>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ >> i am kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers," getting answers for you in real time. today we will talk to the editor in chief of the san francisco standard to talk about a lawsuit over hotel meant to house the on housed come but there's a problem, people still live there. the omicron surge is top of mind, as we enter the week before christmas, expecting traveling and gatherings as moderna makes a big announcement and president biden is going to make a big speech tomorrow. joining us now to answer your questions is infectious disease specialist dr. monica gandhi.

good to see you. let's start with the moderna news. there's a new study on what it's booster can do for omicron immunity. can you give us some details? >> this was true of the pfizer vaccine as well. that essentially the antibodies that you develop from the first two doses of either mrna vaccine do not work as well against the 32 mutations that we have in the spike protein from the omicron variant. getting the moderna or pfizer boost increases antibody production and protects you even against mild infection. probably with the two doses, many people are protected against severe disease, but that is very hopeful news, that we want to get through this omicron surge. >> i don't want to get deep into the numbers, but i thing they are eye-opening in terms of how much more -- how many times more

antibody response you get with the third shot, meaning the current booster, which is i have to is of the original moderna. can you tell us? -- a half dose of the original moderna. can you tell us? >> you are right, the first two doses of the vaccine are 100 micrograms. essentially, they gave 50 micrograms of this booster shot. it increased protection, in terms of antibodies, by over 30 times. in terms of your antibodiesntibt -- i don't want to ever mislead people that the two doses are not giving you good t sell responses -- t cell responses. but this gives you higher antibodies to get through the omicron surge. >> this doesn't mean 30 times more protection, 30 times less

chance of catching it, things like that -- but this i thought was interesting, if the third dose were not the booster, but the regular shot, twice the booster dose, you get an even bigger antibody response. and that number is really huge. >> yes, but if you give 100 micrograms, the antibodies will go up even more. it is important to remember the 100 micrograms dose is being used for -- isn't being used for young people because our side effects in young males. just because we want to get our super -- are antibodies superhigh, we still have to look at the risks. >> are you talking myocarditis or side effects like i'm feeling feverish? >> specifically myocarditis. there was a study from

canada that essentially the mp - the moderna dose gives you a risk of getting myocarditis . because it is people under 30 and their males. >> moderna said we are not going to because of the study urge the government to make the regular dose the third shot, the booster dose, the 100 micrograms. what is there talk of that -- but is there talk of that? >> we have to start going towards position medicine with vexing. -- with vaccins. immuno comprised people need more doses if they have certain degrees of mere conversation -- immuno come from is asian. -- immuno compromise. i think it is to medically important to do position medicine -- position medicine --

precision medicine. saying we are going to prefer the mrna vaccines because there are risks with the johnson & johnson vaccine for females, but for males, doctors have said they want this in the practice. >> the pandemic the initial response is with a hammer but as we get on with her, it's gotta be a little bit more surgical. >> of course. we want safety and people to trust us. we want young men to have no side effects, young women to have no side effects, that's the right approach. >> i see your questions on facebook live. i promise we will get to them. i want to ask about omicron. we are hearing that omicron cases are doubling every two to four days in this country. we are hearing new york state is seeing cases triple in just one week. omicron is more so transmissible

than previous variants, is that how you are taking it? >> i think it is much more transmissible than delta. luckily a study showed it is more transmissible and also showed it does not seem to affect lung cells, university of hong kong study that was replicated last friday. we know that the omicron doesn't infect lung cells very well. it doesn't get into the lungs as well. which is why we are having more mild disease. the hong kong study showed lots of replication in the upper airway that makes it visible just like a cold. >> was saw omicron hit south africa pretty hard and then kind of quickly let up. britain saw something today that said maybe they passed the pecan maybe it's going back to -- the peak and maybe it is going back down. what do you think it means for the u.s.? >> what highly transmissible variants do is it hits fast, but

comes down fast. we just found out about the peak in thanksgiving. u.k. looks like it is turning to come down of the peak. only 65 hospitalizations at the peak. it is actually much fewer hospitalizations than we saw with delta. about basically 22 month compared to 50 a day with delta. that's how much less it is. likely because we have more immunity and it is less virulent. what people are modeling is mid-january, it'll start coming down, so it is so much faster than delta. >> we will see in the next few weeks. it will be telling. it seems like a lot of the omicron infections are in vaccinated people with breakthrough cases. there are some who will look at that and say that means the vaccine is not working. how are you taking that? >> that means a vaccines work

fairly well. to explain that, what happens is your antibodies, or your line of defense in your upper airwaves, they don't work as well against omicron with two doses, that's why they need to booster. and they also come down with time. three months after your booster. but what protects you lower down in your lungs where you don't want to get sick are t cells. data has shown even one dose after being naturally infected against your t cells when they to be in the respiratory tract will prevent you from severe disease. getting a mild symptomatic breakthrough does not mean the vaccines don't work. you just got protected from what we were so scared about with covid, which is severe disease. >> don't go away, because when we come back, we want to talk about the fact that you and some other doctors have drafted this letter with points of consideration for president biden before he delivers his big speech tomorrow on the next

steps for our nation in terms of the pandemic. we will come back with that. you can join us on facebook live in the meantime if you want to.

dr. monica gandhi, answering your questions on facebook live during break. i want to get to the fact that president biden is making a big speech tomorrow night on covid. your part of a group that drafted a letter for him to consider. what are the key points here? >> in this phase of the pandemic, that we really need to protect vulnerable people. that means older people. when we -- and older immuno comp revised people in nursing homes. people who are at risk for severe breakthroughs. there are metrics that should

change with standard of success. cases are no longer relevant metric. a lot of people are testing and those don't even get recorded. a lot of people are not testing in cases because of the social consequences to testing, frankly, and cases are going up and down and they will go up. but hospitalizations in the state of california are persistently going down, we are doing well because of high rates of immunity. we are pushing for a vote to use hospitalizations as a metric of how we are doing. go up and down with every case. to focus protection and masking those will noble. -- those who are vulnerable. it is really those who are vulnerable, give them the right mask. finally to avoid disruptions to young people, do not take every case in the school, when people are feeling unwelcome and shut down the schools, multiple school districts in maryland,

it's not the right approach in the state of the pandemic. then we have lots of other ideas. we want mass metrics. >> i want to pursue what you just talked about with cornell. they had the 900 cases like you said, very few got really sick at all. the campus shut down nonetheless. now some colleges have announced they will delay their in-person start. harvard, stanford will go the first couple of weeks after the holiday break virtual. ucla and usc today are saying they are considering the same. no doubt more schools will go that way, do you think that is wise or necessary? >> it is not wise at this stage in the pandemic. because what we have is vaccines to protect people and those goals you just mentioned are 100% vaccinated often because there was amended to go back -- >> 98% or more, generally. >> ok. so quite high. people will be around each other in school.

they will get mild brca2 infections. we just talked about -- mild breakthrough infections. we just talked about how the vaccines work. keeping people the most restricted, let's admit it, people are in multiple parts of the country in bars and restaurants together, they are keeping young people out of school? which has been to one point for their mental health? and the surgeon general declared a mental health crisis just weeks ago? doesn't make sense to me. especially not now. that's really what a lot of this -- made to the president. allowing the young to have their life. >> it seems like we are setting to rely more on testing, both to stay after exposure, but also as a means of keeping schools open. my son's high school gave each kid a home kit to say, take that before you come back. i've heard of several districts doing that. do you think that's a good idea? >> the cdc just endorsed what is

called test to stay on friday. they actually -- that was one of our 10 point suggestions. that means that if you had an exposure, then you can test out of quarantining. if you even had a breakthrough infection, that you should be able to test out of when you get to go back. we have found a viral load comes down very quickly and those who are vaccinated who have a brick to -- a breakthrough infection. to go back to testing. >> officials were even in heavily vaccinated areas, they seem to not be boosted to the level that a lot would like to see. around 40% boosted. what is going on? is it that people have a lot of confidence in the two shots protection? is it that they don't have time, misinformation? what you think? -- what do you think? >> we'll have no nuance into our

recommendation. this is what we do. in the middle of a pandemic. young people 16 to 17-year-old boys and men have not shown that it would be strategy. we also have not told people to space out the doses like canada has to keep down any risk of myocarditis. i think it is more of our nuance or lack of nuance that can keep people distrustful. i do think boosted but people like paul off it and some of the vaccine advisory board is writing strongly that we will only boost for a while and we will be back to our good protection from t cells and b cells. when you have that many mixed messages, and i would be on the side of anybody getting boosted, if you're going to be around somebody that is human you compromised -- that is immuno,

getting the vaccinem the first, two doses of the vaccines are the most important to get done. >> some of the folks who don't want to get the shot say i have already gotten the virus. sherry already had the virus, you talked about natural unity, would you recommend that she could boosted? >> that's a great question. there's data from just last week that either getting the virus followed by one dose of the vaccine or getting two doses of the vaccine and then getting a mild break through infection gives you stronger immunity than three doses would give you, because you actually produce immunity across the entire virus when you see the virus. this was just released. >> s s s s s got the -- >> either way, that hybrid immunity is true, whether you have the infection first or vaccination.

it's better to have vaccination, then the infection. >> for those who have been infected but haven't gotten the vaccine your, you would tell them to get it? >> yes, get one dose. that is because of early data on t cell maturation. getting the t cells to the lungs. that is data from here. >> there are a lot of conflicting messages out there. >> there are. >> some say cancel events, a a a event canceled is better than a left canceled, but many are saying vaccinated people can gather. help people cut through the noise, what do you recommend? >> it's been two years. a lot of us -- a totally different place than march of 2020. i'm sorry for any media coverage that indicates that we are not. because we are. we are vaccines -- we have vaccines, we have therapeutic tools,

hospitalizations are staying low and highly vaccinated regions and people should gather. there are safety things that they can do that they have talked about. but i agree with dr. fauci that it is time for human pings to manifest in humanity. >> i know we talked about this during break, i think it is important because it is on everyone's mind -- best tips for holiday events and gatherings. >> if you are vaccinated and feel fine, you are fine and hopefully boosted. if you are unvaccinated, please test before the holiday gathering. if you are vaccinated and don't feel well, please don't go until you have tested and make sure it's not covid. wear a good mask on the double mask, turn on the vent on the plane ahead. and for anyone who is more vulnerable, immuno compromise, like my father, we are getting him very strong n95 masks. >> i think i will end with a comment from randy here.

dr. gandhi is great, tells it like it is plain and simple. think you so much. always appreciate your insight. -- thank you so much. coming up next, one solution to house the un-housed in san francisco ha

brand-new san francisco standard to showcase some of its deep end insightful reporting on the city. argues organization shared the mission of building a better bay area. one important piece of that is to tell the stories, the successes, and struggles of all our diverse communities. that includes the unhoused crisis. joining us not to talk about one solution that is now led -- has now led to a lawsuit is the editor-in-chief of the san francisco standard, jonathan weber. nice to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> this is very interesting, because it's getting a lot of attention. the focus of your story is the granada hotel in san francisco.

how is this hotel used? how was it used before the pandemic? >> well, prior to the pandemic, the granada hotel was essentially a low-income apartment building. with a lot of elderly and disabled tenants. then in september of 2020, the hotel was purchased by a combination of states, city, and federal funds to serve homeless people during the pandemic. >> i remember that they really celebrated the success of the program, purchased a lot of properties. wanted to get people off the streets and into housing. but what happened? now some of the legacy residents you found have filed a lawsuit. why? what are they alleging? >> this particular building had been in trouble for a long time and had deteriorated conditions. the tenants were unhappy about that. they were initially happy and had lobbied the city to do

something, and were pleased when the city bought the building. but then as part of the project room key, to bring people inside during the pandemic, part of the requirement for the program was that buildings that were part of it had to have a large number of the units occupied quite quickly by homeless individuals. so a lot of unhoused people were moved into that building very quickly, with very little screening. and that created a lot of problems for the existing tenants, which kind of exacerbated the problems that already existed there. >> like what kinds of problems? >> well, safety issues, for one thing, lack of security, different tons of people coming in and out all the time. there were a lot of certification issues, with rodents and other kinds of pests, roaches. these kind of things. generally unhealthy, unsanitary conditions. unsafe conditions, allegations of drug labs in the rooms.

a whole list of things that are hard to live with especially if you are disabled or elderly. >> to they blend the property owner? -- >> do they blame the property owner over the for-profit manager? or do they blame the city? >> that's a very good point. they are not sure who to blame. in fact, one of the issues with the way the city provides these kinds of services is that there do tend to be a lot of lawyers of organizations involved. even though the city, the federal and state governments are financed, purchased, the city contribute money for operating costs, the building is owned by a nonprofit and that nonprofit eps, they subcontract the management another entity, which is a for-profit management company. so if you are a resident there, you don't really know who'd hold -- who to hold responsible.

even as journalists, it's like, who exactly is in charge here? it is -- >> looking at the video that you guys got of the decrepit conditions and the holes in the walls, it is sad to see folks living like that without a quick fix. look, this type of arrangement you are talking about, with one person owning it and another organization managing it, this is not uncommon in the city. is this problem happening anywhere else in the city? >> well, yes is the short answer. there are a number of buildings around the city, providing different kind of supported housing services -- supportive housing services or even low income housing developments without services of different kinds. and there are a lot of issues with those properties, and how those properties are managed, and the level of accountability around how the funds are distributed. because the city spent a lot of

money on these programs. and there are a lot of questions as to how effective some of that spending really is. i think there are big network layer's o -- organizations that make it difficult to see where the money is being spent. >> thank you so much. your reporting raises more

>> in our last segment, you just heard one story from the sf standard. we have links to the san francisco standard's other original reporting on our website, abc7news.com. to watch more videos of theirs, check out our streaming tv app.

thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, "getting answers." answering your questions. see you back here at 4 p.m. bye, bye. tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the cdc with eye-opening numbers just out tonight on this new variant, the omicron variant. what the numbers show in this country reports coming in now what could be the first omicron death in this country and where. late today, the cdc revealing omicron is now the dominant strain in america. the highly transmissible variant making up 73% of new covid cases in the u.s. more than 90% of new cases in some parts of the country are omicron. cases doubling every two to three days and what does this mean for christmas and your family gatherings? new york state, for one, breaking records for a fourth day in a row. what they're seeing tonight from texas to new york to michigan, and dr. jha is standing by to walk us through this.

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