patel: it's good to see you, as well. kristen: with the announcement of the plan, we are ready to

start with two truths and a lie. dr. patel: should i try to dial it up and stump you? we'll see. kristen: flattering will get you everywhere but i will need facebook viewers help. dr. patel: tell me which one of these is not true. is it a, in naming the variant, the road health organization -- world health organization skipped over c to get to omicron, or is it c, delta has 19? or is it c, the second reported case in the u.s. is a fully vaccinated adult who recently traveled to new york city? which one of these is not true? kristen: you are very, very tricky. so, folks, let's get to work here on facebook live. i will rule out a because i know who skipped over those.

it is confusing to people. and s last name of xi jinping, so they went to omicron. in my right? -- am i right? dr. patel: goodness. i'm going to take off my mic and walk away. kristen: so a is true. omicron has 32 mutations on a spike protein. yes, it does, but i don't know that delta has 19. folks, if you know how many mutations on this bike protein for delta, -- the spike protein for delta, let me know. dr. patel: that is literally code for viewers, google this. kristen: we have smart viewers and they know how to make use of google. c, the last variant was

vaccinated adult the traveled to new york city. i know it is an adult and it was a man and new york's governor was telling people who have been to the conference to get tested. so let's go with b. b is the lie. dr. patel: b is, in fact, the lie. you mentioned earlier why a is true. c is also an animated convention. this person did not have a history to traveling to any of the other 23 countries, so it's not possible it is circulating throughout the united states. b is important in terms of what the omicron variant is going to be able to do or not do. that spike protein, where antibodies are recognizing, delta has nine. this isn't necessarily telling us everything because the delta

variant also had mutations in the reproductive gene. so, we definitely need more data, but this is why it raised alarm bells. kristen: dr. patel, now that my viewers have beaten you at your own game once again -- [laughter] no, those were great questions. thank you so much. 98% of our viewers were right. dr. patel: pretty savvy. kristen: next round i hope is a little harder. let's talk about president biden's announcement for how to get through the winter with an uptick in cases with the omicron variant and unknown surrounding it. i saw it as three parts. one, expanding access to testing, ok? two, new travel restrictions to catch anything incoming. and three, expanding vaccine access, as well. talk about those three. talk about what makes sense. dr. patel: i agree with you.

even though people realize biden's five-point plan, you have to look at what changes are going to be made. i agree the push for these family vaccination clinics to help people who are on medicare and medicaid have access is extremely important. they also need to make sure these town halls that president biden announced, these education campaigns, are also on the table because there are still millions who have not gotten vaccinated. also, i'm glad there was a big push in sure children have access also huge. and testing has been something we needed to be doing and haven't done more of since the beginning of the pandemic. the conversation about testing is coming back, where people are saying hey, pcr scan detect this variant. the antigen test scan, as well. -- tests can detect it, as well. the one little thing i was like,

it kind of irked me, was that mentioned their home testing could be submitted for insurance reimbursement. i wish they were just free if you needed that. kristen: don't a lot of countries make them free or subsidized them so they are really cheap? dr. patel: they do. i have friends in the united kingdom who would send us pictures of the stockpile of antigen test they had. even certain companies in the united states give them away for free. so why isn't there a way to subsidized them for people who need them with a high rate of transmission? just get them for free. that's another step for people to have to submit for insurance. kristen: but it's better than nothing. i've been buying this at the store for $25 and complaining how expensive it is, and a lot of people can't afford that. so getting reimbursement is good, but that's only if you have insurance. what about folks who don't have insurance, how they can get tests? dr. patel: i didn't hear how,

but they definitely did mention people who don't have insurance can apply to get free tests. but people who don't have insurance will still have access to clinic where they can get free testing, as well. i just don't know the options for people without insurance to get a home test to get the cost covered. that wasn't clear to me. one other part he talked about was important, having the emergency response teams in the event we see winter surges. because even those mild and moderate symptoms who don't wind up in nicu and still overwhelm an already busy and started -- settled system. kristen: i want to talk about the travel component. the ministration is requiring incoming travelers from foreign countries not only to test -- i guess shortening the test window. i guess three days. now it's one day. does that make a difference? do you seal adjustable challenges with that? dr. patel: i think the

logistical challenge is implementation. let's see how we're going to verify those and make sure people are getting those tests. is there going to be a quarantine period if you don't get tested? i don't want to put this in the atmosphere. what is going to be the penalty if people don't do it? we've heard people all over the world say you go to a specific center where they monitor you, you have to get rapid testing before you can get out and leave the airport. i'm curious to see what that's going to look like. in theory, this does make sense, especially people traveling to other countries. we're unsure of their vaccination status. it would be easier if we could verify vaccination status before they get on an airplane to say there's a benefit to getting the vaccine. kristen: i don't know if you saw it or spelled out what kind of test would be accepted. so if i brought my home kit into europe and when i come home one day before i take that test and

submit the results, like a picture of my negative tests, is that enough? or do they need something that's pcr? do they have to go to specific labs? do they say? dr. patel: i have not heard this either. i think this is important as we talk about testing requirements and also biden's plan is that this is going to be fluid. we're going to see changes as we learn more about the omicron variant and look to see what vaccine uptick looks like in this country. kristen: one big component is the extension of the mask mandate on airplanes, trains. we're going to take a short break and come back with another round of two truths and a lie, where dr

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special correspondent, dr. patel. one quick question from a viewer, is there the possibility of travel restrictions for citizens where they would not be able to come back into the u.s.? dr. patel: you know, this is a really tricky part is that we can't actually predict what can happen in other countries. but as far as the united states, i have not heard of anything yet that would even indicate we would bar citizens from coming back. even the travel restrictions in south africa, there was an asterisk for permanent residence in the united states. i haven't heard of that yet, but if you have international travel plans in the next six weeks, you may want to think about the fact that you may be quarantined in another country for a long period of time and it may be weeks before you can do anything. that might derail your plans. that can change in a moments notice. kristen: we are ready for round

two. dr. patel: and i'm ready to possibly stop our smart viewers. tell me which one of these is not true. is it a, through affinity maturation, boosters can increase antibody caught --? or is it b, the odds of dying from covid-19 or 15% higher in red states according to a new study that just came out? or is it c, the antimicrobial drugs advisory committee voted 13-10 in favor of emergency youth -- use authorization for the antiviral pill? which one is false? kristen: you know, i don't think i can comment about a, so i'm going to look at facebook viewers' answers, but i do know that b is true. that is a study. the odds of dying from covid-19 are 50% higher in red states. it's between a and c. you know what? c, that feels right to me.

something about the drug advisory committee's work, and i heard it was close. so am going to go with c, but before we lock that in as of final answer, let me give a quick look. leon says c is the light. my gut says ais the lie, even though they're probably right and i'm probably wrong. dr. patel: c is actually the lie. our viewer. kristen: so smart. i should never bet against them. dr. patel: it's the antiviral that pfizer created. it has higher efficacy. the fda committee narrowly voted in favor of it, citing some unknowns about safety, especially in pregnant women. there's still some process to go through before it's available to everyone.

but i think the important thing is yes, more treatments are going to be headed our way. not necessarily tomorrow, but still the best thing we can do is prevent it from happening and a is extremely important. maybe i'll get to that. but b just speaks to the politicization of the vaccines, which is very unfortunate. even right now, there are these surveys coming up that say there's still a large proportion of people who are republican who either haven't gotten vaccinated or republican leaders who won't disclose their vaccine status. and a is a great segue for us because there's a lot of talks because will the boosters actually matter? do the boosters help? there is anecdotal evidence coming from israel where their health minister said hey, the boosters are protecting against omicron. i haven't seen specific data against that. that's reassuring. after you get boosted and your antibody levels skyrocket, it's not necessarily the level. they become more robust at binding strength, at binding a

better variety of spike proteins. kristen: not just more, but better. i should not have missed that one. i'm ashamed of myself. but congratulations to tessa, karen, robert, dusty, zion, and everyone, michael, everyone else who got it. but no congrats for kristin. thank you, dr. patel. that was a good run. dr. patel: i had to bring it. and those names sound like the avengers. kristen: they really do. i want to talk about the omicron variant and the latest we know. i heard the second and third cases in the u.s. were announced today, the first one being in san francisco yesterday. tell us what we know about those cases. dr. patel: what we know so far is that resolving mild systems, both in the san francisco case identified in the one in minnesota, as well. fully mentioned earlier is the case in minnesota, both individuals are fully vaccinated. i have not heard of booster

status for the individual in minnesota, and i don't believe the individual in san francisco was boosted either. the case in san francisco, there was a history of travel to south africa. in minnesota, there wasn't. if you remember, we rewind back to them we had the first community case of co-v2 back in early 2020, that was the first time there is no outside travel reported. everyone say it's officially here. i think we can say omicron is officially here and the big question now is, is it going to outcompete delta? that's what it's going to need to do. the case in colorado, there is history of travel in south africa, as well. two out of three have that travel history. what's important is the context of san francisco, there was no one around this individual that tested positive, which is reassuring. kristen: dr. patel, this is how quickly things changed. the governor of new york just announced five cases of omicron in new york state, so we're

waiting to see if it's tied to that anime convention that the gentleman from minnesota was at, as well. i'm glad they're doing the contact tracing and trying to nail this down. we're almost out of time but i want to ask you about this. part of president biden's announcement, he promised to help vaccinate the rest of the world at a quicker pace. i understand 50-50% of the world have gotten at least one shot, but there are a big gap between nations. dr. patel: huge gap. i'm glad the announcement happened. the next part of the conversation, which should be all the conversation, is helping with infrastructure, distribution, on the ground in these countries, including fighting misinformation, to make sure everyone out there is able to go and get one. now covax, international alliance in vaccines to developing countries, they had one of their biggest days ever, with 11 million vaccines given out. we're hoping we can continue

that because, guess what, all the deficiencies in vaccine equity is why we got this variant to begin with. kristen: right, that's an important point. always great talking to you. viewers are loving the avengers reference. this is why you're on kelly and ryan. i can't wait for everyone to see you tomorrow right here on abc 7 . dr. patel: i'm here to represent abc 7. kristen: excellent. see you later, dr. patel. the annual holiday heels -- heroes event is back, with surprises and stars. we'll have all the details next, including a special

kristen: holiday heroes is returning to oracle park next week, bringing surprises and stars together to help out hundreds of bay area kids and families. joining us now is amy, president of the foundation for children, and dr. jen, the first female

nfl coach and co-recipient of this year's inspirational award from the foundation. good afternoon. good to see you. >> hi, kristen. >> hello, thanks for having us. kristen: you don't know how exciting this is for me, personally, too. you had to take a year off last year, but the most festive, heartwarming holiday event is back. and i know what i'm talking about because i have been there and it is so great. what fun activities are there for this year? >> oh, my gosh. we have so many fun things happening this year. sorry, i got distracted. so, we have snow globes. we have cookie decorating. we have mascots. we have athletes. what's super exciting is this year, we have the bullpen, which just moved into the outfield. that will be open and kids can practice pitching. it's just going to be so fun. kristen: i'm a little embarrassed.

i'm going to tell my producer, take me off of their. i am honored to be an advisory board member for you. i've seen the way it makes a difference. tell the viewers have the kids and families benefit from both the party and the funds raised. >> yes, what we try to do is bring together different members of the community, different families, both families that can pay to attend and ones sponsored by our donors. they have an unforgettable evening where they can be kids and have a really fun time and not worry about anything at all. and then with funds raised, we do different projects within the community. we just build a fitness center in partners -- partnership with the 49ers foundation. we are refurbishing a basketball court with the warriors in chinatown. we're creating permanent play structures were people can be safe and have fun. kristen: that is awesome. and you always have amazing sports heroes. one of them this year is dr. jen

welter, one of the inspiration winners this year. you became the first female nfl coach when you coached preseason for the arizona cardinals in 2015. weren't you also the first as a player? >> yeah, so i was actually the first player to play running back and men's provo football, and that led to later coaching activities. i played for 15 years in the women's game, represented the national game in 2010 and 2013, then transitioned to the men's game, first as a player, then as a coach. kristen: can i first say how amazing that is? for all of it, but also because like me, you're 5'2". [laughter] >> small in size. i tell people all the time, in my mind, i'm xxl. in clothes, you just have to go ahead. kristen: that's how i feel, as well. i feel you. everyone around you is saying no, you can't, and nohow do you

keep chasing your dream and say to yourself, yes i can>? i want to hear that because you are going to be at an event with kids and they are going to be looking up to you. how do you do it? >> i tell kids all the time, if i can do something at 5'2", you're probably already halfway there or more, right? i heard a lot of what i couldn't, shouldn't, or wouldn't do. the one thing you can't do is let them be right. and one of the cool books, things that the winter wise foundation is providing is the resilience, which is one of my books, and i think that's what it is. football teaches us, it's not a question of if you're going to get hit, but when. and when you do, that's the toys you have. how are you going to get back up and get better each time? that's what i want the kids to get his life isn't going to be perfect. it isn't easy.

but if you prepare everyday. just do little things every day to get closer and closer to your dreams, you would be surprised just how far that can get you. kristen: what a great message. hold that book up again. amy, i'm assuming kids will get that book if they go to the event. it's in the goodie bag? >> yes, both if they get the bob or the be a hero box, and then at the event, kids will get them, as well. jen is going to be reading it, too. kristen: fantastic. really quickly, almost out of time, but how are you making it covid safe? >> we're masking. we're outdoors. we're requiring 12 and over, everyone has to be vaccinated. under 12, 1 shot, or rapid test within 24. everybody 12 and over will need to be vaccinated, and as stated, masked, even though we are outdoors, as well. kristen: this is tuesday,

december 7, at oracle park. how do people get tickets? >> they can go to our website, holidayheroes.org. that's the best, easiest way to get them. we still have a limited number left and it's going to be super fun. and gabe kapler, and national league manager of the year, is going to be there, besides shawn estes, receiving our community philanthropy award, besides jen. kristen: i wasn't sure i was able to reveal that. but gabe! congratulations.

you're an inspiration. i'll see you later. thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show,

getting answers. today, we covered president biden's plan to slow the omicron variant and covid-19. we'll be on the tonight, the breaking news as we come on the air. the new cases of the omicron variant discovered in at least three more states here in the u.s., including five cases discovered here in new york tonight. after california, now minnesota, colorado and new york, and what new york officials said just moments ago, this is breaki iin now. health officials in colorado late today saying the woman who recently traveled to south africa tested positive for the new variant. and we learned today a man in minnesota, who traveled to a convention here in new york c city, attended by 53,000 people, also tested positive. both of those cases today involved fully vaccinated people with only mild symptoms. tonight, president biden and his new plan to combat covid and this variant. tonight, the at-home test