saving kids from nicotine addiction. vote yes on 31. moving forward finding solution. this is abc 7 news. hi there. i'm kristen z. you're watching getting answers live on abc 7 every day. we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time today. were celebrating a major accomplishment for an oakland health justice lawyer. she's been awarded the macarthur foundation genius grant for her work on reforming drug patent rules to try to improve global equity in medicine access. also we continue to help build a better bay area by bringing you stories during hispanic heritage month today. we'll hear from a bay area mexican-american woman who's worked tirelessly to support the chicana latina community, but

first can scientists predict an earthquake. yes, like forecasting. it's a bombshell question that's coming up after a new study found some earthquakes in california, maybe detectable one to three days before they strike joining us live now are dan schneider and tom blyer both of quake finder palo alto based company aiming to find ways to forecast major earthquakes gentlemen, thanks for joining us. thanks, christian. all right, whoever wants to take the answer. just go for it. look your company collaborated with the applied science team at google research and did a study and it was part of the pun potential seismic or potentially seismic. what did you find there? well what this study found is that in magnetic time series data magnetic recordings that we've made with our network. i've got some examples of our stations behind us. we find that we are able to

distinguish the magnetic recordings that are 24 to 72 hours before an earthquake from recordings that were made earlier. so that is a first step in being able to say that there are magnetic disturbances that are detectable before earthquakes. can i just ask you how much data do you have like we're talking about. how far back how many earthquakes? well, tom's been there since the start of the array but quakefinder has been recording data since at least 2005 we've got almost a hundred terabytes of magnetic time series recordings all right. sorry for the layman. that's a lot right and also for the layman what is magnetic field energy? so if you think about it, our instruments are sort of like a microphone, but they listen to the magnetic field instead of listening to audio recordings. and so we are recording these magnetometers with these magnetometers magnetic signals that are happening all the time, and these fluctuations are the

magnetic field is always wiggling and always vibrating and what we see is that those vibrations get a little bit more intense in that period 24 to 72 hours prior and does it get more and more intense as you got closer to the event. so what this study shows is that when we're looking at that window. that window is more intense by a very small amount but detectable then other 48 hour periods and future research will have to go into really trying to to correlate if there's also an increase with magnitude so it's magnitude goes up do the signals get louder. that's that's still an open question. can you explain yet? what is causing that the signals getting louder? well, i don't know yet. there's we do know that the magnetometer signals are basically. caused by underground currents now what actually causes the

underground currents along the faults. is up for maybe a little bit of a controversial explanation. but regardless what we're trying to do is show that there is an effect. that that our magnetometers can pick up. any kind of a current that changes will detect will generate a moving magnetic field. are these sensors along all the major fault lines in the bay area of california? is that how we have measure them before the quakes happened? yes, they we started with just a few sensors around the bay area. and that started in about 2,000 to 2005, but then we we built really professional grade sensors that over the period of 15 years. we essentially install these three axis magnetometers every 20 miles along the major falls like the san andreas the

calaveras the hayward fault all the way from eureka and northern california all the way down to the mexican border. okay. i know it's going to be a while before you get to where you are now to being able to really forecast, but it's very enticing because you're talking about noticing a difference one to three days before and one to three days before is huge when it comes to earthquake warning, isn't it? it's it's substantial. yeah we have right now either you have long-term 30-year probabilities from like say produced by the usgs that tell you, you know, we've in the next 30 years we expect a magnitude six or greater with almost a 90% probability and in the short term, you've got quake alert or shake alert that once the once the shaking starts you can get an alert out to people before it reaches them. this is something in between. this is a short-term concept that would allow humans to actually take action that we

haven't been able to take before now with what we have in our study right now. there's there's not yet enough specificity in in the data to be able to issue forecasts now, but it sure points in the direction that it could actually be possible. the us geological survey states plainly on his website that there is no way to predict a major earthquake in no way in the near future and some of their scientists are on record being kind of skeptical about this possible approach. how do you respond to that or look at that? i think there's but there's a saying that the data really tells the story. people can make you know claims that they can detect animal behavior or lightning or whatever. but if you have the data if you systematically collected the data over 15 years and you've got at least two dozen earthquakes greater than magnitude 4.5.

and the statistical evidence is shown now by not only the latest paper in jgr, but also the one that dan wrote in 2019. two different groups of people looking at the same data with different algorithms coming up with the same answer. that's that's amazing do you both think that's beyond the realm of randomness? that's exactly what this paper shows is that we we collaborated with the team from google applied science. and so google brought their expertise with top notch statistician and their expertise with machine learning and deep data analysis, and we scrub this data and they set up a very very rigorous study to show that the changes that we're seeing are unlikely to be random. and so that is a statistical baseline to say it's evidence that there really is something going on in the magnetic field

now there. yes, there's more work to be done to get to the point where we'd say, it's conclusive but it definitely points in in the direction that there's something happening. yeah, because for true prediction in forecasting, i think usg says you have to define the three elements of data and time location and magnitude right? i know it's really asking you to look into the future, but how can you see the usage of magnetic field energy data to getting to the point where you can pinpoint those three element? well, i think where we go from here is knowing that there is something going on. knowing that there is something to be found and putting more and more energy more researchers more more effort into investigating. this is going to help. tease out these signals and help us learn how to find the more reliably and get to the point where we can find them reliably enough to actually start issuing meaningful forecasts with them. are you going to need government partnership to make that happen?

we would love to partner with us government. we'd love to partner with with anyone that wants to wants to take this research to the next level. right dan schneider and tom bleier of quake finder. thank you both so much for coming on the show today. you're welcome. thank you. thank you. and on our website we have lots of resources to help you prepare for a natural disaster such as an earthquake that includes a video on what to pack in your quake kit visit abc7news.com slash prepare norcal. coming up in oakland lawyers says she's in shock after winning a prestigious grant will

naomi: every year the wildfires, the smoke seems to get worse. jessica: there is actual particles on every single surface. dr. cooke: california has the worst air pollution in the country. the top 2 causes are vehicles and wildfires. prop 30 helps clean our air. it will reduce the tailpipe emissions that poison our air kevin: and helps prevent the wildfires that create toxic smoke that's why calfire firefighters, the american lung association, and the coalition for clean air support prop 30. naomi: i'm voting yes on 30.

oakland woman is celebrating a major accomplishment today. she's been awarded the macarthur foundation genius grant for her dedication to the pursuit of equity in medicine. my name is preethi krishtel and i am a health justice lawyer. when we don't have competition in the market drug prices explode out of control. and the consequence for our health system for patients for families who are waiting for life-saving or life maintaining medication. it's personal and it comes at a huge cost to human life. i had the chance this afternoon to talk with preethi earlier today about her work her mission and what it means to be named a 2022 macarthur fellow. here's our conversation. prepaid congratulations on your macarthur genius grant and thank you so much for making the time to talk with with us on this busy day. thank you so much for having me. it's like the nobel winners. we always have to start with this. were you surprised when you heard the news? how did you hear the news?

i was shock. i was here at home and they actually tricked me they told me that they needed me to provide a reference for someone and so i called them back right away because i know how important that can be and then they said no we called you under false pretenses. you've actually won arthur fellowship. wait, you're a genius yet. you were fooled but in the best ways congratulations, i love that story. so you were one of 25 winners and you won for your work to change the drug patent system in the us and your group. i'm at is devoted to that. can you explain to us what your mission is? sure, our mission at imac is to build a more just and equitable system for medicines. so the entire system from drug development to drug access and as a central part of that we're trying to figure out how do you

rewrite the rules of intellectual property to make the system more fair more equitable and to make sure that people get the medicines that they need in a timely way. when did it become apparent to you that the current system with regard to drugs and patents needed fixing? i worked as in during my early years as a lawyer and i saw a lot of people during that time passed away because they weren't able to get the medication that they needed and so it just felt like a really big injustice to me that the drugs had come to market. we finally had the drugs we needed to treat people living with hiv and yet most of the world wasn't getting the treatment. and so that's when i realized i met my co-founder at the time and the rest of my team they were all working to think about treatment scale up and we realized that patents were a central part of the equation. okay, of course, you're not advocating that we get rid of patents all together. they're a big part of research and development tell us what it

is that you're hoping for the changes that you would like to see. definitely, i think today what's happening is that we have patents which are a time limited monopoly that our drug makers are supposed to get in order to incentivize them to invent but what's happening is when the patent is supposed to expire, you know, 20 years in what we're seeing. is that the biggest drug makers are actually filing dozens or even hundreds of patents to delay competition from entering the market and during that time. it's american touring people living with rheumatized arthritis people living with cancer people who are unable to afford their medication because of these monopoly games that are being played and so what we're saying is let's raise the bar. let's make it more difficult to get a patent when it's clearly being used to game the system and let's put an end to these abuses. so americans can get the medication that they need.

did this issue play out during the development of the covid vaccine? absolutely. so what we saw with covid, is that a lot of public funding went into develop the covid vaccines and moderna is a good example moderna received almost nearly a hundred percent public funding, but the us government under operation warp speed did not the right in that technology. so what we ended up seeing was a hunger games of the covid vaccine the wealthiest nations bought up all of the vaccine and hoarded them frankly and maderna made a lot of money 40 billion dollars by the end of this year a hundred billion dollars in projected revenue. now, the problem is that we were in the biggest pandemic of a century and we needed to make sure that everybody could get access to life-saving medical products and the current system just doesn't incentivize that it incentivizes the biggest companies to again block their competition and not share knowledge and technology now, i

think president biden did suspend some patents with regard to the covid vaccine right? was that due to your group and your advocacy. there are thousands of us all over the world who work on this issue of access to medicines. and yes, i think the president and this administration were responding to global public outrage that the lifesaving vaccines treatments and testing. we're not reaching most of the world. and so what the president did in response to a demand from south africa india and a hundred other countries. is this administration endorse a waiver on intellectual property and it's the first time any president has done anything like that to say that intellectual property has to be balanced with human lives. like that's the entire point of the system innovation exists to save lives. look some people argue though, if pharmaceutical companies are limited in panting new discoveries, even if it's just small changes to improve existing drugs that are 20 years

old 25 years old it could take away. motive for research and development and that could mean fewer life-saving drugs being invented. the us has been a leader in that field r&d europe is not for example, do you think some of it is due to the way the system is set up now and if we change it couldn't hurt that. no, i don't think so. i don't think that's true at all. i think that's a fear-mongering tactic that the industry uses to maintain the status quo and the status quo is really out of date look health care costs are rising. the system is unsustainable. we're at around 500 billion dollars now in prescription drugs spending by 2030. we're supposed to be on track it for one trillion dollars in spending on these drugs and the majority of that spend is on branded drugs now, why is that if you take an example like the best selling drug in the country is for rheumatoid arthritis. it's for humira two thirds of their revenue came after the expiration of the primary patents in other words after their key patents that expired

they am asked. so many patents well over a hundred patents and they were able to make a hundred billion dollars after that. so what we're saying is let's curb those abuses and that will actually help companies have the incentive to go back to the drawing board and start to truly find those breakthrough drugs again. we're pretty can't let you go before i asking you you are going to get $800,000 over the

next five years

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it was a game-changer for me. welcome back as part of abc 7's commitment to building a better bay area. we're celebrating hispanic heritage month. it wraps up on saturday. but today we want to shine a spotlight on a woman who's done her part to build a stronger community and pave the way for a latin american solidarity joining us live now is olga talamante who became the first executive director and executive director meritat of the chicana latina foundation in 2003. she's here to tell us more about their mission and her work. thank you so much for joining us olga. well appreciate you very much kristen. thank you for having me. oh, it's our pleasure like that shekinah latina foundation. i know you're a meritas status, but you're still very much involved. tell us what the foundation does. yes, the foundation provides scholarships and leadership training for latina college

students. it is a mission near and dear to my heart because as a farm worker from gilroy california from the 60s i was able to attend college because of the scholarships and because of the support that i received so it's part of you know, continuing to pay it forward if you will and and it's really important to make sure that latinas have an educational path because latinos make up 40% of the population in california. and so we say when you ill educate a latina you educate the whole family, so that's a primary work of the chicana latina foundation in addition to providing mentoring in role modeling services and making sure that the students are getting all the opportunities that they can get for their professional educ. additional impersonal advancement we all know that early mentoring is so important right, but i want to you brought up your family

history, and i think you share some photos with us as well your family emigrated here from mexico city in their 1960s, and you actually worked the farm fields for several years, and then you went on to support the united farm workers labor union with cesar chavez right there iconic and of course, we all know cesar chavez's work in terms of social justice talk about how that experience inspired you to do what you do today. working in the fields with became really my foundation for a social consciousness and because we worked very hard and i didn't mind the work so much we work with our family that was part of our household income with my parents with my brothers and with the families around me and what i really minded was the the treatment of of us as far workers if you recall in the 1960s there were even fewer

rights for farm workers and in terms of we didn't have a union until the united front workers union, so there was no way to be able to negotiate for better working conditions for better salaries and primarily for the dignity of us as working people. and so that became a lens for me to look at life around me and to see what was right what was wrong and it was wrong how we were being treated. and the resources that we had so part of my path became to to go to the university. and to dedicate what i could in terms of whatever skills. i acquired my education and my personal growth to affect the conditions of those around me that also took me to south america and i was involved in political movement there and and

spent 16 months in prison as a political prisoner until there was a campaign that was well a campaign was formed grassroots campaign with my family and friends and they were able to affect the congress and state department and release me and i came back in 1976 and have been continuing to work in the progressive movements since then olga. i don't know if you've written a book, but if you haven't yet you really should that is fascinating but in the one minute less than a minute we have left. i do want to ask you. what lessons would you? to pass on to the students that you mentor. what do you want young people today to know? what you the young people need to know their story their personal story because if you know your personal story that leads you to understand the stories of other people that have the stories that maybe similar to you or different but nevertheless the personal

stories become a collective force that then can lead you to create change to work for social justice as we have been doing but chicken and latina foundation and other organizations to also advocate for the children that are still separated. they got separated for years ago by the previous administration. so it's the work continues. we we must continue to do what we can to change. what is unjust to create new systems for our access for our peoples for education for health for for the dreams of your life. thank you all that talamante. it was a pleasure talking. with you, we'll take a short break and be right back. break and be right back. life is busy. so, come to shell and get three things done at once. first, fill up with shell v-power nitro+ to help keep your engine running like new. nice! then save up with the fuel rewards program and never pay full price for gas again.

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joining us for getting answers today. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00 on air in our live stream answering your questions world news tonight tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the bombshell verdic against alex jones, who claimed the newtown shooting was a hoax, that the parents of the children killed were paid actors. tonight, the jury deciding alex jones should pay $965 million in damages to several families, after years of jones' lies about the massacre at sandy hook elementary. 20 first graders were killed. six staffers were killed, too. lawyers had argued jones used those lies to create profits. tonight, the question, will the is any of alex jones' millions protected? eva pilgrim reporting. also tonight, reported tornadoes as we come on the air. the warnings and watches right now. reported twister