in america. why is that happening here? but not in other countries? is your phone to blame and a birth control pill for men in a san francisco

startup? thinks it has the answer to a long unsolved problem that may be extra timely, given the abortion ban spreading across the us. but first, the cdc sends out an urgent warning heading into christmas, with vaccinations lagging against covid, flu and rsv. you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us. yeah, virus activity is up and the cdc says not enough people are getting vaccinated. the agency posted on x saying it's the holiday season, but it's also respiratory virus season. and you can take everyday actions to protect yourself and others from getting flu, covid 19 or rsv. joining us live now to talk about this and a new program where you might be able to get free telehealth appointments and treatments shipped to you, ucsf infectious diseases specialist doctor peter chin-hong. doctor chin-hong, happy holidays. thanks for joining us. >> happy holidays, kristen. >> all right. let's talk about this. i mean, this part is the not so happy part of the season. you're looking at flu. let's

talk about that first because this latest us map that i want to show people this is pretty alarming, especially for us in california. oh okay. that is not actually the flu one that i was thinking of, but, um, yeah, it and okay, this one is from october 2015 and not the one that we were talking about. we have a heat map showing that in this past week, flu activity seems to be really up. yes it is in california. >> it's up 400% in the last month and it's rising very quickly. um, so that, you know, i think that it's still enough time to get the flu shot and the flu shot is really well matched to what's circulating. but a lot of people are coming into the hospital. california is one of the few states to be in the high category level. yeah, only exceeded by louisiana and south carolina. >> wow. can i just ask you why that is? because the traditional thinking was always, you know, we're warmer here. people are

still kind of outdoors. and, you know, we don't get it as badly as the east coast, for example, where it's cold. what's happening? well california is a very dense population. >> it's one of, you know, it is the most populous state in the country. and we saw that during covid in southern california, for example. but what's happened is people went to thanksgiving all over the country. there was a lot of flu in the southeast and the gulf states. and then they came back home. so that's one thing. and then, you know, it was just a matter of time before we caught up. >> how about rsv and covid? are those numbers up as well? and again, i also want to address, you know, the vaccination numbers. yes >> so rsv is staying high and plateauing. people had thought it would be down by now. but it's still high. and causing a fair amount of hospitalizations, particularly in the kids. but nothing like last year might have been attenuated by having the vaccine available for the first time this year. um, covid is always in the background. we

have on any time about 20 patients in ucsf hospitals. um, so that's also increasing when you look at the wastewater, um, in california. so it looks like, you know, it may peak in january , february. that's covid like last, like this year. um, in terms of vaccines, like you mentioned, a very poor vaccine uptake. it seems that people are more people are going for flu shots. about 40% of the population in uh- getting that, including kids, fewer people going for covid shots, about 17% of the population. but most concerning only about 37% of those over 65 and rsv, about 17% of those eligible have gotten rsv shots. >> let's break that down, though . rsv. there had been a shortage right? >> yes, there was a shortage in the pediatric formulation of the vaccine. so that might have been, uh, you know, part of the

problem and of course, there's still vaccine available for some pediatric patients, just a different dose. um, those who are pregnant in the third trimester and those who were 60. >> now, covid shots, can you make the case for why people should still get it? because, you know, i think it's been shown correct me if i'm wrong, that it's not that they prevent you from catching it, it's that they prevent you from getting very ill. and if you had it before, why would you need the new booster to keep from getting very ill? >> yeah. so, you know, most people got it around, uh, september, august this year in california, in the bay area. and this is you add six months to that. that's kind of the time when immunity starts wearing off. and particularly those who are older and immune compromised. what's happening is that we have a couple of, uh, emerging variants around. and, you know, you may need to bolster your your immune system

a little bit more for some of these variants. >> you mean jny uh- j n1, that is. what do we know about it? yes. so we know that kn one um, the vaccine works really well against it, but it has about 30 more mutations and the xbb ones which the vaccine was based on, which means that if you get the vaccine, you have a great chance , um, particularly if you're older, but but, um, you know, you can't rely on your muni again because the immune system may not recognize it quite as much. >> that's rising up the charts that kn one, um, it's it was like almost imperceptible in early november and now it's number two. it's about 20% of cases in the united states as of today. all right. >> well, the good news is the federal government today announced a new resource, the home test to treat program or home test to treat. i guess i should say the emphasis is different. it does mean you can get free tests, right? or telehealth visits, or get treatments sent to you. tell us

about this. >> yeah, this is an amazing new resource that i think a lot of people don't know about it. um, but not everyone is eligible. i think the government is trying to get to people who have, uh, problems with getting access underinsured and uninsured people in medi-cal, medicaid, etc. you go to the site, you see if you're eligible, and then a remarkable thing happens. they can send you, uh, free testing at home. but it's not just covid testing. it's debuting a new test at home program for flu. and then if you are positive, you can get a free telehealth visit and get free drugs delivered to you, um, through your pharmacy. >> wow, that sounds amazing. wait, is the test a combine of flu and covid test, or is it one at a time? >> yes, it's a combined test. um, you know, pioneered by this, um, test at home company. and i think if it works, uh, this is kind of a pilot program. uh, they will probably bring it out to more people. uh, next season.

but i really think it's a really amazing step because i think we've been limited by not having at home flu tests. and the reason why that's important, particularly for the very young and the very old, is that if you're positive, you can get tamiflu, which can keep you away from the hospital. >> all right. hey, doctor. chin-hong are you at a train station parking lot? is that what's happening there? >> i'm about to go to a student dinner. uh, so it's just outside the parking lot at fixed chat because i'm going to berkeley. >> okay? okay. i just wanted to tease you there, but. but no, i'm looking at people traveling. you're traveling? we're all traveling, and we're all gathering. with the holidays coming up, christmas, new years, what is your advice for us? what can we do to stay safe and healthy? so there are a few things to do. >> a lot of people know about many of these things. the more things you do, the more you're protected. and again, it's about decreasing risk, not making risk zero. so again, thinking about the abcs, the air ventilation and mass b for vaccines and

boosters, c for don't forget forgetting your children because they are at risk for getting really ill, particularly with flu and rsv. uh d is for testing and diagnostic testing because if you test positive early enough, you can get access to early therapy for flu and covid and ease everything else, like washing hands, staying home when you're sick and like on that person next to you on a plane, coughing, trying to stay away from people who have symptoms. >> right a through e, okay, but you said don't forget about your children. darn. i was going to forget about my kids, peter. thank you so much. um, great advice. we hope you stay safe and healthy as well. happy holidays. >> happy holidays. kristen >> all right. coming up next. you know, three quarters of pedestrian deaths in the u.s. happen at night, according to new federal figures, the institute for highway safety will be joining us next to explore the problem and potential so

you should feel that, like, right back here. oh, yeah, i felt that! good, that is so much better than last week. thanks, i've been doing 'em every night while i'm watching tv. - oh, what are you watching? it's a mystery. high quality care that meets you where you are.

plenty of that in the bay area. a week ago today, san jose recorded its 47th traffic death of the year. a man was hit and killed by a teen driver on almaden expressway near camden avenue. police say the man was not in a crosswalk while he was crossing ■the street. joining us live now to talk about this trend, jessica checchino, vice president for research at the insurance institute for highway safety. jessica. let's just start with showing our viewers the highlights. daetz i first saw it in the new york times really fascinating that pedestrian deaths in the us have been on the decline since 1980.

right so that was good news going down, going down. but then around 2010, the fatalities started to go back up again. and now we are up at 23 deaths per 1 million residents. so for example, in the city of san jose , about a million residents, 23 people may die as pedestrians at some point, almost twice the rate compared to 13 years ago. the question for you is why? why are pedestrian deaths back up? >> right. it's been a really alarming increase. as you've said, we've seen that pedestrian deaths have practically doubled since reaching their low point. um, in 2010. you know, we can't point it on just one thing, but there's been a few things we've seen going on, and we've seen higher vehicle speeds and a lot of these deaths are occurring on roads that have a lot of lanes that might not be built for people to walk along or to cross . um, we're also seeing a lot of these deaths occur at night when it's the most challenging time for pedestrians. it's hard to

see and so when we're seeing, um, worse behavior on the roads, that can just be amplified at night and another thing we're seeing is larger vehicles. and we know that larger vehicles like suvs and pickup trucks can be more deadly to pedestrians when they're involved in a crash. and so it seems like all of these things combined are really contributing to this huge increase in deaths that we're seeing right? >> i mean, but the question is, why? why nighttime? right. because is it something about what we do around that time, or is it the darkness itself? >> right. and it's hard to say. you know, dark hasn't been getting darker. right. exactly. no exact tsay. so we know that darkness is always been a dangerous time for pedestrian. you know, we always see that about three quarters of deaths occur at night. but we're seeing that gap start to widen. and so one theory is that since it's harder to see pedestrians at night when you're doing other kinds of high risk behaviors like speeding, it can be even those things can compound and

make it even more challenging and increase the risk even more for pedestrians. um, but we can't really pinpoint it on one thing. but, you know, we need to look towards some of the things we can try to do to keep this from happening. you know, we're seeing some advances with vehicles that are really promising, and we're seeing vehicles with better headlights and vehicles with systems that can brake for pedestrians that are starting to get better at night. and so down the road, those things will help reduce these deaths. but it's going to take a long time for these things to make their way into every vehicle. >> i know i was just going to ask you about that too, right? to technology. be better. better safety, better sensors, for example, and therefore prevent it. but then i started to think about technology that maybe isn't helping. like are people texting all the time or on their phones, or even navigation, which is supposed to help us. is that a distraction? >> right. so distracted driving is certainly not something that's helping you know, if

you're not paying attention to the road, you're not going to be seeing a pedestrian that's in the road. but at the same time, some of the new technology in vehicles we're seeing does have a lot of promise for, for preventing pedestrian crashes and we're seeing that some of this technology that can break for pedestrians is getting better and better at night. we used to see that it wasn't so good in the dark, but now we're starting to see it get better and so those things give us hope. but when we have technology in our vehicles again, it also could just take a long time for everyone to get it. you know, people don't get new cars very often and so the latest and greatest are something that only some cars have right now. and so we really need to be working on lowering vehicle speeds and improving our roads to make a faster impact on these fatalities. >> and ironically, maybe that's not making our roads faster to make the faster impact. right um, but let's just just to underscore the point about nighttime, can we put up that? i thought this was interesting. a look at the hour by hour when

the most pedestrian deaths actually occur were and it kind of differs per month of the year. right. so if you look at that, it definitely correlates with when sunset is um, and anyway, i just thought that was interesting. how about how we compare in the us to other countries. are they also seeing a rise or not. >> so we're not seeing this rise in other countries, which is again upsetting. what are we doing in the united states where we're seeing this and we're not seeing it in europe? you know, we've seen a lot of increases in, um, of bad driver behaviors since covid. um, and it's not the same thing that we've been seeing in other countries around the world. and so, you know, we don't build our roads. the same way that you see in many other countries where you have a lot of pedestrians, and there are a lot of things that we can be doing to be making those roadways safer for people who are walking along them. >> right, right. and i wonder if there's also a component to the

fact that we drive automatic transmission in cars, more so than other countries. >> that's one thing that's been a theory that, you know, you're going to be paying attention more when you're shifting. but there are, you know, a lot of things that are probably going on with how people design their roads, in addition to how the cars are designed as well, that are probably contributing to this. >> okay. i was also scratching my head because another thing is alcohol use is down, isn't it? in this country? well, we have been seeing some increases in impaired driving in the last few years. >> um, and that's also something thatat could be contributing to what we're seeing going on. um, a lot of alcohol impaired driving crashes occur at night. we also see that at, uh, a large percentage of pedestrians who are killed at night are also alcohol impaired. and so all of these things can contribute to what we see going on. um, but again, you know, we don't want these pedestrians who are walking at night to be driving. and so it's really hard to say, you know, what you would want to do about that. >> right? right you mentioned

some solutions already, but i wonder if autonomous cars might be a piece of this. >> i mean, increasing what cars are capable of is something that can definitely help in the future. i think we're a long way off from having, uh, fully autonomous vehicles that are going to consistently do a good job at preventing all kinds of crashes, or that are going to be out there, um, and, and available for everybody to use. and so i think first, we really want to concentrate on the technology that we have in regular cars. now that can help with pedestrians, um, and work on improving those roads and then farther down the line, um, more autonomy is something that can possibly help as well. >> yeah. and i'm going to invest in a low tech solution. you know, those glow in the dark vests that you can put on to walk at night? um, jessica checchino with the insurance institute for highway safety. thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you very much. >> question. why is there not a birth control pill out there for

men? a bay area startup wants to change that. the ceo will talk to us next about its progress to create a

of control and one elusive option that's long been asked about, yet rarely attempted and never approved is a birth control pill for men. but a bay area startup is seeking to change that. joining us live now is akash bakshi, the ceo of your choice therapeutics. akash, thanks for joining us today. thanks so much for having me. >> you are trying the first ever male birth control pill. >> tell us about it. >> this is in fact not only the first, uh, birth control pill for men, but it is in fact, the first non-hormonal contraceptive that has ever been developed before. the pill has been around since 1960. and yet women have never had a non-hormonal contraceptive pill. and here, 60

years later, we're in the position where we're really developing the first non-hormonal contraceptive pill, and it's being developed for men. >> so can you tell us how it works if it's not hormonal, like with the female birth control pill? right. that hormone works to prevent ovaries from releasing an egg so you can't get pregnant. how does this work for men? >> we actually stop vitamin a from getting into the testis and thereby prevent sperme production from occurring. and so if no sperms are released upon ejaculation, uh- pregnancy is not possible. so it's pretty simple. and the benefits of that are that, you know, by ultimately looking at sperme counts, we can actually prove to not only the male participant who's using the product that in fact, they that the product is working for them. but he could also show his wife, his girlfriend, whoever else is interested. look, we have a male. i'm on my male contraceptive and it's working. >> oh my gosh, okay, if it's not hormonal, does that mean if you

miss a couple days, it's totally fine. >> you know, you didn't hear that from me, but i think that's one of the major differences is between developing a non-hormonal contraceptive and a hormonal method. hormonal is for example, the mini pill. women have to take that within 24 hours of the last time that they took a dose. and if they have diarrhea or if they forget a pill, or if they if it's not even close enough to the 24 hours, women will find themselves in a position where they incorrectly used a contraceptive and would be at risk of pregnancy for men, men can continue will likely be able to continue to take the pill with a lot more freedom and be able to continue to assess whether or not they're fertile. unlike unlike the female pill, which there's no way to prove that you're fertile or not when you're using a female hormonal contraceptive. right >> but is this meant to be taken daily as well? absolutely okay, so can i just ask you, what have you found so far in the trials and who's participating in the trials? >> so in this trial right now,

we're looking at 16 men, small number of men. but because it's the first of its kind really what we want to do is build trust with men, with women, with regulators, with physicians that look, this non-hormonal contraceptive is safe and after we prove that it is safe, we're going to move into clinical trials to show that it actually works. and and, um, and that will be a study that we start running later next year. >> so i see so is it too soon to ask you then about any possible side effects? and i guess certainly. well, we had we had, we had to do studies in mice, rats, dogs and non-human primates and never when we dosed at uh- dose to show that this uh- contraceptive worked did we ever see any side effects, which is totally different. >> again from hormonal methods either for men or for women? hormonal methods for men in uh- often show in animal studies at least show aggression in erectile dysfunction in um, cardiovascular changes. um, so

we're really grateful that, you know, here we are dosing a non-hormonal method that has, you know, it looks like it has no side effects. um, and that we think we'll absolutely change how family planning works. and like the images that you're showing here, we believe that men and women are looking for shared responsibility for family planning. but it would be very challenging for men to really step up if the options that they have available to them are condoms, which have an 18% failure rate, or vasectomies, which are nonreversible. right, right. >> so the idea that if you stop this pretty soon, you can go back to producing a normal amount of sperme and be able to be a dad. >> exactly. yeah. and what we've shown in non-human primates, the animal species that is the most similar to humans is that sperme counts come back within 14 weeks, which is a great time period because you know, it just gives you three months and you're back to being normal again. >> look, akash, i'm sure you started working on this long before anyone could have

imagined that the right to an abortion could be taken away. but do you feel more urgent about your work now? >> absolutely. you know, i think that we have to remember that unplanned pregnancies don't occur, are not just a woman's problem. there was literally someone else in the room who was also partially responsible for this unplanned pregnancy. and the development of a male method is so important because if we look at, you know, in the united states, there are roughly a million abortions that occur each year, 50% of the women who seek an abortion do so. having used a contraceptive that failed them. so when we talk about contraceptive failure rates, there are there is a price that is paid and it is all paid by the woman who ultimately has an unplanned pregnancy. when we look at the 50% of women who use a contraceptive that failed them, that then go on to seek an abortion and look at which contraceptive option is mostly responsible for these women seeking an abortion. 60% of these women were dependent on their male partner to use a condom, and that failed them.

and so when we say that we need new male methods, swease uh, it is very important for women. >> akash bakshi from your choice therapeutics. we're out of time. thank you so much. we'll take a short

you should feel that, like, right back here. oh, yeah, i felt that! good, that is so much better than last week. thanks, i've been doing 'em every night while i'm watching tv. - oh, what are you watching? it's a mystery. high quality care that meets you where you are.

. tonight, several breaking stories, the major storm set to slam the east coast up into the northeast, heavy rain, flooding and damaging winds. also, the staggering decision involving r