which is a dramatic one, with redditors coming down with garbage bags and people know was dramatic about it, and it really speaks to the different ways that different regions in the country are approaching this news. i think, frankly speaking frankly speaking, a lot of folks on the plane, and this was a big

777 plane, they were nervous about dispensing with their masks now. coming from places like new york where there is a lot of transmission happening right now, to san francisco. kristen: yes. it is interesting, the different videos that you see depend on the origin. and location. now that it is up to the individual for now, let's talk about risk. i talk to you enough to know that people are always wondering, how do i? protect myself maybe i am immunocompromised, i have a parent, may be a child under five who is unvaccinated, or a afford to catch covid right now because i have something big coming up -- all those things way into your level of risk. but because we get into that, let's talk about whether the plane itself is a super-spreader situation. from everything we have seen the last two years, people kept flying.

are there outbreaks that arise from plane rides? dr. chin-hong: this is going back to the early days of the pandemic, and from stars even. back then, nobody was wearing masks. but when there is enough virus circulating -- #endsars was nothing compared to covid -- there was obviously transmissions on the plane. we haven't seen a lot in the last two years apart from early on, because everybody has been wearing masks. the plane itself has very good ventilation comparable to hospital rooms in the hospital setting, exchanging air every two to three minutes. but there is a lot of continuum in travel. even lining up in the jet wing, the plane is not setting up the ventilation system yet. you are crowded, you are frustrated, it is hard in the plane, there is no ventilation. these are the points of tension that i am worried about, particularly as you mention, for

vulnerable populations, and whether you can afford to get infected right now, because, again, it is a military five days at home of isolation, if not more. kristen: so let's say, with the good air filtration, the hepa and all of that, let's just say you are sitting next to someone. and they have covid. they are in their infectious period. if you are both masked, the chances of you contracting it in a five hour flight, are they low, if you have a good mask? dr. chin-hong: even if it is not the best mask you are both wearing surgical masks not even cloth masks the chances are very low with great filtration systems. . unless they pull it down to eat their lunch and they are watching "encanto" for something, and laughing along. [laughter] [laughter] that is generally a safe environment. kristen: let's say that person his infectious nt seat, you are

in the aisle, he doesn't wear his mask, but you are still wearing your mask the whole way through. are you still likely to get it? dr. chin-hong: if you are wearing a good mask you probably have to up your mask game, if you are the one taking all the precautions. so i would probably wear a kn95 or a kf94, which is more comfortable than a kn95, a little bit tight but same protection. and you probably would be a little bit -- suddenly you look at the behavior of your seatmate. are they laughing? do they have these airline bubbles of alcohol, maybe they are watching a comedy show? or maybe they have symptoms. tons of times, remember pre-covid, you are going back to the person and they are coughing and you are feeling a bit worried. now the risk is a bit higher. again, based on who you are and whether you can afford to get infected. kristen: what if they were

positive and neither one of you were wearing masks? do you still have a fairly low chance of catching it on a five hour flight, or a high chance? dr. chin-hong: i think you have a high chance. we have good data from free masking on airlines, with people in the early covid days, people very geographically linked in terms of transmissions. if there is one symptomatic person, you can do a scatterplot and you can see adjoining rooms and seats all getting it. it is very similar to that case in marin a few months ago where one student in class got it -- the teacher had it, unknown. and depending on what row you were sitting in, your chance of getting infected was higher. kristen: good to know. and as you mentioned, there are some points of travel where you can get it more.

say you are in the jetway or the waiting area, you might want to mask up even if you don't mask for the rest of the flight. i want to touch on this quickly, local mandates can still exist. new york city transit still requires it. muni for now still requires it. do you think mandates are still necessary at this point, looking at the big picture with cases and hospitalizations, or do you think it is time to make it optional? dr. chin-hong: i think we're in a transition point right now. the problem now is that it is a dynamic situation. i am definitely not one for mandates if not necessary. but because we are not sure what the destination is right now with this subvariant, there is b.a. 2, and then there is the subvariants in new york that are even more transmissible than b.a. 2, we are not really sure where the destination is. so it is not really time to be tinkering with a formula that

really works. nevertheless, this is the reality, so i think we have to be said for that. but you are right, at some point we can't have a mandate indefinitely, although we do have other mandates, like seatbelts or no smoking. so it depends on the situation and the receptivity of the people for a certain amount of risk. at this time i must say we're in a different place from a year ago because we have many options, like monoclonal antibodies and paxlovid. the problem is not everyone knows about them. even some physicians and health care professionals don't know how to access them if their patients need them. these numbers are increasing. so i want to make sure that listeners are empowered to know where to get things done in the event that they are at high risk of getting seriously ill and they become infected. kristen: our viewers always get

the benefit of your insight and those of your colleagues, and they know how to advocate for. themselves so, good information. dr. peter chin-hong, we appreciate it. dr. chin-hong: my pleasure, thank you. kr

kristen: muni has not made it mask optional despite the federal ruling yesterday. that is one of the topics we have to discuss with san franciso mayor london breed today. thank you for your time. mayor breed: thanks for having me. >> you can hear her just fine? ok.

we understand the bay area transit agencies met today and decided to remain in a holding pattern, that is wait for state and federal guidance before making an announcement to officially make masking optional but not really enforcing rules in the meantime. but muni is strict. talk to us about what you hope will happen. mayor breed: right now we are still imposing the mask mandate on transit here in san francisco. we know that cases are going up, but we aren't seeing hospitalizations go up. so we are happy about that. ultimately, i know that people are anxious to take those masks off and we are hopeful that in the near future, muni will make the decision to do that. it is still in place, but i think we're almost there. kristen: are there situations right now where you still think it would be pos to wear a mask? mayor breed: i think most of the

time i am choosing to wear a mask when i walk into many close quarters or depending on the number of people in a meeting or sometimes watching performances or events. but for the most part, it is not required. people need to use their own discretion. i was at a lunch today and i had to know a lot of people were wearing their masks. some people feel comfortable doing it and some people don't. ultimately, we want to make sure people feel comfortable doing what works for them. our public health department has been extremely conservative throughout this pandemic, so if they are giving the green light to allow pets not to wear a mask situations, then i would say they are using the science and the data like they always have, two make the right decisions. kristen: i know that you came back from europe a couple of weeks ago. you want to south san francisco is a great place to visit, we are reopening. talk to us about whether you are seeing evidence that it is

paying dividends already, with people coming back to visit the city. mayor breed: many people were really excited about when to come to san francisco. some people have never been. airlines are looking at direct flights that never existed before, like in brussels. the fact is, they were concerned about what is a national requirement for people to be tested before they fly into the u.s.. that was the thing that was brought up the most. but people were anxious to travel, excited to get back to places like in san francisco, where we have the outdoor dining. they were really intrigued about outdoor dining, in san francisco's submit to napa valley and a number of other locations where people can visit not just our city for a couple of weeks, but other places throughout the state of california. there was a lot of excitement. my hope is that we start to see an increase in terrorism, and conventions are -- increase in

tourism. conventions are already growing in number. it was a successful trip and i think our economy will benefit from it. kristen: good. i know that what you don't want is for crime to be a deterrent and that is why there are many initiatives in that regard right now. i want to ask you about last week,-hour ride team ran a report. we have video of where laptops and cameras were sold in the open air market in mission. what do you see as the solution, what are the different ways you can respond to this? mayor breed: i think part of the solution, of course, number one, we want to provide opportunities so people never cross that line in the first place. number two, when those lines are crossed and people commit illegal acts, people need to be held accountable. part of the legislation we introduced is about the accountability proponent. we know that people are going to our retail stores and places, and even unfortunately people

and their vehicles, taking these items, and they have to be sold somewhere. so this is not just about the sales on the corner with the open markets around bending. this is also about people who have warehouses, who are purchasing these goods and selling them on many platforms like amazon and things of that nature. so it is not just a local issue, this is a national issue. we need assistance in that regard, and i think the legislation where we require vendors to have permits that come in line with our policies, and the ability to ask people to produce documentation of these particular items, is going to help us with that level of accountability and prevent stolen goods from being sold out on the streets of san francisco. kristen: i want to talk about laguna honda hospital. it remains at risk of shutting down possibly. after losing federal funds because of issues with hygiene,

prevention, that type of thing. this is a skilled nursing facility that serves hundreds of patients, many of them with complex problems, many of them low income. i know that you wanted to come into compliance quickly. can you promise that will be done -- are you feeling confident that that will happen? mayor breed: let's just take a step back. many nursing care facilities like laguna honda in the country, during the pandemic, people were dying in these locations. in laguna honda, the work they did to save lives was extraordinary. everyone was concerned about what would happen to laguna honda and throughout the entire time of this pandemic, only six people lost their lives. so even though, sadly, there are a number of things that we need to improve on, including the appropriate signage, hygiene, and other technical challenges that exist, they did an extraordinary job. we will make those changes.

the changes are definitely fixable. and i am confident as we go through this process, which will take a few months, that we will get back in compliance and be able to keep the people who are part of laguna honda there and getting the services they need. it is unfortunate that this is a setback. ultimately, i feel confident in the work of the people of laguna honda that we will get to a place where the residents and the families of the people who lived there feel as though they have a home and they will be protected and get the support and the services that they need. kristen: mayor of san francisco, london breed, thank you so much. always good talking with you. mayor breed: thank you. kristen: the

kristen: it is election day, again, in san francisco. this time, it is a special election to fill a state assembly seat vacated by the city attorney. driving civic engagement is part

of: a better bay area, something shared by ora media partner, the san francisco standard. josh keane has been taking a close look at this race in his reporting. thanks for joining us, josh. josh: thanks for having me. kristen: we know the basics, matt haney and david campos going head-to-head. haney had a few hundred more votes than compost but it was nearly tied percentagewise. the analysts expected to be close? josh: right now no one is going to be saying "this is exactly what is going to happen." it will be a close race, but when you talk to political observers, because of the way the primary breakdown in february, with moderates similar to supervisor matt haney, there are people who think this is haney's race to lose. kristen: all right, we will see. but voter turnout was pretty low

in february. how is it looking this time? josh: the numbers that we were seeing throughout this ballot period have been very low. that could shift things. progressives could turn out in larger numbers than expected and that could carry david campos to victory. however, there has been a lot of talk about, these candidates really having very similar ideologies when it comes to policy. almost like a popularity contest, which by definition, a campaign is. but with haney kind of having maybe less negatives in public perception, that could play in his favor. kristen: haney got mayor breed's endorsement, as well as this group that not everyone knows about. explain to us how that may play into things? josh: supervisor haney has shifted a bit in his stance on housing. some would call it an evolution. some would call it a real pivot to try to lock up the moderate

base of support. san francisco's political scene is not democrats, republicans, it is usually democrats lit into factions of progressives and moderates. so haney, seeing a real opportunity, has changed his position. he wasn't necessarily in favor of senator scott wiener's bills on housing. that has changed and that will help him. but when it comes to policies on housing, they are pretty much the same. it is just a matter of who they can get support from. haney has gotten a lot of support from pacs, and independent expenditure committees. kristen: if they are similar, how come it is seen as being a potential test for progressive strength? josh: what is interesting about races within san francisco, on the district level, progressives

usually perform better. there are neighborhoods, in those neighborhoods have very distant characters. when we pan out and start looking at citywide races like this one, which is about half of san francisco, you will see moderate turn to do better. that is what we saw with senator wiener. we have seen it with david hsu, who beat campos in 2014. that is the trend this has been going, so that is kind of what we are expecting to happen tonight. kristen: if even since the initial primary, right, it has only been two months, but have there been changes in the mood of this feeling that could affect the outcome of this election? josh: i think the mood is, everything is the backdrop of the pandemic. people are turns, anxious, some even angry when it comes to public safety, when it comes to a lack of housing. the drug epidemic in the tenderloin which is part of assembly district 17. i think the shift in tone that

we have seen over the course of the campaign is that district candidates are getting testy with each other. they like to have your little spats on twitter. and there have also been some key missteps along the way when it comes to campos' framing of the tone -- he has been criticized for calling supervisor haney "the tenderloin supervisor." he also compared his fight to the ukrainians in the war with russia. those are the things that he stopped in on his own. kristen: we will see how that plays out. don't go away, we will continue the chat on facebook live. i just want to let folks know that we have links to the san francisco standard's other original reporting on our website, abc7news.com. . to watch more segmen

kristen: thank you so much for joining us. i will see you bac tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the confusion over travel mask mandates. how this played out on planes across the country today. the scenes on board. also, the war in ukraine tonight. russia declaring this new offensive. what the pentagon is saying tonight, and the ukrainians refusing to surrender inside a massive steel plant. the pandemic. tonight, for the first time in two years, passengers across the without wearing masks.o fly - what played out on those flights. the joy from some. the concern from others. and what president biden said today about americans who are flying and whether they should still wear the masks. gio benitez on that tonight. also tonight, russia declaring that new offensive in ukraine is now under way. russian forces dropping bombs on a steel plant in mariupol. about 1,000 civilians r