- it's time for lunch. aw... ♪ ♪ >> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. kristen: hi there. i am kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers," live on abc 7. everyday, we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area get answers for you in real-time. today is veterans day combined as we honor our nation's heroes, we bring a special bay area connection. an olympic gold medalist will walk us through how she uncovered her family's legacy. also, and oakland-based artist and diehard warriors fan gets a golden opportunity, designing a new jersey for the team.

but first, as we head into the holiday season, are you worried about the tripledemic? it seems every day, there is a study that contradicts the previous study. joining us today to dispel some misinformation is dr. monica guard the -- dr. monica gandhi. great to have you on the show. are we all going to get something very nasty this winter? dr. gandhi: you know, we used to get several calls on average per year, but we have to remember that getting sick was always a part of our lives, and it is not going to change this season. in fact, if anything, we have

more as covid has gone down and we have other viruses coming into play. kristen: ok, so i know you talk a little bit about how we note that -- we don't need to have mask mandates anymore, but do you think there is an optional tool to prevent things out there right now? it might be good, effective, and if so, what is the situation? dr. gandhi: yes. basically, dr. fauci said yesterday, and i totally agree with him, older people, immuno compromised people have options to wear their mask indoors. we have to wear the right kind of mass. please admit it. soft masks did not do what we hoped they would do. even a surgical mask, a kn95 or n95, if you want to avoid all pathogens this season. kristen: ok. i want to touch on this study, i think it was out of the boston area, where they lifted the mask

mandate, but a few schools kept it for their schools, and it looked at transmissions, and the schools that had masking had lowered cases. how do you view that case study? dr. gandhi: that study had some very serious methodological flaws. one aspect of it is those who lifted mask mandates actually had higher vaccination rates for you can only apply to lift the mask mandate in the city of boston if you had an 80% vaccination rate among the children and that school. by definition, it is almost saying like vaccinated people are less safe. that is not true. if you are unmasked, you are more likely to have exposure by cdc criteria, and there were increase testing rates in those unmasked, and that confounds the study. it makes it look like masking protects you from cases, but it

was actually that we did more test being in those who work unmasked, do you know what i mean? kristen: i do. dr. gandhi: it was a confounded study. kristen: i see. i'm reminded early on in the pandemic, when we had a president who said, no testing, no cases. [laughs] dr. gandhi: same idea. they were testing more and those who were unmasked, and so it looks like -- this is the best way to think of it. in epidemiology, you have to figure out what is the confounder in between. if you don't do that, matches look like they cause lung cancer. matches don't cause lung cancer. smoking causes lung cancer. matches have to be controlled for smoking when you look at lung cancer. that was a confoundeder that was not controlled for, and thus the study is flawed. kristen: when we talk about protecting ourselves, we talk about how good the vaccines are for covid, how everyone should be -- should get one. i'm hearing a lot of confusion

about when to get one and who needs to get it. i think the website says it has been two months since you had your infection, but did we really need that, or is it something that you should actually wait. dr. gandhi: i really appreciate this question, because i wrote a piece in lancet infectious diseases and in "time magazine" for a more lehman's article. talking about the timing of the booster, if you get it too soon after your last booster, you actually do something which is called abrogating. that is not a good idea. the cdc has never -- kristen: what does that mean? i'm sorry. dr. gandhi: what that means is after you get an infection, say i got infected in july, and it basically takes months for your b cells to go into where they hide out, what are called memory

d compartments, bone marrow, lymph nodes, they hide out, and they produce more antibodies, and if you get a booster too quick, then what happens if that -- is those d cells don't have the opportunity to go in, you get stimulated too fast, and you don't have the immune response paid i wrote about this in time magazine, but very simply, you should wait from your last infection, i recommend six months or at least four months since your last booster, and i would rather go six-month, and that is what i told my parents, but you have a strong immune response to the immune booster. look at six-month. kristen: that is really good to know. of course, the cdc website still says two months. i want to point out there is a

new poll done by gallup that shows more americans say the cdc has not done a good job of messaging than thank they did a good job. i'm not asking you to grade the cdc, unless you want to. kristen: this is actually the thing that terrifies me the most about the cdc, about how much trust is lost. they are doing a bad job with boosters and with masks, in my opinion, and i think it is a superclean message with boosters. if you are older, you should get the boosters. you can get it if you are younger, but the data has shown it as older people who need it. what is older? well, there was a lancet study from the u.k., 30 million people , with those over 80, those with comorbidity, those on chronic immuno suppressants, and those who have chronic immune disease,

those four categories. those groups of people should get the booster, absolutely, and i am recommending it for 65 and older, because people who are younger, there boosters and vaccines are actually keeping them safe from severe disease. kristen: some are worried that our musicians could get stuck on the original covid strain. is there any evidence on that? kristen: that was called original antigenic, which is a funny way to put it, but essentially, the question you asked is if we keep on showing our immune system the booster, which up until the bivalent booster was actually the booster of the train, to train our immune system to protect us against the ancestral strain, and we are already many subvariants into this pandemic, right? we are so far from the ancestral strain.

so, luckily, there are a lot of immunity all the just -- immunologists who have been looking at this, and even if you expose yourself to the omicron, ba.4, b i-5 booster, your cells will adapt the antibody to whatever they make. say i got boosted, and i take this, my b cells are so adaptive, we called adaptive immunity, that they will make antibodies directed to whatever i see. they are going to direct their antibodies against that particular sub strain. remember how amazingly adaptive our immune system is. don't worry too much about which booster you get or the fact that this booster is probably obsolete, it is ok. this is how the immune system works, adaptive immunity. kristen: ok. i want to end it here.

there are those who say look, i get it is likely, not what it was 2.5 years ago, but because it is still unknown with long covid and there have been signs that with each read infection, your chance for long covid or little greater, shouldn't that be something we continue to guard vigilantly against? dr. gandhi: the question is, should we avoid all infections -- kristen: looking at long-term -- dr. gandhi: i mean avoiding altogether. 75% of the planet has seen covid-19, according to a seattle modeling agency. it is pretty hard to avoid it. i have not had it yet, but i expect to some point. the question is about long covid. the study you referred to is not well done. it was published in major magazine, from ava big database, which basically took

reinfection's and took what is called icv10 code. anything a patient had that a doctor wrote down, they connected to infection. that does not show causality. all 26 studies showed every reinfection is less severe. why? because your t cells and b cells have already been triggered by your first infection or vaccination, and they reduce the severity of illness. so, no, i do not think new infections trigger long covid. in terms of long covid, the best thing we can do -- and this is study after study -- is get vaccinated. if you have long covid symptoms, get a booster. if you want to avoid long covid, it is essentially adaptive immunity and it prevents what is called innate immunity or information by getting vaccinated. so those who are vaccinated, in a large study published by

michael edelstein in nature by israel, they have the exact same long covid symptoms, two doses that never had covid at all. kristen: all right, we will leave it there. dr. monac gandhi, thank you so much. -- dr. monica gandhi, thank you so much. dr. gandhi: thank you. kristen: we are honoring veterans, co

kristen: today is veterans day good as we honor all those who served our country, the national veterans network has released a new video to educate current and future generations about the extraordinary legacy of american

soldiers of japanese ancestry. the video shows none other than fremont native and the first asian-american woman to win a gold medal in the winter olympics, kristi yamaguchi. kristi: during world war ii, in the 100th infantry division, he is my grandfather on my mother's side. kristen: joining us live now to share this very special family story and history, kristi yamaguchi, her daughter emma and her niece, maya. kristen: you for joining us. i will start with you, kristi, you said this is about your grandfather. how did he end up in the military? kristi: he grew up in southern california he was actually attending usc in engineering when he was drafted, and that was probably around 1940ish,

maybe a little earlier. he went through four rounds of basic training, because they were not sure where to place him, being japanese-american, so a very well trained soldier before he was actually placed in the 100 infantry division. kristen: and that was not a segregated unit, was it? kristi: it wasn't. it was one of the only nonsegregated units, so he was the only japanese-american in that unit. they were in europe, italy, france, and germany. i think it was an interesting time for him. kristen: i know he served extremely bravely, because he ended up getting promoted to second you tenet -- lieutenant, which was pretty unheard of the time for someone with asian-american ancestry. kristi: yes.

he received the bronze star. he had a ride up in the "new york times," where his commanding officers mentioned him as being the best soldier in his unit. some people make fun that, hey, you were the first one in the family to be -- some people in my family make fun of me for that, "hey, you weren't the first one in the family to be featured in the new york times." [laughter] kristen: your ancestors, how they enabled you to achieve your dreams, how do you look at that? kristi: well, absolutely, i think, you know, during world war ii, there was a lot of, you know, some difficult challenges, and being japanese-american and recovering after the war, really starting over from nothing, and, you know, being only two generations from that, where my

mom was actually born in an internment camp, and then really had come of the whole family had to reestablish themselves, and be able to, you know, reaped the sacrifices,, you know, so many things that they went through to pave the way, you know, to be able to be a normal california girl and go after her dreams, i think, you know, i look back on that, and we are grateful every day. kristen: yeah. really we are also grateful. i have been waiting to run that video of you ice-skating at the olympics and being the first asian-american woman to win the gold medal. it is just so incredible. by the way, i love the video about your grandfather's intergenerational, that maia, emma, you are in this as well. maia, how proud are you of your grandfather? maia: i am extremely proud.

it is amazing to be related to somebody who did such extraordinary things during such difficult times, especially for asian americans. honestly, i am honored to be related to someone like this. kristen: emma, how about you? do you think highlighting these stories is more important than ever at this time? emma: i think it is so important for, like, our generation especially to pay attention to these things, because it is really inspiring to listen to the stories of him and how he persevered as an asian-american and how we might carry that legacy with us today. kristen: that is so great. kristi, i want to thank you for making the time to speak with us, because i know it is a very busy day free, your annual cm iguchi holiday lights. -- kristi yamaguchi holiday lights. kristi: yes. i will be going to cut the ribbon.

hopefully we will see a lot of skaters. kristen: this will be on and till when? kristi: until the beginning of january. barring weather, it will be open every day, and you can get your tickets, and the nice thing is it supports always dream and our early literacy efforts with kids in schools throughout the bay area and hawaii. kristen: always dream has done so much good, so many books and devices, you know, provided for kids over time, so thank you so much for doing all that, and congrats on the rink. i hope we will see you and maybe emma out on the ice, yes? kristi: maybe for fun. we will go glide around and join the festivities. kristen: fabulous. thank you so much for joining us, maia, kristi, and emma, take care. all: thank you. kristen: coming up next, a look at the new warriors jersey and at the new warriors jersey and meet ♪music playing♪

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ nothing brings the pack together like a trip to great wolf lodge. now open in northern california. like a trip to great wolf lodge. - this van just hit me outta . i thought i was dead. after the accident, i was in a lot of pain. i had a fusion, and i decided that i needed to get an attorne. i looked on the internet and . they had their own dream team for every thing, every need, . they took care of me like a . i would recommend you call jacoby and meyers. they really went to bat for me.

kristen:kristen: all right. and oakland-based artist is making a splash. she designed a new jersey, and she answered the call. it is not just any jersey, this one has special unique meaning. joining us now to tell is all about it is allison hueman. welcome to the show, allison. congratulations. allison: hi. thank you so much. kristen: it has got to be such a thrill to see steph and that promo ad, wearing your design. let's throw that out there. it is so neat looking and captivating. let's go ahead and show people how it looks. tell us, you know, how you came up with this. allison: sure, yeah, the warriors wanted to honor the women in our community, especially the female fans, and, you know, there's a lot going on in the world right now. and so we felt it was really important to show allyship with

the warriors, and, you know, the women that are really making a change in our community. kristen: can at the center, that is a rose. tell us about that. how did you choose that? allison: sure, well, first i thought of a, you know, these are our champions, and i thought of the term "to the victory goes the spoils," so i am giving flowers to our champions, but also i think of it as allyship. a yellow rose usually means friendship, and so, you know, i used it as a symbol for just propping our women up and empowering them. kristen: i know you have been making waves with your murals, and, you know, your reputation is certainly growing. how did the team end up finding you, though? how did you connect and they ended up saying, "allison, you are the one to do this"? allison: i have been working with the warriors for a few years to do i did a few murals for them, and i also designed

steph's shoes for his curry brand line, so we already had this working relationship. when they reached out to me to do this, it actually came to me very casually, in an email at the beginning of 2021. it straight up just said, "how do you feel about designing a uniform for the warriors?" and i had to reread that a few times, because i could not believe what i was seeing. [laughs] so my response was, "hell yeah." [laughter] kristen: "hell yeah." i love that. it has that kind of a 3d field. if you look at the bottom half, the petals almost about you. is this something they will be selling, too, for fans to pick up? allison: yes, it is already on sale in the women's shop. kristen: do some of the proceeds go to helping girls in sports? allison: yes, i believe they have donated $25,000. kristen: wow. also, this is part of a rebrand,

isn't it, for the month of march? it used to be women's history month, and now it is women's empowerment month, right? allison: yeah. yeah, i am probably not the best person to talk about a rebrand, because i do not work in their marketing team, but it goes past the history, you know, we want to empower women of the future, so i think that is probably where they are coming from. kristen: all right, so, you know, this has got to be super exciting at this point in your career appeared what is next for you? allison: i have got a few more pretty major collabs coming out, unrelated to the warriors, and i'm just going to continue painting walls. i've gotten into installation, like immersive design, so i have been creating, like, actual experiences, so people can view my work in person, with, like, progress -- projection, video

mapping, and all sorts of cool tech stuff. kristen: just look at this. this is gorgeous. where can people go to find out more about your work? allison: they can visit my instagram, it is @hueman_, or they can go to huemannature.com. kristen: i love that. allison, thank you so much. congratulations to you. allison: thank you. kristen: and a reminder, you can get our live newscast, breaking weather, and more, with the abc 7 bay area streaming tv app. it is available on fire to become apple tv, and roku. just search abc 7

kristen: thank you so much for joining us for "getting answers"

today. we will be here every weekday at 3:00, answering questions with experts from all around the bay area. "world news with david muir" is tonight, severe storms as we come on the air. nicole pushing its way into the northeast, leaving a path of destruction from florida up the east coast. tornado and flash flood threats. heavy rain from washington, d.c., to philadelphia, new york to boston. new images of the damage in florida. 49 beach front buildings ruled unsafe. stephanie ramos here in new york. also, battle for control of the house and senate. new numbers in the arizona senate race and what we're seeing in nevada. ballots in both states still being counted. terry mora i