>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. ♪ kristen: i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers." we ask experts your questions every day at 3:00 p.m. to get answers for you in real time. today, the san francisco chamber of commerce has results, givingt on the top concerns of san francisco voters. our insider will be here to discuss the results. also a bill called charlie's law, hoping to change the lives of patients waiting for a bone marrow transplant. a committee will vote this week. the namesake behind the bill will talk about the mission, which is very personal for him. first, a study published today

in the new york times finds 75% of patients with lung covid -- long covid were actually not hospitalized for their initial infection, but months later are still battling lasting side effects. joining us live to talk more about that is dr. will -- dr. singh. thank you for joining us today. this seems to suggest to me that those who had covid, not serious enough to go to the hospital, the eventual health outcome might be worse than just the sniffles. is that the right way to look at it? >> that's right. covid has shown us it's a very different illness in the last two years. some people have to be a disease -- some people have severe disease, some people have mild disease. now we are seeing whether you have severe disease, mild disease, or even asymptomatic

infection, that you can get the syndrome of long covid. i think we all want to be very cautious and do everything we can to avoid getting a covid infection. reggie: i realize it's hard to get an -- kristen: i realize it's hard to get an exact number on it, but what percentage of the recoved . but in some studies come up to 30%, one in three people will have ongoing symptoms or new symptoms more than three months after having a covid infection. and other studies, it is less common, five to 10 percent. that numbers of people who continue to get infection, i think the numbers are quite high. kristen: what are some of the common long covid symptoms? >> long covid is a disease where you can have symptoms anywhere from the head to the toe, you can have brain fog, headaches,

dizziness, cardiac symptoms, shortness of breath, dizziness, heart racing, palpitations. you could have abdominal symptoms. you could have symptoms in your feet, on your skin. it could be anywhere in the body. the most surprising thing for people to think about is that long covid means you have symptoms multiple months after you have had an infection but they can be new symptoms. if you had mild or asymptomatic disease, you may never have had any issues but you could now have new symptoms. dizziness or lightheadedness, palpitations. it can affect any part of the body. the symptoms can be new ones that you never had before. kristen: so given that, 75% of the people with lung covid -- long covid didn't need to go to the hospital, do you think public health messaging on both public and national levels take this into account? what we hear tends to be, hey, if you are not going to the hospital, great.

it seems like there's rarely talk of what happens months later. >> right. great point. i just think the national dialogue needs to start changing. the pandemic has changed how we live as a society. in the beginning, it was about hospitalizations and just. -- and death. about not overwhelming the health care system. i think the conversation needs to change long towards side effects that people can have. that we need to prevent. i think the idea of please get vaccinated, continue to take the boosters when they are available, please, as local numbers are going up, please avoid congregant settings where you may be at high risk, please continue to take care of yourselves and family members. i think all of those things are really important. i do think there are social and societal fatigue around covid. and i'm very grateful that the vaccination and other measures

have reduced the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations, they are under reasonable control. but i think this is the next stage of the pandemic and we have to be -- we can go back to our lives safely and we can continue, but i do think we want to be almost as careful as before. kristen: today the biden administration said -- this is breaking news -- a third of americans live in areas which such high covid levels now, that they should consider wearing masks indoors, whether local leaders require or not, do you think that is good messaging or should there be another component to that? >> i think masking, taking the vaccinations, if you have not had side effects, even taking the second booster if you're over 50 years old. yesterday gets over the age of five are now approved for a booster. it is about protecting yourself and family members, it is about being cautious in

large-scale social situations. i do that for my family. i think we all should. the issue is that you can't predict who's going to get long covid. it's not always the person who is the sickest or the person with the most underlying issues. it could be young, healthy people who get this. imagine being in your 20's, 30's, or 40's, in the prime of your life, raising a family, working, then having these long-term symptoms. it is sort of setting you up for a lifetime of difficulties and problems. i would try to avoid it. kristen: it is a little ironic in the sense that for young people, especially, you think generally i will have a pretty good outcome, i won't get terribly sick. i may not even have anything. so i'm not going to worry about it. if i get covid, i'll be fine. it is precisely the young people who can least afford to get long covid in the sense that they have 80 years of life ahead of them. >> that's right. they have the longest lifespan ahead of them.

they are at the busiest times of their life in terms of raising young families. can might not have permanent health care or other situations. -- they might not have permanent health care or other situations. even if the chances are one and three, i certainly wouldn't take a chance, even if the chances are one in 20, i would be careful. i do think our young people in society are more socially adventurous. and i do understand that after so many years of living with this disease, we need to get back to semi normal. but i do think we can get back to that and have a reasonably good life with safety measures in place. kristen: what is the way to get there, to achieve that? >> again, i think vaccination is really important. keep up with the boosters. get those around you vaccinated as much as possible. if they are eligible. do wear a mask and doors.

-- indoors. think ahead about whether there are social situations, to limit your exposure to. kristen: obviously on an individual basis, you don't want to be one of the ones to get long covid. for obvious reasons. but on a collective basis, looking at the system as a whole, what would the cost or impacts be, if a lot of people did have long covid? >> some of our beds are saying this is going to be the next national medical crisis. -- op-eds are saying this is going to be the next national medical crisis. we don't have enough beds for those that are uninsured and chronic illnesses. in terms of, are there enough centers, people with expertise on long covid. are there going to be people who understand how to diagnose and treat it? we still don't have a treatment for long covid. it's not like we have some

medication or device. if you get diabetes, you take insulin or medication. we can give you support therapy ideas for long covid. but we don't know how to fix it or how long it's going to continue. from a health system, we won't have the providers and the expertise to treat it. we are trying to improve that across the country. i don't know how insurance and other aspects of the financial are going to do it. i do think this could be the next sort of tragedy around covid. we have already had a one million deaths. that is a tragedy. this may not hit the news, in terms of deaths and hospitalizations and hospitals closing. but i think the undercurrent of the impact of it actually is substantially bigger. kristen: one of our viewers here watching on facebook has a question -- is long covid more likely to happen in people that are not

vaccinated compared to people who are vaccinated and boosted, or is it random? >> the data shows that if you are vaccinated, you are about 50% more protected from getting long covid. than if you are not. certainly it helps. but we know breakthrough infections have been. with those, you can get long covid. kristen: a lot to think about. thank you so much for your time today, dr. singh. really appreciate it. coming up next -- weighing in on the issues that concern you most when it comes to your city. abc 7 news inside a

kristen: poll released by the san francisco chamber of commerce shows a whopping 76% of voters think the city is heading

in the wrong direction. their top concerns -- crime and public safety. many say they are likely to move out of the city as a result in the next few years. joining us to discuss the results is our abc 7 insider, phil m. what is the interest in conducting this poll? >> they represent a lot of the downtown business and smaller businesses throughout the city. they have seen their ups and downs on everything from how much people are charging from rent, to what is going on on the streets, barking. a number of issues -- parking, a number of issues. they take a pulse of the city every year for the last couple of years and they publish them. sometimes they use them inside, other times they publish them to make a point. polls are only as good as the questions that you ask. that is why you say, who is doing the poll and why? in this case, the questions were open-ended. when we have numbers like this,

saying san francisco is going in the wrong direction, that is a message -- that is not a good message for city hall. prices rising higher is not a good message for city hall either. how city hall response to this, in the past, it's been to say we have program after program to deal with this. but speaking with rodney f. today, he says we are spending a lot of money to try to fix problems here, not only in san francisco and the bay area, but there's a feeling we are not seeing results and if anything, it is getting worse. kristen: we will get back to who should be most worried about the results. i want to dive into the numbers more closely. 76% say the city is on the wrong track. 83% say crime has gotten worse. is it really? it is pretty broad. what do the numbers really show? >> overall, crime is down, is what the numbers show. the caveat is that in the last

couple of years, it got really high. then we had the covid epidemic. so we've had this sort of roller coaster up, then down. here is the other part. there are different types of crimes. car break-ins. we have theft from stores. we have break-ins into houses. burglaries. they are on the rise. homicides, on the rise. a lot of violent crimes. other crimes are down. but the ones that affect people on a day-to-day basis are either staying the same, maybe going down a little, or really going up. and people feel that. you say the data doesn't show this -- it is perception. i will tell you something. a statistic that affects you is not a perception, is a reality. so we have data that can be abstract, but how voters feel about that, that is at least a political number that you look at because like i said, some of the crimes are down, others are up, and people are feeling the ones that affect them are up. people have stopped reporting

crimes in the past because they just feel like there's nothing being done about it. that's a legitimate gripe. so we have all this working together. kristen: so how they are feeling is 25% are feeling there likely to move out in the next few years -- they are likely to move out in the next few years. that is not actually likely to happen. >> wait, let's back up on that just a little bit. first of all, covid has accelerated and changed a lot of the things that we had before. what we are seeing is 44% said they were going to leave. what are the factors? crime is one part. but it is really the cost of housing. the cost of living here. the feeling things are not necessarily working out. you don't feel good about how the schools are. they don't feel good about the roads. they seem to be happy with them. we are not seeing transportation is a big issue. now you can work remotely. people have the option. the option of staying here has

changed in this past year. what was possibly unthinkable now is, i can do that, i can hold onto my job and live elsewhere. i don't have to be in san francisco or in the heart of the bay area. i can move out now. that is what we have to keep. an eye on. that the world has changed. options are wide open. kristen: so crime is not the only factor. but certainly that is a factor. it's got to be a bad sign for dean facing his election. what do the polls about him show? >> they show he is in trouble, according to the chamber poll, 62% are ready to recall jason will dean -- jason boudean, over his reform minded administration of the law, he doesn't believe in putting people in jail, especially for nonviolent crimes. he doesn't necessarily believe in putting them behind bars until they go in front of the judge.

especially for nonviolent crimes. so there is a feeling out there that he's bearing the brunt of this. whether it's justified or not. . that's up to the voters. . oddly enough, not just the chamber, but another poll by the san francisco standard, a partner of abc7, found that like it or not, one of the most popular groups in the city is not the supervisors, not the mayors office, not the da --. . it is the police. it is interesting that polling's are showing that contrary to what the political winds are, defund the police, things like that around the country, what we are hearing even here in the bay area when you ask voters, they say we want more neighborhood cops, we want more effective cop s. kristen: interesting. so police are getting good marks. the da not so much. what about mayor breed? >> what are the numbers on mayor breed? they said no, didn't say yes, they didn't say what they

showed. you have to see who was asking the question. the chamber wants to have a continued good relationship with the mayor. so the other polling shows at about 50%. you should be worried if your approval rating is at 50% or lower. that is the rule of thumb. but it's also this -- who is going to run against her? on that front, i have a feeling that her numbers would rise. like it or not, the mayor is doing ok with the public. as we move on, had the recall of the board of education, we've had people to fix that. the board of supervisors. she is becoming more and more the leader of the city. if nothing else by recall and default. kristen: phil, don't go away. i want to ask you, how can these priorities of the public be met by city hall? stick a potentially

life-saving bill is being voted on tomorrow in the california state assembly committee. if approved, it will go to the floor for a vote on friday. it is called charlie's law. it is named after the bay area attorney who almost died, but lived to tell about it, and push for broadening the national bone marrow registry. this is especially important to asian americans. something abc7 wants to highlight this aapi heritage month. joining us now is charles wong, the deputy district attorney and cofounder of the national asian pacific islander prosecutors association. and his transplant doctor at stanford, thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you for having us. kristen: this is an important issue. i'm to start with you, charles. what is charlie's -- what does charlie's law do? what would it do? how would it work? >> it would increase the base

for transplant patients like myself, you can add an extra box, you can check it, and become a bone marrow donor at the dmv. at that point, you will be sent a test kit, you send it back, and you are in the database. if you are a genetic match for cancer patients like myself, you can save a life. so it is check a box, swap your cheek, and save a life. . that is the nature of this bill. kristen: is in that process now in place for organ donations? >> it does, and oddly enough it does not cover bone marrow donations. to be a bone marrow donor, you don't even have to be in a horrific accident and sacrifice your life or other people, you can be a donor for multiple recipients and save multiple lives. isn't that great? kristen: you have a personal

reason for supporting this bill. tell us your fight -- -- and what you encountered -- tell us about your fight against leukemia and what you encountered, as a bone marrow donor. >> i went through six months of intensive chemotherapy at stanford, in hopes that it would cure my leukemia. it didn't. the only way to save my life, so i could have some more time with my three daughters, my beautiful wife, was to get a bone marrow transplant. as i went back to the hospital, trying to get one, because the chemo failed, i was told there was nobody in this entire world that could be a serviceable donor much for me. -- match for me. and it was absolutely devastating. that is where the idea, using the dmv framework to get more donors, came about. kristen: it is a long story of how your own brother

eventually turned out to be your donor. which we won't get into right now. although we have a wonderful picture of the two of you. thank goodness for your brother. doctor, is it really hard, especially for minorities, to find a match? and why is that? >> yeah, thank you so much. thank you for inviting me to be here with you, charlie. it is a really special event for me as your physician. when we are looking for matches for bone marrow transplants for patients with lung cancer -- blood cancers, primarily, we are looking at patients that are compatible with the recipient. it is a pretty complex process that we go through. but the just of it is that the genetics of our immune system somewhat carry along ethnic and racial lines. so people with similar background will have similar genetics of their immune system, part of the genetic code we look to match on.

we know in california we are in a very racially diverse state. the donor pools or hispanic patients, latino patients, african-american, asian patients. it is much smaller for white or european patients. it is important that we increase the numbers for our patients in california. that we increase the numbers of available donors from all different backgrounds on the registry. i think this bill and movements like this are incredibly important to the members of our state. and people who are fighting for their lives. with deadly blood crs. kristen:an given how diverse california is, if people from here in the registry, going to's people outside of the state as well? >> yeah, the registry across the u.s. is really open across the entire country. would look to registries outside

of the u.s. around europe and south america, asia. but by signing up to be a part of the national donor program via the match registry, you are allowing yourself to potentially save a life for anyone in this world. i think it is a huge gift that these altruistic people often do for people often that they don't even know. it is an incredible thing to do for someone else. kristen: your brother did that for you, charles. . that is why you are here today. we will continue to chat on facebook live. thank you so r

joining us on this interactive show, "getting answers." we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on livestream, answering your questions. "world news tonight" with david muir is coming up next.

we will see you at 4:00. [captioe national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the new covid concerns here in the u.s. they are raising the risk levels now in a third of the country. and what they're seeing in new york city. and breaking news right now from the white house on the baby formula shortage. first, covid hospitalizations up more than 60% in one month. much of the country now raising that risk level. we'll show you the map tonight. the high risk areas including new york city. and what new york's major said just today. there is also breaking news on the nationwide baby formula crisis. president biden will now invoke the defense production act to restoke formula. so how will this work? cecilia vega standing by. new reporting in the racially motivated mass shooting in buffalo. abc news learning tonight that some of the online posting allegedly made by the suspected