>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. >> you're watching getting answers on abc seven. we are asking experts your questions at 3:00 to get your answers in real-time. today is the first day california lifted its indoor mask mandate what could restrictions return and when will the school mask mandate be lifted? we got clear answers from california state epidemiologist erica pan in a one-on-one interview later in the show. san francisco's special election results are making headlines. the san francisco standard will breakdown the results of the school board recall and the assembly district 17 race.

what they see about priorities and which direction they are headed toward. let's look at the landslide numbers in the recall of school board members. voters said yes to firing the commissioner. 79% said yes to firing the president, gabriela lopez. saying yes to firing the vice president, 72%. we heard from lopez, who defended her actions during the pandemic. ms. lopez: it has been misconstrued and sometimes people believe we cannot do one thing focusing on another. we simultaneously worked on enhancing safety within schools and regarding the renaming, that work started in 2017 with former board members who are no longer on the board. kristen: joining us to talk about what happens next, two of the driving forces behind the recall, patrick 12, executive of families for san francisco in middle school parent, kit lamb,

chief signature gatherer, and parent and employee. thank you for joining us today. the numbers are huge for the recall. it does the size of the blowout surprise you? kit: to voters. everyone is eager to sign the petition. i am not surprised at the number. either. what are the results show? is there a statement the voters made? patrick: i think the statement voters are making is they care about results and the voters saw the school board was not delivering results. they saw the parents were so distraught that we spent a year organizing to move the school board members, even though we have to take it on a leap of faith we will get better

replacements because it was the only one to move forward. kristen: let's dive deeply into what you were most frustrated by because your parents and you heard lopez talking about how the renaming, the 44 schools, they were going to rename them do to, you know, a lot of them tied to racist past and they removed that when people said let's focus on opening schools. statewide, nationwide, what were some of the other key drivers in your opinion? kit: i will take the renaming itself to start. i think lopez's comments are revealing. she said it was work that started for she got there so somehow she got there so somehow she was a passing bystander. in fact, our organization families for san francisco over a year ago published a detailed, very respectful report saying we support the idea, not during a public health crisis, but we

support the idea, but it has been done terribly. here are the flaws. please understand, pause, and let's start better. they completely ignored that. they were not interested in facts or listening to anybody. instead, they had to showcase the feature of the committee they did the work, ignored the feedback, and the rest is history. kristen: you're the one who mobilized the asian-american community to pass out flyers, gather signatures, and vote. this is a group that has had lower turnout politically, historically but got super engaged in this direction. which specific issues thou -- galvanized the community? kit: there were a couple of issues. first of all is safely reopening school. the board of education rejected -- but also hire consultants in 2021 -- june 2020.

that is one reason. as patrick pointed out, there was a time renaming schools. the other reason is the change of lower high school admission process. the board only did one meeting and changed the policy without a board discussion, with all the stakeholders and the community members. the chinese community members feel our voices are not heard. kristen: we can talk another day about what should happen or what you hope will happen in terms of goals and criteria after this point what i want to focus on recall. opponents say they were vastly overspent. millions versus 100,000 dollars. there was venture capitalist money. patrick is a hedge fund founder. what do you say to the claims the votes were bought and paid for? patrick: there is an enormous

difference between something that is started by money and something that attracts money over time. this was something that was started in a completely grassroots, parent-led effort and people like kit out there for a long time before anybody noticed it outside the broader community. over time, it is true the recall never happened successfully before in san francisco in our history. it tells you how hard it is and it was necessary to attract money, icevybsefulor, to allow t over the top. it would not be possible without the extraordinary effort of thousands of parents. that brought the money in overtime. winning efforts will tend to attract money. i think that is what happened here. kristen: the video we showed it

you engaged in the back and forth with somebody that was taking signatures? is that what was happening when you gathered signatures? there was so much rancor there and i hope -- everybody hopes people will come together in the mayor says she will appoint three people to serve out the remainder of the ousted term. that is the rule. are you hoping different stakeholders including yourself and parents will come together to get their input? who do you want? i don't mean names, but what did they bring to the table and what are the priorities? kit: one of the things i would like to focus on is the learning loss and the emotional harm done to the students. it personally, my children are struggling. my son was depressed. my daughter was sad.

it she missed her friends. she said she did not want to tell anyone because she didn't want anyone to worry about her. we need to develop a long-term plan to address learning loss and emotional harm. i don't see president lopez and commissioner collins acknowledge it -- acknowledging these issues. kristen: lopez suggested she might run again in november. are you ready to mobilize again in a few months? either against her or for whomever you support in november? patrick: it is a free country and if she wants to run, she is welcome. what we will mobilize to do is elect great candidates. this is not being a big -- about being against somebody. this is about having really good people run the schools in a much better way for everyone. that is what we will focus on.

kristen: patrick, look, this is for both of you. do you think for all the issues you take with the sport, what they prioritize, renaming schools or giving all kids a's, during the pandemic, do you think they made some progress toward building equity and inclusion and starting those conversations to give them any credit for that? kit: i vote for the school -- i work for the school district. i see some interesting evaluation. i see there are students, a fourth-grader who is out the first grade level or doing math at the first grade level, another teacher was saying another student, he cannot eat well because he has been missing school for 35 days. by doing school renaming and

changing -- fighting the washington rule, i don't see how these actions are improving the quality of education. kristen: we are out of time, but i take it you answered yes to this question. you will stay engaged and you think other parents who got engaged this time will stay engaged in this process. kit: absolutely. kristen: thank you for your time. i really appreciate it. political conservatives are looking at what happened, painting the recall results as san francisco making a right turn, but what is that happening and what does the race adjust about issues voters care most about now? a reporter with our

kristen: abc 7 is excited about our partnership at the san francisco standard, part of building a better bay area, highlighting those working toward the same mission we have at abc 7. the standard steep and insightful reporting on the city, especially on local politics, does that, and joining us to talk about the race over the district 17 seat held by david to is josh cohen. thanks for being here. josh: good to be here. thank you for having me. kristen: the standard was just about every watch party last night for all the candidates. talk about the moods at the different locations and what your reporters saw and anything notable. josh: well, as elections you are winning, you will have a better party. when we got over to supervisor

matt haney's party and former supervisor jimmy kimmel's party, running neck and neck, they were feeling good. when you get over to chinatown, a little bit more subdued. at the same time, obviously, still not conceding he will run in the general election, so still a little optimistic. the biggest party of the night was the recall for the school board members. that was pretty raucous. kristen: that was a landslide for three school board members recalled and there is a narrative i'm seeing in newspapers and cable networks. progressives are losing their grip in the most liberal city in america. people have had enough and they are making a right, not a hard right, maybe a soft white -- rig ht. is that fair or not? josh: it is amazing how many

people outside san francisco have a firm opinion exactly what is going on here. from what we have seen, it was a big night for the recall supporters. obviously, this is a very unique situation. we were going for pandemic and still are. the school board members were facing school closures. there was obviously the issue about merritt-based emissions -- admissions. they have renaming of schools is a confluence of factors that is very unique. what we saw with david and the assembly race and the fact that it will be a runoff with haney showing progressives, people who are very much more about identity politics at times, and support additional progressive agenda that has been known in san francisco for decades, that is not going away anytime soon. there is a lot of drama-thumping on the fox news's and conservative right media outlets that does not reflect what is really happening on the ground. kristen: san francisco may not

neatly fit into that narrative that you are seeing in some places of this right turn from feta parents. they are unique factors here. the turnout was only 26%. we will see. november, we will learn more. i wonder if you think that the families were turned out, they virgin america -- asian americans who turned out, does that market shift? maybe a longer lasting impact. josh: yeah, there was a new level of engagement in this race and when it comes to that a api community getting involved in the school board recall, aapi communities are the fastest growing community or group of communities when it comes to voting across the country. when it came to getting in beijing and the school board race, they were local. our reporter who covers asian-american issues within san francisco talked a lot about

first time, immigrant parent voters. that was something, having the ability to get involved in deciding their children's education, was a big deal in this race. absolutely, there is some of that happening but when you mention low voter turnout, all the class presidents at schools across san francisco, it will be as many people. kristen: let's go back to the assembly, district 17 seat held and vacated by david to. there were four you talk about the top two vote getters, matt haney and david capo's headed for a runoff in april. out of the race, two more. does that make any sort of statement about which wayne is rising and which one is falling in city politics? josh: to a point. haney definitely is the clear winner at this point. he will face off with campos in

the runoff. an impressive showing for another but a distant third in the big question will be whether or not her backers, a prodevelopment and housing coalition, throw their support behind haney or whether it there is flax -- fracturing and they end up in the campos camp. like everything in politics, there is a pendulum swing and right now, we are seeing it swing a little bit back and so yeah, there was a lot of work for campos to do between now and april. kristen: no doubt we will hear a lot about development issues as we head toward april but we are out of time for today and will continue this conversation another time. thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise. josh: great to join you. kristen: abc 7 is excited about our partnership with the san francisco standard. building a bed --better bay area means highlighting those working

toward our mission.

kristen: today is the first day the state indoor mask mandate has been lifted. earlier today, i spoke with dr. erica pan, the state departments -- health department epidemiologist. dr. pan: we want to make it clear and the secretary did this on monday, that what we are doing as of today is we have moved from a requirement in allstate wide ind -- in all statewide settings to us --a strong recommendation to wear a well filtered mask in settings where they may think there is risk. there are certainly many parts of the state with high levels of case rates and transmission. most importantly, in the places it is most important where people don't have a choice who they are with or they might be more vulnerable, there are requirements for everyone to wear masks. like health care settings,

shelters, other long-term care facilities, masks are still required for everybody. kristen: masks are still required in schools, although dr. mark galli said this is being revisited and talked about right now and she will have more to say about it february 28. i am wondering where you think it is headed thyroid 28. a lot of people want to know if we will get a date on the calendar on that date with regard to looking at the mask mandate at schools. dr. pan: february 28, i think we will look at what is discussed on monday and cases and vaccinations and hospitalizations and be looking then at when it makes the most sense to potentially ship from that requirement to a recommendation. kristen: but do you think february 28 we will get an actual date for when the mask mandate at school will be lifted? dr. pan: i think that is what we are working on. we have to prepare people to think about the parameters and

as things continue to improve, if all those are aligned, that is what is being worked on. kristen: if things trend in the right direction and cases are low, do you expect february 28, when i date is announced, that may be an immediate lifting or will it be a target point that is set two weeks or month from february 28? dr. pan: i anticipate it is a target date. it february 28 is when we are reassessing looking at the productions at that point. kristen: is this a strong signal for the state that we are moving orwell in the endemic stage? do you see possibility of moving back now? dr. pan: what we do know about this virus is we know there will be more variance. we know more are coming. we don't know whether they will be milder or more serious so we want to prepare as a state. we need to learn to live with the virus and also be prepared

for the next surge. depending how much the virus changes will determine both how much impact it has on our lives and all the work we have done in all the lessons learned moving forward. kristen: while the state mask mandate has been lifted for today, it is not ruled out entirely. it could come back if the coronavirus made another resurgence and other variants become potent. dr. pan: i think it is important for people to know that things are absolutely looking so much better. we are coming out of this omicron surge. cases and hospitalizations are improving but more variance will come. we don't know if they will be more or less serious. that is the other question we do not know. we will be prepared. kristen: part of your strategy is to get more people vaccinated and boosted i wonder if you are happy with the booster rates so far.

get vaccinated and boosted. every dose counts and i think omicron has shown us boosting makes a date -- big difference and improves your protection against infection and hospitalizations and deaths. kristen: the vaccination rate for 12 to 17 and five to 11 is not where you would like it to be. update us on where they are at in your strategy for lifting the rate. dr. pan: thank you for that question it. i want to speak to this as a health official and apparent in pediatric infective -- infectious disease specialist. these are safe and effective and we have millions showing how effective they are. we have a lot of room to move with only one third of five to 11-year-olds vaccinated to date. we would want to improve that number. to protect the whole family and we are seeing our 52nd pediatric

death in california recently. while certainly that outcomes are more rare than for adults, we have serious outcomes in young children. we have had over 800 cases of multi-system into syndrome in children and many of those kids had mild infections but had to go to the intensive care unit. we had at least eight deaths. we see those outcomes. this can be a severe is -- severe risk. kristen: with omicron seemingly passing, do you worry it may be hard to convince people to get vaccinated if it happened already? dr. pan: i will acknowledge there are often, with the delta and omicron surgeons, we see more vaccine rates and as people say that -- see that climb, vaccine rates have go down. we need to continue to renew our efforts and understand what people's questions and concerns are and answer those but we

continue those efforts to close equity gaps so we know that in our lowest income neighborhoods and communities of color, we have the lowest rates and we need to work to gain confidence and trust in those communities in the safety of those vaccines. kristen: dr. pan emphasizes getting more kids vaccinated will make unmasking safer and easier. she implied a date for lifting the school mask mandate will li in new york city, ♪ ♪

there's always something new to discover. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ come be a part of it. plan your next vacation at iloveny.com

kristen: thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we talked to organizers of the san francisco school board recall and look at where san francisco politics is headed with our media partner at the

san francisco standard and got the latest from california's epidemiologist dr. arab pan, who suggests tonight, as we come on the air, the major storm moving across this country. from colorado to missouri, from new york to maine. 30 states bracing for snow, ice, dangerous winds. and this ice and rain mix. the very real flooding threat from missouri to new york. the possible tornadoes and straight-line winds. ginger zee standing by to time this out. tonight, russia claiming its pulling back some troops. the biden administration tonight saying, to be clear, we have seen the opposite. troops amassed at the borders. field hop hospitals set up. and now russia's unproven claim of alleged mass graves in ukraine. terry moran from ukraine with late reporting tonight. back here at home and the pandemic and news this evening the cdc will soon update its mask guidance for the country.