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answers in real time. today, covid cases are on the rise across the state. you may be wondering could -- should we be concerned as we look towards fall. ucsf infectious disease specialist will be here with more of what you did to beer -- need to know. taylor swift's highly anticipated tour is kicking off at levi's stadium tonight. emotions ran high at last night's public safety meeting in oakland. oakland police, along with the alameda county da were in attendance. so many people wanted to attend, who could see the line outside, dozens deep. a virtual zoom was at capacity. joining me now is our don't think this was a surprise given how many cases we have covered in oakland. crime statistics from opd show they are up over each year 26%.

is that what prompted the meeting? >> the crime is up even higher. they are catching up with the reports because there are so many of them and they are is he answering 911 calls and falling behind. on any given day you can have 200 call yaqub because cops cannot get out. they do not have enough cops. the second situation is there have been horrendous cases of crime highly visible. one involved a group of teenagers, ages as low as 11, who were stealing cars and attacking women on the streets and robbing them. that was caught on video. that became emotionally charged. the second was women in the hills of oakland, attacked, not just robbed but beaten. that has heightened concern. the bottom line is things have changed, one is the videos you are seeing are emotionally charged, but everyone has them. they are public, and the people

are reacting to that as well as the crime. it used to be a statistic, now it is something you see. the second thing, it is not just happening in the flatlands, it is happening throughout oakland, including affluent areas where the progressive vote is. now people are acting as if they are stunned >>. the two takeaways is that you need to be careful with statistics. and what gets pushed out. and also the fact that we know this, carjackings are not new, these are issues we see on a regular basis. it is because people are able to see it that they have resonated. >> and it could be them. it is not happening at 12:00 at night outside of a liquor store or gas station. this is right in your neighborhood, where everything appears to be safe. another problem is that juveniles were involved, a about whether district attorneys -- a

district attorney table of price -- pamela price and is a proponent of progressive policing. she chose not to level charges against the juveniles, saying there was a lack of evidence, they were wearing ski mask. people say, can you do something? that something is vague, not just in this county, across the state. she is a lightning rod right now, but we just recently shuttered our juvenile facilities run by the state, saying they were not healthy. is this a trend that is going on statewide, incarceration, and questions of consequences. you wind up with what we have now. >> how did the da respond to those accusations that she was not doing enough when it can to

juveniles? i continue to hear from law enforcement sources in alameda county, that there is an abundance of evidence presented, surveillance videos, is that enough for her to prosecute? >> it is a question -- it is a call that a prosecutor makes. i am not saying the same call would be in san francisco, but the da ran on a platform that said we are not going to be incarcerating or charging at the rate he did before. if there are are turned lives our alternatives, take them. some people agree with that philosophically. the challenge is that we have not worked out the practicalities. we do not have -- what are we going to have instead? bring everybody in for counseling, we were are going to do this, that.

that is not going to happen right now. we made a giant leap, we do not have the infrastructure to support it when we land. now we are flat on our backs. this is done -- we are down to 700 police officers in oakland. have questions about councilman from east oakland calling for cameras, license plate cameras to be put on intersections where there is high crime in order to survey and prevent it. that would normally come under opposition by progressive forces , privacy violations possibly. but surprisingly the mayor says they are on board. we have been seeing people that were hesitant or opposed to those things, saying they are on board with this. >> this course correction makes things more complicated. >> it does and it lacks consistency. you are going to one -- from one to the other.

it is driven by politics, emotion and people's fears. and the public officials fearing for their jobs. the da pamela price is a subject of a possible recall. don't think that didn't come into play. >> you touched upon something else, were people who voted for pamela price, we saw that presence at the meeting as well. an interruption of the police captain. what else have you heard? >> there are supporters of the policies, supporters of hers. they are saying i support you, can we do something here? so far they do not have an answer. this is not going to go away. there is nobody who is saying it will get better. they point at these things, and what i hear is that it is too little too late. that's hope there is reversals, but will -- but berkeley said

yes to cameras. you are seeing the progressive community saying, we do not have the cops, get with what we got. >> i remember in chinatown there had been an effort to put in cameras and the freeway shootings along 80. there was pushback several years ago, but things have changed. >> i would like to say things have changed because they have gotten better, but they have gotten worse. >> what other solutions were presented, or was this not a meeting for that happened? >> this is not a meeting where we had tangible solution, we had a lot of concerns, promises, alternative programs, but nobody has a silver bullet. right now it looks like the cartridge in this solution gun is empty. >> let's play a soundbite from a woman who happened to be at the meeting. she recounted an event that happened to her and one of her friends. >> started beating on us, beat

us to the ground, grabbed my friends gray hair and pulled her across the sidewalk. >> you mentioned video earlier, when you hear from people firsthand, such as this woman, it hits friendly. it is a different demographic than we are used to. that also promise other people to speak out. i feel as though we are on a tide of more people wanting to be heard in oakland in the east bay. >> we have a process called elections, and the last election, pamela price won with 53% of the vote. she is -- has constantly repeated that. i was elected to do this, this is what i am doing. she has her supporters, she has her detractors, but a lot of what we have are people that are frustrated. not just with the da, she is becoming the lightning rod. but when you are burglarized in

oakland and find out -- you fill out a report, that is a frustration. we have various lightning rods, it would be good if we can get past the emotions and come up with solutions. but that does not seem to be the case. >> where does the mayor of oakland play in this? >> she plays in the middle, she was one of the progressive that advocated for reallocating the police budgeting, now she is mayor and taking responsibility for it. now she is calling on the alameda county sheriff's to help her patrol the area around the airport because so many people who are renting cars at the airport are getting busted into and carjacked. >> this is so complicated, there are many levels that need to be addressed. i understand why it feels like things are not getting better. >> it is why people feel scary. there used to be a time where you can say, aware of your

surrounding. wherever you limited to oakland. >> we have video of colonial doughnuts, they were robbed. not too long ago. and they chalked it up to, this happens unfortunately. we also have this case that i covered, involving three women, they told me they are aware of their surroundings. they were attacked, including juveniles. they take it as every day. >> the scary thing is, every day. the question is, does this become the new normal? >> that is a big question. >> it is. do we allow it to become the new normal? or are we so entrenched in the past, that we cannot figure out a way to blend that with the current situation?

arby fighting yesterday's battles while people are being -- are we fighting yesterday's battles while people are being victimized? are we going to be in the 1960's, or are we going to be in the 2000's, the world has changed. >> we will probably have you on soon again. thank you for being here. coming up, covid concerns cases take up in california, what do you need to know? the

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>> covid is back in the news, with hospitalizations up more than 10% from last week. in california cases are up.

new data shows levels of the virus in wastewater are increasing in some areas and so our test positivity eats. how concerned should we be? joining us live now is dr. monica gandhi, an infectious disease specialist. have not seen you in a while. >> since covid has been out of the news. >> that does not mean it is out of our area. let's talk about the numbers. how much are they rising? >> the best way to track covid is wastewater. why is that? people are not testing as much as they used to, they are not reporting it, we do not have a centralized health care system. you just throw your home test away. and hospitalizations recorded well, even though sometimes we are swapping and --

swabbing. wastewater is good. no matter what, we are having waste, and covid will come out in the waste. and other viruses. it is a good way to say if we are having rising levels. it depends on the area, we can see wastewater as rising covid cases. >> what i find frustrating is that we continue to hear, covid is over, or when the pandemic was around. do you think people are getting too relaxed when it comes to being on alert for covid? >> i think this is the way to put it. pandemic phase, versus the endemic face. i wrote a book on this. the pandemic phase is a point in which your rates of death are above usual levels. at this point, our rates of mortality across the u.s. from respiratory causes or other are

back to where where we were in 20. that puts us out of the pandemic phase and into the endemic face. endemic does not mean it is over. unfortunately it will never be over. covid does not have properties that allow it to be eradicated, because of that we have to protect our vulnerable, who needs boosting, who needs treatments, these are the two best ways to control severe disease with covid. >> i am glad you clarified, seeing people be lacks about it, you have to remind them this is similar to the flu, it is going to be around. >> influenza, in phase, it ended. after 18 months. it did not mean influenza had gone away, and it never did, neither will this. that is why we have to think,

when do we need to protect people, when do we need things to protect people? >> do you know if there are strains we should be concerned about? we have lost track of all of them. >> you are right, there was one called xbb1 predominant subvariant. what is coming up predominant for the last few months. what is coming up is eg5, these are subvariant names, but they are all part of omicron. we are not on to a new variant. omicron has been the predominant variant since thanksgiving 2021. it is still the parent variant, there are different subvariants. >> all of these names that i cannot remember. they are not very catchy. do they have traits we should an

eye out for? the respiratory issues, is that still a concern? >> very good question. there was something about the xvb strains that people were getting conjunctivitis, eye redness. now we are off of that. eg5 does not have characteristics yes, it is respiratory. omicron tends to come with gastrointestinal symptoms, which has been going on for 1.5 ears. sometimes those symptoms -- 1.5 years. it's so look respiratory symptoms, sneezing, coughing, headache, muscle aches and fever. it is the same thing we have seen. >> unpleasant over all. i keep thinking, even though it is summer, as we look ahead to the fall and thanksgiving, and

gatherings. are there boosters available for people who are gathering? >> this is a very good question, because boosting -- when you look at biomedical advances, the two things we are doing is figuring out who to boost and with what. and who needs treatments the most. there are antivirals, and paxlovid is available outpatient. going to the boosters, the has asked the next booster be a new variant booster. we are already moving on to the new one. i genuinely do not know if the companies are going to be able to make the booster on time or if it will be -- if moving onto another subvariant. the data shows any booster is helpful for those who are older or on immuno's.

-- immunosuppressant's. we are going to boosters, anyone we those populations starting in the fall to get ready for the winter. >> i have to ask you, i remember during the pandemic, when these boosters were available, it was easy and there was a set regimen that we could get them on. for those who may not have gotten the booster in a wild, myself included, do we know which one we are supposed to get? or what a schedule looks like? it is a little confusing. >> the reason it is confusing is all of the other respiratory viruses are in a seasonal pattern. we are not totally settled into seasonality with covid, it is going to always be worse in the winter, but there are searches that occur. right now it is august, why do

we have a search now? it has to do with subvariants. that is what is so confusing. they are not multiple boosters in a year. we are going to decide to settle into a fall stir -- booster, fall going into winter. and whatever your country has. our country hopefully will have the new booster, but if we do not, we will boost with the old bivalent booster. it is going to be more recommended by the world health organization for older, comorbidities and those on immunosuppressant spirit -- immunosuppressant. >> so taylor swift is taking over santa clara, do you have suggestions for people staying safe at big gatherings like that? >>

want to do in terms of their joy. there is covid and there is joy. there is being together and the fact we have been through a hard time. i would always say you should go to whatever you want, go to those concerts, if you do not want to get respiratory viruses, where a well fit mask. i do not know if you can scream as loud in them. it has to be a choice at this point. there is also joy, there is also coming back together. >> cons. thank you so much for joining us. coming out, buzz is building for taylor swift's cover at levi's stadium, we are team minus three hours to go.

>> swifties are getting ready

for tonight's concert. among the thousands of fans is a bait area 80 a host, greg from big bay mornings now says he cannot wait to go. our very own reggie spoke with him about taylor swift's big draw. >> what era are you in? >> i am in the taylor swift era. midnights, baby. >> how long have you been a fan? >> i have been a fan since she was a country artist, i grew up in texas, i moved here 18 years ago. of course i love her from the beginning when she had the song about tim mcgraw. >> we are grown men, i get the girls are into taylor swift, because a lot of her songs are directly from the diary, put music to it. i get when the girls are into it, do you get from her? >> i can relate to a lot of her songs.

, on, we have all been done wrong by a man. >> let's talk about this week. on the radio, here on tv, people have been going absolutely nuts for this concert, for this woman, for this time. >> it has been the super bowl. people are obsessed. >> they want this crew blue sweater. it is the last sweater that has ever been made. >> i have one. yes i have one, give me my sweater please. cardigan that i have, folklore. i'm going to be at taylor tonight! >> i hope you have a great tay day. >> i have learned so much about her this past week. we want to remind you we are

here for complete coverage of all things taylor swift, our you can stay with usg show.off

>> >> david: tonight new reporting, the new charges against donald trump. the flashlight, the search and then those alleged words, the boss wants the server deleted. also, as we start the weekend, the