i spoke to dr benjamin pinsky of stanford medicine. he says his test has already confirmed different strains of the virus are in the bay area, including one linked to an outbreak earlier this year in santa clara county and a kaiser san jose. it breaks down samples of the virus he's collected and looks at its genetic sequence, then within 2 to 3 days, scientists can determine whether that covid strain is a variant of some kind. dr. pinsky tells me a diagnostic tool locally keeps everyone informed and prepared. it's important to know about these variants and understand their trance, whether they're more transmissible, which at least some of them appeared to be whether they impact the severity of illness that has not been demonstrated yet. um and then also whether they will impact both the ability of these variants to be. um, neutralized. by antibodies. earlier this week, the nation's top infectious disease doctor anthony fauci says health experts are keeping their eyes on a variant in south africa. doctor fauci called it more dangerous,

benjamin pinsky says they're also looking for new mutations.them for these very important considerations, whether they're more transmissible, whether they produce more severe disease, and whether there is any impact on the efficacy of that theme. >> reporter: information public health officials will need as they continue to navigate the pandemic. jean elle, nbc bay area news. >> so where it is california stands in terms of vaccine distribution? well, the answer is frustrating. it turns out we're last in the entire country. the state has used only 37% of the vaccines we were given. that means the bulk of the vials are still in freezers throughout the state. >>> now san francisco launched its first mass vaccination site today in the parking lot of city college. 500 people got their first dose of the moderna vaccine, but what people didn't get is an appointment for that necessary second shot. the city's health leaders say that san francisco's supply of vaccine is too inconsistent to promise that second dose on time. >> i'm not overly concerned, no

benjamin pinsky is where scientists have developed new tests to track viral variants and to quickly identify new mutations, information that is critical to understanding if they'll spread more easily. >> the u.k. variant is in over 60 countries now. the south african variant is in over 20 countries. so despite limitations on travel. >> reporter: one strain that is already concerning is known as l-452 r which has been identified as the cause of several outbreaks throughout the region including the deadly christmas day outbreak at kaiser san jose which infected at least 90 people. researchers have already screened hundreds of samples collected through the testing sites and are planning to ramp up over the next week. >> there is plenty that we as individuals can do even if we're not vaccinated to prevent transmission. and we know those methods. >> reporter: surveillance will help determine whether they cause more significant disease or render vaccines less effective. crucial details that could help public health efforts across the country. >> the key is the masking and social distancing and all

show that the pinsky with more. france's vaccine has been rolled out and criticized by many is being done at as snail's pace in the weeks since that program has been rolled out only a few 100 is said to have had the job compare that say to germany where over 40000 people have already received the 1st inoculation now there are some reasons for that here in france you have to give written consent to have the 19 jab and of course there is this huge distrust of vaccines so 40 percent of people say that they will have the vaccine meaning around 60 percent of people who have responded to surveys here in france say they won't be having it now the government says that yes it's being cautious but this is a marathon not a sprint others though are saying that in needs to be more urgency there is still time to make up for this feeling of a sluggish start to vaccination it is a matter of urgency now to give an optimistic outlook now the e.u. has also come under fire for not ordering enough vaccine 1st of all this criticism came

ahead in france and nationwide curfew is on the way to curb the spread of covert artie's told to pinsky has more on the latest restrictions. that coop you start at 6 pm in the evening and it will last until 6 am in the morning and that will come into force time from saturday so this is because 900 cases still set in roy's inc here florence was so 18000 cases on average every day being registered to various government had hoped that they be able to get control on it hasn't sent for now it means that shops will have to close to the public 6 pm in the evening that people will be able to stay in a little longer than that now there are fines if you are caught outside and don't have the right form to say that you can be outside after 6 pm in the evening you will be fined $135.00 euros that's one 1st offense but if you do that several times during the month period say 3 times that will rise to 3750 euros and a possible 6 month jail sentence but the prime minister did for the moment to rule out a further lockdown suffer the xix it apart from situations linked to public services or premises busi

go after households and forced many of those to hand back significant welfare payments charlotte pinsky reports. it is already offered his resignation it to the king in the netherlands and that report said that it was both the government that he presided over at this time but also the previous rigid administration that we're all partly responsible for what happened that this all began back in 2012 when parents were regarded as. taxable dorothy's and this is because they had sometimes just incorrectly filled out documents so when one part of the report that said some people missed signatures on those reports now strangely enough was families that had dual nationality that seemed to be well guarded with particular suspicion at just because that fact at one point presenting about $600.00 all of the family says that this was ethnic profiling now when more was being implemented it was said it was poor with an eye for meaning they were looking roups of people while the individual circumstances family slots that they are allowance sometimes with no reason given to them and other families who d

ok thank you charlotte is artie charlotte pinsky there reporting out from paris. well there is of course only a week left of the trump ministration even so us has representatives is pushing vice president mike pence to invoke the 25th amendment against on trump a process that could see the president removed from office well the democrats have also filed an impeachment resolution to which they'll put to the vote on wednesday pence though has already indicated that he would not exercise the amendment adding that attempts to impeach the president a damaging the country i do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our nation or consistent with our constitution i urge the congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment on the bridge it's really a continuation of the greatest which is your politics it's ridiculous i think it's a good thing tremendous danger to our country and it's causing tremendous danger. well as lawmakers attempt to remove trump from the white house the tech giants have already al

as method as methods to curb the struggle to contain infections reporting from paris he shouted to pinsky. that koofi starts at 6 pm in the evening and it will last until 6 am in the morning and that will come into force that we have time for almost saturday so this is because 900 cases still set in roy's inc here in florence we so 18000 cases on average every day being registered to french government had hoped that they be able to get it control ringback it hasn't so far now it means that shops will have to close to the public 6 pm in the evening that people will be able to stay in a little longer than that now there are fines if you are caught outside and don't have the right to say that you can be outside after 6 pm in the evening you will be fined $135.00 euros that's one of those defenses but if you do that several times during a month period say 3 times that will rise to $3750.00 euros and a possible 6 month jail sentence but the prime minister did for the moment to rule out a further lockdown suffer these exit apart from situations linked to public services or premises businesses a

branding the rollout sluggish fronts in particular has been in the firing line is on to show that the pinsky with more. france's vaccine has been rolled out and criticized by many is being done at as snail's pace in the weeks since that program has been rolled out only a few 100 is said to have had the job compare that say to germany where over 40000 people have already received the 1st inoculation now there are some reasons for that here in france you have to get written consent to have the 19 jab and of course there is this huge distrust of vaccines so 40 percent of people say that they will have the vaccine meaning around 60 percent of people who have responded to surveys here in france say they won't be having it now the government says that yes it's being cautious but this is a marathon not a sprint others though are saying that in needs to be more urgency there is still time to make up for this feeling of a sluggish start to vaccination it is a matter of urgency now to give an optimistic outlook now the e.u. has also come under fire for not altering enough vaccine 1st of all this criti

the rollout sluggish france in particular has been in the firing line his own as he showed it to pinsky with more. france's vaccine has been rolled out and criticized by many is being done as snail's pace in the weeks since that program has been rolled out only a few 100 is said to have had the job compare that say to germany where over 40000 people have already received the 1st inoculation now there are some reasons for that here in france you have to give written consent to have the 19 jab and of course there is this huge distrust of vaccines so 40 percent of people say that they will have the vaccine meaning around 60 percent of people who have responded to surveys here in france say they won't be having it now the government says that yes it's being cautious but this is a marathon not a sprint others though are saying that in needs to be more urgency there is still time to make up for this feeling of a sluggish start to vaccination it is a matter of urgency now to give an optimistic outlook now the e.u. has also come under fire for not altering enough vaccine 1st of all this critici

from france they were proposed last year in retaliation for paris taxing large tech firms charlotta pinsky reports. well this is a huge step down from washington that was due to impose these additional taxes over the last few days on french luxury goods such as handbags but also on things such as cosmetics that were exported to the u.s. this would have added some 25 percent to those products in terms of cost and would have brought in around $1300000000.00 in terms of additional taxes now this was all in a dispute over the so-called gaffa taxes is a tax france has been talking about imposing on digital giants here in france on the revenues and the profits that they create here in france this is tech companies such as amazon such as google facebook and the u.s. has long said that taxing these companies for their profits in france in france would have been unfair this is what the u.s. trade representative is now saying the u.s. trade representative has decided to suspend the tariffs in light of the ongoing investigation of similar digital service taxes adopted all under consideration in 10 ot

apparently because officials there are refusing to meet with him his affronts correspondent shouted to pinsky. well the trump era is coming to a close not only with the social media blackout for trouble things such as you tube and twitter but also it seems the cold shoulder for many of the cabinet take mike is the u.s. secretary of state who is due to be in europe on wednesday for some high level meetings including with the general secretary of nato he said in a tweet just a few hours ago that he was reading looking forward to those meetings essentially his sworn song for his counterparts in europe but at the very last minute the plug was pulled on the trip more you will the u.s. state department says the player who was a man who didn't recognize the victory over biting the u.s. election last year is now the man who wants to make sure that there is a smooth transition we are fully committed to the completion of a smooth transition process to be finalized over the next 8 days as a result we counseling all planned travel this week including the secretary's trip to europe it's a very different t

develop its own covert job has become a source of shame that for the political establishment quality pinsky has the details . france has a little in famous history when it comes to vaccinations i mean after all the so-called father of even your logy is louis pastor the french microbiologist so it's been a base of a blow that the institution that bears his name failed to find a viable vaccine it's described its own results as disappointing in these trials involving the 1st administration to humans the vaccine candidate was well tolerated but the immune responses in just by the vaccine were inferior to both those observed in individuals who recovered from natural infection and those observed with the vaccines currently authorized for covert 19 the vaccine they were attempting to produce was less effective than no natural immunity who hits hard and it seems the french are really feeling it the fear yes indeed it is real because when pastor rick cannot get out a dose of the vaccine that is amazing and so i think it is incompetence it's everywhere maybe there are too it's a competition between d

. >> good afternoon sir this is first class from pinsky penn state university. with renewed in dressed in space exploration do you think that thermal rockets will play a big part? >> that is a good question i think that the propulsion technology will be key. but whenever anybody asked me a question based on my experience, of the 40 years, it will be easier to build the rocket and spacecraft than to build the team. because the team is what will make missions happen. and when they talk about basically we're gonna have a program in 2024 and i say they better get building that team right now, because you're already behind the power curve. and the workforce, is the real key to success in any program. and we are blessed to have this marvelous space test group, with the experience brought in. today we don't have the broad experience, in the aircraft aerospace industry, you're going to have to rebuild leadership, that i was talking about and you have to establish a focus upon an objective, we have to get unity within our nation, and we have a lot of things that we have

benjamin pinsky is tracking this data. >> uk variant, i believe, is in over 60 countries now. the south african variant is in over 20 countries. so, despite limitations on travel. >> reporter: stanford's doctor blish is part of a group of infectious disease researchers who studies this virus as it mutates. >> an emergency call tomorrow to study these variants. >> reporter: the best way to prevent the virus and the variant of covid to spread is to vaccinate as many people as possible fast. >> it is quite reasonable to infer that we could see a surge. >> reporter: in san francisco, luz pena, abcnews. >>> city college of san francisco where 500 people received their shots. but the city finds itself facing the same problem many other communities are dealing with, a shortage of doses. california's promising to deliver another 10,000 next week. that is the number of people mayor london breed wants to vaccinate every day. the priority list could be changing with age moving past some of the essential sectors. >> our schools are still closed and we need to prioritize our educators and

pinsky says people need to continue to exercise caution, butthere is room for optimism as cases declinend vaccinations increase. >>> san francisco mayor london breed used her state of the city address today to praise san francisco's response to the pandemic, calling it a national mod well the lowest death rate of any major u.s. city. >> we were able to do this not just because our city government was collaborative, flexible, and full of dedicated public servants, though it is. we were able to do this not just because our hospitals, nursing homes and medical professionals are some of the best in the world, though they are. we did this because of you. we did this because of the sacrifices you made, the losses you endured, the love you showed for people you may never meet. >> mayor breed says san francisco will rebound from the pandemic by cutting red tape for small businesses, building more affordable housing and fighting homelessness. chronicle insider at abc7 contributor phil matier responded to the mayor's plan on our 4:00 newscast. >> right now the biggest challenge is getting the bus

pinski led this effort. >> i'm not too surprised at its progression, but certain leall the twists and turns have kept, i think, everyone on their toes. >> reporter: almost a month ago ucsf dr. charles chu found the variant in the bay area. he said it was just a matter of time for researchers to detect these two variants in our region. now, what's the difference between the california, the uk and the brazil variants? >> one of the key aspects of the variants that they have in common is all have mutations in the spike protein and is the critical region and allows the virus to infect cells. as a result, mutations in that region in the spike protein have been associated with possibly making a virus more transmissible. >> reporter: what gives dr. chiu some hope is more people getting vaccinated. he said this is the only way to stop these variants from spreading. >> it's not unexpected that we will start to see cases and very likely will start to see an increasing number of cases in the days to come. >> now medical experts tell me we need to strategically prioritize those regions where vari

pinski led this effort. >> i'm not too surprised at its progression, but certainly all the twists and turns have kept, i think, everyone on their toes. >> reporter: almost a month ago ucsf dr. charles chiu found the variant in the bay area. he said it was just a matter of time for researchers to detect these two variants in our region. now, what's the difference between the california, the uk and the brazil variants? >> one of the key aspects of the variants that they have in common is all have mutations in the spike protein and is the critical region that binds the cells and allows the virus to infect cells. as a result, mutations in that region in the spike protein have been associated with possibly making a virus more transmissible. >> reporter: what gives dr. chiu some hope is this, more people getting vaccinated. he said this is the only way to stop these variants from spreading. >> it's not unexpected that we will start to see cases and very likely will start to see an increasing number of cases in the days to come. >> now medical experts tell me we need to strategically priorit