>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. >> i'm kristen sze. you are watching getting answers live on abc 7, who live and wherever you stream. we asked experts your questions everyday to get answers for you in real time. we will talk with infectious disease specialist dr. monica gandhi about the latest covid-19 headlines. we will talk to the dropout podcast host rebecca jarvis about new episodes focused on their nose founder elizabeth holmes. jury selection and her trial started today. she just dropped a neighbor -- a major bombshell. caldor fire advancing toward lake tahoe which has been under mandatory evacuation order since yesterday. uaurned mo omes.

it is only 16% contain and is,0. joining us is drew tuma. things could not have been worse. how are things now? drew: let's take you to the perimeter. we are watching this area between myers and christmas valley very closely. the perimeter of the caldor fire is outlined in red. here is echo senate. -- echo summit. what we watched over the past 24 hours were these winds that send the flames over 89 to the eastern side of 89 and had this area on fire. the winds now, we are going to throw them onto the map. you can see why, this is the area where the fire progressed next. these winds are coming out of the southwest. this is what firefighters were concerned about. this is what we are seeing at this hour. i'm going to switch the vantage point and look toward the south. here is south lake tahoe. here is lake tahoe airport on 50. here is myers, christmas valley,

here is that new area that we are concerned about east of 50 and 89 where the fire is growing on the hillside as we speak. a closer view of what we are looking at, here is the hillside. half a mile away, this is a very populated area with homes to the east of 50. calfire is working hard now to keep the fire away from this zone, because these winds, the trajectory would continue to force the fire to the north and east. heavenly, a few miles off to the north and east, they have taken their snow guns and turned them onto water to spray heavenly in preparation for the potential that this fire could get close to the ski slopes. this is an area we are watching closely, specifically what we are watching, there is an area, a road called pioneer trail to the east of 50, to the east of lake tahoe airport. you go off of 50 and take pioneer trail, calfire is working this area very extensively and taking bulldozers and trying to create

fire breaks. the fire right now is in the hillside, and the ridge tops. you go down the ridge top and on the basin floor, this is an area that is populated with homes. pioneer trail, they are working on the eastern side of this, trying to create fire breaks, trying to create natural barriers to try to keep the fire burning on the hillside and on the ridge tops and away from those areas where the homes are east of 50 right now, and between 50 and piner trail. this is not the only area we are concerned about. here is kirkwood. . here is the latest perimeter. here is highway 88. kirkwood downwind of this fire. calfire is working this area very extensively. here is kirkwood, the slopes. the fire is a -- is advancing toward kirkwood because of the winds coming from the southwest and northeast. another area we are watching, silverlake. here is highway 88, here is the perimeter of the fire, it is getting close to silverlake. firefighters are working that area as well.

this is mormon emigrant trail, here is 88, you see these doubts of red on your screen. these are spot fires that have crossed 88 on the seventh side of the highway. where there's winds we are watching coming out of the southwest and northeast. any one of the spot fires could continue to make new fires ahead of it. calfire has said some of the spot fires have jumped half a mile ahead of a -- head of the fire. throwing those embers very far away. red flag warning, unfortunately, this has been extended. it was supposed to end today. it has been extended until tomorrow night until 11:00 p.m. because the winds look to last another day, out of the west southwest, 20 to 35 miles per hour. perhaps even higher than that. here is the forecasted wind gusts we are looking at. you can see those southwest winds gusting over 30 miles per hour. we will likely get a break in the wind. this is one firefighters are trying to get to ground overnight into the early morning

hours. of wednesday the winds calm down around 10 miles per hour. here we go again, the peak winds are going to pick up by wednesday afternoon. we expect those winds gusting close to 30 miles per hour. smokers certainly going to be an issue for firefighters, especially tomorrow. you can see that smoke right over the fire, thick and spots. it is likely going to stay that way even through thursday. firefighters trying to keep that fire on the eastern side of 50, up in the ridge tops, away from those homes in the myers area. kristen: thank you so much. winds are not looking good. for the latest on the firefight is fire marshal in the public information officer for the caldor fire, eric gayden. thank you for joining us today. where are you right now? we understand you are in south tahoe, right? south tahoe? >> south tahoe, stateline nevada, here in the casino corridor. i'm on the nevada side with the

casinos. south lake tahoe is the other side of this stateline. that has been evacuated since yesterday. kristen: can i ask you, do you know if everyone has gotten it? obviously south lake tahoe, we see it packed with people late summer before labor day weekend. are you convinced everyone has gotten it safely? >> this is a big weekend for us coming. this was one of our largest tourism weekends. but it is not going to happen, unfortunately. concerts have been canceled, we've got everything looking like we are evacuating. we are going to be looking at evacuations here in the stateline area for nevada. and kingsbury grade here shortly. the fire is moving aggressively. it is a firefight. that is why they call it fighting fires. we are battling mother nature on multiple fronts. the wind has not been with us, the terrain has not been working with us. we have -- gravity, something a

similar's gravity, trees have been falling and releasing embers forward of the fire, advancing it greatly. we are working hard to control this. kristen: are you still with us? we lost you for a few seconds there. >> can you hear me? kristen: i can. i noticed you talking about nevada. our meteorologist was showing us the direction of the winds, pushing the front that way. north and in the direction of the stateline. are you expecting that folks will have to evacuate shortly on the nevada side of lake tahoe? give us a sense. >> yes. we are anticipating an evacuation this afternoon, this stateline area. this area, the casino court, we will not evacuate that. but we will evacuate kingsbury grade and into round hill. we sent out a warning yesterday,

now we are sending out a notice or an order this afternoon. we are going to need people away from the fire. our priorities are life safety first, property, environment. we are really focused on that. kristen: how quickly has it grown just today? where is the frontline now? >> the frontline is by pioneer trail. it is actually going to be west of pioneer trail. it is running along a housing track. we are keeping it out of that housing track. we've got a division that is working really hard to keep that from getting into the homes there. it is moving along the hillside, towards the heavenly ski resort area. and coming north toward the nevada side. we are about a mile from the stateline, the border. kristen: saving those homes, obviously, your biggest concern and you have been doing amazing work. . all of the cruise doing amazing work. i wonder if it is getting

harder, if all of the smoke in the air is making it more difficult for the firefight? >> certainly the wind is. this wind is pushing it. all of the terrain and these troughs going up that hillside, the winds pushing right into them with the southwest wind. so it is driving the fire right this way. it has been very turbulent winds that have been picking up embers and throwing them forward. so that has been a real issue for us. again, the gravity, gravity has been letting the trees fall. when they call, they cast embers forward. the fuels have been very receptive to the fire. it has been crazy. kristen: it certainly has. let me a few places quickly and tell me how you -- and tell me how they are doing. myers and christmas valley? >> myers and christmas valley, the fires did move through both communities. many of the homes and everything

are still protected in myers. christmas valley is doing good at this point. the fire has not really encroached that much on that area. kristen: ok. what about fallen leaf lake? i know there is a stamford sierra camp there and lots of homes. >> yes. that area has been under evacuation order. it is a really -- it is a very limited egress and access. but it is in good shape. it is not threatened immediately by the fire. kristen: and you talk about -- you have been there a long time and seen a lot of fires. the fact that these flames are so readily moving over the ridge, and then starting to come down the basin. what does that say about what is happening out there with the fuel, and is it unusual? >> it is unusual. it is unprecedented. a fire may be a decade ago, we would not be thinking it would

make it to the basin. but this definitely has. it is very aggressive. the potential for ignition is very high. it is running at 90%. when an amber goes forward, it is about a 90% chance that it will start a fire moving forward. kristen: wow. i know south lake tahoe is 10 miles away from the flames. do you think it has a great chance of not being touched? chief guevin: south lake tahoe? kristen: yeah. chief guevin: i think the fire is burning along the borders of south lake tahoe. . that is why they evacuated it yesterday. we are fairly certain we can keep the fire from going into the community of southlake. but it is running along that area. our goal of course would be to keep it out of properties and protect those properties. kristen: mention heavenly key resort -- ski resort. is it following the playbook that sierra at tahoe used?

we were nervous about it because it is a beloved resort and has been there. largely it escaped the fire and is going to survive. heavenly, talk about how that is looking now. chief guevin: yeah, there is a good water supply at the top of heavenly. there is a lot of natural fire breaks that are there. they have snowmaking equipment, they have hose connections for us throughout the property. our hope is that it is not get there. but certainly, they are preparing for it. kristen: all right, eric guevin, thank you for taking time to talk with us. i know it is hectic right now so we appreciate it. best of luck. and thank you for all of you and all the crews are doing. chief guevin: thank you. kristen: we are going to take a short break. when we come back, we will talk to dr. monica gandhi about the latest

kristen: five states have less than 10% of their icu beds available now. that is one of many headlines on covid-19 today. let's bring in infectious disease specialist dr. monica don -- dr. monica gandhi. good to see you. your colleague was pretty fired up yesterday about the fact that it is being used to treat covid-19, where talking about ever becton. a judge ruled that a hospital they had to administer some to a patient because the wife wanted it. what is your reaction to all of this? dr. gandhi: it would be great if we had some treatment. we do have steroids for for for inpatients. i go back to it does not work in clinical trials. where it worked or what it looked like is what is called in vitro. it looked like it would have activity.

the right thing to do is to study it in clinical trials. that was done. it did not actually affect the disease and we have to abandon the hopes for either -- for that, just like we got past hydroxychloroquine a year ago. kristen: right, it is an antiparasitic deworming drug often used in animals. how did that start as a thing, like a covid therapeutic many people think of? >> the interesting thing is you can take a bunch of medications and look at them in vitro. so an hiv drug we thought would work, it looked like it in a test troop -- test tube. it can inhibit or house activities in a test to. but that is a many a slip. you need to do clinical trials. that is where it came from. hiram ecton is you -- is used for worms. definitely use it in humans but we don't have worms in the united states.

it is definitely needed and used internationally. in this country, it is used as a deworming. . kristen: thing one word of cautionkristen:, it could be dangerous. dr. gandhi: guess. kristen: people have taken large amounts. dr. gandhi: yes. kristen: the european union recommended americans should be banned from non-essential travel to its member states after a rise think of a 19 cases. hawaii's governor asked tourists to stop coming to the islands as they battle their surge. do you think we will begin to see additional travel advisories as the delta variant continues to be a problem? dr. gandhi: the thing about travel advisories is that they don't work. the delta variant started in early march in india, there was already a ban, and these things happen. we just have such porous borders. i'm not sure that i've ever thought this was the right approach. we just said we should ban travel to puerto rico.

but puerto rico has the 41st highest levels of vaccinations among our territories. i'm not a big proponent of any travel bans. yes, we have to get on top of our surge. but i don't think travel is the way to do it. kristen: if you got the j&j, and a lot of people are asking about boosters, would you recommend a booster of the moderna or pfizer vaccine, if you have a choice? it seems that people do have choices now. dr. gandhi: they do. i think many people who have j&j wanted a booster. we have made that an option. we don't have great data but it is fine to do it, it's safe. i would do madonna. -- moderna. we have been getting data that moderna, because it has a higher dose than pfizer, 100 micrograms instead of 30 micrograms. importantly, it may not have just been that. we got data yesterday that moderna causes higher antibodies than pfizer. why?

t with the fact that it was four weeks between doses, in the past, and the higher doses. if i were to have a choice, i would be with moderna. it is -- it is a higher dose and probably gives better responses and there are fewer re-infections. kristen: i want to talk about schools. schools, look, with kids being back in school, there will be some cases what you want to prevent is an outbreak. transmission to lots of kids. what is the best way to do that? a lot of parents think testing should be part of it, but it is not mandatory at most schools. dr. gandhi: now, and san francisco dph was very smart. they did not say that asymptomatic testing would change anything. i agree with that. we tried it for a long time. there is a lot of false positives. there is other anxiety if you have a false positive. it is about symptomatic testing and testing people if they have had an exposure. then it is about masking and

ventilation. all the dispensing requirements were dropped by california in favor of the two best interventions, which are masking and ventilation. i totally agree. there have been great studies of three feet versus six feet versus zero feet. it is good masks and ventilation. you're working on that. kristen: challenge you a little bit on the no need for testing for asymptomatics. isn't it true that a lot of kids, if they have covid, they don't get a lot of symptoms. i know a kid who is now in college who would not have known. all he had was a loss of smell. he took a test and he was honest about it. sophie self-quarantined. a lot of kids may not know or they may not say anything. dr. gandhi: you're right. you're right, and the reason the cdc or others to not get testing in schools, is because by masking, you are assuming that everyone has it. what is masking?

it is universal percussion. if i tested, i would never have to mask around everyone. i'm wearing a mask every day because the assumption is that we all have covid. that is what universal precautions is all about. that is why the cdc put in these universal precautions like masking. we have to mask during delta. any state that says we don't is incorrect. kristen: 20 seconds, how important is the aspect of adults -- we do have to go. dr. monica gandhi, great talking to you, i always want more time when you are on. we will do it again. dr. gandhi: vaccination is important for children. ok, bye-bye. kristen: stick around. we come back, we will take you inside t

kristen: jury selection started in san jose in the trial against theranos founder elizabeth holmes. this comes days after major allegations made by holmes herself. i talked with abc news chief correspondent rebecca jarvis today.

she is the host of the drop it podcast focused on holmes. >> well, it has been a really interesting thing coming into this selection. we had the bombshell allegations that elizabeth's team plans to put forward, these allegations of abuse, which her former coo and boyfriend, sonny belmont he categorically denies. one of the feet -- the key things going into this jury selection has been a multitude of questions that the jury has been asked about, in the fact of the matter is that there has been so much coverage of the story, her defense has really tried to weed out anyone who has heard any kind of mentioned of the name elizabeth holmes, and given how prevalent the story has become, the fact that people have been talking about it now for the last three years since the department of justice charged elizabeth holmes and even before that time. it has been a difficult process to weed those people out. kristen: for sure. part of it is that mystique.

she was the silicon valley it girl. she was young, a female ceo in health care tack, she wore that trademark black turtleneck but steve jobs used to where. i wonder if you think that mystique works for her or against her, and if that still remains? rebecca: it is a really important question, because she was an outlier, i think many would argue she got that initial coverage. she raised almost $1 billion when only about 2% or 3% of the money from venture capital goes to female founders. can certainly come a part of the coverage, the early coverage of elizabeth holmes, focused on the fact that she was this outsider. but at the same time, the fact that she was an outsider who lacked the fundamental education to do some of the things she did. she surrounded herself with this incredible board of directors, names like henry kissinger and george shultz. these were not people who had a background in medicine or science or biotech. as a result, on the flip side of

things, i think it is something a lot of, especially the venture world, and a lot of investors, have said to me over the years, they are definitely as careful if not more careful in the future based on this realization that there was no there there with elizabeth holmes and there was no group around her to call it. kristen: you have learned new details about what happened to her in the last couple of years since the first season of the dropout. what are some of those details? how has she been spending her time? rebecca: one of the fascinating things is she just had a baby about a month ago. the trial was postponed multiple times because of the pandemic. . it was also postponed this recently because she gave birth in july to a son. she is in a new relationship with a gentleman named billy evans. billy evans is the heir to the evans hotel fortune, a group of hotels in the la jolla area in san diego. this is just not the picture

that you might suspect of a woman who is cowering in fear heading into a criminal trial. many accounts, she has been living life to its fullest. kristen: we look forward to getting more of those details on your podcast. rebecca. rebecca: thank you for having me, i appreciate it. kristen: dropout elizabeth holmes on trial debuted with two new episodes today. listen now wherever you get your podcasts and wherever you get them. we are taking a

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kristen: thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. we took you live to downtown state tahoe -- lake tahoe where we got the latest on the caldor fire. we got the latest on conditions from drew tuma.

much more coverage coming your way at 4:00. . we will be here every weekday at 3:00 on air tonight, several major stories as we come on the air. president biden before the american people, saying the war in afghanistan is now over. saying, "i was not going to extend this forever war." and hurricane ida and the dangerous storms now after. still on the move. tonight, the deadly highway collapse and severe weather now headed right into the northeast. tonight, after that image, the last u.s. service member to leave kabul and the last c-17s to fly out, president biden late today saying, "i take spnlt for the decision." at times defiant against those criticizing the withdrawal, insisting, quote you it was time to end this war. the u.s. evacuating more than 120,000 people, including more than 5,500 americans. more than 100 americans still on the ground.