finding. solutions you are watching getting answers live on abc seven. we are asking experts questions to get answers in real-time. will smith posted an apology video after rock a month ago. joining us is an expert on what it takes to make a sincere apology. we will speak to a disability advocate about some of the issues facing that community. first, we have a lot to get to when it comes to monkeypox news and covid. joining us now is abc 7 news special correspondent dr. patel.

thank you for being here. >> happy friday. it is good to join you digitally. karina: let's get right to it. san francisco declared a state of emergency over monkeypox yesterday. the mayor said the city has seen 281 people with monkeypox infections in health officials believe that number will grow. can you talk about what a state of emergency would do in helping with the surge? dr. patel: simply put, it comes down to a heightened sense of urgency when it comes to awareness and allocating funding and resources which is exactly what we need to do. if you look at what the national recommendations are for who should be getting a vaccine, we have at risk populations here and many people waiting in line for hours to get a shot. we have way more need for vaccines than we are currently getting. hopefully this declaration will get people kind of paying attention to what's actually happening with monkeypox to protect themselves, but also get

more funding in terms of the vaccine but also testing and treatment. karina: i know it has been very frustrating for a lot of people trying to get that vaccine. it is still a challenge for some people. what is your advice to people who have to wait longer to get that vaccine? dr. patel: do your best to not get incredibly frustrated. the best advice is to talk to your health care professional about if you need to get tested and what isolation might look like. i think this is one of the most frustrating parts, from what we've heard, of people who had monkeypox is the unknown and being in isolation. having the excruciating pain with these lesions. for people out there who are waiting, make sure you are in touch with a health care provider and do the best you can. it is a horrific situation if you have to sit and wait for weeks at a time. having that communication is key. karina: can you go over that?

when can you infect somebody? how long should you be isolating? go over some of those details. dr. patel: simply put, the most contagious period as far as we know with monkeypox's when you actually have the active lesions. the closest method to contact, the highest way to transmit the virus's skin to skin contact. you can be contagious prior to this period, where you have that fever and body aches. the real contagious period is when you have those lesions. you can consider yourself no longer contagious when those lesions have healed or fallen off. this phase could be weeks at a time. let's be realistic, not everyone can isolate for weeks. people don't have paid leave. people have families for this will potentially be a large bird and if we don't get it under control. karina: we will have much more on this topic at 4:00 so tune in there. now, let's get to covid.

talk about the latest infections and hospitalization numbers you are seeing. dr. patel: it's no surprise we are seeing a rise in actual cases across the country. estimates are saying we are probably really seeing about seven times what is actually being reported because of the amount of home testing. if i take my journalism hat off and consider myself only a pediatrician, we have the third week in a row of rising cases in the pediatric population. hospitalizations have somewhat decoupled from the rising cases, but people are still seeing severe illness, hospitalizations, but also long covid. fortunately, we've got a good wall of natural immunity, vaccine immunity, treatment, but fall is coming with a little bit of an unknown especially with the transmissible variant. karina: let's talk about ba.5. do people still need to be concerned about that are can we

expect to see a new variant to emerge? dr. patel: i think you are correct on both fronts. i don't want to see people should be concerned. people in san francisco have been very vigilant about getting vaccinated, but we should be aware of how much ba.5 is in the community. community transmission is at a high level and about 80% of counties in the u.s. which means that people want to protect themselves, you should still be wearing masks indoor. make sure you have your primary vaccine series and you are boosted. we don't know what will happen in the fall with respect to another variant;. . this poses an interesting conversation when we talk about the potential omicron-specific booster. we are trying to get ahead of the potential wendle search -- winter surge. karina: there was news that came out today about new booster possibly available as soon us september that would tackle the omicron variant.

could you go into more detail? karina: that is what you are seeing, the plan. dr. patel: moderna and pfizer will put forth a bivalent booster. it will cover the ancestral strain of sars-cov-2, plus an updated strain that would be targeting ba.4 and ba.5. what this will protect people against is any acute or moderate illness to a greater degree. it is important for everyone to know that the current vaccines are still doing their job in preventing severe illness. with this update of a potential updated booster in september, this is exactly why the white house said let's hold off in recommending a second booster for people under the age of 50 because it is important people get this updated booster when it comes out. karina: we don't know yet who should be getting this booster. is it mostly people higher risk, older people? dr. patel: we don't exactly know

yet. if i had to take an educated i would say it would probably fall in line with who's recommended right now to get a second booster. anyone who has an underlying medical condition. the second booster would be people above the age of 50. we have to wait and see what the recommendations actually are. we would not have a supply to get every single eligible person a booster. on top of that, we still need to see the data and make sure that data lines up with what the fda would greenlight for the omicron specific booster. karina: we do have a viewer question for you. it comes from erica. she wants to know what is your advice on boosting a 19-year-old who had a j&j as the first vaccine and then moderna as a booster. so, should that person be getting another booster since it was j&j first? dr. patel: it is difficult to give the individual

recommendations, but what i would say is for anyone out there who has specific questions about their own vaccine series especially with underlying medical conditions is to talk to it health care professional. generally speaking, a booster may be recommended. if whatever reason this person completed their vaccine series right now, you might want to wait a little bit before getting the booster. if this was done back in early 2021, enough time has passed. it is a good idea to get a booster shot. karina: thanks for answering that. i want to get to this because this is so interesting. this a new study that came out. it said adults that don't live with young children were nearly twice as likely to have severe covid requiring icu admissions. can you weigh in on that? are little kids protecting us? dr. patel: to a degree, little kids are awesome. this is a fascinating study and i want to stress this was done in 2020.

kind of in the pre-mass vaccination era. what this is looking at is the possibility that kids, spitting and coughing interfaces, were giving us some cross immunity against sars-cov-2. a common cold that circulates among kids is part of the coronavirus family. is it possible some immunity from another coronavirus gave these adults in this study some partial immunity against sars-cov-2? which is why they fared better against it. it is a fascinating study. hopefully it gives us discussion moving forward. freddie parents out there wondering, hey, i feel like i had sars-cov-2 and i did pretty well against it, this might provide some theoretical insight. karina: all the little germs they bring home, they are helping us. love that. dr. patel: germs can be a good thing. we don't need to shy away from all germs. karina: before you go, bart reinstated the mandatory face covering requirement. that is effective immediately.

what is your advice on wearing that face mask? so many people hdii don't see eg those masks even though people are and sometimes a packed public space. what do you think about that and do you think other bay area agencies will follow their leadt community transmission across the country and go on the cdc and look at that map, it is mostly red. what i want anyone to understand is if you go on a bart train and it is packed, you could assume that someone has ba.5. someone around you would test positive and you need to ask yourself, am i comfortable enough to hedge my bets that if i catch covid, i will be ok? that is not an option for some people who have to go into the workplace. or live with someone who might be higher risk. those are the kinds of decisions you should go through your mind when it comes down to putting on a mask now in the third year of

dealing with this. that is something i go through in my own head because i don't want to get my family infected. i need to work in a hospital. i cannot keep getting covid. to the last part, i would not be surprised if cases look like they do right now if we maintain that mass recommendation or mandate in specific businesses. karina: we are out of time but it has been great talking to you. we will be checking in with you very soon. we appreciate your time. dr. patel: happy friday. thank you. karina: up next, dr. will smith breaks his silence on that infamous oscar slap, but is his apology sincere? we have an expert joining todayr

months in the making. why didn't you apologize to chris in your acceptance speech? um. i was fogged out by that point. it's it's all fuzzy reached out to chris um, and the mesh. the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk. when he is he will reach out. so i will i will say to you, uh, chris i. apologize to you. um, my behavior. was unacceptable. and i'm here whenever you're ready to talk. there you have it . actor will smith posted this

video apologizing to comedian chris rock for slapping him at rock after he told the joke about jada pinkett smith's hair that she lost because of alopecia. joining us is our expert. we are calling you an apology expert. does that work? >> that works for me. karina: you just saw this video, but it has been four months since the incident at the oscars when will smith smacked chris rock. is it too late for that apology or is it ever too late for an apology? >> it is never too late for an apology. i think a lot of us apologized too quickly because we know we feel uncomfortable or if you are a celebrity, you've gotten pressure topogindu e rriethere't

letting people sit for a while so you can formulate your apology, and so people can decide how they feel about what happened is actually more effective than launching in fast and giving a kind of not great apology which is what chris -- what will smith's first apology was. karina: some people say will smith should have done it that night at the oscars, gotten into a deep apology. but he didn't. he waited four months. maybe he sat on it, got some help. did his apology seem sincere to you? >> yeah. i often feel as a middle-aged white lady, it is not necessarily my role to be interpreting this particular kind of apology. i'm a lot more comfortable weighing in on political and historical apologies. what the rest of us can learn from this is this apology made

up for the thing heisd the last time which was apologizing to chris rock. i think a lot of public figures apologize to the public, apologize to the people close to them, but not the people they really hurt. i think this did the job. karina: he also said that chris rock is not ready to talk to him yet. when we make apologies, is that something we should accept? that people in our lives who we might be apologizing to finally or even that they, they might not be ready to hear that apology? >> that is how you know you are doing an apology that is about the other person which is what a good apology is rather than about you. if you are pursuing them and amending a conversation, demanding forgiveness, wanting to talk about i did this but you did that, that is not a good apology. a good apology means you have to subsume your ego to the other person. yeah, doing it right means you

can't chase after the other person to be forgiven. karina: there are times when we feel like we have to apologize, even though we might not necessarily understand or agree. how do you make an apology like that genuine and sincere? >> we alwayspologize if you are not sorry. you' if you are not sorry. apology ig than no apology, which may be a controversial thing to say. i think when we reach out to the other person, again, we have to put their feelings first and foremost. and we don't get -- we book, m co-blnd i have a book coming out about apologies. one of the things we do is talk about there are six easy steps to apologizing well. yet, somehow when we are under

the gun, we tend to forget all of them. that includes me. karina: yeah, it is not an easy thing, but do you advise to put that ego aside, apologize, and just respect the other person's feelings. i think that is what it comes down to. >> what we say is there are maybe 6.5 steps. the first one is say you are sorry, not i regret or that was an unfortunate incident. say ou're sorry -- you are sorry for what you did. don't be unspecific. show that you understand. three, what you did was harmful. four, be really careful when you explain the why because that can become an excuse. number five, say why it won't happen again. number six, make some kinof rep, oer p

talken. likchris rock is ready to do that. karina: thank you so much for joining us. we really appreciate your input. >> thanks for having me. karina: coming up, we are wrapping up disability pride month with an in-depth look at some of the challenges that community faces. an i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54 and was a smoker, but quit. what's my price?

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with your final wishes. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. pride month that commemorates the passing a deeper conversation about access and attitudes, hidden disabilities, and ableism. thank you for being here. it is a pleasure to see you again. susan: thank you for having me. karina: we had a chance to talk about this for a 30 minute allies in action special that is being streamed right now but i want to go over some of the biggest takeaways from that

conversation. i want people to get to know you a little bit. tell us a little bit about yourself. you are a cancer survivor. you also battle m.s. that has changed your life in many ways. susan: yes, it has. the biggest change for me with ms was the fact that i lost vision. that was a huge change. i learned to adapt. i have lots of friends who have no vision, a variety of disabilities. as an older person, i was diagnosed with cancer. that was a whole different journey because even though i had been through a serious medical issue, it is difficult when you were a teenager versus an adult and you have dependents. i feel like i have gained phenomenal friends as a result. it has been a learning experience. it is not one i would wish on other people. karina: you have been through a lot, but you are outspoken and

you do a lot to try to make change happen. one it go off the top is why w. how we refer to people in wheelchairs or how we use phrases that can be considered offensive -- i know we talked about this before but can you give us some examples? susan: i think the biggest examples are ones you see really commonly are wheelchair-bound or confined to a wheelchair. people who use wheelchairs feel like it is a tool that gives you freedom and it's a great opportunity. the trouble with using words like that, like confined, it makes people reluctant to adapt and use the tools that they could to have a good quality life. as a teenager, i spent a year having a lot of difficulty walking and i stayed at home for the most part because i didn't

want to go out in a wheelchair. i lost the year of my life from that. and other people are doing that as well. there are so many opportunities, tools. if we can destigmatize language and destigmatize tools, we can go about and have glorious lives. karina: this also ties into ableism, discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. can you dig into that a little bit? as we discussed, it is not the people to necessarily being intentional with how they act or what they say, but it is a problem and it can be harmful. susan: yes. i don't think anybody gets up in the morning and says i want to say something that is offensive or i want to be ableist in my thinking, just like the other isms. a lot of it has to do with lack of exposure and understanding. but the issue around disability and the issue around chronic illness is often that it's not

the tactical things you are dealing with, it's not not being able to see or those types of things that are creating a real challenge. it is really the attitudes people bring in that of limiting for you. one form of ableism is low expectations. if you don't demand the same performance for the same grades, you are setting them up for failure. if you are a boss who really wants to do the right thing and wants to protect someone with a disability from failure, you are actually limiting their opportunities for promotion because they are not getting the experience they need to grow within their jobs. the intentions can be good but anytime you are not showing respect, anytime you are not treating people as an equal, even though you may not understand how a person with the disability does something, anytime you do that, it can be harmful to people with disabilities. not just that person, but the

people who come after as well. karina: i know we dug into hidden disabilities as well in our conversation. all the work that still needs to be done to help people with disabilities. i will let people watch our 30 minute special so we will leave it for that because we are running out of time here. thank you so much for being here and joining us today. susan: thank you for addressing this really important topic. karina: happy to do it. i have learned so much, and you can learn too. you can stream the entire 30 minute allies in action special through our abc 7 streaming app. you can find it in the new and popular section. to download the app, search abc 7 bay area wherever you stream.

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karina: thank you for watching. tonight, the deadly flooding disaster in kentucky. the death toll growing. children among the victims. the governor warning entire mi images of the devastation. neighborhoods and towns under water. one of the worst flooding events in state history. emergency crews struggling to reach trapped flood victims rescuers in boats and helicopters pull people from their homes. more rain slowing the rescue operation. the governor warning the danger will extend into the weekend. our team in the flood zone. extreme weather threats across the u.s. tonight, from arizona all the way east. record temperatures in the triple digits in the pacific northwest. rob marciano tracking it all. the u.s. pressing russia over that possible prisoner