moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. kristen: welcome. today, the triple damages here. children are being hard hit with covid, flu, rsv, and a surge yet to come. standard pediatrician yvonne malden auto will join us with the latest news and tips on staying healthy. also, warning against swimming in waters off san francisco -- unless you don't mind sewage

exposure. at the health effects of not getting enough sunlight, story prompted by a look at prisoners that our media partner, the san francisco standard, has just done. they will join us. but first, governor newsom is just one reelection for second term to lead california. but he is already being talked about as a leading democratic candidate for president. joining us live is joshua spivak at the berkeley law school california constitution center and also the author of "recall elections from alexander hamilton to gavin newsom." welcome. there is always the will he, won't he? first, what president biden decides to do in terms of seeking reelection. but say president biden decides he is out in 2020 four, will newson declare his intention?

josh: he definitely could. it is not clear what would happen. his problem is really harris. if you look at the recent history of the democrats, you will see that five straight vice presidents have gone on to get the party nomination. previously, the vice president's seat was considered a backwater, not worth a bucket of warm spit, and a clean-up version of the phrase. but in recent days, that has been the steppingstone more than governor or senator or anything. you have to imagine she is in the pole position, and that is something that newsom would have to deal with. kriesten: but how do vice presidents tend to do in the presidential election against the other party? josh: george bush, george h w bush won, biden one, nixon, a

former vice president one, and johnson, a former vice president won, but he obviously stepped up. it depends on the time. you can't really base it on the general election compared to the primary. the primary is the key thing. a one-on-one general election, which party is in the advantage because of the economy and what is happening in the world? a primary where you are facing off against, in biden's case, 20 candidates, that will be a difficult challenge. kristen: let's talk about headwinds you might have against him, the economy in california, how it might do the next couple years, tax rate going down, crime, talk about headwinds. josh: all of those are

challenges and there are going to be more. there will be a lot of attacks on him based on anything bad that happens in california. california has never nominated a democrat for president. harris was the first for vice president. so, the state has punched below its weight in that way. on the republican side, it has done very well, possibly the two most important republicans in the second half of the 20th century were former california senior elected officials -- nixon and reagan. the state has that challenge now, that california has various questions about the state, various complaints about crime, homelessness, these are challenges that he would have to overcome. however, he has a lot of advantages. kristen: i was just going to say, what are the tailwinds? he recently supported and pushed prop one to protect abortion rights and that past.

that he was kind of against prop 30 and that lost. are those good for him? josh: those are good things, but the biggest advantages that he is governor of the biggest state and by far the biggest democratic state. that is a huge, huge advantage. much as ron desantis has an advantage in florida because that is the biggest state, he also has a similar challenge in that there are two floridians who may run, or three, actually. that is a big advantage for him. if you look from 1868-1948, new york was the biggest state, ohio was one of the biggest, a new yorker was on the ballot in the presidential election in all but two of those elections. either as a president or a vice president. in some races, both presidential candidates were from new york. the power of being from the biggest state, biden

notwithstanding, that really helps. and that is where his advantage comes. especially when you consider the primary. you need to win an enormous number of votes and delegates, so california has the largest selection to win from. kristen: that is certainly an advantage. today's political landscape, does it pay off to be a moderate in the biden mode or does it payoff to be a warrior for one side? ron desantis seems to be staking his future on being that person for the right. does it seem newsom is trying to stake out the left as a standardbearer? josh: i think he is trying to move to the middle enough, and that is where you want to be. not necessarily all the way in the middle. but if you are too far to one side, and trump is one counterexample, but generally, you want to be closer to the middle. want the most votes possible, be

that lowest common denominator. that is what a presidential election is and what a presidential primary is -- how can i get the most votes? i think we will see that with ron desantis as well, but republicans have other challenges because they have a former president who is intimating and most likely will try to run for president, or play a role as a spoiler. kristen: as to pick up clues -- add -- in trying to pick up clues as to will he or won't you, do you see any steps to the right by newsom? josh: i don't know that he has done anything, but he opposed prop 30. which was attacks. he certainly didn't support it. -- which was a tax. he certainly didn't support it. prop 30 was a tax on very wealthy estates that would be used to pay for more electric

cars. and that, he was not in favor, so that is a sign of him not willing to go on the financial side. on the social side, he is probably willing to take more steps and take a bigger role, like we saw with abortion and prop one. kristen: and his recent move to withhold $1 billion from cities where they -- where he thought they didn't do a good job fighting homelessness. the accountability factor, some people look at that and say, may be. who are other emerging candidates, who may be top democratic names, whose stock is up and whose is down? josh: gretchen whitmer, the michigan governor. she has looked very good. she did very well in a key state. the problem here is, those

midterm -- those midwestern states, we always think of them as producing all these governor and presidential candidates. really, they don't. that used to come back in the days of ohio. but today, they really are not. i do think, new cement harris would be the top people. but whitmer looked really good. there is a lot of talk about pete buttigieg, but he hasn't one of the grace -- won a big grace. it is hard to cms something they would really coalesce around. kristen: although he doesn't speak directly to fox news viewers for the administration. there is recognition and familiarity. josh: and he did very well in the primaries, better than most other candidates. perhaps he does have a real chance.

others, like stacey abrams and bettel o'rourke -- bento o'rourke-- beto o'rourke, they took a hit. kristen: joshua speed that fascinating stuff. appreciated. next, we shift gears, talk open, rsv and the flu. it is all going around and chances are you know some but who is sick right now. we will talk to kristen: chancesw

somebody are many somebodys who are sick right now now -- cold, flu, if they are wrong, maybe

rsv. joining is now withheld news and prevention tips is dr. yvonne maldonado, professor of global health and infectious diseases that standard medicine. dr. maldonado, welcome back. dr. maldonado: thank you. it is a very busy season for us. for sure. kristen: i am seeing a lot of sick people and my colleagues know a lot of sick people. what are people being hit with? dr. maldonado: it is definitely out there. it is not your imagination. we are seeing normal respiratory viruses we always see, but more people are coming in. and all age groups. in particular, young children, the ones under two. and older individuals, maybe over 65. we are seeing respiratory viruses, rhinovirus adenovirus,

the usual suspects that cause mild colts. but for some reason, people are getting sicker this year. kristen: more serious symptoms that are getting to them more? is it because, for two and a half years, we went exposed to as much, so our bodies aren't as good as fighting it? dr. maldonado: we don't really know the reason yet. it is just happening. we are singing in all around the country. fortunately, we are not hit as hard as they have been in the southern, southeastern states. i am worried we are going to see an uptick as the season goes on. but the idea you brought up is a good one, and first of all, we know that these respiratory viruses don't generally survive long-lasting immunity. we learned that from covid and we know that from the flu. the question has always been, if these viruses disappeared for a couple of years, what would happen to our responses when they came back? i feel like this is what we are

living. it may be likely that our immune system needs a little boost, to keep. us from getting really sick. kristen: -- to keep us from getting really sick. kristen: let's say your kid has a sore throat and feels tired, what do you advise they do the minute they notice symptoms? dr. maldonado: at this point, everybody is back at school and work. there are school district's around the country that are starting to think about masking. just because it is getting a little overwhelming. but the point is, you are going to be in the open, around other people. i would say, to prevent disease, don't be around people who say they feel sick and if you are sick, don't go out and expose other people. whether it is covid or not, you just don't want to make other people sick.

but if you file scratchy throat, tired, those things, the rapid tests for covid are easy to get now. that is the one i will read the most about now, just because we know that, whether you are immune or not at this point and may have mild symptoms, there is that long-term risk for lung covid. we worry about that. but if you are sick, try not to be around a lot of people. don't go to big events. we have thanksgiving coming up, so rest up and stay healthy. if kids are sick, they are going to send them home from school, so you might want to keep them home if they are already having sniffles. the other thing, if you want to talk about what to do if you are worried enough to go to the doctor, most practices have call in numbers to find out, they can screen you and say it is time for you to come in or bring your

child in. but generally, most people can stay home, hydrate and rest. kristen: are there certain signs where you say now, i have got to come in or call? dr. maldonado: yes, some of these viruses, these are the usual viruses we see every year. but for some reason, this year, especially the little kids under five years of age, they are having trouble breathing. if your child says they can't breathe well, that is a sign that you should probably call and bring them in. because it may be that could be easily treated, and we are seeing most kids responding to treatments. but we just want to make sure that that gets attended to. because that is important. other things, not eating or drinking with a very high fever, we have not seen a lot of high, high fevers. it is mostly coughing and trouble reading, those of the major symptoms. kristen: the old advice of

washing your hands frequently to stay healthy, is that back? that doesn't guard against viruses, but should you do it? dr. maldonado: it never went away. washing your hands is actually good at keeping you from infecting yourself. one thing with these other viruses is that some, like rsv or just cold viruses you can pick up from touching your face once you have touched surfaces that are sometimes contaminated. it is what we said at the beginning of covid -- keep your heads away from your face, and wash her hands, for kids, mixture they remember to cough into their sleeve, not interfaces or their hands, but their sleeve, so that their hands are clean. and get them to remember gel, or

to wash their hands. keeping your hands clean and away from your face are actually pretty effective. kristen: good to know. hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes, those something we can use? early on in covid, it was like we should do that, but then, it was like we don't need to do that. dr. maldonado: washing your hands is simple and something you need to do. it is hard to carry on sanitizer all the time, but you can do that as well. i think it is just a matter of thing up as many barriers to those viruses as possible. if you are sitting next to somebody who is actively coughing, it is going to tough to avoid getting infected from that person. but if you are in a room with a lot of people and one of those people might be infected and they are not near you and you are keeping your hands clean and away from kids, that may go a long way. sometimes, people are still wearing masks. because it is not just covid. kristen: even though it is optional, there are times you may feel you want to wear one to

avoid whatever is out there. i do hear a lot of people saying, i just have a cold, so it is ok, i will go to this dance and class. would you say, if you have anything, self-isolate? dr. maldonado: yeah. we all have those scratchy throat. -- throats. the question is, if you have very mild symptoms, it may be a very mild cold. if you really need to go somewhere, at least where a mask. there is probably some degree of protection from you wearing a mask to protect others and if you are the only one wearing a mask and you are not sick, protecting you from getting other viruses that might be floating around. kristen: dr. maldonado, thank you for that great information. take care. stay healthy. up next, a health concern making

headlines in san francisco. what it is and who it is affecting most.

kristen: an unusual health toyota san francisco -- scaling mates are being prescribed vitamin d because they are not getting enough son. our media partners at "the san francisco standard" have that. jonah, i am glad you are here because this is a really interesting story -- inmates are getting so little sunlight, they are needing vitamin d. san francisco county has several jails, where is this happening? jonah: the largest facility, which is in san bruno. strange, but the county's biggest jail is in san mateo county. a short drive south of here. it is the main jail and is where

a bunch of longtime inmates are held. kristen: how did this deficiency come to light? jonah: well, good question. i initially was interviewing inmates because of a suicide in jail about a month ago. i went out to san bruno and interviewed in inmates, gave him my card, started having his buddies call me. they started calling one after the other, and it turned out the suicide didn't have anything to it other than it happened. so, they started talking about conditions that were saying it was because of covid and staffing, they were on lockdown 23 hours a day in some cases. which means they get to leave their cells for one hour a day. and they all were mentioning how horrible the situation was. and i found out that there was a lawsuit filed in federal court in 2019 on behalf of many of these inmates, arguing they were getting no sunlight.

none. there was no yard time. there was no yard they could use. the only sunlight was when they were being transported to and from court. i saw the lawsuit, and the sheriff's department said we are giving them light through diffuse windows and the like. but also, giving them supplements. my eyebrows rose and i thought, you are giving them supplements because they are not getting enough sun? i reached out to the health department, that is responsible for the inmates, and i asked how many were getting supplements for lack of sunlight? they sent me some numbers. kristen: how many? joshua -- jonah: 138. and i ask them how many were specifically getting that because of lack of sunlight and they said, hipaa, the law on

medical privacy, said that they didn't have to give percentages. i think they were hiding by that. nine different inmates told me they haven't been outside for a really long time. some of them who were latino or native american said that their skin color was going pale, and comparison to before. -- in and sounds like one of these things that is harrowing that we don't think about, you are in jail, you are supposed to be suffering, kind of. and the thing we all need to remember is that these are people who were in jail, not convicted of a crime. the county jail, other than some exceptions come is generally for people who are awaiting trial. you might say, you shouldn't have done the crime, you get what you deserve, but i would say that if you're son or daughter -- if your son or

daughter or anybody else goes to jail, they should not be punished, especially when they haven't been convicted. that is one thing people need to remember about this. kristen: this is amazing reporting. fascinating. we are out of time, but i have to get the follow-up when they respond as to what they are planning to do. thank you for coming on to talk about it. i hope people check out your article in "the san francisco standard." check out more of the "san francisco kristen: thank you forg

us for "getting answers." we will be here every day at 3:00, getting answers from experts in the bay area. tonight, the deadly hurricane slamming into florida. the system then moving right up the east coast tonight. hurricane nicole making a direct hit. florida this late in the season in nearly 40 years. the homes falling into the ocean. hundreds of thousands without power. the storm moving up the coast, alerts across several states tonight. damaging winds, possible tornadoes and washington, d.c. to new york city all bracing for what's coming next. victor oquendo and rob marciano in the storm zone. also tonight, the battle for control of the house and the senate still undecided tonight. the key senate races in arizona and in nevada, too close to call. 400,000 votes left to be counted in arizona. many of them early