>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc7news. >> happy friday. you are watching getting answers live on abc seven. what we do is we asked experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get you answers in real time. we have a packed show today, starting by talking about the drought manager and asking the question, do we have enough water to get through the year? we will discuss how to cut in missions to zero, the co-author of speed and scale joins us to tell us what we need to do. first, a familiar face joining us with the latest on covid-19. we are live on facebook.com/abc7news. ask your questions.

i feel like it has been so long since we have seen you, you have been on good morning america, etc. >> i am always here representing the abc 7 family. it is good to be with you. dion: and your pin reflects your chest setting ways, your paper airplane. >> i'm impressed you are able to tell what the pin was. dion: we don't want to waste time because we have a lot of questions, let's start with a second covid booster, it is here, it started rolling out this week. the san francisco department of public health started offering it today. tell us who you think needs to get it. >> it is not come down to who i think needs to get it, it is who the recommendation is for. the recommendation is for anyone above 50 who baby high risk or wants extra production. the data we have seen is clear about people above 65.

that 50 to 60 range is an area of gray. people should look at their risks, medical conditions, but if you are healthy, you have all the right in the world to wait a little bit and not race to get a shot and if you are under 50, you have nothing to worry about. the most important thing is the first three shots are still doing an incredible job preventing deaths and severe illness. dion: i like that you mentioned that because when we heard that 50 number, to me, it seemed wrong in comparison to the traditionally high-risk age group. this brings me to the second question of the reluctance people maybe having because we have talked about the fatigue, things are improving, do we need this extra shot? dr. patel: that is why i feel like these recommendations have to be balanced with the data we have so people do not lose trust. what we have seen when we are announcing a second booster, especially when that is coming

from the farming -- farm ceos, people are saying, what happened to the first three shots? that is why we have to be clear. when scientists mentioned that antibody levels are dropping, we are reminded that antibodies are just one measurement of the immune system, that the other arm is still doing a great job and i'm glad people are sharing the latest information from the cdc that during the omicron surge, two shots plus a booster were 90% effective at preventing severe illness. we have to make sure we are balancing this because we still have only a third of americans overall who have gotten there first booster. we still have some catch up to do. dion: being in the bay area, sometimes we forget about the situation across the country. that plays a role into the number you mentioned. i want to give a shout out to philip joining us on facebook and fill who says, i want a j&j second booster, i am 65 and have

copd, he is probably a good candidate. dr. patel: based on that, generally speaking, someone who is 65 and has an underlying condition, you are a candidate to get the booster. i would chat with a health-care professional, but that is someone who if that was my family member, especially in the time when we are not out of the pandemic and we me -- and we may see a ba.2 surge, at the second booster. dion: speaking of ba.2, this seems to be for lack of a better term the ugly stepchild of omicron. what do we know? dr. patel: it is hard to call it the ugly stepchild, baby it is just a step cousin because this is still a subvariant. it is more contagious, but there is no data to suggest that it is more berland -- more virulent. immunity against ba.1 is still

protective against ba.2. cases are down right now, this is the moment for when we could -- when we should prepare for ba.2. it comes down to not only being vaccinated, but that we are paying attention to safely re-opening schools, antivirals, making sure we have everything in place so if there is a surge in the future, we are not playing catch up again. dion: i want to say we hear you on facebook, brenda asking, do they still administer the j&j? dr. patel: the j&j is still available and there is a plan with the cdc that has been rolled out, what you should be doing about the third and second booster if he got j&j. it is still available. dion: i want to get to this question before we play a new game that has to do with twitter. i read today that congress may approve $10 billion in emergency covid funding. that is short of the $22.5

billion joe biden requested initially but i like to think that is better than nothing. dr. patel: i would like to say that is better than nothing. it is hard to believe that we are making concessions when it comes to those -- comes to protecting those who are most vulnerable, but also this money has to do with global aid as well. this is what it comes down to. we still have at least 7 million americans who are immunocompromised, 30 million who are uninsured. if this money is gone, we can stop counting on free vaccines, free antivirals, free antibody treatments, and that is only going to widen disparity. that is what the argument is about, how do we safely protect those in the event of a future surge equitably and make sure everyone has equal access? dion: this next question goes along with a comment because i want to talk about the future, people getting at risk of being infected, particularly those who

are immunocompromised. someone bites into say they have gotten all the shots, still managed to get covid. what do you have to say to ease any fears there are about another shot? dr. patel: i'm that people ask those questions so we can remind people that catching covid, testing positive on the pcr tests, it is different than actually getting severe covid-19 and winding up in the hospital. you can test positive but if you got the vaccine and you have those antibodies, your immune system will stop the process of the virus taking you to the hospital. that is what the vaccines were designed to do. i would not freak out if you are fully vaccinated and you test positive. that does not mean the vaccines did not work. dion: i'm glad you are reiterating that once again. time to play a new game called react to the tweets, this is a

dr. patel formulated game special. the first one we want to pull up his from dr. tran. this individual says, they keep saying we have the tools we need to live with covid-19 but with federal funding running out, tests and treatments are no longer free for uninsured and vaccines could be next. just because the tools exist does not mean the people who need them can access them. a lot to unload. dr. patel: i am getting a snap to that because it is similar to what we were just talking about. there is privilege when we say things like ask your doctor if you have symptoms, cap tested, but if we run out of funding, they are not going to be accessible. i'm glad tweets like this are going around. dion: not to mention it is on trend for what we asked moments ago. it is good that people are engaging on that topic. the next tweet we have, this is from eric on the subject of ivermectin. the largest blind trial

conducted with early treatment indicates there's no difference compared with placebo. it does not work. i have to preface this by saying i'm not sure who eric is, if he is a health care professional. they beat you can weigh in on this third -- on this. dr. patel: eric is absolutely a there in providing evidence based information. if you look at this tweets and go in the comments, people are still blocked and to admit that there is no data to support ivermectin. what that has shown us his we have work to do when it comes to transparency and rebuilding trust. there is a faction who is still saying we are not going to get vaccinated but we will go take unproven treatments and there's a lot to talk about. we cannot assume that just because vaccines in actual treatments are available that they are going to be used responsibly. ivermectin does not work, people

will still try to take it. dion: not to mention there were so many rumors online that needed to be dispelled. wasn't there one about i think it was bleach or boiling water? really detrimental effects for some people. dr. patel: absolutely. it speaks to the fact that we have created this divide, almost tribalism in what people want to believe rather than going straight down the line and saying, here is what the science says. i hope in the future that we remember this and do not politicize the next pandemic or the next scientific topic because all it has done is sewed mistrust in it has led to unnecessary illness and deaths. dion: i think we have time for one last tweet. this one is from dr. thomas frieden who writes to say, at least 50 million people over 65 in the u.s. are not up-to-date on vaccination. if you are one of those people, omicron may be coming for you.

the most important thing we can do to limit the impact is to get people vaccinated. dr. patel: this is similar to what we were talking about. we keep comparing our situation to what was happening in the u.k. they had over 80% of people above 65 who got there first booster. in the united states, we are far below that, something like 65%. less than half of people who are fully vaccinated have gotten there first booster as well. we are talking about waiting antibodies, there are plenty of people who are not up to date who are essentially targets for omicron should receive another surge. dion: i want to say thank you to everyone who is writing in on facebook, lots of questions. i apologize we could not get to all of them. hopefully we will have the on again soon. dr. patel: we will. i was warned not to enable fools prank so i'm just going to say

happy friday. dion: i think my producer for saying, that is not happening. thank you. coming up, the state just completed its latest survey this morning, the results not that good. we will talk about t

unless we get a heavy dose of rain and snow in april and may, we will be experiencing one of the driest starts to spring in decades. the department of water resources took its monthly measurement at phillips station in the sierra and check it out, the snow that accumulated over the winter pretty much has melted and that is not a good sign.

statewide, we are at 38% of normal for water content. joining me now is jenny jones, the parker -- department of water resources for the state of california, thank you for cheating -- thank you for being with us. >> happy to be with you but which it was on a wet day instead of a dry one. dion: we have a drought map we would like to show everybody how the state is in that severe orange category. you see the rankings. that includes the bay area there are pockets of red indicating extreme a dry conditions. it is hard to believe that the snow survey is so low considering how much rain and snow we got in october, december, early january. what are your thoughts? >> the problem is the rain stopped after the end of december and we have had record dry conditions in much of the

state for january, february, and march and warm conditions, so that means the snow that we did have earlier is starting to melt. dion: people forget that this is a continual path, it is not wanted done, one rainstorm is not going to make up for the lack of precipitation we have had. >> and we are seeing drought conditions that have been very persistent. you may recall that our last drought was 2012-2016 and one could argue that we have been in drought since 12, just interrupted by an occasional wet year. dion: we have some video of the snow survey to illustrate from march 1 and as we look at that, i want to ask about snowpack levels because the april survey shows 38% of that average, that is a low start to the year. how does that stack up to the snow surveyed in march that i mentioned?

jeanine: actually, it is not so much low in the big picture context because if you think about our last drought, we had in 2014 tied a then record low of 25% average and in 2015, we had 5% of average. we are certainly better than those conditions, but it is not just about how much snow is there, it is about how much water runs off from the snow and what we are seeing with warming conditions as we have less productive conditions. dion: what does this mean long-term? we are sometimes focused on the forecast immediately. what about climate change and the role that place? jeanine: that is a great question because we are seeing impacts of climate change in our hydrologic system, looking at

the 21st century in comparison to the 20th century and we are seeing exacerbated and enhanced drought impacts compared to what we saw in prior droughts and this is just a warning that we need to start focusing on adaptation actions because we are transitioning to a dryer situation. dion: great segue into our last question. what tangible actions can we do? i read out of murder -- out of uc merced at 400,000 acres will be idled for farmers because of water. that affects all of us. jeanine: the governor has asked all californians to conserve but if we think about what we need to do longer-term, and issue is preparing to respond to diminished snowpack in the future and that is why we are starting to work with water agencies on pilot projects for reservoir operations, to be able

to use weather forecasts to manage reservoir storage so we can better respond to wet or dry conditions. dion: something we will continue to follow closely, something our viewers are chiming in about, we are just running out of time now. jenny jones, thank you for joining us -- jeanine jones, thank you for joining us. next, we will talk to a man who has a ♪ ♪

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they have direct flights to vegas. close enough! ♪ ♪ about the weather, but we can play a role in helping stop climate change. ryan joining us now, he is the co-author of speed and scale, a book that has been called an action plan for our planet. thank you for being here. >> think you for having me. dion: let's talk about this plan. to get us to net zero emissions by 2050 and getting us halfway

there by 2030, this sounds like an astronomical goal. >> it is an audacious one. if we started a lot earlier, this would be an easier target, but we have to find the will and the things to do to get halfway to cut our emissions in half by the end of this decade and to zero by 2050. that is what is inside this book, it is an action plan for tackling the climate crisis. dion: you seem confident that this is doable, so let's cut to enter. you discussed this concept of cutting emissions. i know there are plans to put more electric cars on the road, but what else can be done? >> the plan has six solutions. we use this thing called okr's, which i'm sure a lot of folks are familiar with. what are the goals of resetting? we have to electrify transpiration -- electrify

transportation, we have to fix food, we have to protect nature, which means ending deforestation. we have to build things like concrete and steel in ways that emit less and no matter how aggressively are -- aggressive we are, there are going to be carbon emissions left over so we have to find ways to remove that. that is how you get from 59 billion tons a year to zero. the second part of the book captures how we do that quicker. it may take us a century to do those things, but we only have 30 years. we are trying to lean on the policy and politics, we are trying to turn movements into action, everything from the boardroom to the ballot box, then we have to lean on innovation and investment. those are the things we have to do. dion: there is a complex plan you have laid out but what are some tangible things that people on a day-to-day basis can practice?

you mentioned food. that one caught my attention. ryan: the entire plan is online. the book is written for the leader in you. to make the actions that are cities need to take, and countries need to take. you asked a question, what can we do, what can you and i do to cut emissions? i live in san francisco. for us, it is fake action number one, calling up your utility and switching to the green plan. that alone reduces emissions. the second thing you can do, if you own a car, committing to making sure that when you are replacing it, it is going to be an electric one, not putting another fossil fuel vehicle on the road. the third thing is eating less beef. when you look at the emission profile, all the foods we eat, beef is like this much and then chicken and tofu and the other

pieces are so much less. when you think about what you are eating, it is not about going vegan, it is less beef, less cheese, less lamb. dion: i like what you said, the operative word less, because that is more attainable than cutting things out. it is so overwhelming, we are starting to -- trying to reverse decades of issue and problem. i want to wrap things up on a positive note. the concept of clean energy and how that can equal out to economic opportunity. what are you talking about here? ryan: this transition is going to require a full-scale transformation of the way we live, the way we move, the ways we fly and eat. you think about their cleaner alternatives that need to be built, the companies that can be created around them. there is so much excitement in the bay area of the companies that were created here from tesla to sun run.

those are leading the green revolution. when you think about 59 billion tons of emissions, those are someone else's business model, the fossil fuel business model. when you think about removing them, those creating new ones and that is an exciting thing, this transformation is going to not only be great for the planet, but great for the people that end up building them. that is one of the things that gives us hope. dion: we have a minute left. can you quickly rattle off some of the people who contributed to this book? well-known names and a little about your background. ryan: this book is co-authored by john doerr, and acclaimed venture capitalist. we got lucky because in writing it, we reached out to 100 different experts from policymakers to scientists to entrepreneurs. we took their learnings. there is no way we could capture all the research in the world

without talking to these folks and putting them front and center. there are 35 stories in the book from ryan poppel who created pro tara to christiana figueras who signed the paris agreement, you have doug mcmillon, jeff bezos, bill gates. there are a lot of incredible people leading on this revolution and the neat thing is there are heroes here lifting up folks like that. we feature stories of greta thunberg and larry fink. dion: the list continues. i apologize for cutting you off, we are running out of time. ryan panchadsaram, the author of a book that we will include in our facebook post. thank you for joining us. thank you for joining us. hi, i'm mike holmes. i'm here with ivan from agm renovations america's kitchen and bathroom renovators i'm excited to introduce agm's 3d creator. it allows you to create your new kitchen or bathroom online, and get an exact quote in minutes. [ivan] that's right mike!

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dion: thank you for joining tonight, a potential new escalation in the war in ukraine. te kremlin claiming ukrainian rockets hit a fuel depot inside russian territory. for the first time since the invasion, video circulating online shows ukraine allegedly launching a air strike with helicopters on the russian side of the border. the attack happening as peace talks between the two countries resume today, and inside ukraine, the grueling effort to evacuate an estimated 100,000 citizens from the ruins of mariupol. dozens of busses turned away again. ukraine's president zelenskyy revealing he fired two top generals, calling them traitors. and two very different moments -- a crowd outside kyiv celebrating the liberation