Transcripts For KGO ABC 7 News Coronavirus Getting Answers 2

So let me introduce you. Joining us today to help you get answers is right now employment attorney Angela Wright and dr. Peter hong, an Infectious Disease specialist at ucsf here in San Francisco. Good to see you both back with us. Great to be back. Thank you. Let me start with you becaus this is very timely. Protesters in big cities this past weekend gathered to demand that their governors open up the economy. Some states like georgia saying today some limited openings will happen this weekend, but i read a New York Times article saying that testing needs to triple before we can do that safely. So, what are your thoughts on that . Kristen, weve been talking about this on and off on this show and you know, we still havent been at the levels of testing that we really need. And again, its like were operating in a black box all with waxen eyes. I mean, i cant tell you if our if we relax shelter in place how we would be doing because we dont have sensitive measures of whats going on in the community. Similarly on the east coast with these protesters, again, its hard for people to see whats going on in the community because again, this is an invisible virus and people transmit before they have symptoms and you cant look at someone to tell you if they are sick or not and you need thats why we need testing. In fact, i read another article, peter, that says for every one person who tests positive, you might assume there are 50 to 80 more cases out there that we dont know about. How reliable are studies like that, really . I think thats a little bit on the high side. I think a conservative estimate, like, you know, some colleagues at ucsf and stanford have come up with a more like times two to three, and you can think about it with statistically, think about with Infectious Diseases called r naught. Its like the number of people, one person generally infects around them and for sars cov2 that causes covid19, its about three as opposed to measles, which is about ten. So that kind of gives you a sense of the number of people in a circle who may be affected. So i think that, you know, its somewhere in between those two numbers. Based on where we get testing rolled out. Of course, if you have testing rolled out like in south korea, in the community, which is some communities in the united states, you know, that unknown will be a little bit lower. Right. Theyre starting to test everybody. We can talk about that more in a little bit. Angela, whats very timely in your area of expertise is this. End of last week talking about how that 349 billion program for Small Business and individuals, that money has run out. However, were hearing theres a new round that congress and the white house are close to passing, so can you talk about how that package might look like and how that might help Small Businesses and individuals . Okay. Well, we dont know the details as of yet, but we do know that congress and the white house are considering a second and ive heard even rumors of a possible third stimulus package, and what im hearing from the congressional folks here in los angeles is last week, they did, and the week before, they did a number of town Hall Meetings to actually speak with their constituents both individuals and businesses, and even church and nonprofit leaders to understand what their conditions were, what their positions were, how did they apply for funds and what were the challenges in the and what banks for businesses and churches and nonprofits, what banks they were applying to through, and what their experiences were. And so i know one of the congresswomen here in particular says shes planning to take that information back as they vet a second stimulus bill to make sure they try to address and make the process easier the second time around. And also, to make sure that the dollars actually reach those who they were intended to reach. So, on the individual side, reaching the lowincome employees, or the employee thats been laid off or furloughed and on the business side, actually meeting the needs and incorporating and making sure Small Businesses have an opportunity to access those funds. All right, angela, and i want to ask you Something Else that im seeing in the news, which is this past weekend, we heard about some firings of workers who spoke up against conditions at their company. Amazon being one of them. What rights do essential workers have during this time . Oh, essential workers have the same rights as nonessential workers and workers have all the time. And thats the right to work in a safe environment, an environment that meets all the requirements for osha as well as our state and our federal labor laws, and a right that when they speak up, if they feel that somethings wrong or that theyre not being fully protected in this instance as being provided the health and safety requirements that they need, that when they speak up, that they will not be retaliated against, and so the right to protest and the right to note when you feel that your employers not doing what it should do in terms of creating a safe environment, that right should be protected and individuals should not be retaliated against for speaking up. All right. Before we take a break, i want to ask a question of each of you from our viewers and those questions are just pouring in right now. For peter, a medical question or a health question. Thomas is asking, i live in a large apartment building. Can the virus spread through the buildings ventilation . Thats a great question, thomas. And i think a lot of people in the Community Ask that question because, of course, there have been media reports of finding virus in vents and things like that. Theres no evidence that, when we find these viruses out in the air or whatever that they are live because were not really culturing all these viruses. What we know about this virus comes from, you know, right now, weve had quite a few clinical studies and the main transmissions that have been documented have been documented in the traditional way, which is, again, that droplet coming from the infected persons mouth or nose, being a little heavy, and falling within three feet. So if you stand six feet above beyond or wear a mask if youre close by and you cant control social distance, youre generally going to be safe and i stick with that pretty much because again, it acts like other stuff that i know about. All right. Thanks, peter. Angela, rachel is asking, i applied for unemployment on march 15th and they sent me papers telling me that what i would receive, but i havent gotten a dime. So now what . Simply, rachel, im really sorry to hear thats happened to you and unfortunately, thats the case with so many others who have had to apply for unemployment. And the simple answer is, our edd office, our Employment Development Department Office which administers Unemployment Benefits is just backed up. Theyve been overwhelmed by the number of requests both from traditional employees as well as independent contractors that have been applying for these benefits and that qualify for the benefits. So, we know that will Governor Newsom is aware of this and has different press conferences. Hes addressed the issue and said that hes asked the e. D. D. To expand their telephone hours as well as their office hours, asked them to increase the capacity on their website so that people can get through, asking former e. D. D. Employees to come back and work during this temporary situation. So, my best advice is just to continue calling, continue trying to get through on the website, and individuals are getting through, but it may take a full day, some hours, or days in some instances. Hopefully well start to see some reprieve in a short time. Yeah, all right, patience is needed, but you know, who can afford that patience . Its frustrating. Right. But angela, thanks for that answer. Peter, angela, lets take our conversation over to our live streams. Well take a short break on air but of course the show never stops on our live streams. Were continuing to answer more questions so join unemployment as uber lyft. Lets go with that. Welcome back, we are on air with employment attorney general angela reddockwright of the Reddock Law Group and dr. Peter chinhong, professor of medicine at ucsf. I want to address this one to you, angela. Kevin wants to know, can i apply for unemployment as an uber lyft driver . Please answer because i tried asking last question but of course we had to cut our answers short and our conversation short. But can he . Absolutely. Thats part of what the federal stimulus act provides, also called the c. A. R. E. S. Act, that individuals who normally would not qualify for Unemployment Benefits such as independent contractors or gig economy workers such as uber and lyft drivers and postmates drivers and so forth, that they can apply for unemployment benefit s through the expanded c. A. R. E. S. Act or federal stimulus act. All right. Thats a good one. Now we have one for peter. Al is asking, when do you think testing will be available to all of us in california . Boy, i bet you wish you had an answer to that. I mean, sometimes i dream about that at night. You know, i just pinch myself in the morning when i wake up because its that day still hasnt arrived. But theres some progress. I mean, like you mentioned, in some communities, through various initiatives, the whole community is going to be screened so you hear about bal inas. The mission in San Francisco is another community thats going to be screened at some point soon but these are the exception rather than the rule and im im just continuing to be hopeful every day and im not sure when that will happen. It is one of Gavin Newsoms six conditions, so im hoping that that will stimulate people to begin being creative about how do we roll is this out on a large scale. Okay. Here is a question i think that a lot of people will be interested in, angela. Glen is asking, im over heeded the governors spare the air stay at home order. Am i eligible for unemployment or Disability Insurance . For sure unemployment if you were working and youre not working now because of the state orders. You can apply for Unemployment Benefits because youve essentially been furloughed or required to work from home or not to go into work so you definitely qualify for unemployment. Disability will depend on whether youve tested positive for the virus or some other illness or other sickness or illness that could lead to disability or be qualified as a disability. So, that, you would need to first start with your doctor and then if it qualifies as a sickness or illness, then you could possibly apply for disability benefits. All right, angela, thank you so much for that. Peter, heres another one thats coming in for you from jennifer. She says, some places are charging a lot of money, 205, for Antibody Tests. Are those tests trustworthy . Thats an interesting one because i also read an article today in the New York Times about a lot of false negatives with some of the tests out there, and im not sure were talking about the same thing, but it sounds like theres a lot of unreliability. Yeah, so, its a very complex issue for the following reasons. Number one, there are about a hundred different tests so it depends on which company you use. Not all of them are fda approved. Not all of them are specific for covid19 because there are other coronaviruses, for example, that cause the common cold that could cross react with some of the platforms. The good ones are specific for covid19. The other issue is we dont know what it means yet. Sure, weve heard about italy, you know, germany, for example, maybe using them as a pass to go back to work, but again, we dont know what it means. We dont know how long it lasts. And you know, whos going to get the antibodies. Okay. Yeah, more questions than answers at this point, right, peter . Okay. Angela, heres one coming in for you from sara. She says, ive been unemployed since december and i have a new job now but im not able to start until the ordinance is lifted due to training, so will i get the extra 600 to help me out . Right now, im only getting 450. Thats a good question. So, you would qualify for Unemployment Benefits because youre not currently working and part of what the c. A. R. E. Act does is extends Unemployment Benefits to individuals who were about to start a job such ass i your instance or had been hired but then were not able to start work due to the current pandemic so yes, for sure, you should apply for Unemployment Benefits to get that expanded 600 per week benefit. Okay. This one for peter. Mike is asking, i need surgery for nonlife threatening condition. When can i expect that surgeries be allowed again in most hospitals . Thats a great question. I think it depends on the institution and at ucsf, for example, we are starting by sort of like unleashing testing of asymptomatic people who are coming in for surgery, so again, i would, even though your original hospital might have given you the an unclear date for when that surgery might occur, i would call them again and ask them because things are changing. All right. Sounds good. Well do that. Natasha wants to know, i am on social security, i got my stimulus check deposited in bank account on the 15th. Im sorry, thats a response to somebody elses question. Heres another one from nancy that i think would be relevant for you, angela. Based on the Current Events and its predictions, is im sorry. Im totally jumping all over the place, all these facebook answers, comments, theyre jumping because theyr coming up so quickly before i can finish reading one, but what i actually really want to know is this one, which is nancy asking, my husband is a 1099 contractor, we filed but the benefits came back as zero because it shows no earnings so how do we get his earnings to edd right now . So, i cant detect whether shes talking about Unemployment Benefits or the federal stimulus benefits thats going to every taxpayer that falls within a certain category. Do you think its related to Unemployment Benefits . I dont know. You know what . I can reply to her during our commercial break and see if we can get more detail on that. Yeah, because Unemployment Benefits, if he can show that he has been furloughed or been separated from his employment or had his hours reduced in some way, even if hes an independent contractor, then he should be able to apply for Unemployment Benefits. The federal stimulus dollars, the 1,200 to individuals or 2,400 to couples, thats based on your annual income as reported in your 2018 or your 2019 tax returns. Got it. So if it came back as zero, if thats what shes talking about and it came back as zero, maybe they make too much money to qualify. She said, yes, unemployment. Thats what she meant. Unemployment. So, yes, he should be able to apply for the Unemployment Benefits. Okay. I think base Unemployment Benefits, the state benefit on how much you were making, so if he wasnt making anything, maybe he hasnt paid into unemployment or hasnt paid into it for a while, and so that might limit what hes able to get. Got it. By the way, it was nancy and nancy says, thank you, angela. Okay. Peter, angela, lets take this conversation over online to our live streams, keep those questions [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. Grubhub. Together we can help save the restaurants we love. All right, were back on air with employment attorney angela redd reddocwright and dr. Peter chinhong, an Infectious Disease specialist and professor of medicine at ucsf. Lets start with you because San Francisco officials today showed a map showing data in which we see which zip codes here in San Francisco, which neighborhoods have the highest infection rates and number of cases per number of residents. Can you talk about how that illustrates some of the socioeconomic disparities that were seeing with this disease . First of all, i would say that the map is not surprising to me, and when i looked at it, it actually looked like deja vu all over again because thats not just for covid19. We see very similar maps for other diseases like asthma, diabetes, other chronic diseases, so it made very it was not surprising that covid19 is over is overlaid in the exact same distribution of where the hot zones for infection are in San Francisco county itself. By the way, i should say those areas seem to be south market number one where theres a large homeless shelter and number two, the mission district. Go on. Correct. Its just because many of the risk factors for getting the disease, again, if you remember how it gets to you, it falls within you have to be distance to really get it and not wearing protection, like a mask, if you cant control it. So, there are multiple reasons why theres this disparity. First of all, people cant control their social distancing or the environment many times. Number two, its a luxury to work from home. Many of the hightech companies did that even before shelter in place, but if you think about our frontline workers, our food services, i worry about this early on, actually, i was going to safeway, and i was looking at my cashier and people packaging things in the shelves, and they werent wearing any masks and there were lots of people walking by them and this was during shelter in place, so again, thats a challenge for a lot of people. Absolutely. Its not easy to wash your hands during the day. You are out and about. How do you wash your hands in between . You cant even buy Hand Sanitizer in walgreens anymore so multiple challenges speci