bob wachter. a local community sending firefighters to california to help with hospitals, which are overflowing with patients. first, the deadly hit and run in san francisco on new year's eve. troy mcalister, the suspect, made his first court appearance on homicide charges in the deaths of the two women pedestrians. the fallout over this tragedy is getting more intense. joining us to talk more about it is retired san francisco miss commander and current university of san francisco law professor rick koreaa. >> i'm not a law professor. i wouldn't want to upset those people over there. >> i think they might have used that in a tweet. perhaps in an honorary way. we're happy you're here all the same. we agree this is just a real tragedy. where there is disagreement is who was responsible other than the driver. a parolee charged with stealing the car he hit those women with. >> here when mr. mcalister was arrested on december 209, the san francisco police department neglected to even notify his parole

what is the hold up to help us try to make sense of the issues we welcome in doctor bob wachter chair of the department of medicine at ucsf leading pandemic expert. >>in the u.s. see also has a new job and we'll get to that momentarily. doctor wachter thanks for being with us on a friday night i presume in i don't know a couple months you'll be on here talking about how people need to trust the vaccine and go get vaccinated but at this point you have more people who want it who can't get it. what do you see as the one or 2 biggest problems here. >>i think you're raising one of the most interesting things about the vaccine. we will have this period over the next 2, 3, months. >>there there is a massive demand and inadequate supply and then so time i think it's probably going to be april or we will >>into having an effect seen in trying to assure the people that people get it. the problem so far has been that the we've not reverse the last mile very well meaning the government today amazing job getting these vaccines produce incredibly safe amazingly effective vaccines. and did a nice j

>>investigating this case ucsf chair medicine that is doctor bob wachter says that folks who die soon after receiving the vaccination is simply a coincidence in a tweet today he emphasized that sometimes that it does happen. walker says it is more important to focus on the thousands of folks who are dying every single day who would have been saved by those vaccines. in a separate tweet doctor wachter says even if you are fully vaccinated it is important to stay vigilant. latest research shows that getting fully vaccinated does not mean that you're 100% protected. >>the cdc has released new numbers on the allergic reactions to the moderna and pfizer vaccine. the cdc says during a 20 day period. 10 people reported having a severe life threatening allergic reaction after getting the moderna vaccine. just for perspective that was 10 cases out of 4 million doses. the cdc says during a seven-day period, 21 people reported having a severe reaction to the pfizer vaccine and for perspective there that was out of 21 cases out of nearly 2 million doses the cdc says 71% of these reactions happene

multiple agencies actively investigating this case uses self's share a medicine that is doctor bob wachter says that folks who die soon after receiving the vaccination. >>is a coincidence in a tweet today, he emphasized that sometimes that it does happen. doctor wachter says it is important to focus on the thousands of people dying each and every day who would have been saved by those vaccines. in a separate we doctor wachter says even if you are fully vaccinated it is important to stay vigilant. latest research shows that getting fully vaccinated does not mean a 100% protection. >>the cdc has released new numbers on the allergic reactions to the moderna and pfizer vaccine. the cdc says during a 20 day period. 10 people reported having a severe life threatening allergic reaction after getting that vaccine. for perspective that was 10 cases out of 40 excuse me 4 million doses that administered at the time. this isis says during a seven-day period, 21 people reported having a severe reaction to the pfizer vaccine and for perspective that was 21 cases out of nearly 2 million doses were admini

doctor bob wachter with the ucsf school of medicine says the surge along with 2 other factors are calling what he calls. the trifecta of trouble. >>you have the combination of this is really big surge and 2003 1000 people a day dying. multiplied times the vaccine distribution being far slower than anybody want to deter had anticipated. and the 3rd element of the trifecta is this new variant which is now quite clearly more infectious than the virus we've been dealing with for the past year. >>walker says that if a mutated strain that's more contagious to told here in the u.s. we could be forced to reexamine covid-19 protocols, including swapping out cloth mask for surgical mask and increasing social distancing from 6 to 8 feet. in the south bay tonight, 8 staff members at saint louise regional hospital in gilroy have now tested positive for covid-19. management says the infected workers work in the intensive care unit along with the emergency room. the hospital has reportedly struggled to keep up with growing covid patients among patients even sending some of those patients to other hospit

but officials at ucsf say they are in the middle of its biggest surge during the pandemic doctor bob wachter with ucsf so they are currently treating 83 covid patients, including 14 currently on ventilators walker says that ucsf surge is keeping them busy. but it's not stressing their capacities just yet. the city is seeing an average of 237 new covid cases a day which is down from a peak of 290. more than 11,000 folks in los angeles county have now died from covid-19 today leaders reporting more than 200 new deaths which now pushing that limit to more than 11,000. more than 13,000 new cases also being reported tonight. more than 7,000 folks in are currently being treated for the virus in la county hospitals. the situation there so dire that health care providers say they are now running low on equipment. ambulance crews are also being told not to transport folks who have little chance of survival. >>new concerns tonight over fraud involving covid relief money, the economic development department a state agency has been sending now several letters to people about important financial help. th

surge will soon be felt even harder here in the bay area ucsf director of medicine that's doctor bob wachter says the surge on top of 2 other factors are creating what he calls. the trifecta of trouble. >>you have the combination of this is really big surge and 2003 1000 people a day dying. multiplied times the vaccine distribution being far slower than anybody want to deter and had anticipated. and the 3rd element of the trifecta is this new variant which is now quite clearly more infectious than the virus we've been dealing with for the past year. >>walker says that if this more contagious strain does take hold here in the u.s. it could force many of us to rethink our covid-19 safety protocols that would include swapping out cloth mask for surgical mask and increasing the distance of social distancing from 6 to 8 feet. >>well in health care workers in santa clara colnty are expressing similar concerned that a post holiday surge in covid cases could be what pushes their health care facility to a breaking point as kron four's gayle ong reports hospitals worry that soon they will not have eno

bob wachter. he writes "far better than 100 million whoo are 80% protected than 50 million people that are 95% protected particular lay as we are taking on a foe that is smarter and nastier. at least it seems to way to me." in the uk that theory hats been knead moo policy especially the country just approved the oxford astrazeneca vaccine which has a reported 73% efficacy with one dose and a booster at 12 weeks instead of four. >> we recognize that extension to 12 weeks allows us to get the vaccine to more people and protect larger parts of the community. >> reporter: in the united states, that recommendation to lengthen the time between the doses has not been made, even as more cases of the new variant appear amid post holiday surge. >> reporter: dr. tyler evans the deputy public health officer in marin county says deviating from the prescribed regimen would be risky. >> it's an interesting thought but the evidence just really isn't there. >> reporter: with lower efficacy more people who get the

but we'll have to see >> brangham: all right d bob wachter, uc san francisco school of medicine, tnk you very much. >> thank you. 7 >> woodruff: we return to president trump's hour-long phone call with georgia' secretary of state this weekend. it raised number of legal questions. for some answers, we turn to again to rick hasen. he's an election law professor at the university of california- irvine, and author of the book "election meltdown." professor hasen, welcome back to the newshour, as somebody wh studies election law what was your reen you listen to this? >> well, my first reaction was i can't believe it's january and 2020 election.alking about the not the runoff but the actual election that we held in november. i t that the statements of the president were outrageous. he was clearly trying to pressure the georgia secretary of state to manufacture votes, to flip the results of the elecon based on no evidence. it was really the kind of election fraud that he hasn opiniling about for years. an here we have the whole thing on tape. it's just-- it is a very sad ment for american d