>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. >> hello there i am chris and you're watching getting answers live on abc 7 we ask your experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get your answer real-time. los angeles county on the verge of being back to mass mandate and two weeks with the covid transmissions levels just high will be -- will we be forced to put our mass back on the bay area? first, san francisco monkeypox levels seem to be going up the department of public health reporting six cases today ringing the total in the city to 86, with the demand for the vaccine outstripping supply the federal government announced it were together 25 million doses

of the vaxxed -- 2.5 million doses doubling the order, bringing the total to 7 million doses by the middle of next year. they have been critical of the slow vaccine rollout, this afternoon we talk with ecdc official that -- the cdc official that responded to the criticism. >> dr. dimitri, director of hiv prevention at the cdc, appreciate you coming on the show. here in san francisco we are seeing an outbreak of a number of cases and it has been difficult getting the vaccine. with that as backdrop of one share with you a statement that state senator scott here tweeted yesterday. he says we are veering towards a public health uncontrolled monkeypox spread in our committee and many other committees. is that an exaggeration or is that where we are headed? >> i think taking any outbreak,

specifically monkeypox, is very important, what is important to remember that there is lots of the you can prevent lucky pox transmission. one of them is -- monkeypox transmission. when the mist vaccines, there are efforts happening across the government as well as -- access to vaccines as well as equitable delivery. as it scales up, it is important to remember that we have really clear harm reduction strategies that can help people stay safe and prevent monkeypox acquisition or transmission. we have been upfront, and locally san francisco has a well, making sure we have information not only about vaccines, but the other ways you can prevent acquisition and transmission. that is really about knowledge, where it is and how monkeypox transmits, which populations and social sexual networks you are seeing monkeypox, how do you

keep yourself safe in the context of sex or social gatherings. public health responses are never just one thing, as we use all the tools and toolkit i think we are able to address monkeypox especially as we ramp up some of the biomedical strategies like vaccines. >> vaccines are a big part of that, there has been such a drive to get them your. it has been difficult. let me show you lines we have seen earlier this week at a berkeley location. this is a business, it is a spa. there were lines about 10 hours long according to people there. it goes around the block, reports that the business was prioritizing paying patrons, who could cut in the long line. i want to ask you how it makes you feel to see this happening because of the current supply not meeting the demand? >> i think it is inspiring of all the work that we are doing to increase vaccine supplies. it is important to say that

currently we do not have adequate supply for the demand. it needs to be really clear. as we see more demand and hearing from the community and seeing what we are seeing from the epidemiology, the federal government has me working really hard to increase vaccine supply. i think it is unfortunate people have to wait. it is unfortunate that very often these vaccine efforts and up selling out of vaccine. is also inspiring that we are not running out of arms, instead we are running out of vaccines. the fight of the community, specifically gay am a other lgbt committees are lining up as inspiring. as we see more vaccine rolling into jurisdictions we will see this group will continue to step up as it has historically for so many other infections. kristen: can talk about the health and human services announcement today with the big order? i understand intel's millions of -- it entails millions of doses,

winglet be arriving -- when will it be arriving? >> i can speak to some of that, there is an allocation shipping at the beginning of next week, 120, 130,000 doses. there was also 2 million doses acquired later in the year and early next year. this is an iterative process. there has been so much effort to move vaccine weekly, i think what here more and more availability as vaccine becomes available. there is loud good news and effort in terms of matching demand. i am inspired by that, hearing the work of other agencies such as aspr to acquire vaccine and move it. i am hopeful that means we will be able to better meet supply and demand. kristen: you are involved with

hiv prevention work, this probably comes as knows a price you that here there are members of the gay community that feel as though, this is a population that experience it first in this wave, maybe they are not getting the attention and maybe they are being marginalized. the san francisco supervisor address that on our show. >> people in the bay area are concerned, meant to have sex with men, and are trying to exit the vaccine and are having a horrible time doing it. >> i would love to get your response to that. >> we have been working really hard at the cdc to create strategies and messages that are not creating stigma. supply and demand issue is very clear -- with that said we have created two levels of messaging that is important and being held up as a great example at how we

are preventing sigma. getting general prevention and to folks about how it is transmitted and getting to lgbtqia plus communities so that it keeps getting hurt and how we are moving forward in this outbreak. the feelings are, and the history israel -- is real, infections that have generated stigma such as hiv. we are leading strategies that do not propagate stigma. we are pretty proud of the direction we go in terms of messaging how we get word out to the community. >> before i go of one ask about harm reduction in the meantime, until the vaccines start coming in large numbers, can people do? >> we have multiple ways for folks to learn, we have a guide that is available on our website

about safer sex and safer gathering in the set of monkeypox. we have video on youtube that go through detail strategies to prevent acquisition monkeypox. i would say it is important to know, knowledge is power with how lucky pox is transmitted. make plans that are appropriate for you. at the is important for some people, knowledge of how lucky pox is transmitted and venues where you have high risk of transmission mean folks can make decisions appropriate for the context. also making sure people are aware that it is important to get tested if you are not feeling well and have a rash. testing is wrapping up around the country and it is becoming easier and easier, a tool to the kit to prevent your box spread -- monkeypox spread. kristen: thank you very much for your time today. >> goodbye, thank you. kristen: you mentioned the cdc online resources about

monkeypox. here is the resources more information about social gatherings, safer sex, how to protect yourself do cdc.gov/ monkeypox. coming up, dr. patel will join us to weigh in on the cc response

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kristen: you heard from the cdc and our last segment explain some of the challenges of federal government is trying to overcome with regards to procuring more monkeypox vaccines and tests. joining us now to talk about monkeypox and the latest covid news including the possible return of mask mandates, abc news special correspondent dr. patel.

thank you for joining us. >> happy friday to you. >> we will start with monkeypox, you heard the announcement that the government has ordered more doses, it sounds like will take more time for the vaccines to be made, why is that? >> i have been doing my due diligence and trying to figure out the manufacturing process and what the delay is. part of it, to be perfectly honest is that the government was not prepared, i do not think anyone was for the monkeypox outbreak that was leaving the endemic area we usually see it. we have a national supply that has been used. from everything i have read the major supplier is overseas, we are trying to buy supplies from denmark and ship it over here. has to be flown on a plane, cat eddie -- capped at a cold temperature, i cannot find anything about a domestic manufacture. if this is all going to plan, there still delay about getting

vaccine. we need transparency about this project -- process. what if it is a outbreak as severe as covid? is something we need to pay close attention to. kristen: how concerned are you about the level of testing we have? >> i am concerned about the delays in testing and getting those tests back. i am concerned about how may people out there right now potentially getting exposed, do not know it, and are not getting access to a vaccine. if you go to sf.gov and you look at the harm reduction strategies and see if you are exposed to somebody and develop the symptoms it is best to get a vaccine within 14 days. they may not know they have the symptoms at all. some of the behavior is difficult to avoid if it is like sharing close, sharing bedding, kissing, betting, these are normal human activities.

as it gets colder, people indoors will have a higher chance of coming into close contact. kristen: and financial problem with this, unlike covid you get exposed, in two or three days are up to five days you start seeing symptoms, this could take three weeks, right? >> absolutely that is what i was hinting at, the recommendation is to get the vaccine within 14 days of exposure. you can look and read the stories of people that have monkeypox and a lot do not have an idea where they get it from. they developed the rational blisters, even though we do not see a high level of prickle illness it is a debilitating condition. is taking away from the worklife balance out there, we do not want to see people in immuno compromised, pregnant women, those that are vulnerable and exposed. kristen: we want to cover the latest covid news, to get started you have worked up a round of two truths and a light,

if you're watching us on facebook live, then help me out. >> everyone out there tell us, which one of these is not true, i made it a little easy today. is it a, advisers to the cdc will meet next week are expected to discuss who should get the novavax vaccine that was recently approved? or is it b? ba2.75 -- or is it c, a new study shows a previous omicron infection offers substantial protection from the variance, this is a preprint study, which of these is not true? kristen: i will say c is not true. if you want to weigh in on facebook to confirm my suspicion, i think the thing is it is not providing very much protection from previous subvariants.

daniel says c and tessa says c. >> see is actually true, is a preprint study, people had recent infections, i had to say this with a little bit of an asterix, if you've had a previous covid infection in july it is different than having an infection last fall pending on what strain you may have been infected with. it is why we are very reluctant to tell people that if you've had an infection you are good it is not true. this does show that natural immunity does work and helps to create a immunity wall, that is why we are not seeing a creek arising deaths during a huge rise in this variant. b is actually true, the viruses replicating, and has a lot of mutations on it and despite protein time will tell if it out

competes ba5. a is also true as implied by the quiz. >> you got me, although you got most of our viewers, i should give a shout out to cynthia for getting b right. the cdc has been coming under fire for its transmission maps, they say it is misleading and masks how bad things are. i will pull this up, walk us through what the doctors are concerned about and how this map is not showing our true levels. >> simply put the map you're looking at right now when you look at community level, that is taking hospitalizations into account to factor that high, medium, low. that is why you see so much of the country in the low. if we just look at community transmission, the level of covid-19 a positive tests that are out there, you will see allow the map, if not 90% of the

country is read. there it is i just thought flash right through. this is why there is so much pushback, if you look at cdc guidance it says, if you live in a community with high covid-19 transmission, not high-level, transmission is recommended to keep a mask on while indoors. we have not heard this from the cdc we have not heard the national recommendation. we hear a different narrative, saying communities transmission is low, we also see vaccine mandates lifted. i recently took a flight back from san francisco to the midwest and i was very surprised at the last of masks coming to san francisco. kristen: you were surprised? do not see the restaurants? >> back to san francisco, we are a science centric city. if i am flying to other states were they had no mask mandates i

am not surprised at all. it hit me, even though we have this much transmission out there with ba.5 that has an incredible ability to infect people, if you are in a crowd of adults can safely assume someone in the crowd has ba.5. it is up to you to determine your risk levels. we cannot run around and pretend it is fine when is clearly not. kristen: i have to ask you this. if we are saying ba.5 will lead to a lot of infections and we infections, it is change so much it is hard to evade, but it is not causing serious illness and a lot of hospitalizations could this be our key to endemic? can the argument be made and alleviate some of the worries about that? >> it could, but i do not find anyone wants this way -- to be the way we figured out by letting it run rampant.

especially when we are in a situation when 30% of our country, people above the age of five have gotten a booster shot. we are letting infections spread, people get sick, be at risk of hospitalization, severe risk, of long covid. if this particular strain will get through our immunity wall are not, even if you look at data online, specifically look at the map on new york times in terms of vaccination rates by country, the united states is extremely low when comes the percentage of our population that has had an additional dose. compared to every other developed country in the world, which is insane when it comes to the part we played with developing the vaccines and the protocol. we have a severe lack of trust in the process and people are not getting the right message that the importance of the booster. kristen: speaking of comparing ourselves to other countries, there is a new study that

american men are sicker and die earlier than men living in other countries. we will talk about that after we take a short

kristen: welcome back we are with dr. patel here talking about covid right now. our transmission levels, no matter which cdc map you use right now we are in high so is los angeles. at this pace they are talking about bringing back the ask mandate indoors in two weeks. if we are doing about the same, it begs the question, can happen here? >> i think so, i would not be surprised if we see a return to mask mandates for specific facilities. weatherby transportation or federal or government buildings. the hospital not met -- lift mask mandates for the foreseeable future, i actually see a majority of health

officials wear masks through the winter, if we see the transmission of respiratory illness go down, we are heading into winter not only with the potential of uncontrolled outbreak of monkeypox also with the ba.5 right now and be a 75 right now. we will have an omicron specific booster, people out there will want to be fully vaccine before the booster comes out. if you have not already. kristen: it sounds like what you are saying you are not forecasting a lul at all. we get a summer lul and then in the winter goes back up, we'll just stay at a plateau? >> it may stay in one when it comes to positive tests, do not think anyone in the scientific committee wants to fear monger,

we see this follow a seasonal influenza pattern. now it comes to seasonal illness, but that we can abate some of the hospitalizations with preventative measures and vaccines, we have to make sure we set the narrative straight and say that this vaccine will not prevent, necessarily not prevent a positive test, but keep you out of the hospital in the same way the seasonal influenza virus does. you get a flu shot there is no guarantee you will not get the -- flu you have a very high percentage of not going to the hospital. kristen: i want to go to this new study, it is pretty alarming, american men get sicker and die earlier than men living in other developed nations. what is up with that? >> the quick overview, sadly, a lot of journalist and public health officials are not surprised by this. when you compare this to countries actually have universal health care coverage,

we are the only developed country and this list that does not have universal health care country -- coverage. we also have a very high rate of diabetes, and our mental health rates are pretty high. is a depressing study if you look at it. the one thing nobody was a c is an outcome like this when we could have prevented it. i do hope moving forward we do pay attention to policy and is that prevention is everything in it comes to chronic disease. when it comes to expanding health care coverage recess states that have blocked expansion of medicaid and lock access to preventive measures. >> do you remember how much it short lifespan was? >> off the top of my head i do not, i read the study when it first came out, the take-home point is that the lifespan is shorter, the rate of chronic diseases higher and access to health care is significantly lower when you are in a country

with 30 million people who are uninsured or underinsured. kristen: thank you, we will continue to chat on facebook live will take a short break on the air. we want to let you know we have, are we ring this graphic? we are not. we are. all right, folks you want to let you know you can get our live newscast, breaking news weather and more on our abc 7 area streaming tv app, available on apple tv, rtv, - you okay? - there's a flex alert today so i'm mentally preparing for the power outage. oh, well we can help stop one because we are going to reduce our energy use from 4-9pm. what now? i stepped on a plug.

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here every weekday at 3:00 on air answering your questions. world news tonight with david muir is coming up next i will see yo tonight, president biden's controversial fist bump seen around the world. president biden's high-stakes visit to saudi arabia. the fist bump with the saudi crown prince, who u.s. intelligence concluded was responsible for journalist jamal khashoggi's murder. biden saying on the campaign trail, he would make saudi arabia a pariah. now his visit, the meeting with the crown prince, the effort to bring down oil prices and gas prices here at home. and what the president said when asked about that fist bump, about what he said in that meeting, and did he bring up the murder of that journalist? mary bruce traveling with the president. tonight, the new testimony. a witness in the january 6th investigation. a d.c. police officer who abc news has learned has talked about those heated moments when former president trump wanted to be taken up to the capitol instead of the white house.