but do they really? do they see that crick in your neck? that ache in your heart? will they see that funny little thing that wasn't there last year? a new bounce in your step? the way your retinal scan connects to your blood sugar? at kaiser permanente all of us work together to care for all that is you. >> building a better bay area, moving forward and finding solutions, this is abc 7 news. kristen: "getting answers" on abc 7. every day, we talk with issues

in the bay -- we talk with experts on issues in the bay area. meta demanded employees return to the office. following zoom's recent step. we speak with a harvard leadership advisor about the pitfalls when companies make dramatic changes. also, temperatures are expected to climb this week across the bay area. with some places inland likely to see triple digits, having thought about how that can affect your phone? an expert will join us with tips on keeping your device from overheating and avoiding permanent damage. first, as covid cases rise in the bay area, we are starting to see some responses like kaiser permanente in santa rosa requiring masks for dr. and staff and there is concern that if schools get hit with infections, they may be forced to resort to masking or temporary shutdowns, like we are seeing in some states. another solution is to keep the air clean and virus free. joining us live to talk about

what can be done is a stanford pediatrician and clinical associate professor. dr. patel, thank you for your time. we are talking about air filtration as a part of the solution to keep covid at the bay. explain why that is essential, in schools especially. >> when anybody coughs or sneezes, or even people with a lot of virus in their breath and they are breathing that out, it enters the air and you can breathe it in and it could cause infection and you. when we have good filtration, we can clean the air of viral particles and reduce the chance you will breathe that and get sick. kristen: what are the common ways to do this and how does it work? >> one of the most common ways we saw, particularly in the san francisco unified school district, we do not have hvac systems, so the district invested in individual standalone air purifiers that they put within each classroom.

you can have portable air filtration devices in classrooms, but they can be a big electrical load and break. really what we want all schools to have our heating ventilation and air-conditioning systems, called hvac systems. kristen: before we talk more about those systems, this is not just about covid. all sorts of viruses are percolating in campuses. we are keeping our eye on respiratory viruses like rsc, and there is alsv flu season -- rsv and the flu season is coming up. > the reason i got interested in this topic is i am an environmental scientist in addition to being a pediatrician. i am concerned about the pollution inside classrooms. when we burn fossil fuels, a school next to a road, for example, those kids are breathing in some pollution, but also wildfire smoke area more and more schools in more areas where they have not encountered that threat for, we know

explosion is bad -- we exposure is bad for their health and learning. kristen: i definitely want to type about learning, but are you talking about short-term health, do not catch what your classmate has, or do you mean long-term health? >> i am referring to the pollution when i talk about effects on health. in terms of the respiratory illnesses, what we learned last year, i am a pediatric hospitalist, so i care for children who are sick enough to stay in the hospital. we had a terrible respiratory season last year, a lot of it driven by rsv that was hitting infants, in particular, really hard. keeping the air clean can help with reduced transmission of certain viruses like coronavirus. rsv tends to be spread more by touching something, somebody has coughed on their hand, they touched the doorknob, you touch your face, and that is how viruses like rsv are more often

spread. i worry less about other types of common colds. i worry more about things like influenza. kristen: and the airborne ones. right. you mentioned this could impact learning. how so? >> as we think about clean air, it is not just about pathogens and viruses. it is also about other pollutant in the air. this is something called particulate matter that comes from burning fossil fuels, and this comes from wildfire smoke, as well. we have good evidence to show that exposure to that kind of pollution can affect things like test scores. there was an interesting study that looked at wildfire smoke in classrooms and what it did to test scores. they did find there was a difference between children who were in classrooms where there was exposure to wildfire smoke versus not, but heat is another thing to consider, and this is why i say hvac systems are so important because they do so many good things in terms of our

children's health and well-being. they clean the air from respiratory pathogens but they can also cool the air because hot classrooms are not conducive to learning either. kristen: give us a quick glimpse inside an hvac system that works, how does it work? >> you need basically a centralized duct usually, and that it travels and is a part of the entire school system, and it can basically pump in cool heated air, and there is a filter attached so it cleans the air as it comes into a classroom. a lot of schools in california -- we don't know the exact number because we recently wrote a report from the park and center -- parker center on allergies and research, where we looked at how many schools have hvac systems to start and we do not know because the state does not collect this information. this becomes a problem if a school does not have a central duct system because it becomes harder to build something like that.

once you have that system, you can put filters in place and that cleans the air before it comes into a classroom and you can cool or heat the air. kristen: wasn't there a lot of talk of doing this early in the pandemic and government any that was made available, as well -- money that was made available, as well? >> that is right, and the money is sitting there and the other piece of legislation came out as the reduction inflation act that schools can take advantage of and it is a credit form and unrestricted. there is a piece of legislation, sb 394 been considered that can help school districts understand how to better access the funds. the issue is not that there is a lack of availability but i think it is school bandwidth. and i think more technical guidance on how to access them and use them for the school. we know the funding and need is there. now we need to connect those dots and help districts access the funds. kristen: is there a report card on how bay area school districts are doing in terms of the clean

air filtration? >> no. like i said, we tried hard to get standardized data, but the state does not collect it. this is part of our ask, for our governor and state to consider and the legislators, we need better information about 40% of schools in california were built more than 50 years ago, and these buildings are really not equipped to deal with the pandemic and the climate threats that are coming down the pipe. kristen: as a parent, i wonder what are some signs that a schools ventilation system may be inadequate? >> what we saw during the pandemic is that parents, teachers and students were actually buying carbon dioxide sensors because you can monitor the level of arbery dioxide within a classroom to know how well ventilated the spaces. ventilation is how much new air is coming into the space. you do not need an hvac system to do that. you can open a window and get

reasonable ventilation from that. but then there is measuring -- the best way to measure if the air is cleaned is to look at things like particulate matter pollution. there has been a push for a while that we should be building in some way to monitor indoor air quality is within schools, but we do not currently do that in this state or any state, nor are there federal guidelines to say what indoor air quality we should be aiming for so we have catch up work to do. kristen: what about for companies and offices? >> i am not sure of that one. kristen: sorry, i realize this is getting a little out of your wheelhouse, but now i am to get about my office? >> i know that hospitals do. we have to, but i don't know about other facilities. kristen: before i let you go, other than advocacy, what can parents do? is there a solution they could give to their kids to ensure that they are not breathing air that could make them sick other than wearing a mask? >> i should say, let's not frame

this as other than advocacy because that is the most important thing we can do. kristen: ok, i will give you that. >> these are system-level problems so we can do individual things to keep them safe, but system-level works best to protect your child and all children. talk to your school district, talk at your next board meeting and have your voice heard on the issue. individual parents can keep their children safe, and we have been lucky in the bay area, knock on wood, in terms of the fire season but once the smoke starts and air pollution gets worse, an n95 mask is the best protection and staying indoors is the best protection of all, and having an air purifier within your home that is fitted to the spaces important. do not get a small air purifier for a large room if you go on amazon or other companies, it will tell you what size room the air purifier is fitted for. if your family cannot afford it,

there are other affordable options. i do speak to families on public insurance who may not be able to afford this to do a diy filter. go to the environmental protection agency and if you type in diy air filter, it is a hepa filter and dictate, and you can get some reduction of pollution inside your home. i think a lot of schools are taking some measure to improve indoor air quality within classrooms, whether they are portable air filters or working towards improving infiltration within the system. kristen: dr. patel, thank you so much for that information. i will put advocacy back on the table, why not? thank you. >> have a good one. kristen: coming up, moving away from remote work. the strict mandate coming next week for metta employees and why one leadership expert says it is a cautionary tale for companies who would like to build trust with their

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kristen: meta is the latest company to backtrack on covid era work policies. in a new memo, they announced key changes, effective after labor day. one, in office three days a week, two, compliance, monitored through badges, three, violators could be disciplined or terminated, and while the company says this will improve collaboration and innovation, some leadership experts warn such corporate policy changes may hurt the company. joining us is dr. heidi gardner, a distinguished fellow at harvard law school, author of two best selling books on collaboration and founder of the research firm gardner and

company. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. kristen: meta is not the first. there have been a bunch of companies asking employees to be hybrid, three days a week resume did the same. companies certainly have the right to make policy changes that suit their business, but what do you see as the potential pitfalls? >> one of the of changing and backtracking on the policy is doing it without a clear explanation for why the change is absolutely necessary, and not only how it will benefit the company but how it right to be better for the employees themselves. i was not hearing a lot of that in the recent policy changes at meta. i did not hear that from a lot of the big giants at slick and ballet. employees would like to know they are not just a number or resource. they would like to be treated as a human, and they have a right to be explained why this policy

change that affects them deeply is actually in their own best interest. kristen: you also said mine is the explanation and that communication, it could really hurt the trust between employees and management. talk about that. >> we all like to believe that we can count on somebody to keep their word. naturally, conditions change, the economy changes leaders have a right to backtrack on the policy. yet, the way they go about communicating it matters a lot. if it looks like they are doing this on a whim or if it looks like they are not being empathetic, it can destroy people's ability to hold them to their word or believe they will carry through next time around. kristen: on social forms, i see some employees complain of whiplash. what does that mean and how does this affect the employee view of the company? in meta''s case, they talked about how early in 2021, let's

go hybrid or remote, and then they announced a hybrid, and now this update. what does whiplash mean here and what is the impact? >> the impact could be significant for some if they really believe that they were going to have this right along time to the different schedule. maybe they made lifestyle changes, they sold a second car, they changed childcare options, all sorts of those things are profound for people who are juggling multiple different kinds of priorities, not just work. when a leader backtracks on what that policy looks like, it is not surprising people feel this whiplash. where you are promised one thing and now you are changing your mind. but a leader who exhibits a lot of empathy and acknowledges that there is some pain associated with it can go further in helping to regenerate some of the trust they have lost. kristen: give us some examples of how an employer could demonstrate more empathy and

address some of the employees' real sacrifices, if you will. >> first of all, it is getting to know what those sacrifices are. some people have preferences work at home, and some have needs to work remotely. when you create a blanket policy, it does not leave much room for the human customization and personalization that could be necessary for some people. if you accept that most people will do better in an office environment, explaining why, with a blanket statement that you must come back is not nearly as powerful or appealing to people as helping them understand, what did they get out of being in the office? as an expert myself on what i call smarter collaboration, i know for a fact that in person collaboration can have real benefits. i don't think these leaders are misguided insane being back in the office is beneficial, but

they have not explained how. maybe there are better coaching and developing opportunities. maybe there are better social connections, but right now it is a mandate rather than magnet, and we want to see leaders drawing people back in, and not forcing them. kristen: i wonder if employees tend to frame it as a negative if it comes on the heels of massive layoffs like they had? >> you do have a situation where there is already a loss of trust in leadership. people are naturally scared and they are wondering what is going to come next. human minds do not cope that will with uncertainty, especially when it is about my own future. so you have a workforce that is on edge, and piling this on top of it makes it all the more difficult to swallow. kristen: what advice would you get to companies who are about to make some pretty big changes? would you baby step it? scaffolding? or would you come out and say

it? >> i think people would like to be treated like grown-ups. they do not want a series of changes where they feel manipulated. if you know you are headed back to a policy of three days in the office, explain that is where you're headed and try as best as you can to make it a balanced message. explain to people, what is in it for them? can they expect to see their leaders in the office at those times? that is something that feels deeply unfair, when people of a certain level are expected to come back in and their bosses do not show up. people would like to know they are held to the same standard as peers. they would like to understand that their bosses will be held to the standards, and the wind understand what they will get by being back in the office, whether that is better mentor ring, whether that is opportunities to observe and get more professional development. there are lots of ways leaders can couch the decisions so

people understand why it has been made and then they can actually count on this for the foreseeable future. kristen: as a parent, i have heard that as good parenting, as well. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. kristen: coming up, some may be winding down, but the heat is not over yet. tech experts warn, do not let your phone melt. why it matters and tips to help you avoid long-term trouble with your phone.

kristen: labor day weekend is around the corner with the final days of summer are set to bring heat our way. temperatures climb midweek and that brings us to this temperature warning. do not forget about your phone while you try to stay cool or you could face non-fun problems. joining us is our cnet culture reporter. >> how are you? kristen: i am doing fine, and as far as i can tell, my phone is

doing fine. these days, doesn't your device tell you when it needs to cool down? >> they do. i am guilty of this. sometimes i am using it and scrolling through instagram and it stops charging because it leads to cool down before a keeps charging, so it will warn you but it could lead to long-term issues like your phone slowing down or potentially permanent damage to your battery or your sim card. it is better to treat it well so it will last longer and you can get more life out of it. kristen: what causes it to overheat? is it that you are constantly charging it or is it putting it in direct sunlight or is the ambient temperature hot? what is it? >> direct sunlight is the biggest culprit, so if you are on the beach, enjoying the sunshine, make sure your phone is in your pocket or under a towel or blanket or in your bag. another issue is leaving it in a hot environment like your car. that could be another issue, the intense heat.

having it charging and then deciding that is a good time to stream your favorite show on netflix or hulu is not a good idea. let your phone finished charging and then you can watch the show. do not use mobile games while you are charging your phone. another thing to keep in mind is third-party chargers. if you have an iphone, use a charger for my phone. if you have a samsung phone, use a charger from samsung. you may think it is a steel to get a five dollar charger, but sometimes they can be poorly designed and laid to issues with your device. one last culprit could be bugs in your software system, so make sure that your apps and software is up-to-date to prevent issues. kristen: if your phone does overheat, what are some of the potential types of damage we could see? >> it can slow down or stop working completely. there could be damage to the battery or some card. sometimes it is your phone while

it is charging it slows down. i mentioned i am guilty sometimes, where it says it needs to take a break and cool off before it continues to charge, and sometimes that is to protect battery. most of the things are short-term issues but over time, those things can build up and laid the lasting damage to your device. kristen: i do not want to lose my 10,000 pictures i have not uploaded. if you have a phone that gets overheated, are their fixes? >> sometimes it is luck, and i hate to say it but sometimes your phone will rebound and sometimes it will not. the air phones are pretty robust. you are spending hundreds or thousands on your device, and it is built to last and handle most stress, so you will probably be ok but these things are unpredictable, like when you drop your phone in water. sometimes it is fine and sometimes it is not. kristen: this sounds like a dumb question, but are there things that you could do to cool down your phone in a hurry?

there is glass, so i do not want to dunk it in ice, but you tell me. >> one thing someone asked me is there are audios on tiktok where you scroll and it says, this will cool down your phone. does this really work? i don't think there is a secret shortcut to make your phone cool down or like fans sounds or something. it is just making sure it is not indirect heat. really the only the was given that time. kristen: is this something that they will take warranty for if you somehow left it in the sunshine and it got overheated? >> that is a good question and something i need to look into because we are facing heat waves and it is something a lot of us will deal with. i think it comes down to is taking responsibility for it and keeping an eye out for devices because it is hard to prove that it is something accidental. kristen: we have got to be more responsible? gosh darn it. >> i hate to say it read i wish

i had better news. kristen: thank you. appreciated. you can get our live newscast, breaking news, weather and more with our abc 7 streaming tv app.

but do they really? do they see all that you are? at kaiser permanente all of us work together to care for all that is you.

kristen: thank you for joining us for "getting answers" today. we will be here every day at 3:00 tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the u.s. now bracing for a major hurricane. the new storm track just in tonight. they say this will become a category three hurricane. winds reaching 120 miles an hour or more. tonight, still a tropical storm, but quickly gaining