announcer: building a better bay area. moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: hi there. i am kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" live on abc 7, hulu live, and wherever you stream. we are asking experts your question everyday at 3:00 to get you answers in real-time. california and the bay area, we have experienced a spike in covid cases over the weekend. but this may surprise you, we now know our numbers have some cost the peak of last winter's surge. the number of people in the hospital is quickly rising as well. abc 7 news special correspondent dr. patel is a member of our team and he will be joining us shortly to breakdown the latest

headlines. but first, there are concerns over sending children back to school over the holidays. many parents are asking, when my kids be safe? joining us to answer your questions is dr. e von miller not of, a stanford pediatric infectious disease specialist been a member of the advisory panel for the cdc. she led the pfizer trial father six to 11-year-olds, if you may recall. think you for joining us today, dr. maldonado. dr. maldonado: think you for having me. kristen: the timing is not good. omicron is spreading fast right as kids are going back to school. given that, parents want to know, is it a safe environment my kids to go back to? dr. maldonado: it is really unfortunate. we can't get a break. we thought we were heading into a good year and maybe it will be a good year, but omicron is still demonstrating how transmissible it is.

there are record numbers of infection of the round the world and around the country and here in the bay area as well, we are seeing lots of hospitalizations and cases. we do have vaccines. one of the things that is remarkable is that we are not seeing five to 11-year-olds being vaccinated with they should now in the bay area. we really need to ramp those numbers up. we are at 85% or so of all all people eligible five and older vaccinated, but we need to get the number up and watch out for this surging virus, because it will not go out way. kristen: it is not. that is as kids are coming back. and as you said, the vaccination rate is not as high as doctors hoped it would. what is the vaccination rate for 12-17

11-year-olds? dr. maldonado: five to 11-year-olds, we are really facing something like 20% or 30 percent. really not where we should. my sense is that there are a lot of reasons, but part of it could be families just not thinking that their kids will get sick. we are seeing kids get pretty sick and hospitalized. not high-risk, but that is happening. kristen: who are the kids that are hospitalized for covid? do you have an update to be able to say the pattern, is do they tend to be unvaccinated children we? dr. maldonado: haven't gotten really great data from the cdc. the last update was a while ago. what we know from our colleagues here at stanford is that half of the kids actually have underlyingthe is obesity

and asthma, so we have to be really careful because so many kids do have those conditions. but the rates really are primarily, we are seeing hospitalizations primarily in kids, a lot of underlying conditions. kristen: so, with kids going back in person, and as you know, bay area schools are still sounding the note that we are coming back in person, even though we are hearing schools in the northeast, philadelphia and chicago, a lot of them starting remote in the next semester. what would you say to them? dr. maldonado: that is a great question. i have been talking to a number of people about this. i work with the american academy of 80 hat tricks and we have always maintained that if we send kids back to school safely, as well as the environment is safe for them, that means everybody should be vaccinated. everybody five and older should be vaccinated. that will help. we should make sure ventilation

and spacing and distancing our capital well under control, when children are eating together, they should spaced apart because we know that has been a factor. doing everything you can in the environment to make it safer for kids at this point. again, children under five have the highest risk because they cannot be vaccinated. so there are different precautions we need to make sure people double down for the younger kids. kristen: that you mentioned, not eating together indoors, ventilation -- for example, marin county is saying, athletic events, sporting events, they are trying to keep indoor assemblies to a minimum. those are all good things to minimize risk. but don't you think that without regular testing, that is still going to be problematic because

there will be too many cases undetected? and as you said, still a large percentage here in the bay area are not vaccinated in that age group. dr. maldonado: that is one of the real problems i have with the way we ramped up. vaccines are standing, we did a great job in the u.s., that testing failed. we fell on our faces there. we should have had red testing a long time ago. we have had two years and we have not done a good job. we are trying to find a test right now, it is not easy. if the schools have them, they should distributing them. we have been hearing in the news about schools giving them out. if we don't have lots of tests available, at least make sure your child gets one test before they go back to school, that way you can make sure that kids are not a symptomatically affected. and if anybody has a cold, for example, i have a cold, i am

tested and negative but i, will still not be around other people because even if you are not covid infected, you don't want to affect people with any other virus whatsoever. those are the precautions people can take right now. kristen: i agree. my kid got a test kit from his school with instructions to upload the negative test result before coming back to school, and that is great, but that is one kit and they were not keep that up. if you don't have accessible testing at this winter could still become problematic. you mentioned kids under five. . they cannot get vaccinated yet, but there are kids in congregants settings and preschools and all that. i know that you are running trials on how to deliver a safe vaccine to 0-4's. what is the timing, and what will that look like? dr. maldonado: we are still in the middle of those studies.

unfortunately, as you probably heard, the 2-5-year-old dosing didn't work out well. 12 and older, that is 30 micrograms of the pfizer vaccine. for the 5 to 11-year-olds, one-third of that dose is 10 micrograms, which worked well. we dropped it to three micrograms, 1/10 of the adult dose for the under five's. for the 60 to month old, it worked well, but for the two to four of-year-olds, it didn't. we are trying to figure out what works well. pfizer is trying to do a three-dose study to see if i third dose of the three micrograms will work and get the antibody levels up. it doesn't look like we will have vaccines for kids under five for at least another few months. kristen: boy, that cannot come soon enough. . our time is running out, but i do want to go there one more time, about going back to school. is there anything inherently up out that setting that makes it safer or more dangerous than the

community at large? we are all getting omicron right now, that is happening in the bay area and elsewhere. is there any reason looking at what they do in schools to say, hmm, that is more dangerous or should, parents feel like, if they are managing all those factors you mentioned, it is ok? dr. maldonado: what we have seen over all -- it is a great question. i have three kids, they are adults now, but i am trying to put myself in that face. schools are safe. they are safer than being in the community and in some cases, safer than being at home. . so i would encourage families to keep the household visits to a minimum. again, if the kid schools are doing everything right, that is a very controlled environment, and you have supervising them all day long so it is a best-case scenario, saturday better than being out in the community. and children really suffer from

not going to school, they suffered from not going to school the last year or so. kristen: as a parent, i completely agree with you. like you said, if you can eliminate some of the risks you don't need right now and keep your eye on the prize, and that is keeping kids academically going, let's all try to do that. i appreciate your time and insight today, dr. yvonne maldonado from stanford. take care. dr. maldonado: you, too,

stan: california saw a major surge in covid-19 cases over the holiday weekend.

the state reported an average of 59,000 cases a day from new year's eve through yesterday. are testing the eco-blast winters -- far surpassing dr. patel is part of the abc 7 news vaccine team. hello, dr. patel, good to see laura: good to see you. happy 2022. may we a better and brighter years. kristen: i certainly hope so. we have reason for hope. dr. patel: we do. kristen: but not right now, because we are seeing the numbers and they do suggest, whoa, we are peaking higher than we were last winter and that is scary and terrible. put these latest numbers in context for us? dr. patel: you are absolutely right, we are at higher numbers. but two things, as you have

heard for the past month, it is a much more transmissible and contagious vibrant. but also, cases don't tell the whole stories. hospitalizations are not rising as quickly as the cases are rising, but it doesn't look like it is completely core related. also we are seeing positive cases in a vaccinated population like here in san francisco, and people who are vaccinated in the past. that is why there is a lot of people testing positive, but not going to develop severe illness. so it is important to look at case numbers, but then, take it into context. kristen: some people would look at this and say i surrender, covid will get all of us and i guess with omicron, now is the time. not that they are courting it, but i do hear people saying, it's going to get me at some point. is this it? have we put it off long enough that we have treatment now, we have a lot of people vaccinated and the hospitals are ok here in

the bay area at least? it is not ok but some people are saying if i get it, i get it. what do you think of that? dr. patel: is completely reasonable for people to have that complacency and acceptance, preparing for the fact that omicron will infect you. it will happen if you are living a life outside a bubble. you should be prepared. it means you are taking care of yourself and your family, fully vaccinated, but you are also cognizant of the fact that it is not just you had some people are cavalier and saying that they will not catch covid, but you have to remember, you may inadvertently ask those it to someone else is not vaccinated, or somebody working in the front line like a police officer, dr., teachers, so you have to think about this on an individual level. it may not be a big deal, fully vaccinated including all three shots, i am not worried about you on an individual level.

but as a population and looking at the damage you can because as a society, that is another question. kristen: it is. one that a lot of people don't want to think about. i want to ask you what is going on on the university level yet today stanford announced they will make changes to their athletic events. no more spectators, not even parents. sport parents like me are going, oh, no. they are trying to limit the indoor spread. first of all, do you think that makes sense? marin county schools are about to embark on the same path. does that make sense to you? dr. patel: it is so hard to say that it makes sense to me. if it was an outdoor event, if people are not actually allowed to go to it, that makes zero sense, especially if people are fully vaccinated. kristen: if it is indoor? dr. patel: if it is indoor and we reduce the number of people

for a short time, again, we have talked about this multiple times, if we will do this for indoor events, there needs to be an offramp, a way for people to say, hey, this will only be for two to three weeks in january. while we see that if it does hit that peak, it is modeled to it. people have gotten vaccinated. we have proof that that is protection against it and we should wait and see what happens. in the month of january, that is fine, and then go from there. kristen: aside from the money factor should the same rules apply to professional sports games as well? dr. patel: sports games can validate whether or not you have been vaccinated. . they can look to see if there is a negative test involved. that is a completely different conversation. i don't know if they are able to do that at the same level in college boards and schools. if this was a warriors game, for

example, i went to a warriors and suns game and unfortunately the sons lost, my team. kristen: that is not unfortunate. you want to argue about that? [laughter] tell doc they checked everyone's vaccinations, masks were required inside the stadium. they could do the same thing and say, instead of a mask, you need to be wearing a three-layer surgical. mask work a. 95 they can. hand them out. kristen: of course, greater ramifications for professional sports, but i get your point. you take all your players are protection and that reduces the risks, and you also look at the rewards and risks. no doubt there are rewards. i want to ask you about way back to schools. many parents are still wondering as they look at the broader situation, what are the different layers they should emphasize to their kids to take

on to make sure they maximize their safety as schools? dr. patel: if your child is of eligibility to get a vaccine and hopefully they have already gotten their first two, and depending on the age of their child they are able to get a booster as well, that will not make the biggest dent right now because it takes time to build up immunity. masking, wearing a high quality mask. kristen: and what is that? dr. patel: that means a triple layer surgical mask, or there are some masks kids can wear that are well-fitting, that have that good seal. i don't know if every kid has an access to a kn95 or a kf94. but they should also talk to the schools. what are you doing in terms of spacing? how many teachers are vaccinated? will there be a push for ventilation? everyone of these matter.

this is what we talk about when we mentioned layered protection. at the end of the day, and we said this more than a year now, schools need to be the last to close and the first to open. i can't stand the fact that in some parts of the country we are seeing ours open and schools closed? doesn't make a difference. kristen: don't go away, we will be right back with dr. patel. i will ask him to let us know when he (son) fixed. no charge. ah, that's my son. he always takes care of his mama. ooh, what's up with gran's casrole om)he always takes care of his mama. brotheridt a feance policy. i hear there's a collection to help aunt adele. (mom) yeah. a funeral costs north $ that's a hefty bill for family to pay if there's no life insurance check to help. wow. makes you think, doesn't it? (mom) which reminds me, i've been meaning to tell you, i got that 995 plan from colonial penn.

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directions. some are saying, we will live our lives, and others, people are saying they will get tested. you have to look at your individual risk, who you are living with and what your situation looks like. kristen: as you know, more people are getting omicron having been fully boosted. and it hits you more quickly so you may test negative today but then the next day, too bad, you have already been with 80 people. dr. patel:. dr. patel: that is an extremely important point, the rapid antigen test is a snapshot in time. you cannot take it today and say you are good for the next five days. kristen: yeah. i see that weddings where the host spends $1000 giving everyone an antigen test. and then i think, it doesn't mean you will keep all the cases out. you might keep one out, but not 100%. niculescu yes how the omicron variant presents in children under five who don't qualify for the vaccine yet.

i was wondering myself if the variant creates less severity in symptoms, or quantitatively different types of symptoms? dr. patel: one thing it is doing is it is tending to give young kids more of those upper respiratory symptoms. so instead of the lower lungs, things like pneumonia and shortness of breath, younger kids are presenting with an extremely bad cold. so somebody out there might cost and say that is not a big deal, but remember, babies cannot handle an upper respiratory infection the same way older people can that is why things like influenza and iris v are potentially deadly for children. there is lab data showing that omicron replicated much better in the nose than it does in the lungs, which makes those symptoms collide, but also makes it really easy to spread. kristen: and i am hearing from some of my kids' friends who w

say, it is like a cold. i can't tell the difference between this and a cold. you could be giving it to more people and other people get severe symptoms. we just learned about a new covid variant found in france, i know there are new ones opening up every time. is this one a concern? dr. patel: it has not been labeled as a variant of concern yet. it is trending on twitter, hashtag i hate you variant -- i hat there is a couple of things that have researchers attention. it has 46 mutations on it, omicron. two of those mutations are the mutations from the alpha and the beta variant. there is a concern that that might make it more transmissible and able to invade antibodies. it is still early. but remember, mutations happen

all the time. it doesn't mean the virus will run out and hurt you. we have vaccines now and natural immunity. this is another reason we can't let the virus continue to replicate, because it will create new variants. kristen: absolutely right. don't be a host if you can avoid it. let's talk about the future of omicron. let's get out the cristobal. look into it and tell us when do you think this surge will be done. dr. patel: i will bas bas other models and it looks like this surge will happen in the middle of january, the peak of the surge. but remember, we are already at one million positive cases a day, so how much higher will just go? even after we passed the peak, we could have potentially hundreds of thousands of positive tests every day, and even though the largest data set

so far from the u.k. suggests it is causing mild illness, again, we don't know what they will do to everyone who is out of vaccinated and high-risk. kristen: right. and also, you can still have long covid? dr. patel: absolutely, we are still seeing it, in kids. it is horrific. not all kids are vaccinated, we know that. and also, not all of them have natural immunity. they are at grave risk of long covid if they get infe

much. thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. today we answered your questions about omicron impacting children, and the winter covid

we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on our livestream, answering questions. world news tonight is coming up next and i will see. . tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the 27-hour nightmare. drivers trapped on i-95. the stunning images still coming in all day today. drivers who began their commute more than 24 hours ago, trapped after a paralyzing storm. authorities overwhelmed by the accidents. several inches of ice and snow. drivers, families with children and pets trapped with no food, water and gas running low. a u.s. senator among them. all of it spiraling after an accident involving several tractor trailers. an amtrak train stuck for 30 hours, too. so, what happened? were authorities not ready? and what they're now saying tonight. also tonight, we're tracking two new storms right behind this. the first one hitting tonight, it could bring freezing rain to i-95 again t