announcer: building a better bay area -- moving forward, finding solutions -- this is abc 7 news. kristen: you are watching getting answers on hulu live in wherever you stream. we get answers for you in real time. today, we will cover the latest covid-19 headlines. what dr. anthony fauci said about halloween celebrations, new movement on the pill to treat covid and when people who madonna and johns & johnson vacc are under a an urgent red flag with aarng high fire danger which caused pg&e to shut off power in the b. we talked to a pg&e spokesperson about that. but first, let's bringte

e d flag warning, we have a high wind advisory. that's talk about how long this will last. i heard the wind as i slept last night. spencer: we've heard them all day. let me show you the elements of a red flag warning in high fire danger. that is affect -- in effect until 5:00 tomorrow. when's out of the northeast at five to 15 miles an hour, but gusts will range to 40 to 50 miles an hour. those are very strong winds and relative humidity will be exceedingly low. that is what we call dangerously low and the vegetation fuels already dangerously dry. as though strong, gusty winds move over the hills and higher elevations in the sink lower and lower to the surface, they get drier and drier. we have two elements that contribute to fire danger. strong gusts and fire danger over the dry fuels. there is a wind advisory that

expires tonight at 8:0 expires,e are going to have relatively strong gusts tonight and into danger because the wind advisory may not last overnight. kristen: at least we don't have the high temperatures to go with that. let's talk about the winds. let's take a closer look at which areas in the bay areas are getting the fastest wins. spencer: good point. let me show you the alignment of systems. you can see on the satellite image, a powerful wind gust coming from this low pressure system we call an inside slider. unlike most of our systems that come on shore right off thent taoclea t u.s. overland to our north and is moving into our area and land a sea. it's producing strong,usty

nds higher elevations and i'm going to back up y. bear with me one second. kristen: i can sing a song. you know i've always wanted to do that while you pull up the proper graphic. spencer: when graphic popped up that we don't need right now. be strong gusty winds flowing an shore along the coast. those winds are not so dry because they oc to ath member -- along some of the bayside locations, the humidity is not so dangerously low but over th d ry s we haveus g fromer 3 miles ane entire region. some of the rongest winds in hayward, 33 mile napa.

i'm going to show you the wind gust forecast. this starts at 3 p.m.. at 7 p.m w.,in adsrexp strongery along the coast. nearly 40 miles an hour in some of our inland areas. we some inland gusts relax just a little bit but the winds will be strong enough to keep high fire danger and red flag eff tect.he will see to increase again, a talking 25 to 30 mile an hour gustsr unw evening that we see the winds tapering off and as that happens , the red flag warning will expire and are concerned about fire danger will lessen. kristen: that can't come soon enough. now i want to bring in a spokesperson for pg&e to talk about this a little more.

we know during times of becauser conditions, you may preemptively shut off power to some people to prevent the failure of electrical lines and may be sparking fires. hps. >> it's called a public safety power shut off and as our ese sustained wind gusts coupled with the dry fuels we have been seeing, this extreme drought we have been in, we started contacting customers on saturday to let them know we could be shutting off the power proactively to prevent a morning. we show off power to 25,000 customers across central and northern california. a little less than 8000 of those customers impacted are in the bay area, so about eight thousand customers, small portions of about five counties in the bay area are impacted. kristen: you read my mind.

i was going to ask how many people in the bay area. that's mbe more people than that. but the purple triangles north of the bay area, also inland, during the -- there in the danville area. who long do you expect the power will be out to those folks because spencer talked about the winds being more severe in those areas and that's not expected to end until tomorrow at 5:00. is that how long people can expect to wait or longer? >> we anticipate power to be restored by 10:00 tuesday night because we do have the weight -- have to wait for the winds to pass a process. we wait for the severe weather to pass and blow through wheepag the lines. we do this on foot, and helicopters, because we don't want to turn the power back on if there is a tree on the line or other debris or something is broken.

we have to make those repairs, make sure the lines are completely inspected before we can turn the power back on, so it is a process and we are hoping the power will be back on by 10 p.m. tomorrow night. kristen: does every pg&e customer need to prepare for a shuto you advise them to do to prepare for a shut off? >> ifo three area, these are in high fire areas and we want ourause the areas being impacted. there could be other unplanned outages duemother nature ando t other things, soared for a possible power outages. our customers notified 48 hours in advance, so we want to make sure their generators are working and they have a portable backupand that s

in their refrigerators or a backup system in case their power goes out. we always want our customers to have a plan. kristen: is there any compensation of folks food goes bad in the fridge or anyone takes a loss as a result of the power shut off? >> not at this time because we have a lot of partnerships with food banks across the bay area. a family can receive food through their local food bank up to three days afterwards. that is how we are helping customers get the food replacement because that is the number one concern. kristen: i'm hoping my producer can pull up the map you were talking about. in terms of the elevator -- elevated and extreme threat. you've got the coastal areas ine typical areas orinds this time e

those the areas more susceptible if you will? >> ps different -- event is different. tho county impacted. not as much of solano county was impacted and a little alameda and contra costa is impacted. past events and this event, the crossover is napa county, the northeastern part of sonoma county, so there are some areast area. different. kristen: before you go, a more permanent solution is to move power lines underground.

i know that is an effort that is underway. there are 70 miles of power lines in california that it is a long-term project, but give folks an update as tohere we are now. >> pg&e just figured -- just finied up and unproject that wae the customers kept getting impacted. were not in a tier two or tier three area, so we are looking at these non-iron threat areas and where customers are getting impacted because of the lines they are served by. so we are able to underground the lines in these area and keep the customers powered up. 11,000 customers are not going to be impacted because they are in a non-hi-fi threat area and we put the lines underground. kristen: that is good news and for the 8000 area, we are looking at at 10:00 to get every

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kristen: halloween is just around the corner, and unfortunately, five to 11-year-olds have not been vaccinated y eetou grohe tup for trick-or-treating. so is it safe to go trick-or-treating this year? dr. anthony fauci weighed in on cnn. >> particularly if you are vaccinated, if you are not vaccinated, think about it. you will add an extra degree of protection to your children, family and community, so it's a

good time to reflect on why it is important to get vaccinated. but go out there and enjoy halloween as well as the other holidays coming up. kristen: i heard a two-pronged message there. joining us to talk about this is dr. monica gandhi. thanks for joining us. i think a lot of people were happy to hear that pronouncement from dr. fauci that trick-or-treating was ok because he appeared to suggest we don't know yet if people can celebrate christmas and there is a big hoopla over that. is celebrating halloween actually pretty safe? >> hallowing was likely safe all along. all of the studies have shown us how low the rate of transmission is. halloween is an outdoor event and the trick-or-treatersoutsid. there's careful contact tracer studies and the risk of

transmission is one in 10 ny outdoor masks were lifted by the cdc in april, lifted for summer camps over the summer. children can certainly incorporate a mask into the costume if they want, but this year should be the year of the trick-or-treat. kristen: is there a chance the first shots were five to 11-year-olds could come before halloween? >> no. they moved it to november 2 and third. there was this hope it would be ready, but it's definitely after halloween. on the other hand, that makes thanksgiving a holiday that's even better. kristen: you mentioned why some of the halloween activities are pretty safe. but which activities are a

little riskier and you would not advise. afterwards, my children would gather inside and trade candy and at that point, nobody is masked and indoors. >> five to 11-year-olds right now, are just waiting. it's a matter of weeks. it's kind of like school. except in school, they have masks. the difference would be they either mask inside or do this outside. we are lucky to have a temperate climate in the bay area be outside. all i can hope is that it is as normal as possible. kristen: and outside for the children, should they wear masks or even the fact that they are outside it is ok to be mask free if they wanted to be? >> the way i have been putting it is if it works with your costume, you can wear a mask. if it doesn't, there's no reason

to wear a mask. this is a fundamental failure to realize how safe the outdoors is. it did us a lot of harm like closing playgrounds and all the things we did. this is where our children should be outside. they don't need to wear a mask. kristen: is a risk lower if the chaperoning adult is vaccinating -- is vaccinated? that sounds like what dr. fauci was saying. >> there's no doubt that the places with the highest rates of adult vaccination and teacher vaccinations have kept children more safe. that is why california has done so well with our essentially mandated teacher vaccinations. i think that's what he was trying to get in but definitely get vaccinated. kristen: handing out candy to do to minimize risks? should they leave a bucket of candy or answer the door each time a kid rings the doorbell?

what do you advise to those of us giving out candy? >> the question of you touching candy and putting it out, if you answer the door, you should wear a mask because you are inside and surrounded by children who are probably unvaccinated. you should wear a mask. kristen: by want to ask you if we should do anything before eating a candy we collected? >> this far into the pandemic, we really know that even with the delta variant, this is not spread by touching or fomite sore all the deep cleaning we did. so nothing to do specially with the candy except unwrap it and eat it. kristen: many costumes have masks. if you have a costume with a face, is that considered masks and offers some protection? >> the face masks that you are

for costumes are really loose in the entire purpose of a mask to prevent covid is that over the mouth and fitting snugly, i doubt -- in a way, it's like a face shield, like a monster mask, but it's deftly not as effective as a mask. kristen: do you think thanksgiving and christmas are potentially riskier? how are you feeling about those holidays now? >> the reason i do think dr. fauci said this -- got hoopla when he said this about christmas. he said he's going to have a nice, normal christmas with his family. we are in an entirely different place into a 21. the high rates of adult vaccination in states like ours and in the bay area, by the time we get to thanksgiving, five to 11-year-olds will have the first shot because there's a commitment.

that week is when the shots will be available. so there's going to be partial protection for them and protection for adults getting vaccinated. i think it should be as normal as we can get it if we are all vaccinated. clearly we need more adults to get vaccinated. kristen: let's all work toward that goal. don't go away. we will take a break and be back to talk about the merck antiviral

kristen: we are back with dr. monica gandhi. thank you for your time. merck applied for fda emergency for its antiviral pill. that would be the first to treat covid. can you say it for us? >>

molnupiravir. kristen: is this a big milestone? >> i think this is a huge milestone. i'm actually really excited about this bill. i'm excited about it for three reasons. i know the power of ange the world. antivirals changed everything. this will be the first orally available pill to treat covid. nothing else worked before this. we have monoclonal antib antib b and those are complicated. it's really quite complicated. the third reason beyond getting an outpatient pill is how well the polls seem to work in the phase of the trial.

already, they have applied theya eua. there were no group at all and there were eight deaths in the other. kristen: are basically four capsules twice a day for five days. >> a lot of pills, but a short course. kristen: i know it is cheap compared to the monoclonal treatments, but still, the fear is people will see this as if i get it, i will take this but that costs a lot to the federal government than just the vaccine. >> didn't we all learn this asri children -- an ounce of invention is worth a pound of care. there is no question preventing

infectious diseases so much better than treating it. but there are two groups where this will be useful. one is we haven't gotten everyone vaccinated. so it will be used for the unvaccinated and there's hope in the future if you have a mild-to-moderate rate through infection, that you get this pill and go on your way. you get tamiflu when you have flu, you take the five day course and you went home. so there is a lot about an oral pill. right now, the government govert committed a billion dollars to purchasing this. kristen: the government needs to do some negotiating to bring the prices down. let's talk about booster the pfizer boosters are being given out but isn't the government supposed to take a big step toward proving boosters for people who got moderna and johnson & johnson?

>> yes. both of those meetings are this week. the moderna is different. it is a is a whereas the one before was 100 micrograms. of the three vaccines, this one is holding up the best. even with the even with the eveh hospitalization with moderna, we are not sure if they are going to do it in a lukewarm matter. johnson definitively will be approved as a booster. kristen: i want to ask ask ask k people who got the johnson & johnson don't want another johnson & johnson. will they have the choice and what do you recommend? >> they will have that choice.

frankly, the way the system works, there is and mrna with the vaccine works better. kristen: if you haven't been vaccinated yet, what would you advise? >> i think the moderna is holding up the most. second, i would advise pfizer. kristen:

kristen: thank you for joining us on this interactive show. we covered the red flag warning then we just covid 19 headlines.

much more coming up at 4:00. world news tonight is next. tonight, breaking news. the deadly plane crash right into a neighborhood. the small plane smashing into homes and into a u.p.s. truck. the plane, the homes, the truck bursting into flames. the homes burned to the ground. emergency teams racing to help the victims. two seniors pulled from their home. what authorities revealed just a short time ago. also tonight, turning the corner on this pandemic. the boston marathon returns. and tonight here, news on the america covid pill, taken if you get covid. what merck now saying their data shows. also potential boosters for moderna and johnson & johnson. how soon could we hear from the fda. late developments on the that front. the travel chaos at u.s. airports tonight. a third straight day of widespread cancellations from southwest airlines.