tonight on kqed newsroom, covid-19 expert dr. in the latest twist in the pandemic as the omicron very atlanta in california. plus, how the state is appearing for a potential influx of women seeking abortion services as the supreme court signals it may overturn roe versus wade. and, we too are a mysterious home decked out in the holiday decor for this week's edition of something beautiful. coming to you from kqed headquarters in san francisco,

this friday, december 3rd, 2021. hello and welcome to the show. this is kqed newsroom. we are going to take a deeper dive into the omicron variant with our special guest in a moment. first, let's take a look at some of the other top stories in our friday five. get ready to conserve more water. experts project california's severe drought will continue for a 30 year. state officials announced this week they are slashing the amount of water they will provide from the state water project in the passive water system that crisscrosses the state and serves 27 million residents. this means we are going to have enough water to drink and to wash with but not enough to irrigate fields or water lawns. gun control advocates notched a win this week as a court upheld california's ban on fire magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition. the appeals court ruled the law doesn't interfere with the right to self-defense and is a reasonable effort to reduce the

devastating damage from mass shootings. gun rights advocates say they will appeal the ruling, which could go to the u.s. supreme court. as homicides continue to rise in oakland, mayor libby schaaf is urging the city council to increase funding to the police department. the consulate previously prioritized funding for social services. libby schaaf says the police department is understaffed and needs the money to quickly hire more officers. >> there is nothing progressive about unbridled gun violence. this is what oakland acres want. a comprehensive and effective approach to safety and that includes adequate police staffing. and echo news, and cash registers have been running across the state. california reported an all-time high of $216 billion in taxable

sales for just the second quarter of this year. that is nearly a 40% increase from the same stretch of last year and 17% more than sales in 2018, before the pandemic started. the additional tax revenue was inspected to provide another major budget surplus for the state in the coming fiscal year. last in the bay area tech scene, twitter ceo jack dorsey has stepped down. he will be replaced by agarwal. jack dorsey is staying ceo of square, which is changing its name to block. that is this week's friday five. we will discuss this states political news soon. first, let's talk about covid-19. with the discovery of the omicron coronavirus variant in san francisco this week, public health officials are urging people to get used to vaccinations and wear their masks indoors. there is still a lot we don't

know about the variant of experts one it could evade vaccines, spread quickly, and slow the country's ability to end the pandemic. warning me now to talk about what this means for california is dr. peter chin hong. dr. chin hong, thank you for joining us. i do have you here in studio. let's start by reviewing what we know about the omicron variant. it hasn't been very long that it has been out about over this past week, what have we learned about this behavior? >> there are two main red flags about omicron and those have made everyone in a tizzy. these are the fact that it seems a very transmissible. it was kind of minding his own business, about 200, 300 cases a day. all of a sudden, it is almost up to 8000 or 9000 cases a day. they began investigating, it was in one main prophets where johannesburg is and it turns out that there is this new variant that was found that was

excepting delta. that is the first red flag. biologically, there are a lot of things that make scientists nervous. mainly, if there are 50 mutations, delta only has less than 20. 10 of these are on the business end of the spike protein where it attaches to cells to enter our bodies. because the spike protein has cemetery mutations, you know, probably 30 and all, we worry that the body won't recognize the antibodies won't recognize the spike protein anymore because it is so misshapen, it is so mutated good that is why we worry both that it is transmissible and that it is evading vaccines financially. >> the governor of california and the president of the united states have both indicated that they are not looking at further lockdowns because of the variant. how can i make that decision

when so little is known? >> i think because we have a lot of trust in our vaccines, we have a lot of trust in science. the people of california are extremely covid-19 streetsmart. we know what to do. we have been through this drill so many times, especially last winter. >> you just decided to be evading the vaccines. >> it could be evading the vaccines for infection. it depends on what the goalpost are. if you want to prevent infection, we may not be as well equipped with not getting a booster or even with some boosting. if you want to prevent the outcome that i care most about the golden apple, which is severe disease hospitalization and death, i am very confident that our current vaccines will do a splendid job of that. >> interesting. may not prevent infection but the vaccines you think will kick in and fight the omicron variant within our systems. >> i think of it like the enemy is trying to get into your house. maybe it is coming into the front gates and that is when your bodies win. when it comes into the house, you have this super amazing alarm system that takes the enemy out. those are the t cells in the

other parts of the immune system that remain intact and don't care what the spike protein looks like. >> the first indications we have seem to be that the omicron variant may not cause very severe illness, is that what you are seeing? >> yes, definitely. in the early reports of south africa, of course, south africa may not be exactly like the united states, like california, i will get to that in a second, is that the symptoms that patients have had a very mild and very typical. feeling fatigue, maybe a high heart rate, a headache. but, no major sore throat, no loss of taste and smell. they pretty much go away. south africa is different from california. it is a younger population, it is not as many comorbidities. on the other hand, it is more unvaccinated. 25% versus 60, 70% depending on where you go. >> 25% are vaccinated in south

africa versus here in the united states, 60 to 70. let's get to sort of the vaccine inequality around the world. i want to point to vista variant has been predicted for a wild and that academic researchers, scientists have been saying lesson, unless we get everyone vaccinated, there will be more variant that come up. let's throw them out to take a look right now. this is from the world health organization. it is a map of what the vaccinations look like. africa is definitely far less vaccinated than the rest of the world. the actual statistics are the spirit low income countries, most of which are in africa, have receivedjust .6% of the nearly 8 billion shots that have been administered and only 7% of africans have been vaccinated. so, in addition to sort of the moral questions about vaccine inequality, how does that foster the new variance coming into play? >> it is like sliding doors of groundhog day.

we are going to see new variance over and over and over again until we deal with the thorny issue of vaccine equity. that is because every two weeks you have a new variant being created. and, only some of them rise to the rogues gallery of variants. only some are on the most wanted list. but, every time you have a transmission event, there is a chance that this virus making a copy of itself, just like you have a crummy photocopy machine and a copy isn't exactly the same and the way that the virus evolves may not be intentional but it serves in its best interest overall to involve and to shape shift over time. >> you know, there is also been this question of whether or not it is ethical for those of us in western countries to get used to vaccinations when so many others in other countries haven't gotten the first ghost.

the world health organization has asked for those doses to be sent to these other countries. what are your thoughts about that? >> my answer to that question is yes and yes. i think we need to boost our populations. we have the posters available. the vaccines expire at some period in time. it comes out of the different pantry from the vaccines allocated to the rest of the world. sure, if we had a beautiful distribution system would like product open hand, where, you know, you have extra food and that food goes immediately to somebody else who might need it, that may work but it doesn't work, unfortunately. there are other barriers in the developing world. for example, storage capabilities and vaccine hesitancy. it is not just a u.s. thing. it is a thing that's widespread over the world. that is really because of very similar issues that people are weary of clinical research, wary of science and there is a lot of conspiracy theories. even my own part of the world, which is the caribbean. >> we have that issue in california as well. we think of it as one state but we are very different in different parts of the state.

the central valley is being affected by covid-19 for more than the urban centers here for cisco or lp. could you speak to that disparity within california ? >> yes, definitely. the central valley is undergoing a big delta surge. we think about california as being monolithic. governor gavin newsom, everybody holding hands, we are all singing the praises of science and politics. that is not true in all parts of california. the central valley, the of one of the most, you know, hesitant populations when it comes to vaccines. i think governor gavin newsom a few days ago was trying to promote boosters by being in the san joaquin valley that one of the schools really speaking to that need for that population to get it. we may be writing this wave of previous immunity to natural infection that is boosting community immunity. but if omicron comes in, we do know from south africa that reinfection is definitely a thing. natural immunity force

field may go away and only the people with the vaccine immunity may be left standing. >> all right. you know, myself and many others out there want to know what does this mean for our holiday plans? tell us from your mouth as an expert who has been studying covid-19, nose infectious dieases what are your holiday plans and are you planning to make any changes to them? >> i subscribed to the dr. anthony fauci religion. like you said, don't panic about it. myself, i am still planning to visit my family on the east coast in new york. 'm going to take an airplane with confidence. i can post it so i feel like almost invincible. i know i'm not going to get very ill, even if i get a breakthrough infection with omicron. with delta , i know being recently posted i'm not even going to get infected. i am covid-19 smart being a

californian. going to wear a mask on the plane and in crowded situations and i will hug my family, i will log my close friends with wild abandon because i have given up, we have all given up so much during this pandemic. >> any thoughts about holiday parties and gatherings of people who are not family coming together unmasked? >> i think about the abcd of holiday planning. a is to be aware of who is coming, what your situation is, are they immunocompromised. b is for just getting busted or vaccinated if you haven't. c is for thinking about your kids, including vaccination in that population. the is for diagnostic tests. people have been including more rapid screening prior to family reunions to just give another layer of confidence. it doesn't mean the test is supersensitive but it is really great at protecting transmissibility. if you are negative, at least for that family event, you are going to be good. a second when every thing else. don't forget to mask, don't forget your flu shot. >> oaklanders from ucsf.

thank you for your time and advice about how we should navigate the next few weeks going into the holiday season. i appreciated. >> it is great being in the studio. has a rash of burglaries played retailers, city leaders are looking for ways to counteract the crime rings. and, californians have been closely watching a supreme court hearing that could affect abortion rights nationwide. joining us now to discuss these and other political stories this week, ourpolitics and government reporters guy maserati and katie orr. katie, let's start national. "looks to overturn roe versus wade. tell us about how it is playing out in california. >> as you know, california is a more abortion friendly state then other states in the

country. and, they expect, they being providers and abortion advocates and lawmakers, that should roe versus wade be overturned, we will see an increase in the number of women coming to the state to get an abortion because they might not be able to get one in their home state. a recent study estimated that we could see a nearly 3000% increase in the number of women who come here. >> that is huge. >> absolutely. the state is now convening a council called the future of abortion counsel to look at potential barriers that those women face as well as women living in california face and what the state can do to help them overcome those hurdles. >> i think to katie's point, the real focus is not so much abortion access in laws but funding for that abortion access. we are already hearing from groups like planned parenthood in california saying you know, maybe the legislature should look at funding services for those women arriving into

lavonia from the moment they arrive at our airports. i think what is without a doubt is if this case ends up overturning roe versus wade, you are going to see this factoring of abortion laws across the country that will put more pressure on states like california to provide those services going forward. >> all right. turning to a different topic. we saw some very stunning scenes of looting last weekend. lots of people broke into stories here in the bay area and in southern california. they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods. guy, talk us through what you are seeing in terms of a civic response from leadership. >> right away, the response you heard from mayors and city councils here in the bay area was to hire more police. that was the initial reaction. we've heard this week, oakland mayor libby schaaf sang she wants to see additional police academies, at least two going forward. council members saying they would like to see another police academy and maybe spending some of that money on

recruitment nationwide, bringing officers from other directions to compete in walnut creek, where we saw that large- scale retail theft at nordstrom's, the city council is taking coronavirus pandemic relief dollars from the federal government to hire more police officers. that has been the initial reaction but i don't think everyone is on board with that peter spoke to the alameda county public defender and he said this is kind of the initial reaction you would expect, let's hire more police officers. it is what we have done in the past but it might not get at the root causes of what is causing these crimes. >> katie, i want to bring you in for a moment. i know, guy, you have been doing a lot of work on this this is a week but katie, i think it's interesting as we are talking about the concept of defund the police. now we are seeing these police department and civic leaders calling for increased police presence. what are you hearing about all of this? >> it just shows you how quickly the political tide and the pendulum can swing, right? as you mentioned, defund the police has sort of been the article for those on the left for the past couple of years. now, we are seeing that there

is a call for increased police presence. now, of course, when we say defund the police but that doesn't mean and take money away and put it nowhere, it means give it to communion, organizations that can help with mental health and things like that. but, you know, if i'm attorney general rob bonta, i am worried about all of this looting. of course, for a safety perspective but also because of his political future. he was appointed, he is running for office again and he does not want this rash of burglaries and robberies to continue on his watch because he could pay a price for it at the polls, as could governor gavin newsom. >> staying with you for a minute katie connecticut discussed the attorney has announced feeling looting charges for nine of the people who were arrested. but, there does seem to be some legal concern that those charges may not stick.

cn you tell us why that is? >> this is really interesting. he is allowed to charge these people with looting because california is currently under a state of emergency due to the covid-19 pandemic. normally, the looting charge related to a state of emergency might be something like a wild fire or earthquake or a riot, something like that. so, because he's using the pandemic emergency, which is going on two years, you might have a harder time making the connection between the actual state of emergency and the crimes that these people are alleged to have committed. >> as we were just hearing from guy, there has been continuing growing violence in oakland. the city has now had 128 homicides so far this year, including one last weekend of a security guard protecting a journalist was working on a report at the time. oakland police chief armstrong was recently on the show. here is what he told us about staffing shortages. >> our city has grown astronomically over the last 10 years. the department is much

smaller than it was 10 years ago. we are facing tremendous challenges with meeting the calls from our community. the cost to our 911 system, the requests that community members have for us to be more present, more on the ground, walking in our community. there's a lot of things we would like to do but we are unable to do them because we just don't have the officers. >> on monday morning this week, following the violence last week, mayor libby schaaf called for increased police funding and the city councilis going to be taking up recordation next week . guy, what does this tell you about the egos and the feeling in oakland when, at one point, city council had really worked to put more of that money into social services instead of funding the police? >> in many ways, it's a step back.

oakland police funding to go up this year. there were debates around the budget, libby schaaf wanted more in the budget for the police and city council ultimately appropriated it. at the end of the day, the funding for the police department did go up this year. to your point, it is cyclical moment for local council members and mayors, public officials surrounding this úconversation around policing and safety. for many years, they've made a point to really come in a lot of spaces, advocate for alternatives to policing. now the rubber is hitting the road. to katie's point, your hearing pressure from constituents to the increase in homicides in oakland. it will be interesting to see how much at the end of the day the lawmakers are going to say it is not zero-sum, we can do both. budgets are zero-sum and you have to make choices about these investments. i think it is going to be really interesting to see which way we go from here. >> it looks like california is looking at another budget surplus extirpated will be interesting to see if any of this money is going toward law enforcement. let's turn to the state simply right now. katie, a democratic member of the state something announced this week he will be retiring, jim frazier from fairfield.

katie, tell us about the something to do to sing recently and what is expected. >> right, something frazier is one of a handful of members who is leaving for a variety of reasons and going to different positions. it is important to note that he is from the class of 2012, which wa the first class of lawmakers that could stay in their seats for 12 years. they had changed term limits. so, of course, we are coming up to the end of that. you are seeing a lot of lawmakers who only have communa, perhaps two or three yeas left in the assembly thinking about what their next step is going to be. they can't run for state legislature again. you are seeing people like jim frazier leave to go take a job in the transportation industry, where he has been connected, he has been head of the sla transportation committee. he is not anymore but he has been. you see people running for congress and for the l.a. board of supervisors. there is a member appointed to a judgeship in california. so, you are seeing a lot of people thinking about the next step in their career. i feel like this will continue to have, continue to happen as more members, on the 2014 turn out date. >> 2010, and i have to add on

to this, redistricting. new line during the run and in a lot of cases, legislators might not want to call and pack up and move for two more years in the legislature. i do think this dynamic really interesting to watch and a potential second term of governor gavin newsom. he might be in office with a vastly different legislature. there is already been a lot of debate over the balance of power between the executive and the legislature. that balance could shift even more toward gavin newsom if he's doing with a lot more freshman lawmakers. >> interesting. the inspector to stay on the democratic question >> absolutely. no matter how the maps and up, it is going to be a largely democratic-controlled, probably even a continuation of the super majority control we have seen in both houses but it does make a difference to have lawmakers with years of experience in these committees versus camino, freshman coming in. >> i wanted to have around to the big story this week, which is of course the omicron.. katie, and, though, can you talk to us about what you are hearing from the governor? he has signaled he is not going

to be taking steps to put into place another lockdown. how can he make that decision this quickly? what are you hearing from him? >> of course, as the science comes out and if we see that this variant is you know, is more transmissible, more dangerous for society, of course, he would maybe have to take those steps. but, at this moment, he does not want to do that. he just came out of two other strains of the coronavirus. he just survived a recall. he's up for reelection next year. he does not want to be dealing with the delta variant, excuse me, the omicron period. he's got enough on his plate and so, for now, he is trying to tell people to get vaccinated, get to set, wearing a mask, you will be okay. he's not projecting the need to take any drastic steps right now because he knows that is the last thing voters want to hear from him. >> well, always a pleasure to speak with both of you.

katie orr out of our sacramento bureau, guy marzorati here at kqed studios with us. thank you and have a great weekend. >> thanks so much. fortnite addition of something beautiful, we wandered through a mansion in san jose that has more than 160 rooms. decked out for the holidays, between traditions shine this time of year at the winchester mystery house.

>> that is the slightly spooky yet festive end of our show for tonight. next week, join us for a special report about plastic pollution and what california is doing to fight it. every minute, 1 million plastic bags get used around the world and most bags get only whatever only 15 minutes. 10 million tons of discarded

plastic end up in the ocean every year. that is about one garbage truck load every minute. >> will get around the bend, it looks like the sand was rainbow colored. when we got down to the beach, it was actually micro plastics. >> promises that recycling plastic will prevent it from becoming r wearing thin. >> we also grieved in our apartment we take the plastic bottle and put it into the loop been assuming hey, your job is done. >> we would learn more next week. if you want to get a look behind the scenes, please hang out with us online. kqed newsroom is on twitter and facebook or you can email us . you can always reach me on twitter at @priyadclemens. have a great weekend. yamiche: e

omicron variant spreads. pres. biden: this new variant is a cause for concern but not a cause for panic. yamiche: the omicron covid-19 variant arrives in the united states, upending travel, rocking the markets -- >> vaccine mandates are illegal and they are hurting this country. yamiche: -- and intensifying political fights over vaccine and mask mandates. plus -- >> our body, or choice. yamiche: the supreme court hears arguments on upholding a mississippi law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. and the house committee investigating the january 6 capital insurrection ratchets up its work as lawmakers get key trump officials to appear, next.

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