Distribution of the vaccine. November 1st is two days before the president ial election. Abc7 news obtained a copy of the letter, a message from cdc robert redfield. What do you know about it . Robert redfield, and various states. To prepare the infrastructure and facilities and to get a vaccine. On november 1st. I want to show our viewers what we have in the pipeline with the vaccines and various stages of development. Show that to you. 23 of them right now. 42 candidates. When do you actually think when it will get approval . Translato. In the regular world, probably not full approval until the spring of 2021. Given, you know, we want to be sure when something is approved that its really passing the muster of not only efficacy but safety as well. In terms of this letter, asking Public Health officials to be ready for the distribution of november, what kind of cooperation are they asking for, what is this letter really asking for . Various states, the distributor and signing up, essentially, and then will work with the officials to basically organize shipment, mixing and administration of vaccine a and b in the charge. Again, thinly veiled because a lot of people think its the Pfizer Vaccine and then the mederma vaccine. We heard about those. He said safety is not compromised. Can americans be assured if theres a vaccine by november, they can safely take it . I hope so. Again, its just really strange, the optics. Two days before november 3rd and, you know, in my heart of hearts, i mean, i hope and i knew redundants of science and safety that would probably prevent something from moving ahead, if it was really time. I think in principal, it is a good deal to get people ready. Simple, these vaccines, need to be in minus 70 or 20 degrees celsi celsius. Thank you for helping us understand the process. And the president has lost points on. Surveys show that, if theres a reason, a standing. That vaccine, we should tread carefully because not only about covid19. Premature approval of a vaccine could jeopardize all the vaccines because again, given the strong antivaxer movement, looking for any excuse basically. To pass all the trials, i dont want to be a guinea pig and theres a group, dont want to give back things at all. So that leads me to this. It questions whether enough americans would actually take a covid vaccine. What was that finding . Studied through the Health Policy group looked at those in 2018 and only onethird of the recommended, got the flu vaccine. Interestingly, they look at those who didnt get the vacc e vaccine. More likely if you have a primary care physician, more likely to get the vaccine. But i think most concerningly, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status was associated with whether or not you get the vaccine. The elephant in the room, a long legacy of mistrust of getting these early interventions, like africanamericans. I want to talk about skepticism of a vaccine throughout previous history. Can you point out circumstances where we reapprove the vaccine too early without the proper science or the proper trials and did that lead to people not wanting to take a vaccine the next time around. And jeopardizes future rollouts of the vaccines and misfire. Probably the most analogous case could be seasons in the flu shot, for example, you have a one flu shot early in the season and then the better flu shot later in the season. Uncertainty is unsettling to people. The fact youd have to modify a vaccine later is something to worry about and then given the landscape of the number of vaccines in trial is that if you approve one early on and theres a better one later on. All of that leads to the final question. Do you suggest taking the vaccine as soon as possible or wayting . I think the Public Health pandemic and all the issues associated with that, if theres good enough data for efficacy and doesnt have to be 100 efficacy, i probably would take it and if theres like an amazing vaccine later on, ill take it again. Well talk with the attorney with the huge case that means the uc system which your child may be applying to cannot use s. A. T. Or a. C. T. Welcome back. A major change is coming to College Admissions. A judge has ruled the uc system cannot use s. A. T. And a. C. T. Scores at all for admissions. So joining us now is the attorney who brought lawsuit, amanda savage, of Public Counsel and a student who was a plaintiff in the case, kavika smith. Amanda, congratulations on winning first round of the very important and impactful lawsuit and affects hundreds of thousands of students and it may not be over yet. But the ruling handed down by the Alameda County superior court judge yesterday sided with your argument on behalf of students with disabilities. What was your argument . Our argument was quite simple. The argument that uc socalled test optional policy was in fact optional only for students without disability. That is classic discrimination. Students with disabilities simply do not have the same access to the tests. They are barred from submitting their scores and not have the same, and students with disabilities can not have accommodations approved and test sites. Students whose abilities render them particularly susceptible have to put lives at risk in order to take a test. Its black letter discrimination an and. You join this lawsuit because of your own experience with s. A. T. Testing who had family trauma. Tell me about the challenges you had taking the s. A. T. S . While taking the s. A. T. , it was very humiliating and it was i feel like my intelligence was questioned in a way that it didnt benefit me and mean while, i had friends who had the finances to basically afford their score and so all i had was what i knew. So its very humiliating and i didnt appreciate the whole experience of taking the s. A. T. But yet, i know you did not get into the uc schools you wanted to but did into how that maybe benefitted you . Morehouse college did take the s. A. T. But process. Able to submit the fact i took a ted talk in my community of other accolades and into that into consideration and saw i was a fit applicant and a t t t Public University system and that goes without a shadow of a doubt. I was deterred from even applying and so i wasnt even going to take the test because it was dehumanizing and able to go, on top of that, morehouse accepted me before i took the s. A. T. Congratulations. That is fantastic and thaing for making that correction i had information. Their holistic approach, an injunction may interfere with the universitys efforts to implement appropriate and comprehensive policies and ability to attract and enroll students and experiences. Uc already made a test optional. And why is that all their own leaders. Theyre unrelated to College Preparedness and uc preparedness. What is the role of a test like that in ucs admissions process and the admissions process of the preeminent solution voted to eliminate the test completely two years from now. Clearly, it is not necessary for any campus to use the test, as evidenced by what you mentioned that berkeley, santa cruz, right now are not planning to use the tests. So uc can certainly move forward without the test. And discriminatory as uc admits. Their own plan already indicated for two years, they were hoping to do test optional and then test free and during that time, they were going to try to work up their own test that would be more fair, if you will. Do you think it is possible to come up with a test, a universal metric that is more fair . I think quite frankly, theres a universal metric more fair, which is gpa. Countless studies have demonstrated that gpa is less discriminatory than act scores in ability to succeed in college. Its difficult to comment on the use of standardized test that it has yet to develop and very well may have the same inequities embedded in it. People realize when you use such a test to compare apples and oranges, it is unfair. Is there a way to use a test to compare apples and appapples. Two kids from advantaged backgrounds. But having a test with more test could help Admissions Officers plot the two candidates and look through them, a prism that gives them something to judge them on. I think that whats troubling is that its simply not the test were talking about. If we were talking about a test that was actually measuring the skills that students need and demonstrably shown how well they will succeed, relative similar, i think that would be a different question but when you have ucs former question coming out and saying that the s. A. T. And a. C. T. Are not linked to a curriculum that predicts College Readiness and the tests dont need the criteria for tests, that they would be using going forward. I dont really think uc said it may consider legal action. And kavika, before we go, what do you study and hope to do professionally when you graduate . Im studying sociology and political science. Minoring in studies. And my career choice is to become a politician, state senator. Oh, all right. Well, youre off to a good start. Kavika, amanda, thank you for your time. Take care. Thank you very much. When wom e welcome back. Now that we know the story behind the ruling that the uc system can no longer even look at the students s. A. T. Or a. C. T. Stores, joining us now to answer these questions and more is lauren cook, dean of college advising at the Jewish School in san francisco. Current president of the western association for College Admission counselling. Thank you for joining us. Theres a lot of confusion. What is the number one question your students are asking you in wake of this decision that can no longer use s. A. T. Or a. C. T. Scores . Its, do i need a test score at all and i will say, at my own high school, do not have a test on file and thats true for a lot of schools across the bay area and across the state of california. So is it even worth trying to continue to move my cancelled registrations and all the rest to further test dates and studying when more and more schools schools. I try to weigh several things. The school and what theyre considering and what the policies look like. There are, sadly, still a handful of colleges in other parts of the country that are requiring test scores for admission or for merit awards. But the vast majority are test optional at this point and more recently seeing this kind of test Free Movement happening which im pleased by because if you have schools on the list, in some way take testing into consideration, i think you really have to think about your own safety, about your familys safety, what it means for you to go to a test center where there may or may not be a social distancing center, mask wearing, all the rest. So the whole question stakes around standardized testing is just heightened in the pandemic, and so there isnt a onesize fits all but at this point, im taking whats happening with the uc and sort of further evidence that students dont need to go to tremendous lengths to test right now if they dont have a score already because folks get that were in a really what psats though . I understand thats the test taken by juniors and it sets them up to be eligible for the National Merit scholarship and at some schools, hosting a test and others not and a lot of parents panicked about that. What do you say to them . The psat is a practice test and most schools give it to their sophomores and juniors and theres no stakes for the sophomor sophomores. Just literally giving them practice and early data point to start thinking about the college process. You do have the added sort of low stakes of the classification for National Merit scholarships. And i would note back when we were in high school, i know that the idea of being considered for the National MeritScholar Program was a pretty big deal. I now question how big of a deal it is to have that affiliation on your college application. We are in an entirely different admission climate and things students are bringing to the table and then the scholarship awards, theyre about 2500 in award and when youre talking about College Costs that can be 50, 60, 70 a year, its a phenomenal piece of things so its not to say it doesnt matter to try to have the feather in your cap. But the schools about some reschedule dates potentially in january, if folks are not able to test next month. The situation is still evolving as well. Im not trying to rush you but seeing so in questions for you and we have so little time left but try to squeeze in as many as we can and even during commercial. Eileen has a question. If it comes down to two students with identical gp aztec and oas have an advantage . Yeah, and what ill say, its kind of a false premise because its never everythings equal except for the test score. Everybody has a different context in every way with the writing, the activities, their involvement, their home life, the school theyre in, the rigor theyve chosen and the program, the grades theyve received. Admission is really more of an art than a science. Unfortunately, it is not a math equation. Which makes it frustrating in some ways because you are bringing these subjective sort of things to the mix. I think a better test score can be one plus factor but theres all these other factors taken into consideration. Always great information. Well take a short thank you so much for joining us for todays conversation on this interactive getting answers show. Today, we explored the new landscape of College Testing admission tonight, the cdcs surprising letter to local health officials. Be ready to distribute a Coronavirus Vaccine by november 1st. All states put on notice, prepare for a possible vaccine just before election day. The letter raising concerns the Trump Administration may be trying to politicize a vaccine. Tonight, growing outbreaks raising concerns at schools and college campuses. Images of hallways packed with children, and now, an even bigger problem. Some colleges sending infected students home. Health Officials Say thats exactly what not to do. Pandemic politics shaping the race for 2020. Joe biden zeroing in on president trumps handling of the outbreak, calling it a failure, including the lack of a National Plan to reopen