>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. it is abc7news. >> you are watching getting answers live on abc seven. we are asking experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers for you. have a stanford infectious diseases specialist who shares why he thinks masks should not necessarily come off at all schools yet here this in response to yesterday's announcement masks in schools will no longer be mandated after march 11. a nonprofit worker whose mission is to keep san francisco's tenderloin safe was shot last week. our media partner raises new questions about the city's security practices. first, president biden is giving

his first state of the union address at 6:00 p.m. you can watch it here on abc 7 life. his address comes as his approval ratings are bogged down by the many international and domestic crises facing americans. going us to preview the state of the union and discuss the were in ukraine, east bay congressman eric swalwell. thank you for making the time for us. let's start by how you might be concerned by today's developments. we are hearing about the russian vehicle convoy heading to kyiv. a tv tower was hit. seems like a shift in putin's strategy. >> he is becoming more and more brutal, forceful with less regard for innocent lives. we are seeing children have perished. innocent children are victims of putin to it is so important president biden rallies the country tonight on what we can do as americans and what we can

do as global leaders to make sure putin fails. we cannot ignore what is going on at home with the rising cost of gas and groceries. i look forward to hearing that. we know in history when tatars like putin invade free people who have their own currency, language and culture, they tend not to stop there. this makes its way to our doorstep. have to do all we can to stand with them and see putin utterly failed. >> you alluded to the fact some of these sanctions may cause pain for americans. what other sanctions or actions outside of that can we take? the levers that we or the international community have not pulled but could. >> on the battlefield, there is nothing we can do that is more effective than arming the ukrainians and working with our allies to do that.

isolatinisolatinisolatinisolatin their money, their travel and their gas is critically important. we can continue to put pressure on them. also the private sector. if you are a private sector ceo and we have so many influential ones whose reach goes around the globe in the bay area, please consider what you are doing to enable russia and what you can do to further isolate them because hollywood stepping up yesterday and presenting the release of films -- preventing the release of films into russia, that has effects. their elites, their oligarchs, that hits them the hardest. those of us. -- types of steps that can make a difference. >> you told cnn that kicking every russian student out of the u.s. should be considered. of course not all students are the children of oligarchs. some of them might be but not all. do you still stand by that comment? ?

i want the children of oligarchs and elites tied to prudent to have their visas revoked. i was -- if i was not clear about that, i have been clear as i laid out the menu of options. further disconnecting russia through closing our embassies across the world that russia has in different countries. limiting their presence in the u.n. should kicking them out of the different organizations. like the u.n. commission on human rights. they have no business being in the commission on human rights when they are killing an asian children in kyiv. those are the types of steps that can put a cost on their actions and make sure putin fails. >> speaking of membership in world bodies, ukrainian president is urging ukrainian union to give his country immediate membership. ukraine would like to be part of nato. how would you like to see those world bodies respond? >> as the united states has,

which is to equip ukraine as much as we can militarily and in a coordinated way, put sanctions on russia that takes them out of the international banking system and make sure russians who would rightfully be outraged express that in the streets, in their protests, in any direct communication with vladimir putin. doug i hear your emphasis about keeping russia out what about bringing ukraine in? specifically ukrainian president zelensky's urging of saying if you are with us, allow us into the e.u. now or nato. what do you think about that? >> that is a decision for e.u. countries and we are not a part of that. as it relates to nato, have put forward a different criteria ukraine would have to meet. once they are in, because they are under attack, we would have

to defend them. president biden has been clear we are not at this point putting troops on the ground in ukraine because that is world war iii with russia. the most effective thing we can do is ensure russia fails in the way we arm collectively with global leaders ukrainians. >> several recent polls show americans disapprove of president biden's handling of the relationship with russia. more americans say they do not trust the president to do the right thing in ukraine. for those who give mr. budden low grades on his foreign policy, is it fair or unfair? >> unfair. i have seen polls where they approve of the sanctions we have imposed on russia. they approve of working to arm the ukrainians. they don't wear him -- they overwhelmingly don't want boots on the ground. they disapprove of biden, which shows our country is sharply divided over politics but not on the policies that are needed.

i think the president should stick to the person he was when he ran for president, which is to unite the country. he may not get all of us but i think for these times and what we need, he will unite enough of us. >> some of what is driving the disapproval is president biden's inability to deliver on key campaign promises. i realize it has only been a year and he faces strong republican opposition on almost everything. even some internal opposition within the democratic party. do you expect to hear anything tonight that will put key items back on the front burner back on track or somehow change the narrative? doug kobe have to because so many of those key items address the rising cost of gas and groceries. as a father of three kids who does the grocery shopping in our house, i am seeing that every weekend, it is astronomically going up and that it's because of supply chain issues and also i think a little bit of greed on

the corporate side that needs to be called out more as to why corporations are realizing record profits while americans are paying record prices at the pump. the president will address that tonight. a lot of that is going to be passing pieces that were in the build back better plan so we reduce the cost of gresh -- of gases, groceries and other items. >> you think that entails the cost to build back better being broken up into different chunks and getting through congress separately? we would love a preview. >> i am waiting for that. the experts that i have read so far, he does have a plan on how to lower costs and increase wages. i have not seen the specifics. personally, as someone who pays a lot of money for child care and recognizes that is the real for so many of our bay area natives that a child care tax credit would help so many families across america. the child tax credit, making it

permanent where you get the monthly distribution of up to $300 per child. that goes along long way. >> the midterms are coming up. you think democratic -- what do you think democratic messaging needs to be aixa >> come back america. we are undergoing a record come back or joe biden created 7 million jobs in the first year. we are at record and employment. we are seeing covid in the rearview. keeping america out of wars and stitching together alliances to stop dictators. recognizing inflation is a real problem. crime is a real problem. if we unite the country, we can increase supply chains. reduce the cost of gas, groceries and health care and make sure we truly achieve this comeback story. it is a comeback story considering where we were before president biden was elected. >> thank you for joining us today ahead of the state of the union. take care. coming up next, we will talk to

a stanford university infectious diseases

>> in two weeks, california is dropping indoor mask requirements in schools what it is still up to the counties or local store districts to decide whether or not they want to align with the state. some districts have announced they will not not their own mandates but others are trying to decide how to proceed. joining us to provide insight is a stanford disease specialist. thank you for your time. starting march 14 because that is the first school day after the statement is lifted, basking

in schools becomes optional and list your local county or school sets its own world. do support this decision and the timing of it? >> for me, it is about the data. what is the incidence of new cases? how fast our cases didn't uptake when we pull back on masks? we will see some of that happened now that we are pulling back. the timeline will be longer before we can make sense of trends. the test positivity has come down substantially. we are at 2.8% now. when we are below 2%, the chance of having a big sustained outbreak after that especially with a lot of spread of omicron is going to be lower. it is hard to predict it. if the data is continuing to head in the right direction, i am hoping the risk of removing masks will be low but it will be hard to predict this with certainty. duggar the fact he did not answer yes or no on the timing but say you are looking at the

date up your you cited some data. does that data make you comfortable or you suggesting you are not totally comfortable yet but in two weeks when the time comes, you will be? >> i think i will be comfortable when the time comes. 8% a few weeks ago. 2.8 percent now i expect it will be closer till 1% in couple weeks. that is a lola -- and low enough number that this risk outbreak is located have to pay attention to the local factors. it is not going to be the same everywhere. that is why county health departments go off the data they have for their area. why some places are more hesitant. i think things are heading in the right direction. >> you think it may make sense for some counties or some districts to still enact their own mask mandate in places where the numbers are not as good. >> if the numbers in your area are not as good and your test positivity is high and you're starting to see and

uptake, you have to go off the local data. in counties that kept mandates in place, they had lowered incidence of cases compared to those that did not. the cdc has published this data. there is data supporting when you have masks in place, when you have a lot of spread, there are lower rates of transmission. the challenge with schools is kids are packed together in classrooms. the ventilation standards are going to be different in different schools. they are there for the whole day for many hours. these are the conditions that set you up for transmission should this is why many of us have been hesitant to pull back on masks in this instance. the vaccination rates are low relatively speaking among kids. there is a lot of work to be done there. >> under 30% for kids five to 11 to that is not as high as doctors would like to give our families some advice who are

watching now that it is recommended to wear masks as opposed to required to let's say you have a high school that is 95% vaccinated with good ventilation, a new building and good testing. would you say in that case the marginal benefit of wearing a mask is not there and maybe it is better to not wear a mask whether it is the social or the clarity. they feel like they get out of that to >> -- of that. >> i would first ask do you have any people at home who are immunocompromised? is your child immunocompromised? is anyone in your circle at potential high risk? what about your friends and people into the classroom who may be as well? if all kids are taking masks off, there could be a lot of social pressure even for vulnerable kids to do to do the same to -- to do the same. some kids may not be vaccinated. lower levels of vaccination where there are lower income

communities, schools that don't have those kinds of protections like ventilation. i think if you come to the terms that all of those factors you think have been met, cases have been low, i think the chance is definitely much lower and everything we do is a risk benefit. every decision we make has a cost. a terms of what the costs are of kids wearing masks for longer, i don't think anybody would argue there is a big cost of having kids mask up for a few more weeks as cases come down further. in terms of what the longer-term effects are of kids wearing masks or kids getting covid, both of those are still up for debate. there are some people who argue the costs are much higher in one camp versus the other. there is not consensus even among health experts. >> san francisco unified has not quite decided with regard to whether to have a mask and date saying they are working with the

public health department and teachers union should do think teacher concerns -- teachers union. do you think teacher concern should be factored in aixa >> absolutely. teachers are frontline workers. they are a critical part of our community. many teachers may be older have certain conditions as well. they can get n95 masks but the supply has not been where it needs to be. the variability of when masks are available and how regularly you can get them i imagine is going to differ across school districts. i think the concerns of teachers should be taken into account in these decisions. i think we are all headed in the same direction with the way the incidence is going, which means there is much lower community incidents. we may be catching a relative break over the next few weeks. how long that lasts, i do not know. we work in communities. we have to take everybody's input when we make these

decisions. >> why do you suppose the state made optional for the unvaccinated to wear masks in public? some people say that seems to be a disincentive to vaccinating. >> very well may be. you may have people who are vaccinated who keep masking because they are taking all precautions and you may have the opposite who may think covid is not a big deal. as physicians, we have taken care of patients with all sorts of viewpoints and i have had a number of patients who got very sick with covid but still did not want to get vaccinated, did not feel like they needed to. we cannot -- everyone is going to have an opinion but we have to go based off the science, based off expert consensus when we make public health decisions for our societies. there will be some people who cannot wait to get their mask off. and unfortunately we may end up seeing them in the hospital. we have a lot of work to do still.

>> you have given of some factors -- given us some factors to think about. thank you for your insight and time. coming up next, san francisco standard is joining us to talk about its investigation into th

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>> abc 7 is excited about our partnership with the san francisco standard. part of building a better bay area is highlighting those working toward the same mission we have. they're deep and insightful reporting does just that. we are talking about the nonprofit association urban alchemy and questions over the safety of its workers after one of them was shot on the job should investors patrol the streets of -- on the job. ambassadors patrol the streets of the tenderloin. anchor for drilling us. this latest -- thanks for

joining us. the ambassador was hit in the shoulder. what has happened to him? >> there have not been a lot of updates on his status. he was taken with a gunshot wound to the hospital. when we spoke with in urban alchemy director who asked not to be named, they told us this worker was trying to move drug dealers off the street as part of security work they have been doing. >> so that is the kind of thing you imagine in the past police might have done should -- have done. the city is trying to move away from police engagements. tell us how urban alchemy came into the picture. >> urban alchemy is a nonprofit and they have brought on to do a range of different services in the tenderloin. businesses and residents have said they are doing great work. if you go down to the tenderloin by day, things are so much better in recent years. when you go back at night and

the workers have gone home, the tenderloin is returning to its old form. urban alchemy is doing a range of good services but they are doing security work. that has raised a lot of questions about whether or not the nonprofit is putting them in a good position and risking their safety. >> if you are doing security work, presumably you have to have standardized training. in the case of this person, what kind of training do they get? >> something we are still trying to answer. when we went through state records, we could not find any licenses or registration for urban alchemy or its employees. there is a requirement for a thorough training to be a security guard in california as well as san francisco. there is a bit of a loophole that seems to be getting exploited. if you have a nonprofit, your employees are not held to the same standard.

we spoke with the department of consumer affairs to they told us just because you are a nonprofit does not mean your employees can run around doing security work. >> more needs to come out with regard to the nonprofit status and how it affects the requirements. did this get so much attention because this person was an ambassador with urban alchemy or that it comes after a high-profile case, a teenage girl who overdosed in the tenderloin and died. >> i think there is always going to be a key motive effect in the tenderloin weather does overdoses or street crime should this incident with the ambassador being shot and the work urban alchemy is doing and the substantial amount of city money they are getting, this warrants a closer inspection.

a $19 million contract to run a homeless shelter in lower nob hill. what has happened with that? >> the homeless shelter, residents and businesses around there as we have traditionally seen in san francisco, any kind -- any time you get a shelter in neighborhood, there is going to be a lot of pushback. that story is developing on how to navigate that because we know these services are deeply needed in san francisco. there is going to be some concerns and officials are doing their navigation of politicking. >> this incident probably raises more questions. have you spoken with urban alchemy or city officials? >> the head of urban alchemy put out a statement after the shooting. when we asked her about the security work they are doing, there was crickets. we sent multiple requests. never got a response. the same from mayor london breed who has been silent on this incident.

>> senior reporter with our media partner, the san francisco standard. thank you for sharing your story with us. we have links to the san francisco standards other original reporting on our website, abc7news.com should to watch more segments featuring the san francisco segment's city focused journalism, check out focused journalism, check out our stream before calling the new mcplant a mcdonald's burger, we had to make sure of a few things. first, we needed to be sure it looked like one. then we had to make sure it would make you take a hard right... change your go-to order... inspire creativity... inspire a new jingle... ♪ ♪ and be good enough to steal. but most importantly, we had to make sure it tasted like a mcdonald's burger. the first mcdonald's burger with a plant-based patty. ♪ ba da ba ba bah ♪ in new york city, the first mcdonald's burger with a plant-based patty. ♪ ♪ there's always something new to discover. ♪ ♪

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>> thank you so much for joining us. today you heard from congressman eric swalwell who previewed president biden state of the union, which will be happening at 6:00 p.m. our time and we will carry it live on abc seven. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 and our livestream answering your questions.

world news tonight is coming up next and we will see you back here at 4:00. tonight, breaking news as we come on the air from washington. the images coming in from ukraine. the russian assault. the line of russian armored vehicles, more than 40 miles long at one point. and president biden now about to deliver his first state of the union to the nation. tonight, the horrific new images posted online showing a russian tank firing into a building north of kyiv. not far from there, video posted online, capturing a russian missile targeting the main tv and radio tower in ukraine's capital. that tower near a holocaust memorial, where more than 33,000 yous were killed by nazis 80 years ago. at least six people killed in the bombing of a government building in kharkiv. a russian missile landing in an apartment kitchen.

it did not go off. ukrainian officials say more