i'm kristen sze. you are watching "getting answers" on abc7. every day, we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and we get answers for you in real time. today the countdown is on. the professional business woman conference of california will take place in just four days and you are invited. one of the speakers is a new york times best selling author and authority on time management. julie m. will join us with tips that will help you juggle priorities and avoid burnout. and a cancer treatment kids and dr. annual fundraiser

tomorrow -- kids and art annual fundraiser tomorrow, find out how you can support the kids and their siblings. covid is no longer a global emergency, the pandemic status that's been in place since january 30, 2020. but it does not mean the end of the virus. we just got confirmation that a new strain has been detected in the bay area. joining me to talk about this is dr. hong. nice to have you back on the show. the who, saying no health emergency, not a global pandemic, but is it actually one and the same? a lot of people are it is still the pandemic even though the emergency part is over. >> it's definitely not an emergency, like we were in 2020. the last three years or so. it's still a major global dread. i think handling those two

sets of words is important for us to hear and understand. kristen: why the decision now? what are the practical effects? >> so, the decision now is mainly because i think they wanted to wait some time to make sure that hospitalizations, deaths were really down across the world. i think this just reflects what countries were feeling all alone. -- all along. but in terms of practical effects for you and me, i think the u.s. dropping their designation next week is probably going to have more effect on your everyday american than the who designation. kristen: when the u.s. does that next week like you said, what actual things will change here? is it accounting of the cases, is it something else? >> i will break it down into two things, one is datasharing. we will not have access to

much data as we did before. many people are not reporting as frequently. so we don't have day-to-day changes. so it will be felt and that we. economically, eventually, people will start having to pay for vaccines or drugs. until november 11 all of this should be continue -- should continue to be free for everyone. the impact is on the hospital setting with less flexibility. in medical and medicaid, with no automatic renewals anymore. that means about 18 million americans will lose coverage in some way or another. kristen: thanks for letting us know what the practical impact will be? this is also breaking news today. the cdc director she is stepping down coinciding with the u.s. health emergency ending next weekend saying it's a good time for transition.

what do you think of her legacy as far as reshaping of the cdc? >> i think dr. walensky inherited a cdc that was having a really rough time. they went from being the prize of the world to being somewhat not reliable and -- and there were not effective communicators when she went in. i think it is hard to really move the needle a lot. but during her tenure, i was reflecting on this, there was a bullet in uganda -- ebola in i think she did a lot of good, it was a little surprising to me that she resigned.

i hope and pray that the cities will continue to be the beacon of public health that it is around the world. kristen: as we noted, the public health threat to the world is no longer an emergency status but the virus is absolutely still here. the latest strain has just been confirmed in the bay area, arcturus. >> using wastewater analysis, which is about a two week la g, many have found out that it's in san francisco, sacramento, san jose. it is not a surprise it went from 2% in the beginning of april to about 12% -- 12.5% this week. what it means is there's a highly transmissible variant looking around. on the other hand, we've had record low hospitalizations and deaths. it means we need to continue to protect ourselves, particularly those who are older and immune compromised. kristen: how many people are we

losing 18-hour per month, however it's measured? >> we are losing about 150 americans every day. even in this slow period of time. which is higher than a typical flu season. from before 2019. kristen: the fda million covert tests are being recalled due to bacterial contamination, an at home covid-19 test at cbs or amazon, how does this contamination happen? >> it happens from raw materials, and it's not contamination in the swab per se, it's contamination and the liquid. when i looked at these organisms, they were all stool organisms. it is often times easier to

contaminate raw materials with stool. i think with the manufacturers do from time to time as they do quality control -- is they do quality control and this was picked up in a routine quality control. i don't think it'll have a major impact on most people but they are recalling it from an abundance of caution. kristen: got it. because it's not in the swab, but in the reactive solution. hopefully it's not even going to contaminate you. if you have one of these kits, what should you do? >> i still think it's a good idea not to use it. i think you will probably get a refund at this point because they were recalled. specific lot numbers associated with the contaminated liquid. if people made a mistake and put it in the liquid and swabbed it, some of bacteria can get into the bloodstream. kristen: i'm sure we will have that information on our website, too.

the fda has approved the first rsv vaccine, the virus that had so many people especially kids and the elderly a few months back. when will the shop be available? >> the fda has improved i has approved for those who are 60 this week. the cdc is meeting in june. we hope it will be available for americans over the age of 60 in the fall together with a reformulated covid booster as well as a flu shot. that is the timeline we are looking at. they are also looking at a vaccine for pregnant persons in their third trimester to protect newborns who are also very vulnerable. kristen: a new epa report shows climate change has a very real health impact on children in many ways. can you tell us about that? >> yes, the epa report i found was really specific. we all say climate change is

going to affect all members of a society. but in this report, they actually give you numbers and really were very specific. the hope is that we'll have a call to action. specifically, lung respiratory problems, academic performance, mental health, these were cited as potential impacts on kids. to give you an example of the specificity, for every two to four degrees increase in temperature, academic performance is going to be dropped and that -- in the order of 5% to 10%. . they even gave a number in terms of $18 billion of loss potential affecting about a quarter of kids in the u.s. kristen: before we let you go, aapi heritage month, this month of may. ucsf is celebrating today. anything you want to note about

the health of asian american pacific islanders? >> i think there are certainly issues that are misrepresented in the api population, cardiac disease, strokes, the aapi community is extremely diverse and i think it is important not to focus just on the people who have means but remember that it's a big spectrum of individuals, and some of the folks really have very similar disparities than other members in our population. kristen: absolutely. happy aapi heritage month. always great talking with you. thanks so much. the 34th annual professional businesswomen of california conference is four days away. one of the speakers is a new york times -- a new york times best-selling author and authority on time management.

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kristen: in four days, the professional business woman california conference will be held. the 34th annual event founded by jackie speier. abc7 is a proud sponsor of this spectacular event. women network, here from one another and hear from -- h from one another and motivational speakers. we have julie morgenstern with us. >> it's great to be here with you. kristen: this is so important for all of us to think about. so many of us feel so overwhelmed these days.

so many balls to juggle. competing priorities. we just get burnt out. is that when people come to you and say, what can we do here? >> you are right. it has gotten -- women have really borne the burden for the last, well, centuries but for the last three years, too. women are really burnt out and trying to rally the resilience and motivation and the energy to engage. which is the whole theme of this conference this year. which i think is so appropriate. and women in a group really give each other energy and motivation and validation, which i think can be very powerful, to that the energy to keep going. kristen: definitely. the validation. you are not going through it alone. your book, i thought it interesting, "never check e-mail

in the morning," that is the first thing i do, grab my phone and check my e-mail. >> the title is one of the strategies. but the principle behind it is, female and instant messaging and all that are purely reactive tools. and if we start our days, the first thing we do i the world needs from us, we are chasing that all day long. we have to take back control of our time. and it's not to never check e-mail, it's don't check it first thing in the morning and really learn to have control over when you are going out there to see what the world needs from you and reserve that time for your own center and productive work and to be present both at work and in your personal life so you really have a full 3d experience in life. kristen: do you have tips for

how to keep yourself centered from morning to night? >> there are so many organizing and productivity strategies. one of the things i'm going to be talking about at the conference is this concept of time leadership. which is to go beyond what we have thought of time management as an individual skill that is an individual problem, but is not only an individual skill and problem or set of habits. is also a collective one. -- it is also a collective one. as we are moving in this covid world, women can have a stronger voice. we can take control and start talking about time both individually and collectively to really restructure the workplace and our households. so there is true balance everywhere. kristen: the households part, i

totally know what you're saying. your other book, "time to parent," is also super useful. parenting is such an important and gratifying job but can help -- but can leave us feeling overworked and super guilty. you have put it into parts. >> exactly. there's never been a job description for the parenting years on how you should divide your time. i was a single parent. after my daughter finally launched and i could step back and think about it and all the challenges clients brought up, i came up with this sort of job description of, what do we need to balance our time between? and i broke it down into the job is to divided into two parts, raising a human and being a human. because while we are raising our kids on the prime of our own development here's, career

years, self-development years, each of those have four components, for activities, and that all breaks down to eight things, 90 million, not 10,000, not two, eight things we have to balance our time between. in these most time stretched years of raising and being a human. kristen: i think that being a human part is the part that is so easily forgotten, or pushed to the back burner, right, when you are a mom, probably a dad, too. what are the four things? how can i make myself the best me that i can be so i can be the best mom that i can be? >> your spot on. -- you're spot on. one serves the other. we tend as a parent to sacrifice yourself to take care of others but it does not actually work. it is not sustainable. we are miserable. we and being terrible role models. think of the word "self" as an

acronym for the four components of self-care that we need to make sure we are weaving into the fabric, literally, of every day. s, e, l, we have to be nurtured in order to effectively nurture others, and f is for fun, and then we can have fun doing anything. work, play, parenting, all that can be fun, when i say fun in this case is to fuel your soul, pure relaxation activities that when we do them, we feel like us. i talk about ways to integrate those in these micro doses.

short bursts that you fold into the fabric of everyday that actually keep you going and fuel you so that you really are in a position to give to your kids and your job and to your community. kristen: fabulous idea. it is ok to say, don't bug me for the next two hours, kids, you do you. >> just make sure you know what they are doing, too. [laughter] kristen: great tips. i'm sure folks listening are excited to listen to you at the pbwc conference this year which is virtual. if you are interested in attendant, it is may 9, check it out at pbwc. great speakers will be there. thank you, julie. >> hope to see you all there. kristen: healing pediatric cancer through the arts. kids and arts are holding their annual fundraising tomorrow. we will talk to the founder of the nonprofit about how you can

kristen: did you know 43 children are diagnosed with cancer each day? at 15,000 kids per year. for the young patients and families, art is often a tool for healing. a nonprofit that's been bringing arts programs to kids with cancer for 15 years has a celebration, a big anniversary, and asking for your support. joining us live now to talk about the mission and impact of kids and art is the founder. good to see you. >> good to see you. kristen: your annual fundraiser is tomorrow on the peninsula. i will be seeing you because i'm honored to be your emcee again. just fantastic. i want you to tell the folks who don't know what you do, you founded kids and art as a result of your son's battle with cancer, tell us about him and what role art played in his life. >> my son was three years old when he was diagnosed with cancer.

at that time, i was a full-time graphic design creative director. i quit my job because, you know, we find ourselves more in the hospital that outside the hospital -- than outside the hospital. all i knew as a creative person to sort of bring some ballast and semblance in our life was to do art with him in the hospital waiting room, and bedside. little by little, everyone in the waiting room around us wanted in. and i did not realize what a big impact what we were doing had. that is how really kids and art was founded. kristen: we talked about the joy and happiness and the zen and calm and all of the positive energy the kids get when they do and engage in the art. so you've been bringing art workshops to pediatric hospitals for kids battling cancer. tell us what you've been doing the past 15 years and during the pandemic, too. >> so, --

>> so, we used to do work in only one hospital. we started with one patient, one sibling, one hospital. then the programs kept going and we brought kids out to places like pixar and creative company that would open their doors, we would take our kids there. the pen to make that happen then we moved everything online, because not only were our kids affected by what was going on around them but they were highly immuno compromised. so we pivoted like everyone else and moved everything online. but what came out of that was we really asked there was -- we realized there was such a need and we became not just a bay area nonprofit, but we started putting everything into our cases and shipping them to hospitals, so now our program is in 21 hospitals across the united states. so our art kits

as we were getting to learn from the hospital child life as well as parents getting in touch with us, we realize that our kids were having to spend a lot more time alone, either at home or in the hospital, with only one caregiver because of covid. so it was really impacting them in a very bad way. so we started a new program called art kids at home. so of a child is currently in treatment for cancer, they can just sign up for free for our kids at home and we ship two art kits to them every month, siblings get them as well. kristen: that's marvelous. how much does it cost to put together an art kit? how many kids do you need, how can help -- how can people help you meet those goals? >> it costs us $25 for the arts kit that goes into the hospital. teach hospital costs us $10,000.

if anybody wants to if it is easy for them, they can send $25 and we can ship one art kit to the hospital. as for the at-home workshops, it is $1000 per child for the entire year. which is great. what is amazing is, without it was a new program. we thought 39 kids is all we would support. we have supported 150 kids. and as of today, we have 110 kids on the waitlist. kristen: great work. kidsand support the mission and sponsor one of the art kids. thank you and i will see you tomorr

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kristen: thank you so much for joining us today for "getting answers." we will be here every weekday at >> tonight for the first time, former president trump's deposition takes maybe public in the e. jean carroll case. the former president insisting that he did not assault e. jean carroll, that she wasn't his type. you can seen him shown a photo of carroll taken years ago. in that deposition, trump says that is marla. mistaking her for he's ex-wife. also, the former marine identified in the case here in new york city. the disturbing images