announcer: building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc news. kristen: hi, i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" on abc seven. we ask for your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers in real-time. as abortion-rights supporters protest over the weekend outside justices' homes, republican leadership indicates a national abortion ban may be possible, as several states draw laws that will prosecute women for murder or ban contraceptives and morning-after pills. uc hastings law professor will join us to discuss the latest in the battle over abortion-rights. first, covid hits home. you cfs department of medicine chair dr. bob walker has been

sharing his expertise with us. today he shares a personal story that may just offer lessons for all of us. despite taking numerous cautions and precautions, his wife has come down with covid. joining us now is dr. bob walker and his wife. thank you so much for being here today. >> it definitely breaks up the day. >> yes. kristen: that's great, quarantining, so i'm glad you could take the diversion. how are you feeling? you look good. >> thank you very much. oh, you are talking to her. [laughter] >> how are you feeling? long time no see down there. i'm upstairs, he's downstairs. i don't feel great, but i have a massive headache. i won't bore you with everything but i feel so lucky that this did not happen two years ago,

which is what bob said to me when i got sick. i tested positive yesterday. he said, you are really lucky it did not happen in march of 2020. kristen: indeed. you have gotten vaccinated, gotten boosted, i know you are on paxlovid. this is how we all know, dr. walker's -- wachter's thread mentioned it. many people now after escaping it for two years are being snagged by the virus. why? >> this subvariant is even more infectious than the last one which is more infectious than omicron, more infectious than delta. the virus seems to get better and better at infecting people. in the last number of weeks, the number of friends and family who got it and were not getting it for two years is staggering. . we are seeing a lot more physicians and nurses out than we've seen may be since december and january.

so there's a lot of covid around and people are being less careful which is understandable since this might be the no -- new normal. kristen: i think that's one of the reasons you encouraged katie to go to that workshop and conference. i know you took precautions. talk about the setting. >> so i got invited to do a writers workshop in san jose. it is a big deal. i got invited to do this two years ago. then it got delayed. then they invited me again last year. that ended up getting canceled. so we did it this year. we ate indoors, which made me uncomfortable. i even asked the organizer, are we really eating indoors? he said, it's really hard to eat outdoors, etc. they did ask everybody be

vaccinated and show proof of vaccination, but what they did not ask is that everyone test themselves before the first day of the conference and throughout the week and every morning. that's when i, in hindsight, should have suc suggested, since i'm married to this guy who knows things. we were kind of busy, we did not compare notes. what do you think? i think that could have helped. it was clearly -- let me tell you, it turns out there was some kind of super-spreader thing happening. kristen: i wonder. that is a great suggestion. another layer of protection. we are also finding out at the white house correspondents dinner, so many got sick, but they did do testing. >> there's nothing perfect, if you want to convene inside, the best you can do is everybody is vaccinated. if you will take your mask off,

that everybody does rapid testing that day. it gets unwieldy and expensive, but that would make it safer. safer still would have been better ventilation and filters in the room, if doable, and better still would be eating outdoors. we all have to kind of navigate all of these different branch points as we go along. it did not strike me as being unreasonable what they were doing, but as it has turned out, it turned into something of a super-spreader. how many were infected? >> easily one third of the group, all of whom have been vaccinated. does that mean there's one person -- what does it mean exactly? >> first of all, you are not the journalist here. [laughter] kristen: i was going to say. >> i am a journalist, hello! [laughter] >> that's true.

when it means is you did not get sick until two days after you left and you had been testing since you left and it was negative, then it turned positive, it means you got it from someone there. the fact that it sounds like 15 out of 45 or 50 people got it, it was a legitimate super-spreader event and probably there was one person who was the original person who gave it to a lot of other people. and we still don't understand why some people are supers -- super-spreader's, whether there is something about the anatomy of their mouth and nose. it is a mystery. kristen: the good thing is you were in fact at this conference, then you got on a plane friday with dr. wachter to palm springs to visit friends. your tweet showed a picture and you said she was hermetically sealed. that picture caught my attention on twitter. that's when i was like, what is that? what is she doing?

turns out this was a good thing. >> well, it turned out she was doing it largely because, we are on the plane because 30% of people were masked, so she was doing it more to protect herself more than others. as we know, she had virus in her, but almost certainly was not infectious at that point. the incubation period is three days. what almost certainly happened was she caught it on thursday or friday. she flew on friday. she probably was not infectious at that point, because the next morning saturday, she did a rapid test that was negative. she had covid and her body and nose but not enough to infect anybody. it was not until sunday morning she turned positive. kristen: and you had been staying with friends in palm springs. talk about what made you suspect you had covid and why you tested. >> so i did not suspect i had it. i know, right?

i was uncomfortable eating indoors, we were in a group. this is the weird thing. it feels very much like reality is distorted when everyone is marching around with no mask on so you have this false sense of everything is ok. so i kept going into these bouts of denial about it. so i did eat indoors without a mask which of course i regret i was with one of the instructors so i was obligated to be with the group. so then we went to visit these friends who were very, very close friends who we had not seen in a long time, one of them is quite frail. and has a bunch of other stuff, comorbidities. i tested myself because of him. not because i thought i was sick. kristen: oh. >> not because you thought you

had covid, but you were coming out of a situation that was riskier than the average. i think this is all quite rational. katie was in a situation where she was having more exposure than normal. if she had just come home to me, i'm not sure she would have tested every day. not that she cares less about me that her friends, but because i am not particularly vulnerable. we were with a vulnerable couple in their 80's. so we felt it was prudent to be really careful around them. kristen: so that was really prudent and turned out to be a good decision because you did test positive. and that's where things got interesting in the sense that you had decisions to make, starting with how to get home. now you are in palm springs, you tested positive. dr. wachter, you put out a twitter pole. if you were in this situation, would you have stayed in palm springs until negative, flown home with a tight and 95, or rent a car and drive home, with

masks and windows open? let's see what the twitter goers said. what did people say? >> i just heard the tone of her voice, like she was positive. we were supposed to fly home from palm springs that night around 7:00 at night yesterday evening. we basically sat down and said, are we going to have you stay or both of us stay, until you are negative or fly home and risk that or rent a car? we talked about it for a few minutes and decided the safest thing to do not for us but for the other people was to rent a car and drive. so we rented a car and drove

nine hours from palm springs to san francisco, both of us wearing masks and with the windows open the entire time. we felt like, having katie with known covid, even wearing a great and 95, surrounded by people who were not going to be masked, that would be a level of guilt neither of us were prepared to handle. >> but how many people do you think don't make that decision? they just say, i want to get home. kristen: that's the question i had. you and i are like this. >> the poll, like 50% of people said they would rent the car and drive. the rest, 45%, equally split between would have stayed put in palm springs and taken the flight. i'm guessing in real life, more people would have taken the flight than i really willing -- are willing to admit. it's amazing that i think 40,000 people answered that.

kristen: i think you are right. as prevalent as it is out there right now, if you have the quarter more people making that decision, you know on a flight, there is somebody with covid. there is somebody with covid. we will take i was hit by a car and needed help. there is somebody with covid. we will take i called the barnes firm. that was the best call i could've made. i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to know how much their accident case is let our injury attorneys know he how much their accident cget the best result possible.

of medicine chair dr. bob wachter and his wife katie, who has caught covid. they live in the same household but they are in different rooms, because dr. wachter is trying not to catch covid well taking care of her. simone wants to know, with the family of four, mom and dad and eight-month-old are positive but the five-year-old is not yet.

if the five-year-old ends up testing positive, can we take the masks off or is there a possibility of recirculation? >> you can take your masks off. once you have it, you won't get it again. in the short term. you might get it again three months from now, but everyone who has it, they don't need to be isolated anymore. it is important to recognize, people often assume one household member has it. everybody has got it. . . don't even be careful that's not right. the household attack rate is 40%. 40% of people who live in a household with someone who has it will get it. you have a 60% chance of not getting it. even though i was exposed to katie, and there's a decent chance i will get it, i have not gotten it yet and i'm careful leaving food outside her door. kristen: very sweet. what if you are the covid positive one but you are the household cook and need to prepare meals for everybody? is that safe if you wear a mask or does it not matter? >> if i was the one who had it,

i would be whining more. you want to isolate as much as you possibly can. the best thing would be into -- be in your room alone. if you need to come out and be with other people, if you are wearing the n95 and they are wearing n95s, that's great, and keep windows open with ventilation. kristen: daniel wanted to ask if you think you are getting it now. you are testing every day. when will you know you are out of the woods? >> wednesday or thursday. we were together all day saturday and saturday night and katie tested positive sunday. she was negative saturday. my exposure was probably most of the day saturday and saturday night. the incubation period on average is three days. the rapid test is sometimes

negative for a day or two. i would say by wednesday or thursday if the rapid test is negative, i'm out of the woods. i might get the pcr tests to be sure on tuesday or wednesday to be on the safe side. kristen: we know you are taking paxlovid, the antiviral, you qualify because of your age. but stephanie wants to know, how can we get it? at a pharmacy? >> there are a few test to treat pharmacies in the bay area. some pharmacies have it. any doctor can prescribe it. we found out walgreens did not have any but cvs had a ton. >> the cvs on 19th avenue. >> on covid.gov, you can look up through your zip code and see who has it. despite the fact that it tastes crummy, it lowers the chance of hospitalization and death by about 90%. so if you can get it and you are eligible for it, it is really important to take it. kristen: here's a question for both of you.

i'm sure you are discussing this. what will it take before you are comfortable coming out of isolation? some people say i'm waiting until that little pink line is gone and i'm not positive at all on the rapid. other people say, five days isolation, that's what the cdc says, i exit after that. what do you say? >> if the pink line is still positive, you are still infectious. if you feel perfectly fine and the pink line is much fainter than it was, and you are wearing the n95, and you actually have to do something, because this happens for us at work as well if we need someone to staff something at the hospital and they are minimally positive, wearing the n95,. . that is pretty safe legitimately to say you have no possibility of infecting anybody it should

be when the pink line goes away. kristen: dr. bob wachter and katie, who has covid, but great enough to come today and talk to us about her experience and lessons learned, thank you both so very much. really appreciate it. and katie, you were filling in for me whenever you want. [laughter] >> thank you. i'm going back to bed. kristen: we will switch gears. when we come back, we talk uc when we come back, we talk uc hastings law after my car accident, when we come back, we talk uc hastings law i wondered what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. when that car hit my motorcycle, insurance wasn't fair. so i called the barnes firm. it was the best call i could've made. atat t bararnefirmrm, our r inry a attneysys wk hahard i could've made. atat t bararnefirmrm, to get you the best result possible.

call us now and find out what your case could be worth. you u mit bebe sprisised ♪ the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪

kristen: we are at a pivotal moment in american history as the future of the woman's right to choose whether or not she wants to grow and give birth to a baby hangs in the balance. the follow continues after last week's bombshell supreme court leak. . a draft opinion showing justices could overturn roe v. wade. now states are lining up to pass restrictive laws of their own in addition to those who already passed laws with texas,

mississippi, and florida. joining us is a uc hastings professor and former supreme court clerk. thank you so much for joining us here, professor. >> thank you. kristen: you clerked for justice harry blackmun, the author of the roe v. wade opinion actually, that established abortion rights for women. did you ever think the day would come it could be done after almost 50 years? >> no, i didn't. poor justice blackmun would be turning in his grave right now. not only because it looks like it will be overturned, but because of the shocking manner in which this dropped opinion does so. kristen: let's talk about that. there have been leaks. some people criticized the leak more and other people criticize the contents. regardless it shows chief justice roberts had been working behind the scenes to find a way to uphold mississippi's law without overturning the roe

framework completely. explain to people how that can be done. >> so what chief justice roberts is trying to do is balance on a tight rope. it is an incredibly difficult task and i don't think it can be done, not in a principled fashion. what he wants to do is uphold the mississippi law which prohibits abortion completely after 15 weeks of pregnancy. the reason that is so difficult to be done under prevailing precedent is because roe draws the line at what fetal viability is. that means the point at which the fetus has the capacity to survive outside the womb, outside the. woman's. body prior to that time, a woman should have a constitutional right to terminate the pregnancy. after viability, the state would prohibit abortion. at the time, viability was

roughly 24 weeks. now it is more around 20 weeks. but 15 weeks is clearly too early. there's no way, there's no medical technology that could preserve a fetus that early in pregnancy. so if you draw the line and say women cannot have an abortion after 15 weeks, that is totally flouting the viability line, which is the prevailing precedent until now. kristen: so there are some other things going on on the state level. mississippi's governor is not ruling out a ban on birth control and the morning-after pill. louisiana republicans are working on a bill to allow prosecutors to charge women getting abortions with murder. can these things actually happen? would the constitution allow that? >> yes. if this opinion becomes the law of the land, then it would be

possible for states to make abortion completely illegal. not even only at 15 weeks, but even from the moment of conception. and by the way, conception is when we talk about the joinder of's perm and big -- sperm and egg. there are some methods that prevent the early embryo from implanting in a woman's uterus. so a contraceptive that prevents implantation of the embryo in a woman's uterus, they are saying we think that is a method of abortion, so we will prohibit it. that would be constitutional. kristen: what about for states like california that really believe in expanding even abortion rights? could that ever be touched in the sense that, like senate minority leader mitch mcconnell , who could become majority

after the midterms, who knows what is possible, he says, is it possible for lawmakers to codify or make it law the supreme court overturning this? he was asked and he seems to suggest it is possible. if that happened, would that supersede what california would like to do and provide? >> brilliant question, you are so right. if the federal government enacts a law that says abortion is illegal across the country, that would supersede california's own laws. that would become the law of the land. the hope is that, number one congress would not be able to enact a law, but that depends on the people to vote and make sure they are not boats in -- there are not votes in congress to enact this law. number two, if it is enacted, would that be constitutional? would that go beyond the power of congress? previously, the supreme court has held in cases involving the

violence against women act, when congress legislates on matters that do not involve commerce, that it lacks the authority and jurisdiction. but i'm not confident the supreme court -- this supreme court will rule this kind of an issue is beyond the jurisdiction of congress.if congress should enact such a law, this court might very well rule it to be constitutional. kristen: all right, professor, please don't go away. we do have two take a break but we will continue on facebook live

kristen: thank you so much for joining us today on this interactive show, "getting answers." we appreciate dr. what -- dr. bob wachter and his wife katie,

joining us for sharing their experience. we will be here every day at 3:00 on tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the dramatic capture, after a chase in the nationwide manhunt for an escaped murder suspect and a corrections officer. moments ago, investigators before the cameras after a manhunt lasting several days across several states. where they found them. tonight, the capital murder suspect in custody. the corrections officer accused of helping him in the hospital. it comes after surveillance of a stolen pickup in indiana. and what authorities are now saying about that former officer, vicky white. also tonight, the alarming new numbers on covid in the u.s. cases rising in at least 45 states tonight. and what they're now seeing in new york city. and these are just the cases that are being reported. so, what are the real numbers? tonight, the major hot spots, including boston. and news tonight on pediatric hospital