building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc7 news. >> hi there, i'm kristen sze. welcome to the daily program, getting answers. we asked experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers for you in real time. today, we will talk with the success director of old house, the nonprofit of leaders and influencers for partnering with yelp to make it easier for you to support asian owned businesses. and one of the business owners benefiting will be joining us as well. and there is a new airline in town come offering $19 flights on the west coast. yup, santa rosa is one of their airports. but first, if you haven't noticed, allergy season is here. okay, right? lucky you.

many people are suffering. really severe symptoms right now. how can you get relief and how can you tell the difference between allergies and covid-19? joining us now to talk about this is dr. andrew engler, the medical director at the allergy and asthma clinic in san mateo. thank you for joining us today. >> my pleasure, good to be with you. >> all right, i only have anecdotal answers examples, including my own but it seems like allergy season is extra aggressive this season, is it? is that what you are seeing? >> every spring is a bad spring practice is no worse than the typical one, it's just heading people really hard this year. we haven't done a lot of laying, so pollen sticks around for a long period of time. >> pollen, what are some of the key offending element out there right now, floating around? >> right now, kristen, the main thing in the air is the tree pollen, birch tree, ash tree, juniper tree, figtree, things like that. april is a transitional month. usually in addition to the

trees, we start getting grasses as well. >> okay, so a lot of things out there?, you know, we want to ask you, how can you tell the difference, right? because allergy symptoms sometimes look like covid symptoms or feel like flu symptoms. they overlap. with covid out there, it's got people concerned. if you could break that down for us. >> good question pick up the question we get asked a lot. there's a lot of overlap, but certain things are much more common with covid. fever, muscle aches, chills, diarrhea, and certainly if you have the new loss of a sense of smell or taste, you should think covid. in contrast, things like sneezing or itchy eyes or runny eyes are much more common wi allergies. >> without cough and headache? those could be either, right? >> that is correct. you are absolutely right. >> okay, so i the dr. when you

tell people if they can't be sure, what should they do? >> if they are not sure, especially if they have a fever or muscle aches, they should think of infection, could be covid, could be a infection. and then they need to take appropriate precautions. >> okay, can we be even a little more definitive, as essay, you know, these symptoms are never allergies or these symptoms are never covid? >> sure, so it's very, very, very rare to have fever with allergies. so if you have a fever, it's highly unlikely that you have allergies. also, muscle aches and body aches are very uncommon with allergies. so if you have fever and muscle ache or body ache, you probably don't have allergies. in contrast, go ahead. >> no, no, please, go on. >> in contrast, like i said earlier, itchy eyes, runny

eyes, even sneezing are very uncommon with covid. but a lot of times, it is very, very hard to tell, and there's a lot of overlap, so things like coughing, fatigue, shortness of breath, are common with both covid and with allergies. >> okay, assuming you don't have covid, if it's just allergies, let's talk about ways to minimize that. i've been suffering, especially at night this past week, right? a really kick separate before bedtime. i read something that my colleagues, meteorologist drew tuma tweeted, pollen can get con your hair and then if you just lie down on your pillowcase, it gets on your pillowcase and accumulates over time. so after a week or two, it gets horrible. is there truth to not? is that right? >> without question. what they told you was 100% correct. we always tell our patients that have pollen allergies that if they are outside at all, they should wash pollen out of their hair.

they don't have to necessarily use shampoo, just mechanically rinsing the pollen out of your hair is important. otherwise, if you think about it, it goes from your hair to your pillowcase, and then 30 seconds later, it's rubbing against your eyes and breathing into your nose. also keep in mind, anyone else that comes into your bed, whether it's a human being or a pet, could do the same thing. you don't want to have your dog running around outside in the yard, getting pollen on them, then jumping in your bed and breathing and that pollen as well. we strongly encourage our patients to wash pollen out of their hair when they go outside. especially on rainy days. >> given that, people should be washing their pillowcases what, weekly or something like that? or are there other things you should consider, like purchasing a new pillow, or maybe hello, you know, protectors, what you think? >> we encourage our patients to wash their pillows once a week and hot water and reuse pillowcases, that is. the reason is, a lot of

patients in addition to being allergic to pollen, are also allergic to dust mite. hot water will kill dust mite warm water don't. we encourage our patients but the pillowcases and the sheets into the washing machine on hot once a week. we also encourage patients that have dust allergies and mold allergies to for the pillow covers, they call them casing, put on the pillow, that'll prevent things that are already in the pillow from percolating up into your nose or getting into your eyes. though should probably be washed about every 4 to weeks. >> okay, i mean, i can see why hair is such a, you know, trapper, if you will, a drop for pollen. but without clothes, right? you know, i imagine if you wore the same set of pjs, let's say you go outside in your backyard to do a little work and come back in your pjs, that is probably a pollen carrier too, right? >> absolutely. i tell my patients that the

close they were outside, they should not were in the bedroom. and especially they should not were when they jump on the bed. a lot of times, kids will especially, now when everyone is staying home, wearing the same clothing all day long, to jump in bed. we encourage our patients with pollen or dust allergies, to change clothing, so that kind of the outside clothes are not the close they were in the bedroom. you should really keep the bedroom as an allergy free zone. think about it, and a 24 hour day, the average person spends 6 to 8 hours a day in the bedroom. we want that to be time to get a good night sleep and give your body a chance. >> i will make my cato watch what you said just now about not wearing the same clothes to bed. really quickly, how about air purifiers or vacuuming, the vacuum bag? >> let's take a limited time. air purifiers can be very helpful, especially for what are called lightweight allergens, like pet allergens.

so if you have a dog or cat in the house, and a air purifier, make sure it's a hepa air purifier, those are the best at filtering allergens. some of the heavier allergens, like dust mite and pollen tend to settle relatively quickly, so the air purifiers are not always a helpful. with regard to vacuums, we encourage patients to vacuum their bedroom at least once a week, and make sure to use a vacuum cleaner which either has a hepa filter on it, or if you have an old vacuum but doesn't have a hepa filter, and it has bags, make sure you use what is called an allergy proof vacuum cleaner bags, that way when you vacuum, the stuff you vacuum up will stay in the vacuum. >> all right, dr. andrew engler, medical director of the allergy and asthma clinic in san mateo, great insight and advice, thanks for sharing that. hopefully i will follow some of that and sneeze a little bit less and sleep a little bit more.

thank you. >> my pleasure, but to be with you. >> take care, all right. coming

welcome back. as anti-asian tax have risen and asian owned businesses have suffered, companies are stepping up to support the api community. yelp is one such company, partnering with old house, the influential nonprofit, comprised of asian american leaders in tech, business, entertainment, and the arts. joining us now to talk about it is success director megan ruin and ronjon dey, owner of new delhi restaurant in san francisco. ronjon and megan, thank you for taking the time to join us

today. >> thank you. thank you for having us. >> megan, we will start with you. before we get into what you are starting with yelp, what is your mission? >> absolutely, bolthouse is the nation's leading nonprofit, dedicated to representation, community and success on behalf of the api community. we do this through media, through entertainment, as well as supporting small businesses and startups. be that one thing you really did i want to show folks is a movement called gold open, opening weekend for box offices that is, which led to the wild success of the film crazy rotations. so now you are following up in other ways. so tell us about this yelp ownership, you launched this week, to help agent owned, asian owned businesses. >> as you so rightly mentioned, asian owned illnesses have suffered more than any other snb during the pandemic. asian woman owned businesses in particular have had this double whammy and have the lowest rates of projected recovery, post pandemic. so given that the recent anti-

asian violence has put this on a national stage, we recognize that consumers are quite angry looking for ways to act with their wallets. and yelp actually released their economic impact report this week that showed that the rate of yelp searches for asian owned businesses increase five 130% in february of 2021 versus the year ago. so what we are doing is, promoting asian startups and small businesses, and helping highlight them on yelp platform and make it easier for those they're trying to support asian owned businesses to find them. >> before you tell me more about exactly how this filter works, ranjan, i want to ask you, have you seen business, you know, take a hit recently in the past year during a pandemic? and do you think being asian had something to do with it? and was an extra factor that made things more difficult? >> absolutely. it's all about ignorance. you know, the whole idea that

asians are creating all of these things, it is so hurtful for people who are asian descent. to look at the fabric of the american society, asians have contributed so much to enrich it. and then when you are not actually protecting your asset, asians are amazing assets to the fabric of the american community. and when you are not treating them well and treating them with hate, it really hurts and it actually makes it worse when you are actually living it. it has happened. it has happened to the restaurant, when people are coming in, you know? they would say and make comments, which is so unnecessary. i'm somebody who is having business in hong kong and over here, singapore, bangkok.

i have a big circle of asian friends, especially women are so afraid now, so afraid, and why? why should that be? this is the time we should all ban together and say, asian life matters. asian life matters. >> last year, we really did see one black lives matter really became the focus, there was a lot of people wanting to support black-owned businesses. megan, right now, this is translating into supporting asian businesses, how does it work on yelp? like you have to opt in? you self identify, does anyone check? then after you do that, how did the customers, people who use yelp, notice doesn't pick it up? how does it work? >> it is an opt in process. if you are a business owner on yelp platform, all you need to do is log into your yelp or business account, go to your amenities page, and click edit.

you will see an option to check off the asian owned box. it is that simple.that simple.t. as soon as you do that and save your changes, this appears as a tag on your businesses page. any yelp user that is using the filter or searching for an asian owned business can find you. of course it is opt in, because business owners should be the ones to make that call. yelp is of course proactively monitoring the pages of these businesses for any type of hate speech and making sure that those are, the businesses and their owners are being kept safe. but this is a way of making it easier for those that want to support asian owned businesses to actually locate those businesses in the area. >> was this an easy sell, this idea to yelp? why do you think they readily embraced it? >> yes, i mean, it actually was an inbound from yelp, hoping to work with old house, knowing that we have focus all along on promoting asian startups and

small businesses, knowing we recognize how important that is for building long-term life success with our community. many businesses that opted and at the launch of the partnership are actually ones that have participated in bolthouse biannual for aip is a suspect many others are others we have focus on highlighting from the pandemic, and helped direct foot traffic and order volume to the delivery of repot forms. it's a very natural partnership. >> okay, ranjan, i know this just started, but are you using a boost yet in business? are you worried about backlash? >> well, you know, we are one of the oldest in the restaurant, the city of san francisco. we are also a legacy business. the whole city of san francisco recognizes us as a business which actually helps with the spirit of what is san francisco. so the pandemic, we

for 300 625 days. we close on the 16th of march and we reopened on the 16th of march. we have just, just opened, and it's been pretty crazy. we haven't seen much activity, but it is, for me, it's very important to sustain, because my staff has been with me for 26 years. we are more than a family. i'm going to do my very, very best , so that we can all sustain. >> all right, ranjan, we lost your video there, you are back. megan, any other initiatives by gold house coming up that we should know about? >> absolutely. may is asian-pacific heritage month. we will be activating a variety, highlighting not only the top of the a 100 list, which is the annual asian achievement award, but also, promoting other asian small businesses that have been parts

bitters in the through a sale through may 17th and 30th. so we will be promoting them economically, as well as highlighting their businesses throughout the month of may. >> all right. promoting and representation, and economic success and inclusion of asian americans. gold house, if you want to check it out, gold house.org, other initiatives. megan, thank you so much, ranjan, thank you for stopping by. best of luck to your business, i've got to stop by sometime. indian food sounds amazing to me right now, so good luck. >> thank you, megan, thank you so much. >> take care. coming up next, listen to this, $19 for a plane ticket? is that too good to be tr

>> welcome back. have you thrown flown avelo airlines before? answer is probably no. it hasn't launched yet.

later this month, a new airline will be flying across the west coast. joining us now, the ceo and founder of avelo airlines, andrew levy. hi, andrew, how are you? >> i'm doing great, how are you? >> good, okay, a new budget airline, who operates avelo and what's the big idea? >> well, i started avelo, and it's mean a team of other very experienced executives that have put this together. the idea really is to customers first base in and out of burbank, 11 markets in the burbank, including santa rosa, california, close to you. we are serving markets that are unserved today for burbank and we are offering everyday low fares today. actually announce we are starting with $19 fares one way, that the promotional fare, but even after that ends, we will still have everyday low fares. and we also offer the convenience of the nines, small airport like bourbon, which we think will resonate a lot with customers that prefer to use

smaller airports. >> santa rosa lullabies as one of those smaller airports, in an outcome easy parking is the idea. >> absolutely, absolutely. right now if you are to go on and but, can you fly from santa rosa to burbank? >> absolutely. the first flight actually is santa rosa to burbank on april 28th. we are really excited about that. we will fly there daily. our first flight is exactly that. we are really excited about serving our market up there. >> can you fly from burbank back to santa rosa? >> absolutely, absolutely. it is nonstop each way, yeah, real simple schedule. airplanes live in burbank, they go out and back. that will go out back to santa rosa and back to another location. we will do santa rosa at least daily, some will not be daily but santa rosa is one of the routes that we will have a daily pattern. >> okay, so i know you said $19 as the trial you are starting. eventually, where do you think it'll settle on, what are we looking at pricing wise?

>> oh, gosh, that's a question i wish i knew the answer to that one. it is going to be really low fares. i mean i would expect that the low point after the $19 intro period is going to be less than $50, certainly. and, you know, we will have fares that are higher, as the airplanes get more full, but one thing that's really important to us as to offered everyday low fares, even if you are traveling closer to last- minute type of traveler. the idea here is to offer really low fares, to stimulate demand. a lot of people flying back and forth, that is how the works. we think we will have tremendous success with it. >> what is the luggage situation? do you charge for that? and are there other hidden fees, so to speak? i don't want is a hidden, but once the add-on? >> yeah, there's add-ons, i would say nothing is hidden, we are very upfront about it. before you decide to choose to pay, and i hope many people do, you will see exactly the choices of what you can do, in terms of how you want to travel.

but it's $10 to check a bag, which is a heck of a low price, compared to most any other airline out there. we charge $35 for a carry-on bag, which is a bag that is kind of a roller bag, if it fits under the seat in front of you, there is no additional charge. if it is a larger item, we prefer you check it, which is life the price is so much lower to check a bag than it is to carry it on. that is in order to get, you know, the airplane in and out faster. and we sell seat assignments. both people who care about where they sit in advance, they will have a lot of offers, including feats with as much as 38 inch pitch, more room than we who have for the u.s. that work airline. those that care about that, we will offer that as well. >> what kind of aircraft you fly? >> we are starting with three 737 hundred aircraft with 189 seats. it is a single class cabin. this is a simple product. it is basic air transportation delivered reliably, but with great, friendly people that have a great, caring attitude,

the soul of service is what we call the people we like to hire. people that have that approach and really care and want to serve others. so i think that'll be a point of dissension for us, how well we treat people. >> got it, yeah. the trains are not they are jets. okay, so what about someone is asking on facebook about other destinations in northern california. i see you have eureka, tell me about what else we see coming up. >> well, in norman, california, we are serving in eureka, santa rosa, and also redding, california. whether there's others overtime in and out of burbank, we will see. we do expect to expand our presence in burbank and other markets. and we also expect to enter into other bases in the western u.s. and connect other points. so we will see how things develop. so far, we are really encouraged with the very early bookings we have seen today from santa rosa and from eureka. is off to a great start. hopefully we can add from

there. >> last question, then we are out of time, what about change fees or cancellations? >> we have no change fees. now we don't do refundable fares, so it is not refundable, but we don't have change fees. that's not anything that is a pandemic thing, that is always our intent, and that will stay for as far as i can, as far as my crystal ball looks, no changes. we want to make it easy for customers to choose us, and that's a big part of i think one of the things that we can

you thank you for your time. >> you bet. >> appreciate it.appreciate it.c

thank you so much for joining us on today's interactive show, getting answers. today we talked allergies and covi tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. reports of multiple people shot. a deadly shooting at an office and news coming in on the coronavirus tonight. the vaccination sites halted over concern after reactions from one of the vaccines. first, the deadly shooting at that office complex. the call of shots fired coming in late today. police and multiple ambulances rushed to the scene. several victims take on the the hospital tonight. pierre thomas standing by. there was another horrific shooting, this time in south carolina. a doctor, his wife and two grandchildren among those killed. a former nfl player, the alleged suspect. police say he then killed himself. and all of this as president biden was before the cameras today urging congress to do something about the shootings in america, calling it