good afternoon, i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called getting answers. we are going to talk with a stanford doctor who's running covid clinical trials to talk about the latest on president trump's condition. but also, all eyes are on the vice presidential debate tonight. vice president mike pence versus oakland's very own senator kamala harris. now, somebody who will be watching very, very closely is one of harris's close childhood friends, somebody who grew up in berkeley with her, and joining us now is carol porter, whose twitter nickname is, the other little girl on the bus. carol, welcome. you're going to have to explain how you became known as the other little girl on the bus. the story? >> hi, kristen.

thank you for having me. kamala gave me that name. we were in iowa at a meeting, and we were talking, and she announced to everyone that i was the other little girl on the bus and that's where that came from. >> because you guys rode the bus together, right santa fe h te? tell me about that. >> we rode the bus together in berkeley. we rode the bus in berkeley during the '70s and they were desegregating the berkeley public schools. so, i actually met kamala in first grade at the bus stop at the corner of bancroft and browning, berkeley, california, waiting for the green duck, i think, was the name of our bus. and we bussed probably about, you know, 30 to 40 minutes from where we lived. that included stopping to pick up other kids along the way. and we did that every day, monday through friday. that was our routine. bus to school, we bussed home. >> i know you've remained friends ever since, but since you suspend so much time with

her in the early years in your child formative years, can you share a couple of your favorite kamala stories? i guess that really show who she is, what she's always been, what she's made of. >> kamala is a very courageous person. she has always, to me, exhibited or computexuded a lot of confid. she was very caring. her mother worked full-time at uc berkeley doing research, and back in the '70s -- especially immigrant women of color, that was a very challenging opportunity she had. and competition with a lot of people that didn't look like her, so she worked late oftentimes, and kamala took care of her sister, maya. that was one of the things that she did. she also mentored one of the foster kids of mrs. regina shelton, who lived with mrs. shelton at the time, and

kamala was very caring and efrp thet and i c empathetic and helpful in mentoring sandy who oftentimes had challenges fitting in. kamala was right there to support her. so she has that quality about her that makes her really care about people and want to be engaged and want to solve problems and help people. >> so, of course, you've seen a lot of that caring kamala, the mama-la that we've seen a lot of recently. and i know that you do a lot of phone banking for her right now. when you talk to voters, especially the ones in swing states, do they see her that way? >> a lot of people that i have spoken to don't know who kamala is. so, i really try to give them a sense of who she is. as the opportunity arises, i really try to let them know, i knew her personally, i grew up with her, we desegregated berkeley public schools together, so that's often an opportunity for me to really bring the personal side of who she is and show that what people

are seeing on tv, what people are hearing from kamala is really who she is. that is her solid nature. that's -- she walks her talk, if you will. >> hey, are you feeling nervous or pretty confident about tonight? i don't know if you've been talking to her lately in the past week or two as she prepares for the debate, but how are you feeling? >> no, i haven't spoken with kamala. kamala is on point all the time. she's a hard worker. she prepares. she knows the issues. she knows her core values. and she will -- she'll come forward very strong. that's just who she is and i have no doubt that we will see an excellent debate, fact-based discussion based on the issues and the problems that she's, you know, she and biden are looking to solve. >> she, of course, can be that tough prosecutor as well. we're talking about another side, another layer to her, the

tough senate judiciary committee member when grilling a nominee. outside the bay area, in areas that may be more conservative, and have certain thoughts about howts abo atrgomf color, are you concerned about that fine line she's got to walk? >> it's always a challenge for all of us. i know that in my profession. we have to be authentic, and i think kamala comes through authentically. she really cares about people, and the work that she's done, the policies that she's supported show that. she -- when she goes to work and she has to put on that prosecutorial hat, and she has to go in and grill senators or grill, you know, other people that are before her, then she does her job. but you know, that is what she's tasked to do, and that is what she does. her -- she does that in a caring

way. i mean, she really cares about people, and she cares about getting to the core of whatever the problem is that needs to be solved, so that things can get resolved, that issues are no longer a problem. i believe -- when i see her, i see the person i grew up with. i see the empathy. i see the caring, because when she's going forward and a lot of the judiciary meetings that she's in, she's doing it to support people and to serve the american people specifically. so, i see both sides of that, and she walks a fine line and i know she knows that, and i think she's carried it very well. and managed it very well. >> are you concerned at all about covid safety for her being at the debate tonight? >> kamala is on top of her stuff, so i know that before she walks in there, she's made sure

that her team has everything set up the way that she needs it to be. she comes from a family, a mother who was a cancer research scientist, so she maybe even has a little bit more understanding of what that set needs to be for her, for her to be safe, and i know she wouldn't go out there unless she felt 100% safe. so, i don't have any concern about that. >> all right, time for one last question, and that is, i like to hear from you, let's say if you were talking to voters in some of those states, what do you think having someone who grew up in berkeley and oakland the way kamala did, what would that bring to the white house, to be a part of the administration, the folks who might be leading americans? what does that sensibility and that upbringing bring? >> kamala and i grew up in a red lined community in berkeley, very middle to lower middle class, working middle class neighborhood. she knows the issues from the

bottom to the top. she has worked her way from the berkeley flatlands to where she is today. and that has all been through hard work. it's been through education. it's been through continual learning. you know, being open, listening to people. kamala is an excellent listener. if i say anything about her, she has the capacity to really listen and understand issues and understand how to resolve issues and working together with people to do that. so because she's walked in so many of america's shoes, she understands the issues. she's -- she understands the issues of healthcare, of housing, of, you know, food instability, fair wages, she's lived that through her life in our community growing up and as she's worked through her way in the different public offices that she's held. she has the background to be able to understand and have

compassion for, i think, the majority of americans. >> well, i've got to wrap up this conversation, which is too bad, because i so love hearing those childhood stories, but i got to ask you one more quick, yes or no, are you surprised that she is where she is today in this moment? >> no, not at all. not at all. kamala's a hard worker. kamala wants to serve, and serving america, serving her community, serving others is really how she's always been, so for her to be at this level is a huge opportunity for her and america and i am so excited. and she's exactly where she needs to be. >> carol porter, senator kamala harris's childhood friend, the other little girl on the bus, i know this is a big night for you. i hope you have your popcorn ready because i know you're going to watch the debate like it's the super bowl. >> oh, yeah. absolutely. >> well, thank you for your time. a pleasure talking with you. >> thank you. >> bye. we're going to take a short break on the air but i want to

let you know that abc7 news made the attempt to reach out to all members of the republican delegation in the california assembly and senate and nobody was able to join us today for this pre-debate preview. but, be talking with a stanford doctor who's looking at covid

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...so saving on auto insurance is easy. because saving a little extra goes a long way. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. all right, we are back. we want to turn our attention now to covid-19. here to talk with us is d dr. maldonado, an infectious disease specialist and professor at stanford university. dr. maldonado, thanks for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> you are coming to us from the hospital, of course, where there are other people. i want to explain to our viewers that's why you do have your mask on, to be safe. president trump has left the

residence at the white house and is back in the oval office today. we're hearing two top aides are with him in syeeor or 24 hours. talk to us about that, symptom-free 24 hours, and being around others. is he likely no longer contagious at this point? >> doubt it. i doubt it. people are generally infectious for, you know, up to two weeks. it's possible. of course, we don't know anything about his pcr results or viral loads, but in general, people will be infectious for, you know, ten days or more. so, i would be very careful around him. we've already seen how many people have developed infection within his circle of friends. >> yes, more than 30 people now in that orbit. does the white house statement today give you any more clues on the timeline of when the

president might have first been exposed or tested positive? >> you hard to know, because there are several -- he went to several events. we also -- i can tell you, you kn at the number of people who are positive now, that the rose garden event was a super spreader event. there were definitely infections that happened there. i have no idea, of course, who was the source or whether the president was infected there or other places, but that's a very likely timeline. for the start of his symptoms and his positive test. >> okay. so, not out of the woods yet, it sounds like. the white house statement also said the president has antibodies in his bloodstream. any way to know whether those are his own or the -- is it from the doctors gave him? >> it's impossible for us to say. we know that the cocktail, which

we knowfi that trial is -- contains. but we don't have any idea which ones those are, and we don't know in his blood are the same product from the regeneron or from his own antibodies. it's going to be virtually impossible for us to iv tt you have the clinical trial going on and given what you have seen from the president's seeming response to the regeneron, have you learned anything new about this drug through his experience? >> not at all. that's why we need to do placebo control trials. one patient is one patient. youus c't approved yet. but the president got it through the compassionate use authorization, so how easy is it right now for someone who's not

the president to get that? is it pretty standard at this point for covid patients or not? >> well, i would say that, you know, i have given patients compassionate use drugs in the past. it's not very easy, but it's not impossible. and what you generally need to do is give compassionate use to somebody who is really in a life and death situation or who has risk for progression of severe disease, and for whom there are no other treatments available. and i think, for example, given that he -- and i absolutely agree that he should have gotten all the medications he did because he's the president of the united states. but i think we also have to acknowledge that not everyone's going to get all of that aaa star treatment that he just got. >> something else that he got is dexamethasone. that one does have side effects, including manic behavior and euphoria, i think, is what i'm hearing from doctors.

are there any signs that could be what the president is experiencing or do you not see that? >> well, you know, it's really hard to know. we see, especially it's much mo than your average prednisone, so it's really in that same family of steroids. and dexamethasone is at least ten times more potent, and we know that patients who get prednisone or decodron can actually experience euphoria and it can be a very heady, manic type feeling and it can last for a couple days or longer. so, it's possible. i mean, there have been a lot of reversals in the last few days, but again, i mean, i'm not his physician so i can't say. >> right. right. i want to move on to the general public and the broader battle against covid. of course, as we know, quick and efficient testing is absolutely critical to reopening the economy and schools. now, yesterday, we reported on a

new cloud-based covid-19 testing 've worked really h on thiss ab> particular theory, it's quite a straightforward idea, but developing it is not always as easy as you would imagine. and so what we have done is in partnership with a number of other software partners, including microsoft, working with the gates foundation and others, we have been able to build an -- what we call an end to end platform. so what you can do, once we get it baunchlaunched, we're piloti with specific groups right now and we call it v.e.r.a. and what we're doing with that is you can actually log on to the internet and get your symptoms in, give your demographic information, tell it where -- any information that you want to. it's all protected. and then if you start to feel like you have symptoms, it's possible to be able to get a

no-cost test shipped to you, and then you can use that test at home to swab your nose, not the deep swab, but the nostril swab, and then in an envelope that is provided and you should be able to get your results shortly. and then the nice thing about it is, we get to find out here, and we have familiteams of individuo can track the positives, report them to your county, and then we actually aggregate all that data, the idea being that we can start to track patterns of infectious disease trends, for example, what kind of symptoms are people having. it's a wonderful platform, and we're just rolling it out now. >> that information will really help you get ahead of it in terms of the fight. one last question, and i've got to make it quick, but viruses do mutate, of course, and i've seen research that covid may have become more contagious as it mutated and that, you know, we lost a lot of time which promoted more potent variants. what do you know about that? >> well, yes, viruses do mutate,

and there is evidence that the spike protein which helps the virus attach to more sble and allo maybe to attach more readi but it doesn't indicate that the virus is more likely to cause severe illness or just any disease manifestations that are different. so, we'll just have to keep tracking that. >> all right, dr. maldonado at stanford, running that clinical trial that's ongoing with the regeneron cocktail and a whole variety of other things including that new v.e.r.a. platform for surveillance and reporting, thank you so much. keep up all the great work. keep us posted. >> thanks a lot. take care. ingo takawre

and welcome back. abc7 news is celebrating hispanic heritage month all month. one group we want to highlight is one that's tending to the health and wellness of the latino community. joining us now is jane garcia, ceo of la krinica de la raza.

it's headquartered in oakland and is the largersmmunitbad pri center in the bay area. thank you so much for coming on. >> my pleasure. thank you for having me. >> yeah, so, please tell us about the people served by la clinica de la raza and how do you serve them? la clinica is getting ready to celebrate its 50th anniversary, so we've been around for a while. we serve 91,000 people, and we provide the full gamut of primary care services, so all the medical services, including prenatal care and pediatrics, care for ourni we l ofdental, behavioral health, health education, and we often connect people to other services such as health insurance. so, we try to think of ourselves as full service. >> and i know, you know, during these covid times, your job has been made more difficult, the mountain even higher to climb. how hard has covid hit the

latino community? i know you're keeping a special close eye on the fruitvale district. tell us about the percentages testing positive compared to the broader population. >> we started testing at the end of february. we just tested 10,000 people, and what we're seeing is that for our patients, 30% of them have been testing positive. that's really, really big. and for the community at large, it's 15%. now, over the last couple of weeks, we started to see those numbers decline, and so we're very ploeased with that. but because of the high numbers that we were seeing, we organized with a number of our sister organizations, a number of the nonprofits in the fruitvale, a big event with ucsf to test as many people as we could over a two-day period. and so we wanted to get a sense of, you know, what -- how big is

the problem here? and so, week and a half ago, we did that and we tested 1,272 1,2 folks. that was entire families, children, mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, so we're really happy with the turnout. >> that's fantastic. and you know, we've read before that some of the reasons for the higher number of positive cases in this particular community has to do with a lot of things, but housing, right, living in close quarters, and the job that you're in, in which you're really putting yourself at risk for high exposure, but the governor is also trying to address that, saying that all zip codes now within a county needs to have lower rates of transmission before the county can move reopening tiers. do you think that will help? do you welcome that? >> i do. so, those -- the health equity index, i think, really helps to hold us all accountable, and i include us as a part of that. it really puts the highlight on, you know, what's going right,

what isn't working, and what kinds of resources do we need so that we can get back in line with the rest of the counties. and the testing that we did really beared out a lot of the things that you're saying, that housing, employment, all of those are impacting the very high rates that we're seeing amongst our latino community. >> all right, so, if folks are interested in getting tested or getting support, where should they go? >> we continue to test, and this is right across the street from the fruitvale b.a.r.t. station on 35th avenue and east 12th. >> and it's free, right? >> and it's free. please come, take advantage. it's easy. we ask you to make an appointment. we have walk-up capacity and also drive-in capacity. so, please come and find out what your status is. and you know, the thing that i would share is that when we do find somebody that's positive, we're able to connect them to a lot of other resources,

including income stipends, food, behavioral health services, so don't be shy. come on by and we'll take care of you. >> okay. when you said, full service earlier, you meant full service. jane garcia, ceo of la clinica de la humira patients,... ...this one's for you. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle... with less pain immediately following injection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. and you can use your co-pay card to pay as little as $5 a month. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections,... ...including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,... ...serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common...

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and thank you for joining us for this interactive show, getting answers. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00 on air, on live stream, answering your questions. today we talked with carol porter, giving us a preview of what she hopes she will hear at the debate tonight. and dr. maldonado with stanford talking about the latest with

president trump and the regeneron trial. by the way, you can see the deba tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. we're just hours away from the big vp debate, as president trump breaks isolation, returning to the oval office, despite his infection. and the president posting video moments ago from the rose garden. earlier, a marine standing guard as the president receifi si. two s of the president's ner ci with him. the white house insisting tonight safety procedures are in place. in world if the president is still taking the powerful zbgi reed. all of this as we are just hours away now from tonight's vice presidential debate showdown. the stage set. the two will now be more than 12 feet apart, separated by those plexiglass shields. the