>> building a better bay area. moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc7news. kristen: hello there, you're watching "getting answers" wherever you stream. we ask experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get you answers in real time. today, we have dr. lapel to talk about your concerns about the dropping of the mask mandate. but first, he is the bay area born hollywood director. you probably have seen his work. >> you should have told me that you are like the prince william. >> ♪ we cannot stop ♪

kristen: attentive fans may have noticed that john adams shoe all -- often gives food the star treatment in his movies but you might be surprised about a new role he is taking on with wi. joining us now from his busy schedule is john himself. happy lunar new year, john and thank you for coming. new year, new role. you are the chief creative officer for wi. what is wi? we want the origin story. >> it is a company that does asian and hispanic groceries delivered right to your door. i grew up in a house of food so i was always around a story and food so it made sense that i started seeing these vans around with "weee."

my friends were ordering off of the app to get the ingredients that you grew up with. being here in l.a., i did not know where to find them. i got so fascinated with this company because it really helped tell the story through food and spread the culture to my children and my friends who know nothing about these ingredients. i met with the founder, larry lou from fremont and i loved what they were doing. they are a company trying to make change through sharing foods. kristen: we have a picture of you with larry and a couple of other founders and executives of the company. they are based in fremont but are in 40 states. >> all around the country growing very quickly. they have a huge skew. they have all different storefronts in the weee app.

they have korean, mexican, chinese, all of the things especially if you do not have an asian store near you come you can get it right there and it is so convenient. and i loved their philosophy. the more we share our foods, the more we will care about each other. sharing food and sending it tooo your friends is another deal. kristen: you are not just a celebrity investor. you actually know your food. you revered food in your family growing up. your dad founded a restaurant 5. you cannot just put anything into your food because it represents the love you put into your family. >> absolutely. there are so many messages in food.

when you are sick, what does your family give you? when you are needing healing, what do they feed you? i am personally excited to discover this through this company and through telling these stories. they have a social network in the app where people share the food that they have bought and you can buy what they ordered and they are telling you how to make certain dishes and hack certain ingredients. i want to shoot my parents on their to share their favorite food secrets and our grandparents. so it becomes a library of crystallizing our history and culture that not just us can see but others as well. kristen: if the chef's secrets are on there, we are sold. >> he does not know that yet. kristen: we have a viewer question, teresa wants to know what is your favorite dish at chef chu's?

>> i love the garlic lobster noodles they have but i am a basics guy so i like the chinese chicken salad and the potstickers. comfort foods for me. kristen: there is a john's favorite food section on weee. >> you can click on the app, and you can see what i choose and i will keep updating. so things that my kids have started alike and new and old things. kristen: the things you do as chief creative officer. i think it is really cool because i know friends that started using weee during the pandemic. and that is in the bay area where you can get to an asian supermarket. but if you don't have access to asian or hispanic groceries and ingredients, definitely try this. >> i have cousins in college and

we will send care packages to them of foods that i know they won't be able to look for it they will just buy doritos. we will send them some yummy asian treats they can share with their dorm. kristen: i want to talk about the oscars. many people thought "in the heights" that you made with lin-manuel moronta should have been nominated and i concur. but some feel the academy did not build on last year's movement of building on inclusion and diversity. what do you think? >> it is always an evolvinging movement happening. i thought they had some good choices. i think they could have made bolder choices. this is something that cannot be fixed in one year and should not satisfy everything in one year. we need to keep pushing. as the membership changes, as

our philosophy changes and movies themselves change, these are things that will be reflected in this. what i thought they had some good to -- some good choices -- "drive my car." even the first female dp. kristen: and in terms of inclusion, i think "koda" is great too. >> an amazing movie the world that may be a lot of people do not see. kristen: best picture pick? >> come on, you are putting me on the spot. i feel " the power of dog" has the edge. jesse and kiersten are good friends so i'm rooting for them but never count out steven spielberg. but i think the surprise will be drive my car. kristen: favorite best animated

feature? that is a gimme, right? >> reya is amazing but encanto is playing constantly in my house. you know, we don't talk about bruno very well. kristen: i does what i am banking on. i think lin-manuel moronta is gold there. >> all of the songs are insane. you know that lin that goes beyond. i think tick tick boom should have been nominated for directorial debut. kristen: i love that too. what is your current project -- wicked? by the way, amazing inspired casting. where is that at? is production underway?

>> we are about to be. casting was a huge part of that. we are almost ready with the scripts and we are about to go and shoot this thing but in the meantime, i sent them each a weee box with great asian treats to introduce them to my world. i think you are going to see some of that on the yellow brick road. kristen: a well-nourished actor is one that does not mind when you say -- take 10. >> when i told cynthia that she had gotten the role she was in the u.k. and it was about 10:00 at night and she had just come back from an asian grocery store. she is a great fan of ait t sharing with h kr i asking -- when well crazy rich asians two happened? >> i would love to know ash

know, we are working on the script. the script has to be on another level. we are going to only demand that to be able to pull everyone back in, that cast that is grown from there and the world is a totally different place than when we made that. everyone is a huge star and hollywood has changed. kristen: all right, thank you so much. i guess that is as close as we are going to get to answers but you let us know first when you hear. >> you will know because you will be in edge. you will be playing the reporter asking about going on a date. kristen: i tried out but i did not get the role. maybe this is my chance. always great talking to you. thank you for sharing your love of food. hollywood director, dad, chief creative officer for weee. great talking to you. thank you.

coming up next, abc news special correspondent dr. patel

kristen: with california's indoor mask mandate expiring next week and all the counties dropping their mandates except for santa clara county, you may be wondering when it is safe for you to go out without a mask. for others, this is a complicated calculation with the ever-changing variables. joining us now to offer guidance and discuss the latest covid headlines, dr. patel. dr. patel, thank you for coming on the show. dr. patel: thank you for having me. kristen: even though i said the words variables and calculable's

, i will not be asking you to do any math. dr. patel: those sound like high school calc terms. kristen: it is my turn to say whoa, because i know you have a round of two truths and alive. i am ready. dr. patel: you are basically an ace at this point. tell me which one of these is not true. a, data from hhs, u.s. hospitalizations dropped below 100,000 for the first time in a month. b, omicron represents 80% of new infections in the united states. c, as is chooses, new jersey, delaware, new york and oregon are among the states that plan to lift mask mandates. which one is not true? kristen: i know the answer is not c because all of those

states are planning to lift mask mandates and i will add nevada because that just came down in breaking news. dr. patel: you are going to one up me. kristen: i am going to say that b, seems to be the light even though we have a couple of very smart viewers saying a. but i think omicron is more than 80% of new infections still. let's go with that although i will say that i have many smart "a" advocates as well. dr. patel: ace, b is not true. a is true and this is optimistic. i don't think we should lose sight of the fact that 90,000 hospitalizations are still a lot. we cannot normalize these numbers. b is false. according to new cdc data, it is 100%.

zero cases of delta sequenced in the last few weeks. 96% were among the first generation and 3% worthy "stealth" omicron. c is true. i would point out one thing, washington will lift its outdoor mask mandate. i don't understand why there was an outdoor mask mandate to begin with. kristen: right. daniel our viewer was extra saying i think it is 90 -- 95%. not only did he get the right answer but he was shuffling a little bit. let's talk more about the mask mandate in california. indoors. it is for vaccinated people. gauge for ourselves what to consider when we are deciding

whether or not to take off our masks. when might be able to now -- when might we be able to now? dr. patel: not much has changed in terms of assessing your personal information. i spoke with some that say they are going to continue to wear a mask always still have a high level of community transmission. over 90% of u.s. counties still have a high level of transmission. in that sense, if you are high risk or someone around you, or you don't feel comfortable, it is 100% ok and should be accepted to continue wearing your mask. that one big thing that can give people some ease is if you go out and get the primary prevention, that is the vaccine. if someone is young, healthy, have gotten their vaccines and have been boosted, i think i feel good about people living -- lifting their masks. kristen: speaking of children

who are not yet eligible, vaccine approval timeline -- talk to us about that. next week the fda will meet to discuss the pfizer vaccine for six months old to four months -- up to four years old. dr. patel: any minute we may hear from pfizer. there will be a lot of eyes on this meeting. i don't think anyone out there should assume that people will say yes, we are ready. it is a little unorthodox to be talking about a vaccine that has had no efficacy. it has shown a lot of safety. if everything goes according to plan and the meeting, the fda's independent review committee gives a green light, we may see this go through in early march, end of february as the fastest. kristen: jenna wants to know if

there is any information on waning immunity from booster shots because she got her booster in september. dr. patel: i have not seen any formal data that i'm glad she asked the question. we often talk about waning immunity and people are only looking at antibody levels which naturally decrease over time. we know the t cell will come back and give you that --. all of the data is showing us that they were extremely well protected with the full vaccine series. kristen: dr. patel, don't go away because we have another round of two truths and a light and we

dr. patel with another round of two truths and a lie. put your thinking caps back on. dr. patel: which one is not

true? a, there could be upwards of 8000 deaths reported by march 5? b, prince charles tested positive for sars-cov-2? c, a report about an omicron outbreak among white tailed deer is prompting further questions about animal spread? kristen: i know it might sound arrogant but i don't think i need my facebook viewer friends to chime in. i welcome them. don't get me wrong. that i definitely heard something about a deer so i am rolling out c -- ruling out c, and given that we are over 900,000 deaths now, that figure in a few weeks sounds right. and given that prince charles had it in march 2020, b is a lie and robert is with me, bill --

everyone is with me. dr. patel: i need our viewers -- my viewers on social media are telling me to amp up the difficulty. if you look at a, we talk about cases coming down, people assume that cases are coming down and we are good but on that downward slope, if you can remember an integral, that is still a lot of infections and deaths. another 78,000 deaths is unconscionable because a lot of this is preventable. and b is a lie. people have already started to use this headline to bolster their position that vaccines are not effective. all we have heard is that a -- all we have heard is that prince charles has sars-cov-2. and c, just adds to the

information we already have about animals getting covid. no evidence that they can pass along. kristen: with all of the people saying -- are we at endemic yet -- denmark has taken the lead i declaring, we are there. they have dropped all restrictions. i want to know how they are doing. i read they have a huge number of cases but they also have really high oxidation rate. break that down and tell us what that suggests. dr. patel: a lot of comparisons to denmark right now but here is the reality. denmark has over 80% of their population vaccinated. have been boosted. they have also reported about 3900 deaths since the start of the pandemic. we have had more deaths than

that in the last two days. and denmark is also about 1/9 the size of california. it is not in the same category. we are seeing the case rate go up in denmark but they have a big offer. those have -- many have been vaccinated. if you want to be denmark, you know what to do. go out and get vaccinated. kristen: we want to be denmark for so many reasons. i also want to point out a couple of news headlines that made me think about how if we were to say, omicron does not make you very sick, it is like a cold. but there are potentially some long-term consequences. covid survivors lasting heart risks, another study has come out. dr. patel: i would not misinterpret the study and say everyone that gets covid has the potential for heart conditions but there are multiple studies out there. one was looking at long-term

arrhythmia. others talking about long-term issues with memory. this falls into the category of long covid. it is important. hospitalizations and beds are not the only metric. we also have to think about long covid and the quality of life having an acute illness which is preventable. kristen: is there a new study talking about how covid can destroy a placenta? dr. patel: nottudy b we do know that the risk of getting covid-19 when you are pregnant is pretty high. that group on its own is considered a high risk population. i'd only for the mom but also on the developing baby. it is important that pregnant women get vaccinated. and everything that you have heard about the vaccine

affecting the baby or the placenta has all been debunked. kristen: i know you researched that very closely with you having a baby yourself. dr. patel: she had antibodies thanks to my wife. kristen:

always great information. see you later. thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show "getting answers." we talked with a film director behind crazy rich asians and in the heights about his new venture with the weee grocery app. and dr. patel answered your questions about covid-19. we will be here every week day answering your questions. abc7news is dreaming 24 hours so get the abc 7 bay area app and

join us wherou are andou want. i will see you back here at 4:00. t, developing stories as we come on the air. the new numbers in tonight. what americans are now paying and what's driving this. also tonight, the scene at that bridge from detroit into canada. gm forced to cancel shifts. michigan's governor tonight offering to help get the trucks out of the way. but first, the raging debate over when to take the masks off. nevada tonight, the newest state lifting all mask mandates, effective immediately, including at schools. several other states lifting mask mandates in public places, and in schools in the coming weeks. new york waiting until march on schools. some asking tonight, are we taking a chance here before knowing for sure we're in the clear? others arguing, it's about time. also tonight, those auto plants in the u.s. now feeling this, after that scene on the bridge in detroit. ford, gm, and now