>> building a better bay moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers." live on abc 7 and wherever you stream. we asked experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers in real time. transit trouble. bay area public transportation systems have lost riders, causing worries of gridlock and emissions. can a state lawmaker's plan to unify the transit be the answer? ? state senator josh becker will join us. oscar nominations are out with surprises and snubs. san francisco chronicle's film critic nicholas al will be here to break it down. first, one week from today, the state's indoor mask mandate will expire and not be renewed. cat word coming down from

governor newsom yesterday, immediately drawing praise from those who say it is about time, and criticism from those who say it is premature. . here to talk about this big move , is ucf infectious disease expert dr. peter chan home. great to have you on. >> thank you for having me on. kristen: before we get on with this, want to point out, that the lifting of the mask mandate, that does not apply to people who are unvaccinated. if you are unvaccinated, you need to keep on masking. the mandate's last day is february 15 and will not be removed -- renewed. people are missing this, that this means you can legally take your mask off indoors if you are vaccinated on february 16, wednesday. don't mark the wrong day on your calendar. they are not going to police you but important to remember. with that said, is this the right time for the lifting of the state mandate? >> i think it is definitely a

move in the right direction. whether or not it applies to every person in california is the question. what you are seeing is a move from a sledgehammer, lets everyone do all the same things, to more individual choice. as the omicron goes and dips dramatically low, this is the right time to have this conversation. we are in a different place from a year ago. we have a lot of people vaccinated and boosted. we have monoclonal antibodies increasing in availability and pills that can keep people at risk -- keep people from risk from getting sick. kristen: when you look at the bay area metrics hospitalizations, and you look at the other things available such as treatments, you feel this is the right time to pull the trigger, if you will, on lifting the state mask mandate? >> yes. again, the asterisk is not in all situations. in health care, we are going to be masking universally.

nursing homes, public transportation, and in schools, most importantly. kristen: which i will get to in a bit. it is important to note that businesses can still ask you to wear a mask if that is what they choose. employers can absolutely have that. when the state rule is no more, then it is up to the counties. only marin county does not have its own mask mandate, the other eight countries do. san francisco, alameda, and contra costa would decide whether to keep mandates. do you think any candies need to keep theirs for some reason? dr. chin-hong: personally, exactly at this moment. but i'm still worried about the hospital capacity in the smaller counties where they may have a few icu beds. that is the only question i have. hospitalizations have gone down in many areas. hopefully that will not continue to be a problem. kristen: in making this move,

can we take a quick look at other nations that have lifted their restrictions? the mask in particular, and how they are doing, maybe there will be a sign as to whether this move will change things for us at all? dr. chin-hong: i think the most dramatic case of a country's approach to the new covid or the new way of looking at the pandemic is denmark. because their cases have for a long time. what was happening is there hospitalizations were coming down, before the cases in the community. their vaccination rate is above 90%, very high. there hospital capacity was not being stretched. they decided as a country do not focus on the infection curve but focus on the hospital curve. kristen:kristen: ok. that is a higher vaccination rate than us. that is useful. you mentioned schools earlier.

this mandate being lifted next week does not include schools. state health officials are debating when to lift that mandate, if at all. should schools follow suit, do you think? dr. chin-hong: i think suits -- i think schools will follow suit. the move to not require masks outdoors is a baby step in the right direction. whether or not i would run schools and have students yank their masks off, it might be too early. things are happening so rapidly, and ascending so quickly that it may take time for people to recalibrate. and probably, schools -- schools want to be as controlled as possible. kristen: right. is one of the considerations when under five's might get vaccinated? right now, they don't have an approved vaccine, although it is coming. dr. chin-hong: yes. some people said, could we use a

metric of about 80% vaccination before you reduce or take away masks in schools? ? or should we look at some other metric? others say, if you are taking away masks, take away masks for everyone. l.a., for example, has indoor and outdoor mask mandates. in schools they probably have the strictest roadmap where they require you to be in the orange zone and all of california except for a couple of counties in the red zone, in terms of high transmission. kristen: ok. you mentioned burlingame. i have to say, when i read that, i did not think that was that big of a deal in terms of how much of a difference it is from what is happening now. as it stands now, when kids are eating lunch outdoors on their school campus in the bay area, what i'm familiar with is they take their mask off, they eat, they are near each other. to me, but is not that big of a step.

it is not really stretching that far. but to announce it and put it in a policy is a bigger step in itself. dr. chin-hong: yes, you are right. it is probably not practically changing much of what has happened. but rather, a metaphor for where we are moving to. i think people needed those kind of steps toward normalcy rather than being in limbo and not knowing what is going on. kristen: are there places where you would still choose to wear a mask, come next wednesday, even without a mandate? dr. chin-hong: yes. kristen: the hospital, of course, where you work. dr. chin-hong: i think if i go to a crowded indoor grocery store at rush hour and have a long grocery list, i probably would wear my mask. even though i'm boosted, i know i'm not going to go to the hospital very sick, i just think it is still a drag to get infected. luckily, i have not gotten infected yet. i don't want to be put into

isolation and put my colleagues at work out of having to cover me. those of the considerations i have. apart from that, i'm more courageous in going to eat indoors. i'm not going to wear my mask outdoors necessarily. with the gym rule, i feel more courageous about -- surrounded by people that i believed to be vaccinated and boosted, that i can go to the gym and feel more courageous about not wearing my mask in that stable cohort or stable group of people. kristen: ok. thank you for sharing your personal thoughts. it gives us food for thought. a couple of other important news, not related to the indoor mask mandate being lifted in california, the cdc shortened the interval between shots. is that for the immunocompromised? dr. chin-hong: i think they were finding out that people were having a hard time getting a

fourth shot at the drugstore, or when they made appointments. there was a lot of confusion. they gave more latitude. in -- immunocompromised individuals, to get to the two shots where everyone else is, they need three shots. so the fourth shot for them is like a booster shot for us. instead of getting it at month five, they are getting a shot at month three. the goal is not really to boost them, it is to increase their chances of getting anti--- getting any antibody response. . it does not matter -- or it does not really matter to wait for five months. you just want to give somebody a fighting chance of getting an antibody response. kristen: there is also evidence the pandemic is causing stress, that we have all known anecdotally. but the stress can lead to a very serious broken heart syndrome. what does that about and who is it afflicting?

dr. chin-hong: it is mainly inflicting premenopausal women and older women. people have symptoms of a heart attack. shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness. it is a sudden physical or emotional stress that weakens the muscle of the heart, and the heart cannot pump that much. it is reversible, but that women, older women have increases i more than 10 times in the last few years. and the pandemic has increased some of these cases coming to the hospital. it is really interesting that stress, or bringing -- or broken heart connection israel. -- is real. it can affect the pumping of the heart. kristen: alright. that is another reason we all have to pull together and have this pandemic and soon. dr. chin-hong, thank you so

much. it is great getting your expertise. dr. chin-hong: thank you so much. kristen: coming up next, simple fine public transportation in the bay area. that is the goal of a bill introduced by state senator josh

kristen: since the area transit systems have seen a decline in ridership. that worries climate scientists and regional planners who believe getting people out of their cars and onto public transportation is a key component of building a better bay area. state senator josh becker has introduced a new bill to address one stumbling block to improve transit. he joins us live right now. nice to have you here. sen. becker: nice to be here. kristen: the fact that we are

talking about this, the big picture question is transit in trouble here? sen. becker: listen, we had pre-pandemic, one of the worst congestions in the nation, second only to los angeles. and ridership has gone down since then. but we have the makings of a world-class transfer system, but we are not there. that is what this bill is about. i think people here feel we should have a world-class transit system. that is what this bill is about. one of the big things is to have integration affairs and integration of schedules. that is what this bill does. kristen: i want to say, integration is not easy when you have 26, 27 transit systems. sen. becker: exactly. kristen: when i was a transportation beat reporter two decades ago, i was shocked to learn we had so many transit systems. each with its own fair system, each with its own car, it's on

plan, and routes, they don't always talk to each other. i want to put up a map. i think this may be part of what you are talking about. this is from an organization called seamless bay area where they have a map of their vision of a unified transit system. are you hoping for something like this? when you look at this, you see, it seems to cover all of our region. still right now, i can't get to where i need to go very easily. sen. becker: i've partnered with them. that is what we are trying to do here. moved to a seamless bay area. it is too hard to get from point a to point b. many have to pay transfer penalties, extra fees, if you move from one system to another. this particularly affects low income riders, and those that if they missed one connection, miss one bus, they are late for work and they are in deep trouble. that is one of the things we are trying to fix with this bill. we need to move to that vision. kristen: when you go on one

system, for example, you go on bart or another agency's website and you go, i want to get from here to here. do they tell you, well, you take for this leg, you take the system, then you transfer to this on this other system? how does it work, technology wise? do they talk to each other? sen. becker: not enough, certainly. that is one of the problems. the learning curve is very steep. it discourages people from using transit altogether. s riders should not have to navigate. this is about better signs, connections between buses, trains, light rail -- light rail and fairies. it about creating a new map of transit in the bay area. it is about that. there is not just one map right now. kristen: what about things like monthly commuter passes?

i'm not sure if the clipper card got us there in terms of, here, this pays for any and all. sen. becker: yeah, the theory integration part of this bill is important. the clipper card was a good start to this. and it does help. but it just was not enough. this is probably the newest and biggest addition to this bill and what we are trying to accomplish here. it really encourages the transit operators to produce integrated fare structure that allows for no cost, local, and local to regional transfers. and a portion of those transit operators funding will be on the hook if they don't comply. kristen: got it. i understand sb 15 will be heard in the committee in the spring. i know you have got lawmakers from other counties in the bay area that have signed on. when are you hoping this will become reality? what is the timeline? sen. becker: we have to get it

through -- the whole annual structure of the legislature. we have had good conversations with folks in the transportation committee. we have to get through the senate and the assembly. best case scenario, we will get this to the governor's desk around september or october. kristen: i think this might be a separate conversation, but i think it is worth asking. do you think transit fares are too high in general? i'm not picking on any transit agency. i happened to look on bart. if you want to go to walnut creek to sfo, almost $12. a lot of people, that is an hour of take-home pay. sen. becker: i agree. there is a movement to say hey, let's waive those fees, or for certain circumstances, low income riders, let's figure out a way to make it more affordable. that is what this is about. imagine that, you have to tack on the transfer penalties and such. it is not affordable. and it is not convenient. for those who have been

fortunate enough from this area to travel, to europe, japan they come back and say, why can't we have a system like that? that is what we are going for. we have the makings of a world-class system. we are just not there. this bill will go a long way. kristen: all right. state senator josh becker, thank you for stopping by to talk about your plan to try to streamline the bay area transit systems. really appreciate your time. sen. becker: good, thank you. i know that you know a lot about this. so thanks for highlighting this. kristen: absolutely. take care. coming up, we know who might win big at the 2022 academy awards and who is snubbed.

kristen: look back. the nominees for the 2022 oscars have been revealed the count down to hollywood biggest night is on. here to break down this year's contenders plus the snubs and surprises is san francisco

chronicle's film critical -- film critic, nicholas sal. it has been a while since we've talked. excited to have you back on. today is the day, because we have the oscar nominations. let's start with the most prestigious honor, the nominations for best picture. 10 of them were released. which where the shoe ins and which where the surprises? nicholas: i would say komodo was a surprise. it is a smaller movie. i was surprised by king richard. nightmare alley, just because it is not that good, really. but west side sorry -- story was a sure thing, belfast was a sure thing. licorice pizza was probably a sure thing. kristen: you mentioned code i was a smaller film. that put a big smile on my face. there is an historic nomination associated with that film as well. nicholas: yeah. it was a deaf actor nominated for best supporting actor. i don't think they will win, but

it is a good category. kristen: congratulations to him. as you look at this list, there is always the big studios versus indie's versus streaming. how does this year's shakeout and where did they fall into those buckets? nicholas: i have not given it that much thought, but when i look at this list, what makes me feel good is compared to last year, it feels like we have returned to real movies. last year, it was such -- it was like, tofu. all these independent movies. if you ask me what kind of movies you like? i would say these smaller independent movies. but the steady diet of them last year, it began to get depressing. it is nice to see big movies like west side story or a grand scale movies like power of the dog. movies like that, with big stars like will smith. . it is nice to see it again.

last year, it was beginning to feel like we were never going to see it. kristen: right. overall, you think this is a good year for movies, for hollywood. nicholas: i think it is a decent year of recovery. i don't think it is like an amazing year. 2018 and 2019 were really good years. and it seemed like it was going to be like the beginning of a really good era. now, maybe not so much. but i think it is catching up. we had some really excellent movies this year. i would say it is a good solid average year, which in and of itself is a success. kristen: seems to have a good mix. i saw "don't look up." i loved it. love, love, love it. i don't think it will loved it. how could it be tackling something so serious and frightening for all of the realistic components, yet make me laugh the whole time? that's incredible. nicholas: it was one of the funniest, most depressing movies of the year.

i thought it was terrific. it got just a bad reception from critics. i was surprised. i don't get it. kristen: sometimes you have to side with the fans, not to critics. let's take a look at the best actor nominees. we have that list. you tell me who you think is going to take it here? nicholas: i think it is going to be, will smith just because i think it is a pretty weak year. and also because of who tends to win. the people who win best tend to be middle-aged, and by middle-aged, i mean between 40 and 60. . and they tend to be people who have been nominated before. andrew garfield is on the young side. side. i think it will be will smith, based on -- or if not will smith, benedict cumberbatch. kristen: i was going to bet on

cumberbatch because he is so popular right now. . he is in that zone. andrew garfield was wonderful. i love that movie. best actress, let's throw out that list. you tell us who you think belongs or does not belong. nicholas: ok, the person who does not belong is kristen stewart, because that was horrible. and i love kristen stewart. kristen: when you called this a travesty. why do you think so? nicholas: it is a disaster. she is terrible in the movie. she is doing this horrible imitation of princess diana. every line she speaks, she takes a deep breath and expels air. it is a terrible imitation, and it is an imitation anyway which is not acting. i think she is awful, and i think she is going to win, actually. i do. i think she is going to win. if you look, the people who usually win best actress is somebody who has never been

nominated before. who is under the age of 35, that is another one. and everybody else is over the age of 35. kristen: don't go away, we will continue to chat on facebook live. audience, we will see who takes home the oscars during the 94th academy awards, airing live march 27, right here on abc 7.

joining us on this interactive show, "getting answers." we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air, and on livestream answering your questions. world news tonight is coming up next. i will see you back here at 4:00 today. bye-bye.

tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the vice president's husband, the second gentleman, and the scare. pulled out of a school event by the secret service. and breaking news tonight on mask mandates. what the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky just said about masks in schools. the battle over masks tonight as some governors say the mandates will go away, leaving it up to schools. tonight, parents in suburban chicago protesting over schools keeping the masks, after new jersey, delaware, oregon, connecticut are now moving to lift the mandates in schools. when will we hear from new york's governor on masks? and tonight, what the cdc director just said. we'll have latest. also tonight, the security scare involving the second gentleman. vice president kamala harris's husban