>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> good afternoon. you are watching the dancers live on abc7 news, juhulu live wherever you stream. we get you answers in real time. the san francisco mayor joins us and we discussed two major concerns, covid-19 and drugs. also we look at the incredible amount of damage natural disasters have caused this year and how you can help but first president joe biden address the nation on the fight against covid-19. you saw it right here on abc7 news. joining us now to talk about that and all things omicron, dr. jorge salinas an in

disease expert at stanford health care. thank you for being here. let's get into it because this address from the present to fight covid and the omicron s urge, part of his messaging was that he has -- is adamant on disturbing half a billion free at home rep. -- rapid tests starting in january. >> it is a great step in the right direction. it is probably not enough as a sole intervention but when paired with other steps i think you can make it safer. >> there has been some criticism because other countries such as europe they have had these at-home tests very readily available. is this something that should have been done earlier in the u.s.? >> well, clearly, the answer is yes. unfortunately nowadays in several metropolitan areas in america people are making long lines to get a test ahead of the holidaysyes, i wish we hadn't

expected and word on getting more of these tests sooner. >> there is now this scramble. i bought six in anticipation of the holiday season. it makes a lot of sense. the demand is there. president biden really hammered home this need to be vaccinated. and if you have not been vaccinated yet, what is there if anything at this point that can get you motivated? i remember early on in the pandemic when the vaccines had just rolled out people were being incentivized with things such as cash or free food. >> well, absolutely. i think that we have to try every strategy possible to persuade people to get vaccinated, because it is a matter of life or death. not being vaccinated increases tremendously your likelihood of getting infective, of getting severe disease, needing to be hospitalized and potentially dying. yes, i will take any measure that can increase the number of

people vaccinated. >> whether it be an incentive may be an incentive or maybe just the cold hard facts of science. >> sorry. >> and the fact that vaccination actually does prove to work and help you protect yourself from this virus. now, one major priority, to keep schools open. the president said there will not be any new lockdowns. what is your take on this? what have you seen especially in the wake of this new variant when it comes to children? >> well, in general, in that sense, the president is correct that again unvaccinated people are more likely to get infected. in -- and many children are not able to be vaccinated because they are not eligible. at the same time, we have not reached a very high rate of vaccination among school-age children. yes, i expect to have some risk of outbreaks in schools. my hope would be that we can

decrease the amount of transmission in the society and in our community so we can keep schools open as long as possible. >> taking all of those precautions such as masking, social distancing and staying outside. are there any more takeaways you would like to share with our audience about what the president said today? >> well, in general, what this mean, and apologies, there is a fly or something around here, in general what this means is that we have to take omicron seriously. it is a very contagious variant. and a number of people are getting sick even if they are vaccinated or boosted. we have to be very careful, be mindful of your socialization, gatherings. and for the holidays, especially, try if you gather with people, try to get a test ahead of time or minutes before the gathering starts. try to limit the number of

people that are in the meeting. if you can, try to do it outside. >> looks like that bug wants to get on tv. >> apologies. >> a quick reminder to everyone, be free to leave your comments and questions for our doctor now on facebook.com/abc7 newsnews. i want to pivot slightly and talk about this variant, because we are seeing surges all across the country. in particular new york. they are seeing this surge right now. deaths typically leg a few weeks behind. initially it seems like this-- this variant was not going to be so bad. it almost feels like the first real test to see of the vaccines will prevent serious illness. that is happening now. >> i do have high hopes still for the protection that vaccines will give us from severe disease and death. so, in that sense,

is some miscue indication there. yes, a milder illness is one that does not send you to the hospital. but you can still feel pretty bad with this disease. and some people develop long covid, have symptoms for a number of weeks after the incidence of it. so, yes, i expect -- vaccines help but we should not depend only on vaccines. their protection against infection has decreased a little bit. everybody should get boosted. and in general we should add vaccines to other layers of protections including masking and public spaces, trying to reduce gatherings and be in well ventilated spaces. >> speaking about hospitalizations, do you have a sense of how hospitals are holding up? we are nearing the second month of omicron, and we are still hearing about the need for hospital beds. >> so, hospitals in america are in a very tough position.

in general, putting covid aside, the health of america has worsened because there was difficulties getting access to care in general. people are overall sicker, our hospitals are fuller. our health care workforce is tired. a number of people have stopped working in health care. so, that is the baseline. hospitals are full and exhausted at baseline. on top of that we have delta and omicron. yes, all in all, this winter season, this new variant of covid is bad news for hospitals. even if the number of hospitalizations does not go up dramatically, our health care workers may get sick. we are people. we gather with our families and we can get sick. if a number of health-care

workers get sick, there is not going to be enough people to take care of patients. the same applies to other essential businesses and activities of society. >> i want to let everyone know that we see all of your question spared we only have a minute left. if we can touch upon boosters real quick because how long is it take for boosters to fully take effect. there is a lot of talk about that in the bay area. >> i think the activity of boosters starts kicking in very quickly, two to three days after getting the dose, a week later your antibody levels are very high, very robust. i think this is perhaps a silver lining, an opportunity, please go get boosted. it's exceedingly important. it will double your protection against getting affected with this new variant. >> stay with us. on-air we are taking a break but online the show continues. abc7news.com/

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>> thank you so much for staying with us. as omicron surges san francisco is addressing other issues that continue to surge. we are talking about drugs and crime. joining us the mayor of san francisco herself, mayor london breed. always good to have you on the show with us. >> great to be here. good to see you. >> lots to talk about so let's get right to it. the latest headline that leads into the bigger issue of crime, you declared a state of emergency for the tenderloin to get more resources to slow down opioid deaths there. just -- he very publicly pushed back on your plan to put more money into policing and patrolling in the tenderloin.

he says more money should go to housing and drug treatment. those are platforms he has long stood behind. what is your response to that? >> my response is those are things i am also behind, and in fact i put my money where my mouth is in terms of working aggressively in the city to accomplish that goal. this city is spending billions of dollars specifically to help support many of those programs and services. in fact, my budget proposed one billion increased funding to support the homeless population in particular, issues around mental health, behavioral health related issues. substance use issues. wraparound supportive services, housing. we are doing all that. so, the response to addressing the challenges in the tenderloin community is not just about services. it is about crime as well. the stabbings, the shootings, the selling of drugs. things that involve violence in

some instances, we cannot enjoy the fact that that is also happeningtoo. at the end of the day, our responsibility, including the d.a. is to make sure the people feel safe and sadly that is not the case. my goal is to put safety above anything else, and investing any and all resources which also includes additional police officers to help keep people safe as well. >> obviously this is not a black-and-white issue. it is very complex. i do not envy your job whatsoever. can there be a balance of funds, or do you believe the majority should go into patrols? >> to be clear, to be clear about the funds, there is more money that goes into these various social service agencies, a number of organizations who receive funding to help address exactly what it is that we see in the tenderloin. there is no comparison in terms of what we are spending on our police support in the tenderloin compared to everything else

around these various services. the street crisis intervention team, the street wellness team, urban alchemy, saint anthony's, all of these various programs, even -- 360, all of these agencies, all of the buildings that we purchase that we own that we are providing housing for, all the different groups that are constantly going out there to work with the various people in the community to help support them. let's be clear. the fact is we are spending more money to support social service agencies to help support and address the problems, but we got to remember sadly there have been a number of shootings and stabbings, and there is open air drug sales letter going on. all of which are illegal. and they need to be addressed and those social service -- no social service agency is going to be available to address those particular violent situations where the police is needed. >> and that certainly goes along with my next question to you, because the d.a. also set of

arrests and prosecutions could solve the drug crisis, it would have been solved along time ago. what is your response to that? >> my response is it's sad simplifying a situation. i have a friend i grew up with that was chased down, beat down, shot and killed in the tenderloin. i have another friend who was stabbed trying to break up a fight. we have a social service worker, someone down there trying to help people who unfortunately was stabbed as well. so the fact is this is not about an either/or, one thing or another. this is about a balance between providing support and programs, and holding people accountable when they assault people, when they kill people in this city. when they vandalize somebody's property. when they are selling drugs out in the open. so, that should be our focus. and the fact that we are trying to simplify, to imply we are

talking about people who are addicted to drugs that we are holding them accountable for this. that can be -- that is further from the truth. >> not to mention we are bombarded. i personally and with stories that come out of the tenderloin that echo your personal experience of what you had gone through earlier on. >> the families down there. the families, where they are trying to walk their children in the streets. the mom that was in tears who was assaulted, who was randomly hit on the streets and is scared to walk down the streets now. the grandma who family members don't know what to do, she will not leave the house. the trauma from those kids, those seniors, those business owners, those families who have no place else to go. they deserve better. >> i think often times people forget there are children that live in this community. >> and they cannot play in the park because of all of the drug dealing and the drug using and the deaf akkadian and the year in dating right in front of these playgrounds -- and the f defecating and the urinating in

front of these playgrounds. >> i do want to get to have your question in a moment but before we get to that, question on crime, because you had used some very strong words the other day in reference to what is happening to our city. the public seems to be on your side. many of them saying they are glad you are serious about cracking down on crime. i actually had one business owner in soma who was considering doing a story about the crime outside his piece a shot but now he is holding up because he feels like you are paying attention in the situation will get better. this being said, what exactly does that state of emergency entail? >> the state of emergency that we announced has everything to do with all of the social services that the d.a. and the folks who held the press conference, none of which live in the tenderloin anyway, this response is all about the social

services. it's all about behavioral health, our clinicians, many of the resources, expanding resources and getting people help. and working with our police officers for example, if someone is laying in the streets high, and struggling and smelling of urine, we should not leave them there. the choice is we have a place for you to go where you can get sober, where we are not here to judge you, and we can get you help if you decide you want to take the help. we are not forcing anyone to do anything other than to get off the streets when they are in a situation like that. our goal is to do a public health response, to not inundate our hospitals with people who are struggling with mental illness because they have been put on a 72 hour hold. it is creating an environment where they can get fed or clean or provided with support. it is a very robust public health response because what we have seen sadly as we have lost more lives last year than people

who died from covid in this city, we lost more lives to those who overdosed. that is what this emergency response is in terms of addressing it from a public health perspective and dealing with it head on. >> thank you for those tangible responses. i do want to get to this viewer question because it has to do with soma. dear m ayor, i live in soma. you declared that state of emergency for the tenderloin. artistic has been plagued with junkies and criminals and open drug use. -- our district has been plagued with. what are you doing to protect children and families in this neighborhood? >> what we are trying to do is really focus on the tenderloin and the surrounding areas of the tenderloin which does include soma. for example, there are parts of the tenderloin that are in soma, but they are incorporated into what we are trying to do in terms of this emergency response. my hope is that this will turn things around for that area in general rather than what this

person probably things we are going to do is move the problem from one location to another. the point of this emergency declaration is to stop the problem in its tracks and really deal with it in the neighborhood most impacted and my hope is that it will have an impact on the soma neighborhood as well. >> we only have about a minute left. i want to be respectful of your time but this question that we have is that last summer we saw so many protests around racial injustice. funds were reallocated because of it. did that lead to an increase in crime? >> i don't think that could be e attributed to an increase in crime. i want to be clear we allocated resources specifically from our public safety departments including the police department to help support the african-american community in particular but we did not decrease the number of officers in the department. we did not decrease the number of academy classes and other

things that we need around law enforcement. in fact, there is a real challenge with recruitment of law enforcement agencies all over the country. but we do feel strongly that a lot of the resources that we have invested in the community have made the difference in many lives of many people in san francisco. we know there is a lot more work to do. this pandemic and what has happened and how people have lost their jobs and the lack of resources, we got to make sure those resources get into the right hands where hopefully people's lives can change so that they never feel that they have or have to cross that line that could sadly land them in a bad situation and continue to impact our city negatively. >> we always appreciate your time drew quickly, do you have anything fun planned for the holidays? >> yes. i plan to sleep. >> that sounds fantastic. thank you very much. >> relax and have a good time i will just say, just quickly on the omicron, we are seeing the

number of cases go-- go uop. we had over 300 cases since yesterday. be careful during the holidays, make sure you enjoy your family but think about the fact that this is transmitting more rapidly than anything else. we don't know what we'll do in terms of hospitalizations and deaths but we will continue to keep the public posted as we get more information. have a great holiday and be safe out there. >> hope you do get that rest after all. see you in a bit. abc is holding a day of giving for disaster relief. as we are getting those as we are getting those staggering numbers on the d i didn't have to shout out for help. because you didn't have another dvt. not today. one blood clot puts you at risk of having another, so we chose xarelto®, to help keep you protected. xarelto® is proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt or pe blood clots from happening again. almost 98% of people did not have another dvt or pe.

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northern coastal region of the american red cross think of for being here. >> thank you for having us. >> the red cross, this has been one of the country's most active years for severe weather. is it safe to assume you're seeing a record number of displaced families? >> we absolutely are. with bigger disasters become speakers impacts to communities in their way. as with the recent tornadoes in the midwest and south, we are seeing entire towns, communities raised to the ground -- razed to the ground. here we are more than a week after the turn nato events. -last night wish- the tornado event. last night we sheltered 950 people across 27 shelters. we are helping tens of thousands of people every year. and no sign of that slowing down anytime soon. >> it is not just housing people who are displaced. what are the some of the -- what are some of the other resources the red cross can provide? >> sure.

let's say you were just involved in the tornadoes. you have lost everything. the red cross will shelter you and feed you. we will provide you with on-site disaster help services, mental health services. we will do a disaster assessment on your home. and determine what are your immediate needs for the near future. we will also start casework with you to get you on the road to recovery. all of that takes a lot of people, a lot of moving parts, and it takes a lot of money, which is - -why we rely on the generosity of the american people to support our mission and enable us to do what we do. >> we'll mentioned how people can donate. we just had an earthquake off the coast. do you have some preparedness tips? >> absolutely. if it starts shaking, dropped to the ground, cover yourself with a piece of furniture and hold on until the shaking stopped. that's the quick 1, 2, 3.

you can go to red cross.org an d find other preparedness tips. >> thanks to you for that great resource. we'll also remind everyone red cross.org/abc is hwer e-- hwere -- where you can go to make the donation. you can also call 1-800-red- cross or text 90999 to donate $10.

thank you again everybody for joining us on this interactive show called getting answers. today we cover the latest on omicron and the president's plan to fight the surge.

also we talked to the mayor about the crime and drug crisis. i will see y tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. president biden's speech to the nation. his warning to americans about this new variant, the omicron variant, now sweeping the country. the president's sobering address to the nation today, 24 hours after we learned the omicron variant is now the dominant strain here in the u.s., making up 73% of new cases. 90% of cases in some parts of the country. new york city tonight breaking records. what they're seeing from michigan to wisconsin. and across the country, people waiting for hours in line, waiting to get tested for covid before christmas. president biden urging unvaccinated americans to get vaccinated now, calling it potentially a life or death decision. and telling those who are vaccinated to get a booster as soon as possible.

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