hi there. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." we're asking experts your questions every day at 3:00. tomorrow we're getting you prepared for tomorrow, thanksgiving, no matter how many people you'll be with. we'll answer your last-minute cooking questions and give some alternative ideas for smaller gatherings. covid-19 cases are soaring across america, california, and even the usually cautious bay area. dr. chen hong joins us today.

thank you for your time today. i like your -- >> happy thanksgiving. >> happy early thanksgiving. if you have a question the doctor, go to facebook live and we'll try to get them answers. doctor, the tsa has screened five million travellers since friday. how nervous does that make you, given what we're facing right now? >> it makes me very nervous, kristen, because we know that in previous holidays, even in the united states, memorial day, etc., it was accompanied by a predictable increase in cases in two weeks. not only cases but concerningly high hospitalizations. you hook at what happened in thanksgiving in canada, i think the writing is in the wall. we'll see increased numbers in two weeks, even above our current surge.

>> let's try to do our part and one piece of that is having smaller gatherings. dr. fauci was asked whether the risk from small gatherings has been exaggerated? what does the data show? can we do a small gathering without a surge? >> i think what the contact data tracing shows is it started back on memorial day around graduation time and many events were traced to multi-generational families celebrating graduation but in large numbers. i think smaller gatherings, if upheld and people take permanent protection seriously, probably be ok. again, the biology states that the larger the gathering, the higher the risk. small gatherings just going by science and biology probably won't pose that much risk but it all depends on the noses and mouths getting together. >> are there categories of

people for whom you would say no, do not gather, don't even consider it with family not in your household, not even in a smaller setting? >> yes. so i think the older you are, the higher the risk is. it's going to be co-mohr bid situations and immunocompromised situation as well. conversely, they are some of the people who may really want to have that human contact weighing the risks and benefits. >> doctor, the cdc put out guidelines for attending a gathering, if you must. they say virtual is better. but if you're going to do it, they did though out some best practices. if you can talk us through this. can you see the graphic? >> yes. i can. >> ok so walk us through these. >> so bring your own food, krings, plates, cups and

utensils. that's getting at the idea of surfaces. i like the concept but if you have to choose one thing, i would go with wearing a mask. i'm not too sure about surfaces as long as you wash your hands or use hand sanitizers. second one, wear a mask, yes. 100%. if you have one thing to do, that's the thing that i would do particularly until you get to the table. if you can control your environment, you're more than six feet apart from an unknown nose and mouth, i think it's ok to remove your mouth temporarily to eat. >> i don't know if this is overboard, dr. chen hong. i've gotten into the hadn't of chews with the mask on. i would pull the mask right back up after taking a bite. >> it depends on the environment. if you're indoors, that's a

riskier proposition and outside, if you're far away from another unknown group, it's probably ok temporarily, but yes, the more you cover your vulnerable places that the virus is trying to get to, the nose and mouth, the better it is for everyone. >> i want to move on to hosting a gathering. the cdc has some suggestions for that so let's go ahead and skip to the next graphic. if you are hosting, keep this in mind. can you take us through these? >> yeah. so having a small outdoor meal, smaller or shorter duration, which will be the -- better than a long drawn-out affair. have conversations ahead of -- with guests about, you know, covid values. are you having the same values as the guests. do they know how to protect

themselves. these are all true and good principles to uphold. >> definitely. putting yourself on the same expectations page, that's very important. i want to ask you, in terms of travel, this is thanksgiving week and some people before they fly, they want to get tests. tests have been hard to come by in san francisco. if you manage to get one, if you get one and test negative, does that mean it's safe to travel and to see relatives outside your households once you get there sn. >> the testing is really misunderstood. it depends where you are and the arc of exposure. if you've be taking care of yourself and not in high risk environments all along, a negative would be a true negative. but if you got a test, it nay be a false test depending on when you get it. if you get it on day four or

higher it's probably going to be a better indication because it takes a while for the virus to incubate. the cdc is providing recommendations, is going to, actually, for quarantine so if you had even a known contact you could incorporate quart teen time. >> if you do travel this week, should you go back to work in an office or go back to school if your school's already in person next week? >> that's a great question. it depends on how -- what the nature of your work is. like myself you're going to be interacting with a lot of people, sick people, i would say you probably want to come back, it's tough for a short holiday, two to three days before you go back to work, then do a test. if you're going to work in a lower risk environment with few

people, you might want to consider doing a test a few days after after maybe four or five days. that may give you some confidence considering on who you're working with. i know at ucsf we're incorporating testing if people have traveled and are coming back before going be into the health care environment. >> i wanted to be sure about the ideal testing time. say you fly back on sunday, which a lot of people do, when should you test? >> again, it's a continuum. ideally if you look at the cdc guidance you want to have low risk, you wait a week and then you test, it's negative, you're home free. if you want 75% certainty, not a hundred percent, you can wait until day four, do a test, and it depends on what your risk was. if you're going to high risk environment, say like north dakota and you're coming back to the bay area, you might probably

want to be more certain rather than less certain. if you're going to hawaii or taiwan and coming back to the bay area, their risk is much lower. >> i don't think they'll let you into taiwan unless you're citizen. that's why they have no cases. >> exactly. i know. i was just theoretically speaking. >> ok. yeah. california, actually i should say the cdc is considering changing recommendations that people who have been exposed for 14 days to quarantine. now they're changing it. why? >> seven to ten days. the longer you wait, the more certain you are. i think it will end up being about seven days. somebody who has contact with somebody with covid has to self-quarantine for 14 days. i think that's where the

guidance is being frustrating with the question of testing. >> all right. we'll take a short break on the air. when we return we'll show you a risk calculator so you can see if you kwo to a party, ten for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa

welcome back. we're here with drrmt peter chen hong. really disturbing figures. california has hit a new record with 18,3 50 new covid 1 cases yesterday, average test positivity is up to 6%. can you put that into perspective for us?

is that the worse we've be? >> it's not the worst we've been. we've been up to seven, close to ten. what's different is the rate of up crease, which is breath taking. remember we were really, really low a few weeks ago. if you had this conversation two weeks ago, some of these kinds of conversations weeks ago, we had different rate of infection. the risk has been so high and that's what's different about the third wave. >> given the rate of increase is so high right now, so quick, we want to show you this risk map that georgia tech put together. it helps you look and see what the odds are for, you know, facing covid. if you were going to a party of a certain size. we want to show this to you. marin county, what do we have this set at? one to 25 people? ten people. if you're in marin county, it's a 5% chance that you'll

encounter someone with covid. san mateo county, 7% chance. almeida county, 6% chance. what if you make that a hundred people or 50 people? let's say if you go to a larger gathering, right in we're switching over to -- how many people is this? a hundred? a hundred people, doctor, talk about the exponential up crease in terms of risk. walk us through it. >> i think the best less op we all got to learn is what happened at the rose garden during the swearing in ceremony for amy coney barrett. it was a large group. even though they had testing, you can see testing has its limitations. the other point it illustrates is the larger the crowd, the more chance the virus has a chance to slip through and evade even a negative test.

that's the exponential power of the risk the larger with the group. you're playing with russian roulette. the more you do it, the higher the chance you're going to get hit. >> if you go to a party with a hundred people. this is 25 people in almeida, what is that? 29% chance or something like that. you are right. a lot of people are hanging their hopes on the vaccine and they should start going out in december. of course to health care workers such as yourself. when do you think the rest of us, normal people, civilians will start to get it? >> that's a great question. the time line is actually shifting the more and more we get vaccine companies showing data that looks promising, so it was one with pfizer, two with moderna and then three with astrazeneca. the more companies get on board, the faster the general public will have vaccine available.

particularly because the last -- like astrazeneca doesn't need the super cool temperatures, and so you know, before we were saying early fall. then we were saying summer. i think right now we're looking at late spring, maybe, with the three vaccine companies on board. >> teresa has a question. she mentioned she read an article that said you could get a bad headache and fevers, so what do you know about the side effect from some of these advantage seeps. >> so the side effects are -- so there's -- so exactly, you know, there are occasional reports of people getting migraines. i don't think it's common. the common ones are local and site pain and in some people fever. some people get symptoms after the second dose but they go away without taking ibuprofen or

motrin. the round of side effects, they are probably i would say 50% chance. the first group of folks in the trials have been more than two months when one of the more serious things would occur. >> hey, i want to ask you about the changing demographics of new infections. you know, earlier on, latinos were hit particularly hard especially here in the bay area and california. seems like white people now account for more new cases. why? what's going on? >> just the reopening in california. so gyms, places of worship. that's why in the old days it was people who had to work. now it's including people who want to go out because they're able to. so i think that's really changing the demographics. not only in marin, where i think

it was observed but contra costa, even san francisco, the reports have relatively of latino, which is the highest, is going down slightly because of the reopening of businesses, etc. >> ok. so this does suggest that some of the new infections are people who continue hadon't have to pus in that situation but they are and they're getting sick. as you know, we have a purple tier here in the state. some other states they're taking more drastic measures. pennsylvania shutting down alcohol sales as of today. i want to ask you, what do you think is the reason for that? do you know? does the link between drinking and transmission risk? >> it's like a very -- a lot of different people have strategies to get to the same destination. i think it's interesting that pennsylvania's banning alcohol. the idea is that people lose

inhibitions with alcohol. but again, you know, you can -- obviously, you have people who lose inhibitions even without substances involved. so it's just trying to target that. i'm not really sure. it's an unprecedented move to tell you the truth. we caution to drink moderate, with care during these times, but to ban alcohol, it seems a little draconian. >> yeah, yeah. one last question. debbie wants to know how long after receiving the vaccine will we actually be immune to the virus? >> yeah. that's a great question. usually it's two-shot series. so you get shot one and depending on the company, three or four weeks later, you get shot two. then it takes about a month to get the full benefit of the vaccine. but you're still getting benefits even from the first. but the longer you wait, the better the bang for the buck. >> i'm going to squeeze one more

question. what if you only got the first dose but didn't go back for the second dose, are you still protected or not really at all? >> that's a great question. from other vaccines, we don't -- haven't seen the data yet for ma derna or pfizer. but i would say it's around 75% chance you'd have some level of protection after one shot and then it increases above 90% with shot two. >> don't forget. why would you? just go back. put it on your calendar. >> i'd get the vaccine, to tell you the truth. >> thank you very much. we appreciate your insight. happy thanksgiving to you. stay safe. >> same to you. bye. >> we'll take a short break. we'll talk turkey when we return. a butterball turkey hotline expert will join us.

welcome back. we are covering thanksgiving tomorrow. that can be stressful as you think about cooking. joining us to answer all your yr questions, a butterball turkey cooking expert. thanks for mid-atlanticing time for us today. >> no problem. happy thanksgiving. we're just here to help you celebrate the good. it's all about family, good turkey and fellowship on thanksgiving. >> tilt your camera laptop a little bit just a little bit. because we want to see you perfectly right there. folks, if you have a question for karen, please put it on facebook live. i have to imagine that this year there will be more first timers because they're skipping the trip with grandma's. what would you say about turkey

best practices? >> thanksgiving is going to look different for almost all of us. do not be worried or afraid. call us at 1-800-butterball jump on butterball.com. it's all about the t on thanksgiving, thawed. we're a day away. you have to use the water bath method which is easy. you keep the turkey submerged in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes just to keep that going. don't have to remember this. just reach out to us. >> uh-huh. >> also, on the thanksgiving tea line is you need to check the temperature of the turkey. you don't want to guess. you want to use a thermometer to make sure. you check in a few places. you check in the breast area and in the thigh area.

next you want your turkey to go from the river to the oven and that put away within two hours of cooking. that's just so that your thanksgiving dinner is remembered for the good food. and either consume the turkey or put it in the freezer. don't remember about remembering all that. give us a call at 1-800-butterball or hop on butterball.com. >> how do i cook a 26-pound trurky because the charts stop at 24 pounds? is donna going to put stuffing in that? it's going to take -- follow our charts but the most important thing that you like to do is make sure you taking its temperature. it's going to take every bit of that, oh, five hours or better

at 325. but i want donna not to be tempted to keep opening the oven door to baste. that's an old school practice that just pro longs the cook time. you're not adding value but you are adding time. >> got it. >> use your thermometer, ok? >> all right. if you were having two to four people and you don't want a massive turkey, what is some alternatives? >> i have something with me. a bone-in breast. a lot of people are just white meat eaters and there's just two or three people there. about two pounds per person is a good average to purchase your turkey. but don't be afraid to go big. at least if you go big, you'll have fabulous left over recipes for anything you might want to try. >> i can't wait.

donna answered and said, yes, stuffed. her turkey will be stuffed. >> so you add about another 45 minutes to an hour on that cook time, so -- and then for donna tell her to make sure take the temperature in the center of the touching, she wants that to be 165. the breast area 170 and the thigh area, 180. >> got it. thank you so much.

and thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show "getting answers." we'll be here every day at 3:00 and on facebook live stream. a note, no 3:00 p.m. show

tomorrow or friday but we'll be back business as usual tonight, the holiday virus dangers, as america is set to mark thanksgiving in the middle of a pandemic. millions on the move tonight. on theed radios and in the sky. and public health officials double down on warnings to stay home. dr. fauci fearful of a surge during a surge. concerns this could become a humanitarian crisis. a 15th day of record hospitalizations. 2,300 americans dead in 24 hours. and the new emergency restrictions. also new tonight, president-elect joe biden addressing the nation, predicting a long, hard winter ahead and urging americans to make sacrifices now for the greater good. calling it an act of patriotism and saying, "we're at war with the virus, not one another." breaking news from the white