Always controversial question. Hydroxychloroquine, its safe, its not safe. Whats happening . What is happening, liz . I dont know why this is resurfacing. People want hope, an answer. This is all sparked because a massive viral video went out that the president retweeted in which several positions wearing white coats in front of the Capital Building in washington, dc to make it look really legitimate, were talking about how hydroxychloroquine is a cure, curing patients in their clinics, but also talking about how masks didnt work is a lot of misinformation. No major body says it works. One video came out and said it worked on my patients and its a cure. The president should not have tweeted this video out. To london breed, its not a solution. Its misleading to tell the American People theres a cure for coronavirus. Its just not true. We dont have and theres no actua that. Esare jople sharinge l sh. Very true. But as you talk about, just people wanting anything they can cling to. Any kind of optimism, whats the latest with the vaccin . What is the latest right now . We have six two clinical trials. Its always really quick speed scientists are moving to get a vaccine out there. The latest is the me the first one to start in the united states. 30,000 adults, look to see if the vaccine protects People Better than placebo or no vaccine. Thats the first step we have to making sure we have a working vaccine by the end of this year and hopefully, for distribution to everyone middle next year, maybe. Good news. Middle of next year, maybe, for distribution. That was my next question i wanted to ask you about because weve been sort of hanging on to this hope of getting a vaccine, but then once we get this vaccine, who is going to be the first people to get it . I think that really depends on not only which vaccine actually becomes available first but what the distribution looks like, as you insinuated. Not everyone actually knows the answer to that. When we have a working vaccine, that could be by the end of the year. Some Companies Say they may have it by september. That doesnt necessarily mean everyone can get one but high e risk people or my workers or people working in a hospital may get it first, and then as the tears go down, the general public will get that and i think thats a really big question thats going to have to be addressed in the fall when we start to see results. Right, and then obviously, theres antivaxers. So much more to get into when that happens. Were already there. We are already there with antivaxers, unfortunately. Right, that is going to be a thing or is a thing, but lets just go rapid fire with some of our questions we get from viewers. If covid19 is airborne, this is anywhere, is anywhere safe anymore . Is airborne, is anywhere safe . A lot of places are safe depending how much ventilation you have and indoors less safe than outdoors. Think about how many people youre around and ventilation and how long youre in the space for. The inside of a restaurant is obviously different than if youre going in and out of a grocery store. It just depends on the risk factors in the close space youre in. But take the right precautions and youll be safe. Is it safe to breathe in your own co2 for long periods of time wearing a mask . You know, this is a myth that has to get debunked. So there is no proof at all that wearing a mask is going to elevate your co2 levels to a dangerous degree. And the real world evidence are surgeons Wearing Masks for 12 hours a day when theyre working shifts and theyve been doing it for decades where theyve got people in the Construction Industry or people in working industries where they wear these masks all day long. So there is absolutely no risk to elevated co2 or the humidity or getting any type of infection or anything from wearing a mask. Totally safe and recommended to wear one. Okay, our next question, account vircan the virus live in your carpet . I guess theoretically, it could live on your carpet for a small amount of time. We know it can survive on surfaces. That doesnt necessarily mean its the most transmissable from those surfaces. But if youve been exposed, take off your shoes, changing your clothes, doing your best you can to limit spreading it around your house. Shoutout to whoever asked that question, thats the first time i think ive heard that question. Its a good question. Think about how far you can transmit this thing in your house. Should i wear a mask while driving by myself . Thats something ive heard anecdotally. Why do i see people driving around alone wearing a mask . Whats your advice . Some people Wearing Masks if theyre quickly running from errand to errand. Ive seen a lot of ride share drivers Wearing Masks. Which i think is great, necessary practice, but if youre in your own space and even outside and distanced from everyone else and take a break to take your mask off. Youre perfectly safe, just remember to get it back on if you get around anyone else. Were geting so mating so ma questions today. If you have the antibodies, can you get it again . Thats something we dont even fully know yet. We dont fully know the answer to that yet, and thats kind of a testy one because a lot of studies look at how long the antibodies will last, some estimating the halflife or the antibody concentration at onehalf about three months. People with weaker symptoms or asymptomatic are less than those hospitalized, so times going to tell but we know over time your immunity will kind of wane. So thats why the vaccine is so important, its designed to give you the long lasting protection as opposed to the Natural Immunity you may get from a limited amount of time for actually getting coronavirus. Were talking about Antibody Tests. Do you recommend people go get one and this person is asking, where do i get one . Not Everyone Needs to get one. You know, its really designed for people who had symptoms in the past and really thought they had coronavirus or had an exposure and didnt get tested. One thing i wouldnt want anyone to do is just get an Antibody Test for fun or curiosity or an Antibody Test when you should be getting a viral test. The Antibody Test, again, is going to tell you you had a past infection and if youre concerned about this or think you should get one, i would chat with your doctor. Just to make sure you have the right information going into it and that its actually right for you because its not recommended for everyone. So this is sort of a broad question. We could do our whole show on, but give your kind of big picture headline on it. Do you think its safe to send our kids back to school in the fall . Big picture headline, is it absolutely depends on the School District, the community, transmission rate there, the age of your child, if your child has any other health risks. So the bottom line is regardless of what people hear in the national conversation, there is no one size fits all rule when it comes to reopening schools. It has to be done in a systemic way, and the cdc made a very bold statement about why they need to reopen. We all agree they need to reopen, at some rate. When its safe. But just like that, every School District needs to have their own set of variables to really consider how to do it without spiking cases. Keeping our teachers safe and staff too. Absolutely. Something else i want to ask you. Last week, california surpassed new york. Became the state with the most coronavirus cases in the country, we do have the largest population, and so per capita, i know we dont have the most cases but i think were kind of using that to justify why things are maybe okay right now. What is most concerning to you with what were seeing in california . Whats concerning to me is that we still have that test Positivity Rate around 7. 5 . It would be great to see that continuously going down. I know we have a state goal of lower than 8 , but its also concerning that were still seeing community transmission. People are getting tired right now, and the virus can literally spread from community to community in this massive state of ours and when you have one county thats doing a great job and another county next to it where transmission is high, all it takes is one little outbreak to get that county kind of spiking up again, which is why a lot of people are looking at San Mateo County and saying every county around San Mateo County is on the watch list and its only a matter of time before san mateo is as well. Whats concerning to me is that the virus is still here, and its still really ready to have an outbreak the minute we let our guard down. Thats what the virus wants, so we cannot let that happen. I mean, i was going to ask you about that. It is pretty remarkable that san mateo sort of clung on for this long. Why is it . What are they doing right . Im going to assume all the data recording for arguments sake, all the data recording is accurate because i did hear echoes that some of it is delayed from july 23rd, and so Governor Newsom thinks san mateo might wind up on the watch list. Lets assume its accurate. I heard theyve been strict about mask wearing and businesses and being strict about masks and the general public has been great in their behavior about preventing the risk, so that might be one factor. It also may be that people are physically distancing better. Im not 100 sure, but again, their per capita rate is starting to cross that threshold that the rest of the counties on the watch list are, so its only a matter of time unfortunately, unless something drastic happens. I think we have about 30 seconds before we go to break. My question, dr. Patel, is a face mask better than a face shield . Does it really make a difference . It does make a difference because the face mask, when worn properly, will provide a better seal. The face shield is not ineffective, but you have to think about the fact you can get transmission all around your face shield. When in doubt, you can wear both of them because youll have added a added eye protection. A face mask will be more effe effective. I wear them both in high risk situations. That makes sense. I have a friend about to fly and ready to mask up on several friends. I flew and i was like. We see that picture. Stick with us, were about to take a break. Well keep chatting on facebook but up next, we get a first look at an abc special tonight, american catastrophe, how did welcome back. Abc is airing a special tonight called american catastrophe how did we get here . I spoke with cecilia vega about it and heres a look at the special and my conversation. If you watch on facebook live, feel free to leave a comment at how you think we got here. Testa million and a half peo here tonight. Im a pretty easy low key person. I was at home with my wife and a couple friends. Welcome another new year together. It was first time in a long time that i had an opportunity to get my whole family back together and were going to spend new years eve and the day after together. Cooking dinner, celebrating new years and then just went to bed. I did get a phone call from my colleagues at cdc that there was a mysterious new pneumonia. Chinese Health Authorities are still working to identify the virus behind a pneumonia outbreak in the central city of wuhan. This interesting new respiratory infection. We didnt know what it was. It was obviously concerning. The chinese at the time were saying it was just a jumping of species from the wet market. And the wet market was thought to be the source. It was bing bing, back and forth. It was very clear i was on the phone with bob a lot. Both of us agreed that this looks, smells and almost certainly is the new coronavirus and the question is, what are we going to do about it . Joining me now are bay area girl, abc news senior white house correspondent, cecilia vega. So good to see you. Hi, its so good to see you and talk to everybody at home. Hey guys. All right, so a lot has happened in the past few years, since we covered the 2016 election. A lot happened in the past six months. Im looking forward to this special tonight. Here in california, we now have most cases of any state in the country and i think a lot of us are wondering, how did we get here . So what did you find . Liz, this is a three month investigation that the team here and the Investigative Team did and we really just pulled the curtain back because i think this is six months in, the question everyone is asking, how is it possible that we got to this point and is it going to get any better Going Forward and i got to tell you, the results of this investigation surprised me. I mean, you mentioned it. Im at the white house on the front lines of this every day and what we found was pretty shocking. There was no shortage, there were no shortage of alarm bells that were sounded and raised and we go all the way back initially to china. So we go into wuhan at the very beginning of this pandemic and we look at the cases that were happening there and frankly, the lack of transparency that we were getting as an International Community from the Chinese Government and our Health Care Workers here in this country and investigators were not allowed to go into china to see for themselves what was happening there, so that was red flag number one. But then you fast forward to what was happening here domestically and youll remember at the time, at the very beginning of this back in february, President Trump was saying publicly, you dont have to worry about this. Its all just going to disappear like a racle. We go behind the sces what was E Administration and we look at decisions that were made like the cut to the pandemic Planning Office at the National Security council and you could see the direct correlation, that thread, the result of that cut to where we are today, and we pulled back curtain on the socalled red dawn emails, a chain of emails, multiple emails written by Health Care Professionals inside thE Administration, out of thE Administration, National Security experts who just sounded the alarm over and over again about what they were seeing in china and how this could end up being basically a once in a generation pandemic, a Global Pandemic unlike any wed seen before, and then you ask yourself, how did all this happen . Youve got to remember back in january, this was an administration that was dealing with an impeachment. So pandemic wasnt on the front burner at the time and here we are now six months later. Just to let you know something i find striking, how political this pandemic has become. Its political to wear a mask now. So from all the experts you spoke to, how much is attributed to some of the rhetoric from the white house versus other factor, china, for instance, as you mentioned . Yeah, this has been a problem from day one. This kind of nasty fight in terms of where we are right now between politics and science and i think you and i both know from covering the story, its politics that has won out often. Were in an election year, no doubt about it. But the Health Experts we talked to and spoke to so many of them. We sit down with dr. Fauci for this hour. We sit down with dr. Robert redd fie field, head of the cdc. People inside thE Administration, outside thE Administration, and, you know, for some of them, i think there is a sense of frustration when it comes to the politics thats happening. Ea when it comes to wearing ay mask, masks save lives. It sort of seems crazy we have to keep saying that over and over but we do because these cases, as you know, whats happening in california, are skyrocketing and spiking once again and Health Experts like fauci say were only halfway through this. Its going to get worse before it gets better. Long delays in getting results and the messaging from the covid19 task force is that this isnt a problem. Why is there this discrepancy . Well, there is a problem. I mean, theyre sort of black and white when it comes to this. The messaging can be one thing but the reality on the ground, as you guys know, youve been covering this, is another. This is not a biassed statement to say it is unacceptable that a test should take two weeks to get the results back. That just refutes the entire purpose of having testing. For me, one of the big surprises, i think, in this special tonight is to hear the director of the cdc concede, admit that mistakes were made, that balls were dropped early on, as it relates to testing in this country. Youll remember back when the cdc was mandating that its tests were the first round ones to be used and those didnt even work. That was a huge problem in california. In this special, youll hear him address that and some of the things he says might surprise you. Thanks, cecilia vega, for that interview and you can watch american catastrophe how did we get here . Tonight right here on abc7. Should be pretty fascinating. When we come im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. If youre age 5085 and looking to buy Life Insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. The three what . The three ps . What are the three ps . The three ps of Life Insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. 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