Member that identified the original sars outbreak back in 2003. Thank you so much for joining us. Its great to be here. Before we begin, i think for all of us nonscientists out there, we have got to start with square one and understand exactly what a genome is and why it pertains to covid19. Sure. A genome is all the things that composes a person or a virus. What does that mean . That means covid19 must also have all of these at play and what does that mean when it comes to sequencing and how many sequences have you analyzed so far . Right. So, what were doing here is not just testing for the coronavirus, which we do do here at the biohub in conjunction with ucsf. W sequence the genome, meaning we look at the genetic sequence. Thats important because it allows us to track where the virus has been, where it mate be going next. And how much of this tracking have you done . Because we are talking about something that is affecting every Single Person on this planet. And i know you have a limited team of volunteers so what have you been able accomplish and also talk about the team at hand, who they are. Absolutely. So, here at the biohub, together with our volunteers from ucsf, which are mainly graduate students, we have a Clinical Testing Lab that is offering covid19 testing and test processing to the county departments of Public Health throughout california and to date, we process over 92,000 Clinical Results for californians. Now, that team is also sequencing the viruses, too. And that adds a new layer of information to this whole picture . And youve also mentioned partnering up with these counties. Have you partnered with them and how many and also what has their feedback been before . Because this is a big asset for them when resources are a little bit crunched. So, in terms of testing with covid19, weve partnered with dozens of california counties and for the sequencing aspect, we have been working with about 19 out of 58 california counties thus far to sequence their coronavirus es and add that new layer of intelligence to their epidemiology and investigation. Okay. So to the every day person, i have to admit, tell us why this is important how this er taper to our life and why we should care . Unless you apply it to an example of how this affects us on a daytoday basis, i think its hard for people to understand. I totally agree. Lets say you are a Public Health official and have you two Nursing Homes under your jurisdiction and there is an outbreak at both. One question you might have is, hmm, you know, is the outbreak between these two facilities related . If its related, it might suggest that either patients or staff are transiting between the facilities and that would be in effect how the virus is getting from one facility to another. If they were totally unrelated, that would allow you to rule out that concept. So by sequencing the genome of the virus, we can see which infections are, indeed, related, closely related and more likely to be the result of direct transmission. That would help us establish whether its a staff member or a patient that was moving between the two facilities. And if so, you could actually do something about it. For example, stop the Staff Members or patients from moving between facilities. Of course, the supplies to schools. Right now, we are talking a lot about whether or not kids need to go back to the classroom, whether or not they can do distance learning. How could this help in making announcements such as counties need to actually go back and have a physical school . Absolutely. So, this just didnt apply to Nursing Homes. As you said, it could apply to schools. It could apply to places where a lot of people live. It could apply to factories, to farms. All sort of different things. And it also allows Public Health officials to look at the data carefully and understand whether there is ongoing continued transmission of the same virus. That is maybe the Contact Tracing isnt working or where it needs to be better or whether virus has now been introduced from outside. You know, a new viral i say variant that has never been seen before. That would allow different control measures to be put in place. Just a reminder, to everybody out there, we are taking your questions and comments, live on Facebook Facebook page. We are abc 7 news. Behind me, it tricked me for a moment. You are a real lab setting. We were talking before the show, biohub reminds me a little of the peace core and what you do and how you get those very skilled volunteers. Paint me a picture of what we actually see in headquarters. Is that whats behind you right now . Thats right. That is a picture of our Clinical Testing Lab here at the biohub. We are a Nonprofit Research organization. But we are closely affiliated with ucsf, stanford and berkeley. Early in march, we got into the game, we thought we need to get more testing to more californians. How are we going dotodo that . We have this work force, post f op open, graduate students that wered by theling their thumbs during shelter in place. We could put them to produce and execute more free testing for more californians. You know what, its interesting what you are saying and the need for testing and how quickly you have a turn around of 24, 48 hours, seems to really be resonating with people on facebook right now. People like judy who share the story of her daughter being in the icu 15 days. The situation is getting ridiculous. Because theyre overrun with need and also people leak judy has kins saying covid has taken over 16 days to get back and also we had a story recently about a person from california, a man who flew to idaho in order to get tested. Talk about how you identified the need or at least the group of biohub did, the need to make this a priority well before this became main stream . I mean, back in february, you know the importance testing would play in this based off of your research in past pandemics. Absolutely. So in february, we already knew that testing was going to be a problem. At that time there was very little Testing Available anywhere. No popup tents, not even no testing at all. So early in march, we really rallied our troops together, got on volunteers and with a couple key executive orders from the governor that allows these things to get popped up, we stood up, a new testing lab here at the biohub that has now been executing thousands of tests every single day. And i do hear those stories all the time about these long turn around times for testing. And its terrible. Because as we all know, a test that comes back nine or ten days or even later is, frankly, worthless. Okay. On the topic of testing, we are going to take a little bit of a break. But, real quickly, adil la, why trek when you can find a cure . Once again, thank you so much for staying with us. We are back with the cv biohub joe derisiing talking about their new project with covid19 analysis and why it is so important. So, continuing our conversation, of course, your work is not just about testing. A lot of questions are coming in on facebook about testing. But lets play, lets talk about the role genetics plays in helping the powers that be make decision on how to stop the spread. What can stay opened . What needs to be closed . You spoke about nursing facilities and schools a little earlier. Yeah. Sure. And theres tons of examples like that. From ex, a workplace or a factory or Something Like that. Imagine there is a small outbreak from a factory or workplace of several people test positive. From a Public Health standpoint, you might want to know, did they get that infection from each other on the ork place or coincidentally happen to bring it in . That would make a difference for how you view that workplace in terms of its safety precautions. Whether you shut it down or keep it opened and what not. The only way to know that is from the genetics of the virus. If we sequence the virus, we can with great certainty tell whether one infection is highly related to another or completely not related. In the case where its not related, you would say, okay, the workplace did not have anything to do with those people being infected. Where as the opposite could be true if its work related. Your decision what to do with that business could remain heavily on that intelligence. This is completely out of my wheel house, you have to forgive me. Does this process take place entirely in the lab or do have you people out in the field also gathering information . Talk me through the process. Right. There is two asuspects to this, there is the field work with our departments of Public Health and their contact tracers and epidemiologys do, the lab work. The sequencing of the virus genetics, that all happens in the lab sort of like the ones depicted behind me. So a positive test would come in, then we can immediately take that vial with the positive test, extract the viral genome, not the human genome, just the virus. Sequence it all and put it on its family tree to understand who it is related to. And i do want to get to this one facebook question before we get to our next question. Because how accurate are the current covid19 tests and how often should a person be tested . Right. So, right now, there are many, many different covid19 tests. The one that we do here at the biohub is based on ptr. Its one of the more classic techniques. Its very, very sensitivity. Sensitive down to maybe 100 particles per millimeter. Thats very, very few viruses. And thats, but its essentially limited detection. Now, the question of how often it is you should get tested. Well, right now with the limitation and scarcity of reagents, the supplies, testing turn around time, if you are asymptomatic and have no contacts with anybody ever infect infected. There is no reason to think you would have covid19, i dont advocate that you get tested. Now, if you had a contact with somebody, that is symptomatic or has tested positive for covid19, thats a different story. You should definitely get yourself tested . I think eligibility is also something that people wonder about. Because perhaps front line workers, you hear get fast tracked to being tested. Who are the people who are eligible to get the tests that you are able to provide that have that very short turn around time. Well, right now, the testing we do is done through our county departments of Public Health and their associates. So they are making decisions about which outbreak to investigate. Which nursing home, which workplace. So its really dependent on tear priorities and their priorities are usually about stopping transmission change and outbreaks so they tend to be larger scale events, including jails and prisons and things like that. So we generally dont do testing for the popup tents that do just curious asell tomatic individuals. I see. So its really on a need basis. Thats right. We are getting several questions about this. Lots of curiosity when it comes to mutations, including this one. When does a virus variant become a mutation and what is the difference . Can you elaborate . Right. Sure. A genome is made up of the genetic code. It has you no at the four pace pairs of rna, agtnt in the case of rna, its atc and u. Well leave that out a second. Too scientific there. A change in one of those bases, basically an error in the genetic code so any variance, any change is a mutation. Now, whether a mutation has any clinical significance that is whether it makes the virus worse or better, thats completely unknown. That is not defined by just having a mutation. It just means its different than the one that came before it. Got it. And i know that we joked on the phone earlier today about this. You have been around for a long time. You have aer have unique perspective having worked on the sars outbreak back in 2003. Can you compare the two, how theyre being handled differently and any i guess outlook that you have for where we stand in tackling this virus . Sure. You know, i really never thought wed get to where we are today. I thought that sars covid19 too was going to be like sars 1 back in 2003, where there was a little bit of an outburst, there were several thousand infections. It was able to get under control and died away pretty fast. I thought thats what was going to happen when we were considering this in january. Now by february, things started to look much worse and by march we knew we had a different beast on our hand and this has gotten so farther out of control, so much into the realm of true pandemic, which it is, that we really needed to start thinking very differently about it. And i think whats different about now versus 2003 is the way the Scientific Community has really come together, in new and fast ways. Theyre so starved, researching this virus, coming up with an idea, testing hypothesis, faster than ever before and communicating those results to the world faster than ever before. And so i think were really seeing an act sell iraqis of science to deal with otherwise would be or is a Global Pandemic tragedy. Joe derisi joining us today to talk about the work done by cc biohub. We appreciate you to take the time to speak with us and also answer those questions on facebook. Joe, thanks. Thank you. All right. We are going to take a break on air. Abc 7 is committed to building a better bay area. This week we are focusing on housing and the impact of covid19. So joining me now to get deeper into this topic is the president and ceo of the National Low IncomeHousing Coalition dianne yent him. Thank you for taking the time to be with us. Hi. Thanks, for having me. Great. Lets start off talking about systemic racism and housing. We have been discussing it at length. Especially this week here at abc 7. The disparities for housing hit particularly hard for black and i will latino communities. Can you explain the history about it . Sure. You are actually right. The current crises threatened eviction for black and latino renters. That threat is not new. So decades of racist housing policies from red lining to block busting restrictive covenants to restrictive zoning has purposefully put homeownership out of reach for africanamerican families. And so it is also put out of reach for them the way that postfamilies build wealth. So its created this generational yawning wealth gap that results in today the average white family has 12 times the wealth than the average black family does. So, this Structural Racism leaves people of color disproportionately likely to be renters. Disproportionately likely to be low income. Disproportionately likely to be rent burdened, even disproportionately likely to be homeless. So these inequities now compoud the harm done by covid19. Black and native americans are bearing the brunt of infections and fatalities. Latino and black people are bearing the brunt of these historic job losses. And now their homes and with it their ability to stay safe and healthy are at risk. I do want to talk about red lining in just a moment. Before we get to that, for many families, buying a home is part of that american dream. You know, its an investment into their future. Were seeing homeownership less and less in different minority groups and renting as well, like you just mentioned. Are there careers that are more hit hard hit than others . Well, its true that the homeownership levels for black families today are lower than they were even when discrimination was legal. And that is, in part, due to some of the historically racist housing and transportation policies that i mentioned earlier. Its also related to the fact that black families and latino families were hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis of 2008. They disproportionately lost tremendous amounts of wealth and their homes and still, today, have not recovered from that foreclosure crisis. So their homeownership rates are much lower than white homeownership rates are. I feel like its compounding one issue on top of another. And now, were dealing with covid19. Of course, weve covered all of the issues surrounding coronavirus and how that prevents people from lets say going to work or how that prevents them from actually bringing enough income to have a home of their own, so they have overcrowding issues. How does coronavirus play into this now . Well, its a tremendous challenge and i think to recognize the challenge, the housing challenge that people are facing today during coronavirus. We have to recognize where we were even before coronavirus came to our country and that was in the midst of a severe Affordable Housing crisis, where we had a shortage of 7 million apartments, affordable to the lowest income renters. So another way of saying that same number is for every 10 of the lowest income renter families, there were fewer than four apartments, affordable and available to them so because there was such a shortage, we had over 8 million of the lowest income renter households, so over 20 Million People in those families. They were paying at least half of the income toward rent. Many were paying much more. 66, 70, 80 of their income to deep e keep a roof over their heads. So when have you such limited income to begin with and you pay so much for your home, are you always one financial emergency away from missing rent and maybe being evicted and in worst case becoming homeless. So for many of these same renters, the coronavirus is that financial emergency. Theyve lost jobs. Theyve lost hours at work. Theyre losing wages and its harder than ever for them to cobble together what they need to make sfles what is that percentage people should be paying in their rent or on their houseing . Because you mentioned some were forced to pay 80 or more, of course, thats not sustainable. Its absolutely not sustainable. Most all really housing experts agree that none of us should be paying more than 30 of our income toward our housing costs. And thats to ensure that we have money left over for all of lifes other necessities, whether healthcare, child care, food, transportation, everything else. So when low income people have you know very limited incomes to begin with theyre paying such a High Percentage of it to keep a roof over their head, again before coronavirus, theyre having to make very difficult tradeoffs to make that work. So theyre not buying medicine or theyre not buying storebought food and theyre going to food banks instead. Theyre finding all sorts of toxic tradeoffs in order to keep those rooves over their heads. Dianne, we have about one minute left. I want to ask you, where do we go from here . We seen different spin estipend measures in place. What would you like to see Going Forward . Its very clear without significant federal intervention, we will see a wave of evictions and a spike in homelessness across the country. But that wave is preventible. Congress needs to act now in order to prevent it by establishing a uniform moratorium on all evictions for nonpayment of rent for the duration of the pandemic and providing at least 100 billion in emergency rental assistance to keep people stably housed during and after the pandemic. Wow, it is an astrotom cal number. Dianne, thank you for joining us on air. This question will continue to be answered over on facebook. I encourage everyone to head to. Once again, thank you so much for joining us for this interactive show, getting answers. Hopefully you learned something new about the project from cc biohub. They are sequencing mutations in covid19. It sounds intense, scientific. It is, our guest was able to break it down for us and understand why it is so important. Well be here every weekday for you at 3 00 p. M. On air and ri questions tonight, here in atlanta, three former president s honoring a giant. The late congressman john lewis. Also developing, President Trump floating the idea of delaying the election. And a former president ial candidate dying from covid19. But first, john lewis. The son of alabama sharecroppers, his legacy of fighting for justice and racial equality. Tributes tonight from former president s george w. Bush and bill clinton. Former president barack obama delivering the eulogy. Saying america was built by people like john lewis. And he went on to say few elections are as urgent as this one. What hes concerned about. It comes just hours after President Trump, who did not attend the funeral, suggested moving the election in a tweet. It set off a firestorm,