solutions, this is abc7news. >> i am kristen sze. every day, we talk about issues important to the bay area. today we have earthshaking news. a stanford study reveals there is a system of faults under silicon valley that may be able to create a quake. also, a massive skyscraper could change san francisco's skyline forever. the main street tower would add 808 homes to the city and would be the second tallest building

behind salesforce tower. our media partners at the san francisco standard will show us the new proposal. the cdc is changing what it means to be up-to-date on covid vaccines. if you get covid again and again, does that increase your chances of having long covid? joining us is the chair at the department of medicine dr. bob walker. it's great to see you. >> nice to see you. kristen: has covid gone away? [laughter] >> no. whether we call it a pandemic or not, i am afraid there is still going to be covid around forever. the threat is lower than it was, so it is appropriate for people to do different things, but there is still covid, and it is worth taking seriously. kristen: the cdc has changed what it means to be up-to-date

on vaccines. what was it before, and what is it now? >> the new guidelines say up-to-date is you've got your primary series and also the latest vaccine or booster. previously, they did not account for this new booster, and i think that makes make -- that makes sense. for many of us following along, we are on our fifth shot. i have had five shots. you need to have had a booster. calling it fully vaccinated is not right. your immunity has gone down considerably. making sure you have the latest vaccine on top of the original two is what it means to be up-to-date. kristen: i am still not totally clear on it.

does that mean original series plus a booster or this new booster? >> i've got to look, but i think they are saying you need to have had the latest booster that is available. i believe being up-to-date is you need your original shot and the latest booster that is available, the bivalent. kristen: that means i am not up-to-date. i wonder if the slow uptake worries you? >> not yet. it is worrisome that more people have not gotten it. if you got your last booster in 2021, your protection has waned considerably. there may be people out there

waiting until cases are higher. there may be people who haven't gotten a booster but they got covid two months ago. if those numbers do not take up, that will worry me a lot because we will be adding a lot of preventable cases and death. kristen: that is me. a lot of us got omicron. how long do we wait until i wait for the bivalent booster? >> i go with a general rule of three months after your last booster or infection. we know your protection begins to wane after a couple of months. you could make the argument to get a little bit sooner, but the cases in the bay area are so

much lower, and the booster will not last forever, it is kind of a judgment call whether you get it now or wait a month or so. i wouldn't wait more than four or five months after your prior booster or infection because by that time, your protection against getting infected has gone down considerably, and you are losing some protection. kristen: a new study suggests that paxlovid, the antiviral, really works. >> this is a study using real-world evidence. they are looking for people who did get paxlovid. a lot of people who were eligible for paxlovid are not getting it, either because

patients don't want it or doctors aren't giving it. it showed across different age groups and vaccination statuses that the chances of death were lower. it confirms with the randomized study showed, which is if you are eligible or over 50, you should get it. there's been a fair amount of concern about paxlovid rebound. i think it is real. compared to people who didn't get it, your chances of getting hospitalized or dying go down considerably. kristen:kristen: do you look at these numbers and think they could be used to argue we should lower the eligibility targets for paxlovid? >> probably not. the pieces of data i'd love to

see, the 10-day versus the five-day course. does paxlovid have an impact on long covid? we don't know that either. until there is data, saying that a healthy 30-year-old should get paxlovid when it's main demonstrated affect is ha lower the chance of hospitalization, if you are a 30-year-old, your chances are really low. kristen: your wife did take paxlovid. she did have a rebound and some longer covid symptoms. how is she doing? >> she is a wonderful author. katie is feeling 90% better. she has improved considerably

over the last three months, but she is six weeks out from her more -- six months out from her last case of covid. she's sometimes a bristles when i say she has long covid. there is no question that her brain is not where it was and her level of fatigue is higher than it was. that is the most common thing. it is not disabling, but it is harming her quality of life. kristen: those of us who had a mild case of covid, there may be those of us who think i can handle this. is there any data to suggest if you get reinfected you are more likely to get long covid?

>> there is data that shows your long-term outcomes when we look at the outcomes of people a year later, people with multiple infections do worse than people with a single infection. with each episode, there is a chance you will have a long covid. the fact you dodged it with your first episode is not a guarantee you will dodge it on your second. the fact you had a first episode is you protection against getting infected for a while, but it is not a get out of jail for free card. my level of caution to a case now is no different than my wife's is even though we've both had it. we believe there is a chance we will get very sick and a chance we will get long covid, any chance for her is the same on

the second infection as it would be for me on my first. kristen: we are in a little bit of a lowell -- lull here. are you comfortable eating in restaurants right now? >> i am. i am eating outside with faculty and residents here tonight and tomorrow night. when i have a choice, i prefer outside to inside, but the rate is low enough that i am comfortable eating inside if that is the alternative. if the case rate goes up, i will change that. if i had to take a guess, all bets are off over the winter. my guess is case rates start to go up again. kristen: the best way to protect ourselves before the winter surge if it is here?

>> get your vaccine if you haven't gotten one in the last three or four months, and get a mask for crowded indoor spaces. kristen: please give our best to katie. coming up, new concerns over fault lines in silicon valley. researchers say they are poised to release

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kristen: welcome back. whether you just moved to the bay area or lived here for decades, you know earthquakes are a reality. you've heard of the san andreas fault, but a new survey is shining a light on a system of faults that none of us know exist.

they run deep under silicon valley, extending from palo alto to just south of gilroy flanked by the santa cruz mountains. researchers at stanford found these faults are capable of generating a magnitude 6.9 quake. to join us is fully day -- philippe aron. we want to learn more about the foothold thrust belt faults. how long have scientists known about them being there? >> those faults have been known for a long time, 20, 30 years. they were discovered by scientists at the united states geological survey who have done detailed work discovering the geology of the place.

kristen: they have been discovered, but you are able to quantify their potential energy. i know you said it is capable of a 6.9. we remember the last, which was so damaging. >> how destructive that can be, that is not part of our study. that is not our jurisdiction as scientists. we tried to come up with metrics , the energy potential, but how that is going to translate to damage, it depends on many factors, the soils, the depth of the rotation of the earthquakes. you could expect something similar.

that needs to be constrained. kristen:kristen: you mentioned the soil, which leads me to this. i think you studied these faults in a simulation that accounted for the landscape. >> we were able to use a metric, which is dependent on the fault. every time one of those faults move, they move up and down like big blocks of earth. the mountains in the bay area flaking the silicon valley, they were formed by the activity of those faults, so they contain information on how they have behaved in the past. we were able to connect the shapes that form to infer the

slip rates that those faults were responsible for. connecting mountain formation, river formation with a earthquake activity was one of the main novelties of our work. kristen: you are not forecasting that a quake will definitely happen, right? >> as i said before, this fundamental science, which are unknown metrics on those faults, they have to be taken into models. this is our table that considers other variables which are put together to estimate forecasting assessments, basically. this is one of the fundamental

and basic metrics you need to enter into those more complex models that determine what will be the impact of those earthquakes and what is the probability or likely could -- likelihood of an earthquake happening in the future. in the bay area, those will happen again. it is not news that the area will be affected in the recent future by earthquakes. we need to learn how to live with that hazard, and then adapt accordingly to that, and in order to adapt well, we have to get to know how they behave. that is one of the contradictions of our study. kristen: based on this new system of faults, is there anything that people in the silicon valley need to do differently to prepare? >> you have to be prepared, as you said, and earthquake

activity is rather rich. anguidelines used to construct infrastructure, but you need to plan ahead in order to build up the expansion of the cities, and you need to take into account scientific studies that the usgs uses. science is an important thing to consider when you want to plan resilient societies for the future. get informed and get prepared. that is what people will have to do. kristen: thank you so much for your time today. >> you are very welcome. kristen: we just want to let you

know on the abc7news website, we have a section if you are looking for resources on how to prepare your earthquake kit. coming up, hundreds of new homes, and a new look for the san francisco skyline could be coming soon if developers get their wish. naomi: every year the wildfires, the smoke seems to get worse. jessica: there is actual particles on every single surface. dr. cooke: california has the worst air pollution in the country. the top 2 causes are vehicles and wildfires.

prop 30 helps clean our air. it will reduce the tailpipe emissions that poison our air kevin: and helps prevent the wildfires that create toxic smoke that's why calfire firefighters, the american lung association, and the coalition for clean air support prop 30. naomi: i'm voting yes on 30.

kristen: salesforce tower, watch out. there may soon be another skyscraper hoping to make as big of a splash on the skyline in the south of market neighborhood. our media partners at "the san francisco standard" publish an article previewing the property. according to developers, it will boost the recovery of the downtown area. joining us is garrett lakey. thanks for joining us. what do you know about this proposed skyscraper on the drawing board?

garrett: this skyscraper was proposed to be 992 feet high. it would be in the selma neighborhood with 808 units of housing, 100 of 18 will be affordable units. kristen: the design architecture is interesting it. are those open gaps in the middle where i see full wage and trees? garrett: there are cross braces meant to seismically reinforce the building. that is the reason for its interesting facade. kristen: that makes it stronger, ok. where is it currently? garrett: there is actually a two-story office building on that block, so that office building would be demolished. kristen: is it part of a larger development? garrett: it is one of four buildings on that block as part of the block's redevelopment.

there would be the building that 50 main street, which would be residential, and the along a mixture of office and residential space with open space to fill out that block. kristen: this is new transit, right? garrett: it is near the embarcadero station and the ferry building. it is close to transit housing development. kristen: what has been the reaction so far? garrett: what we've seen so far is there have been positive reactions to the construction of the building, but we will see how things shake out in terms of public opinion as more details come to light anytime light -- and the timeline begins to progress. kristen: the residential tower, i am wondering, is this the type of housing that housing advocates are pushing for? the majority of these units would be super luxury and unaffordable to most.

> it is an interesting question appeared this strikes at the center of the housing debate in san francisco between progressives and moderates where progressives will often demand or take the position that there needs to be a higher threshold of affordable housing in a given development where moderates will often say that there needs to be a more reasonable amount of affordable housing to make these buildings profitable enough that developers want to build. there are no numbers released for what the rent will be like, but given that it is in a nice part of town, you can expect the rent will be fairly high. kristen: i wonder if they will be able to fill in the sense that the main te-moak group is probably the young salary -- the main demo group is probably the young high salaried tech

workers. i want to ask you about the developer. isn't that the same developer that built of the luxury high-rise that has been flooding due to water main breaks? wouldn't that give the city pause? garrett: there have been issues with the building, of which they are the developer. it flooded twice, including in the summer. we can't really say whether it should give us pause, because we have not seen any plans about the building so that any expert could see any red flags in the construction. we will have to be following those developments and see if this building will be up to snuff. kristen: in the time we have left, where are we in terms of the green lighting process? i think we are in the early stage. garrett: it is very early. the developers are going to be going to the planning commission on the sixth to give an

informational presentation and solicit feedback on the construction. there is no timeline for when this would break ground or be approved. we are waiting to see how that plays out. kristen: we will continue to follow it. garrett, don't go away. would love to continue the conversation on facebook live but folks, check out more of the san francisco standards more original reporting on their website. abc 7 will continue to bring you our internet isn't ideal... my dad made the brilliant move to get us t-mobile home internet. oh... but everybody's online during the day so we lose speeds. we've become... ...nocturnal. well... i'm up. c'mon kids.

this. sucks. well if you just switch maybe you don't have to be vampires. whoa... okay, yikes. oh sorry, i wasn't thinking. we don't really use the v word. that's kind of insensitive. we prefer day-adjacent. i'll go man-pire.

article. garrett: thank you. kristen: thank you for joining us today on "getting answers." we will be here every day at 3:00 answering your questions.

coming up at 4:00, a look ahead to san francisco's fleet week activities. a lot going on. "world news tonight" is coming up next. i will see you at 4:00. [captioning performed by the na tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. former president trump filing an emergency appeal. trump now asking the supreme court to intervene in the mar-a-lago case. jon karl standing by with late reporting. also tonight, the former football star, the republican senate candidate in georgia, herschel walker, tonight responding to the explosive new claim. a report claiming he paid for a girlfriend to get an abortion. tonight, the woman with what she says is the receipt and she says records of a check from herschel walker to allegedly pay for it. tonight, what walker is now saying about that check and this evening, herschel walker's own son deeply critical of his father. rachel scott in georgia. in the east tonight, bracing for the potential of he