Health officials in Contra Costa County are stepping up free covid testing. Now even though they say mixing with those outside someones household is still a risky idea. Rob roth heard from Public Health officers today and gins us now with more. Rob . Reporter yeah, heather, on one hand Health Officials are urging people to stay home over thanksgiving, but theyre also saying if youre going to visit, get tested first. Cars lined up in this parking lot in concord Tuesday Morning for what the Contra Costa Health department calls testing for turkey. This family recently lost their grandfather to covid and know too well the horrors of the virus. We just want to be safe. Were going to meet some family over the holidays, and we want to protect ourselves and protect them, as well. Reporter this is one of 13 sites in Contra Costa County offering free covid testing. The push now is to get people tested before thanksgiving, and possibly exposing others. While inviting everyone that you gather with to get tested doesnt guarantee your safety, it can reduce the risk and is a smart added protection to safely celebrating during the holidays. Reporter like the majority of bay area counties, contra costa fell back into the most restrictive purple tier tuesday. The covid numbers are trending in the wrong direction. In the past month, the rate of positive tests has nearly doubled to 3. 9 people per 100,000 people tested, and more than twice as many are being hospitalized for covid. Contra costa county like all of california is entering a time of heightened danger. Reporter Health Officials realize theyre sending a somewhat mixed message. They are adamant the best way to stop the spread of the coronavirus is to stay home over the hole days, but realizing many may not follow that advice, they are urging people to get tested, even though thanksgiving is still 9 days out. Its true that testing rite now right now only tells your status right now, not 7 or 8 days from now. Reporter dr. Peter chin hong. Were fearing there will be test reagents gain like early in the pandemic, because there hasnt been a National Strategy a national distribution. Reporter in a way, thanksgiving is somewhat of a dry run, because over the christmas holidays, the urge for visiting should be even greater. Heather . Rob, from the pictures though today it seems as though a lot of people are going to be interested in getting tested before the holidays. Rob roth, thank you so much. Santa clara county are among those now adjusting to the return of purple tier restrictions. This 24hour fitness in san jose was still opened this morning, where people were getting in one last workout before indoor activities like gyms and restaurants will be shut down. They will all have to move their operations outdoors. The same is true for religious services movie theaters, and museums. People we spoke with were disappointed, and not everyone agrees with the move. They say theyre going to try to move it outside in the middle of winter doesnt make sense. There is plenty of room in there to stay six feet apart. Just doesnt seem fair. You know, its a bit disappointing not being able to come to the gym and get your workout in. However, anybody the name of public safety, man. Santa clara, napa, and contra costa counties began tightening their restrictions today. Alameda county starts tomorrow. Sonoma county is already there. Only San Francisco, san mateo, and marin counties are not in the purple tier root now. Governor newsom said he is considering enacting a curfew for california to try slow the spread of covid19, and said he is studying other places that have already put curfews in place. Allie rasmus explains what that might look like, and why businesses and other critics are skeptical. I have on my desk, quite literally, three studies from france, germany, and saudi arabia, interestingly, that is done comprehensive studies on the efficacy of their strategies as it relates to curfews. U. S. States that have some type of curfew in place include mass place with a 10 00 p. M. Curfew for restaurants. New jersey has an alcohol only 10 00 p. M. Curfew. There there are a lot of cities, large and small, all across the country, that also are promoting certain kinds of curfews. All of that is being assessed. We want to socialize that. We have a lot of questions about what that looks like what that doesnt look like, who does it impact, who doesnt it impact. Does a real curfew mean in terms of just certain kind of industry and business activities. Thats what were referring to. Reporter but new york city still allows Indoor Dining in some restaurants. Californias rules are already more strict with no Indoor Dining allowed and counties in the purple tier and most bars already closed across our state. Critics of this idea wonder whether a curfew in these businesses is even necessary. I think this talk of a curfew really breeds fear into people, and thats not what we want to do. Reporter so curfews in other parts of the country and world have they helped . Need more info, evidence based, for curfew being a great Public Health interception. Dont know. Think were just learning right now. The fact that hes considering curfew as an additional step beyond that, think makes me confident that they have a plan b and a plan c in place if things continue to not go well. Okay Governor Newsom has not given a timeline so far, if he decide, to do it. Coronavirus cases across the country are still surging with roughly 100,000 new infections each day. In the past week, 1 million new cases were added to the nationwide total. Which is now well over 11 million cases. Hospitalizations have reached an average of 3500 per day. States including north dakota and wisconsin are facing reduced Hospital Capacity and Staff Shortages its tough to maintain my office staff and, you know, to stay positive and strong. We all try. Pfizer said it could seek an emergency use authorization for its covid19 vaccine within a few days. The vaccine, though, must be transported and stored at extremely cold temperatures as we have been reporting. The company, though, has developed deep freeze containers to hold the shipments and hospitals right now are working to secure ultracold freezers that could cost about 20,000 apiece. California lawmakers get an all expenses paid trip to maui. Still to come, well tell you who went and who is paying for it, all while state leaders are asking you to stay at home. Plus were going to talk with an Infectious Disease expert about the latest vaccine news. Pfizer now getting ready to apply for that emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine. What that means, coming up. And in bay area weather, the second storm in less than a week moving in from north to south, still track something scattered light rain showers this afternoon, but what about tomorrow . Well take a your unsettled forecast coming up. We have the power to harness californias abundant wind and solar energy, but its not available all day long. Use less from 4 to 9 pm and we can protect california for generations to come. Well, bay area weather, weve been tracking a second storm of the week moving in from the north to the south. This is sort of the pattern weve been waiting for. Weve been talking so much about the record heat and fire danger. Its nice to bring in some rainfall. Not tremendous amounts of rainfall, but still a bit of a change to talk about, what you would expect for the month of november. Taking a look at the rainfall totals, as we look thats maps right now. Were showing you the amounts, picking up quite a bit in san rafael, approaching a half an inch of rain. San francisco. 18. Other areas not picking up much at all. Oakland. 05, and san jose just reporting trace amounts. Clouds over sfo, and a lot of names right now still reporting light to moderate rain for your tuesday. Shear are the radar imagery throughout the day. This is just over the past six hours. You can see the progression of that green, move in from the north and spreading to the south. As we come in closer, you can see closer to morgan hill and gilroy. In fact, 101, we have wet roadways for this portion of the bay area. Moving the maps around, more scattered in nature, but looks like more coverage closer to san ramon, dublin, and livermore. Some breaks for the eastern portion of San Francisco, out towarddown, but then looks like more Development Just offshore, closer to ocean beach, and then up in the north bay. There you can see some of the Tropical Storm for southern marin. A winter storm warning in place right now, so the snowfall will continue to pick up as we head into tonight and tomorrow morning. There is the progression of that front moving in from the north to the south. So this pattern, the front moves through later on this evening, but it looks like were going to van unsettled forecast as we head into your wednesday. So sierra snowfall, a winter storm warning in place, and then were going to be talking about some more showers in your wednesday forecast. Well have more on that with your full update coming up in just a little bit. California lawmakers jet off to hawaii during the pandemic for an in person conference, and theyre facing a lot of criticism for it. Tom vacar joins me now live with reaction to this trip, that comes as Health Officials have issued travel warnings. Wow. Well either we all try to live under the same rational rules, or we invite covid chaos. There are reports that as many as six california legislators along with lawmakers from some other states, as well as a large group of lobbyists, flew off to maui, hawaii, for an annual conference and fund raiser for the nonprofit independent voter project. This is being done at a time when certainly being directed to hunker down. Last week the governor went to a nancy Wine Country GroupBirthday Party with many others and later apologized. Professor john palisaro is at santa claras mark coola center for applied ethics. Gathers of legislators and lobbyists doesnt seem to fit the criteria of essential travel during a pandemic. Reporter steven mince teachers ethics. Conferencing being held on zoom. School is being held by zoom. So why they have to go to hawaii to have a conference. But it clearly wasnt an ethical response, an ethical thing to do. They havent Assembly Speakers press secretary told me they have no information on which legislators might have gone. The independent voter project told reporters it would not release the legislators names. Yet one of its key missions listed on its website says we believe democracy functions best when the most people participate and representatives should be accountable for their entire community, not just their party. Its likely to impact the trust that the voters placed in these elected legislators at the time of their election. Its a case of do as i say, not as i do. Its just ill thought out, and i dont think theres any excuse that they have cabin fever, or theyre tired of it all. We all are. So its very hypocritical to expect the public to do these sort of things. Optics are a good statement about ethics. You want to lead with example. Reporter here are some public responses. Well, they live in a different world than we do. They like to pass on the rules, but not live by the rules. Reporter norman said his family has been going to hawaii for the last two weeks in december for the last 17 years. This is the first year were pretty much decide were going to postpone it and not go, just because of the safety aspect. We called and wrote the independent voter project, but we have not heard back just yet. Tom vacar, ktvu fox 2 news. All right, tom, thank you very much. Joining us to talk more about some of the latest news surrounding the coronavirus outbreak in this country, dr. John schwarzberg, an expert in Infectious Diseases and vaccines at u. C. Berkeley. Could to have you on here today. Lets start on the vaccine front. We had all of the positive news that has come out both this week and last week, and now word today, im sure you heard, pfizers ceo said the company is very close to submitting for an emergency use authorization with the federal government for its covid vaccine. What does this signal to us . Does this mean they have resolved any questions about the safety of the vaccine and theyre ready to submit that data . Well, they initially reported on maybe four or five cases of people who got covid, and thats where they got the 90 efficacy rating, and they said they were going to go up to 165 patient with covid, so an approximately 70 more. I suspect since there is so much covid going around right now, they were quickly able to get to that number or close to that. When they get to that number, theyll break the numbers down and look at it. The numbers look anywhere near as good as they looked week ago, last monday, theyre going to apply for the u. A. Once they submit that application, how long will it take federal regulators to review that complication make a decision . Well, in a nonpandemic world, it would take quite a while, but in the world were in right now, where were so in need of a vaccine, i suspect its going to be very quick. I wouldnt be surprised if it isnt within a couple of weeks that they submit for the u. A. And thats why were talking about rolling out vaccines potentially by december here. Obviously we have talk aid bit of before, but some major challenges, especially with distributing the Pfizer Vaccine, because it has to be stored as these extremely cold temperatures here. Are you worried that that fact, in the long run, could potentially slow the distribution of the vaccine to the general public . Well, im glad theres going to be another choice want least one more choice besides the Pfizer Vaccine, i think, and the Moderna Vaccine doesnt have those stringent requirements. It clearly is a woulder in the road, those very cold temperatures that the vaccine has to be maintained at. Its nothing we cant handle and deal with, bullpen lawsuit it is a major obstacle that will slow things up a little bit, and make it more difficult for everybody. But, again, its something that is very doable. Compared to worrying about were we ever going to have a vaccine at all. So the fact is that the Pfizer Vaccine is the early vaccine, were going to find a way to get it to people. Doctor, have we answered all of the questions about how long the protection will last with these two vaccines that seem to be the frontrunners here . Thats a great question. The answer is absolutely not. We dont know how long protection lasts if you get a natural infection. We know in some people, not very many report yet, they dont have protection that lasts more than in some cases two or three months. So we dont know how well the vaccine is going to perform in terms of duration of immunity. We have me is vaccines that work much better than national infections in terms of pro longed immunity. So it could be possible that these will be better than a national infection, but theres no way of knowing now. Theres no way to speed up time. And weve got a number of months to go before we can answer that question. Yeah. We are getting close, but, yeah, we do have to be patient here. Doctor, always appreciate your time and insight. Thank you. Thank you very much. Coming up here on the 4, tech titans on capitol hill today, virtually, that is. Well take a look at why the u. S. Senate was grilling the heads of facebook and twitter today. Did you know that geicos whole 15 minutes thing. That came from me. Really. My first idea was in one quarter of an hour, your savings will tower. Over you. Figuratively speaking. But thats not catchy, is it . Thats not going to swim about in your brain. So i thought, what about. 15 minutes. 15 percent. Serendipity. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. The ceos of facebook and twitter faced more harsh questions today about their involvement around the 2020 election. They committed to aggressively guarding their platforms from misinformation, and today senators grilled them over their election measures. Tech expert Ryan Eldridge joins me to break down todays hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee. Thank you ryan for being here. The central question is did these measures have a meaningful impact . So did they . Well, thats the thing, is nobody really knows. Both zuckerberg and jack dorsey said they think so, but they werent exactly clear. They said they are still studying that information. So they were hauled before congress to answer that simple question, how did these companies handle the security of the 2020 election, and they werent able to answer that. And this is the second time in three weeks that theyve been hauled before congress. This time, though, instead of just sticking to that topic, a lot of the Congress People were more interested if thinks like tech addition, the encryption, antitrust, and content moderation. There is sort of a split in congress right now specifically about what these two were going to testify about. The democrats were thinking, hey, we want to find out exactly what youre doing to stop misinformation and stopping this from spreading everywhere and the republicans were more about, hey, theres an anticonservative bias on your networks and we want to be able to fix that. And this comes out of the fact that both Companies Limited the spread of a New York Post article that was suggest something unproven claims about petaluma joe bidens son, and by limits that, it made people think, hey, this isnt protection under six 230, where youre allowed to say whatever you want on your networks, and say whatever they want to say, and you get to enjoy Liability Protection from that. Once you limited the expansion of this particular post, public by another person or a company, that suddenly made you a publisher, and so the conservators are saying if youre going to be limiting the roof of these posts