tonight on kqed newsroom. the west coast is ablaze. fires in california , washington and oregon forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, we talked with founding members of a brand-new wildfire researc centerin san jose. who are addressing critical gaps in our prior knowledge. and when a vaccine for c comes out, will it be safe to ta take? welk with two scientists, working on the coronavirus response about the unprecedented process to inoculate billions of people gl around the e. welcome to kqed newsroom, i david clemens. wildfire smoke, fog, and wind came together this week to produce eerie end of the wod looking landscapes, autumn kicks off california speak fire

season but a historic number fires have already blazed through the state. 3 more than million acres have burned in 2020. surpassing the previous record, set in 2018. nearly 15,000 firefighters are battling 28 major blazes across the state. they have also t aimed at le 12 lives. but amid the destruction comes opportunity, guided by science, san jose state iversity has just inaugurated a new wildfire research center. thoflargest one its kind in the nation. the scientists span a range of disciplines from meteorology, to ecology to a social science.e they are ping new tools and techniques to better study, predict, and adapt to living with wildfires. joining me now skype is craig clemts, the directorof the wildfire interdisciplinary research center, and a professor of meteorology at san jose state university. also joinin us from jose is amanda stossel with. assistant professor of wildfire management at the center, hello to you both.

>> hello>> hi. >> craig, let's start with yook you at the skies this week and thought things like we are on ms, it's the end of times. or even blade runner. what did you think as a fire meteorologist, who has a much more nuanced view of what's going on. when you look at those oranges skies, not just in terms the weather but in terms of our new wildfire normal here in california. >> the first thing thought was that's a lot of smoke. i think most people in northern californiaad not seen this much smoke ever. so, that is pretty scary and daunting. to maybe think that this could be the future of our next summer, and e summer after. so, it was pretty apocalyptic. >> that's the word that seems that was usover and over again this past week. this new center is ncur brld, you created it because you saw a really specific and critical need in our knowledge for wildfire

information. what are some of the unknowns that you are hoping to answer. >> well, with this team of interdisciplinary scientists, across the fid of wildfire, we hope to better understandr, fire behavextreme fire behavior, how changing fire weather conditions can lead to severe fires. and, what policies and what social aspects we can adapt to and ma modifications to e way we are living in this environment. so, there is a lot of different aspects that we tawant to le with the center. for example, we want to get high resolution modeling for what it g.weather forecast and computing resourcel tools it's pretty exciting in terms of the science, that we hope to conduct. >> i want to get some of those tools in a moment but t's bring amanda in here. you're a social scientist and you basically study human interaction inwildfire. what arme of the areas that you are particularly eager to

dive into in this new center. >> i am particularly eager to look at how california is adapting to fire in different places. so, within eachof these big fire stars are going to lebe liindividual communities and their histories culture and capacities. i think we need to find ways to learn from the stories and help them better adapt to the situations. >> there has been a national mecohesive, wildfire mana strategy that was put into place in 2014. by the obama administration. under that, there were three props, onto make e landscape more resilient, another is to improve our response to wildfires, and the third is where you work. it is in the adaptation of our what sort of adaptations are working best? >> so, there are a number of adaptations, you can take in some of the best ones you can do for protecting private property and ur home, is reducing flynn implantable

vegetation. inall sprinklers, decrease the ability of fires to start inside of communiies. there are basicallofa lot things through this program called fire wise. basically outlin things you can do as an individual or community. >> while you are saying there is a lot that wengare star to do there is obviously a long way to go. would you be able to say rca tage term, how much have we done, how far do we still have to go? >> that is a really challengin question because as craig was telling us and we are seeing the fires are changing over time. they are becoming more thtreme. sotools we have right now, for adapting to fire, are what we learn from previous fire seasons. so as we move forward, every community that is adapting right now has to continueto adapt.

>> craig, what are the areas that your center in san jose, that you are pioneering, is of understanding fireweather? what is fire weather? how can our understanding of it help prevent the devastation we have en over thpast several years? >> well, fire weather is simply defined as hot, dry, atwindy r, which is very common in california. but, what's happening is it's getting warmer, and is getting drier. so that's affecting the fuels. the things that are burning, the trees, the shrubs the grasses. and so, if that continues, the fires get more intense. e so when they get more intense weather. s can create their own so, we don't have a good handle on how those process work. how do the fires get so big, how do they create firestorms. so, understanding those, requires new technology, such as monitoring, these systems are not monitored very well. we pioneered the use mobile assets like radars, to

obseese phenomenons. with that, we can model it with state of the science what we call coupled fire atmosphere models. we can better understand and predtht e type of extreme fire behaviors. and expect in the coming decades. >> there could be that fire warning like a synonymy warning, which would help ople evacuatit out sooner than they are now. >> well, we pretty much have that with the red ag warning, which is being revamped by the national weather service. that does work, but it's kind like an evacuation. we don't do evacuations until we have it ignition. and we know the conditions are going to requiring an evacuation in the community. so i think bett understanding the conditions in the future, will allow us to better handle societal impacts

that we can expect as well. >> amanda, since 2009 there has been a strategy of evacuation first. we are seeing that in oregon now. we have 0,000 people who are e in danger of a fire. hey how well is the evacuation strategy working out? do people willingly leave thei homes? >> yeah, there is a lot of research looking at evacuation, a lo of peopwant to be informed, ey want an official evacuation order. what we saw with the campfire, fast-moving. of fires those orders don't come sometimes in time for people to leave. and have a safe wievacuation. out meeting a fire getting into an accident. at happens when we can't bout evacuate. things like preparing our homes, community areas, shelters in place. how do we decrease the risk around our homes, maybe we need to have fire equipment on site.

there are other approaches that can help usdeal with this. but, evacuation is the safest option. get out early, that is the best wa>>to go. craig, can the technology that you're using at the center, help predict and prevent wildfire >> well, some of the modeling tools can help predict it. and make the predictions were accurate. but, preventing, no. prevention has to do with really, society. nine out of 10 fires are caused by humans. so, whether it's a pofar grid ure, or a campfire, that is human-caused. so, those could be preventable. the forecasting tools, aren't really used for the human aspect, it's the really used to understand the behavior of the phenomenon fire. so as those get better, we etwillr understand how fast the fire will be moving, and certain conditions. >> what can we as residents do to adapt toliving with fires?

>> well, like amanda has in d out, being fire wise. addressing the communities about safety, and managing the landscape around communities. so, that's why we have brought this team together, wehave experts like amanda, to help us derive policies that could help communities in the future. amanda, could you talk to us about how you see policy change needing to happen, what do state and federal officials really need to orchange in r for us to have a better future? >> i think y at the we are going to end up addressing the fire issues in the future is cooperation and collaboration. i like to think of fire like a watershed, fire moves across the landscapes, they don' really adhere to boundaries. i ink we need to be enabling

partnerships for reducing fire risk across private and public there is a lot of room to move forward. >> craig, what gives you hope about living with this new landscape the future? and fighting fires in the future? >> well, i think there's going to be a lot of improvemenin technology for fire suppression for example, using drones, to map fires more accurately. to potentially enhance fire suppression activities. so, i think technology isgoonly g to help. we have seen a big increase in a situational of awareness. he withwildfire camera system we can see plume dynamics. some fire behavior aspects. with the new modeling tools, it and sateproducts we will be able to monitor the phenomenon much better than we have in the past. so, i think in the future thatally going to play a big role in not only the research community, but also for

the community in general. or the public, to be able hato a situational awareness. >> amanda, what about for you, these fires are burning more intensely easier, what gives you hope? communities and people are really resilient, society can adapt, a lot of communities are havingsuccess stories moving forward. i think that we are well equipped to deal with isthese es, there is a lot of existing science and knowledge out there. i think a lot of people are inb rested in using it. we do have ways to progress forward. conversation we had earlier, that fire can be a healing force. can you dive into th? >> yeah, so, one of the big things we arseeing in california, with our fires right now, is that we have 100 years of fire from really good fire suppression, largely excluded indigenous cultural

burning, so there is room now for putting good fire back on e landscape. fi a healing force that a lot of ecosystems in california think that's something we can do, moving forward. outside of fire season, having more fire on the ground. , >> professor clemenand professor amanda, from san jose state university, thank you both. >> thank you. >> to learn how best to prepare for a wildfire and what to include in an evacuation supply kir visit ready wildfire.org. there are roughly 170 covid- 19 vaccine candidate being developed aroundthe globe right now. according to the world nihealth orgazation, there has been talk of a vaccine coming out as early as october. president trump's operation warp speed is aiming to create and distribute 300 million doses starting in january, 2021. this week, a prominent trial

with pharmaceutical company astrazeneca was put on hold after a person in thtrr vaccine l became ill. a vaccine is needed for a full economic recovery. but, will people be willing to take a vacc e when concer abound that is being rushed out for political gain before the november presidential election. who gets access to a vaccine, if itfound to be safe and effective. joining me now by skype from palo alto, is dr. maldonado, a profes pediatrics, an infectious disease epidemiologist. 20 by skype from san francisco is dr. peter chen hahn. professor of medicid infectious disease specialist. thank you both for joining u . >> have worked in vaccine development for two decades, would you describe to us the lleagues are going to be doing with covid-19 vaccine trials at stanford? >> yes, currently, we are planned tostart to vaccine trials, one, the jansen vaccine in mid-september, and the noble

baxa vaccine in mid-oober. in perhaps a third vaccine candidate nember. again, that's all assuming that things go smoothly and continue to go well. but currently we are scheduled to begin enrollin several hundred patients. >> peter, you have been working in covid-19 response througen treating pa and also testing their peace, like convalescent plasma, and remdesivir. i would like to get to the science th some of vaccines, how are the candidates expected to work? >> essentially they work by recognize the foreign virus. you can also train them to gn ree bacteria. we train this arminian they go in and zoom off, and stop that passes than pathogen before it sets up shop. >> yvonne, how difficult are these trials to do, with your exdorience of having this

for several decades? >> well, different vaccine trials, every single one isen diff it depends on the interest of the population and who you're aiming the mat. i primarily do trials in children. obviously, at this time, the u.s. really the emphasis is be going to on adults, especially adults over 65. i imagine it's not going to be hard to identify people ntwho o be in the trial. the key is going to be to find enough diversity in the people l who are en to make sure we represent all of the people in the u.s. especially those at >> there was news this week that astrazeneca has paused its phase three trial,after a participant became sick with neurological symptoms. i'm curious about the protocols process of vaccine development. could you walk us through that? >> well, most vaccine trials will include what's called the data safety monitoring board,

that is a very, indendent group of people who monitor the vaccine process. especially the statistical monitoring to make sure the data is statistically powered to make a definitive conclusi about whether vaccine works or not. but the main issue always, with any vaccine product, is safety. you want to guarantee there is safety involved, and that is really the top job. to make sure that safety is -- imary aim of any trial that is being done. >> is it surprising that on sofell ill? >> well, you know, you are enrolling thousands of patients here, so, given the grband, of events that may happen to anybody, you can pick a random sample ople, it's not going it's not surprising there was an impact. there is always almost some

adverse ents, and that's the other reason that you have a placebo group is to really make sure, not just the peon who ts the vaccine versus a placebo, had a better response to prevention of the disease. but also, primarily to make sure that thsafety is the same in both groups. >> ceos of leading drug companies took an unusual turn in that they will urmake that they put safety before speeding conducting covid-19 trials. why was that necessary for them to come forwar >> well, it's pretty unprecedented that a ceo of a vaccine company would tell people that there will be a vaccine unless they are is safety or enough daddy data g regardis. we have companies reassuring the public in that way. but it's a little bit different, there's a long legacy right now of the fda and emergency --

it's not that this is coming out of nowhere. there was recently guidance to the health authorities of every state is sayiar that we should prinfrastructure to support a vaccine by the end of october. or november 1st, two days before the election. so i think people are just afraid of premature release before it's ready. >> yvonne, will u beco double taking the vaccine when it comes out? >> i would be comfortable taking a vaccine that i think absolutely. effective, >> what does that mean? >> i'm not going to walk into, i want to know what i'm getting first.

and that is the key, you will hear about this later. we need transparency about data. that's what i want to see. if we get the data and i feel like the data is out there and it looks good then i will get it. >> what about you? will you take the vaccine? >> i share yvonne's feelings. if it's transparent and i can see the data. i would be out there getting vaccine. you know, it's tough for people because both of you have a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge and you can read all the data and understand what it means. but for the average person whe the vaccine comes out, they're not going to have those resources, so what do you advise people to when a vaccineo comes out, dadvise people to go ahead and take it? >> yeah, absolutely. i think cdc is really focused on getting

>> well, i think it's going to be pla pic er, not only are there issues and access, insurance, private care physician, to center that is distributing these ccines, but there has been centuries of mistrust because of eay experiences with chinical rese i was on the radio the other day, and an african-american no way he'sgoing to get the 's vaccine, or give his family the vaccine because tuskegee, i

think that really hit home to me. that idea that we have toa lot undo before we reach particularo communities of >> yvonne, even if a safe and effective vaccine is soon developed, does that mean the virus is going to go away, will it still remain with us? >> we don't really know the answer to that question, but i think judging from what we know about the current coronavirus is and there are seven human coronavirus is, for which cause normal colds, and have been around with us lofor a time. i can tell you at those viruses return and re-invite people over an over agai so, there is some evidence of immunity, but it doesn't last very long. so the question will be whether produce not only high level to immunity, but durable immunity. even if the immunity lasts a few months, perhaps you could get revaccinated every year, or two years. like you do with the flu.

the final issuthen, is whether or not the vaccines will prevent an individual from getting sick but not from getting infected. so the person might be able to be healthy, but they could actually transmit the disease to others. so, we will need to learn a t about that once the vaccine trials are up and running. and we get more data. >> peter, arthe bay has been taking a leading role when it comes to developing a vaccine. mu this is because of our history as an epicenter of activism, and innovation in treating hiv and aiyo. coultalk us through the position that the bay area has right now? and being a leader in this way question mark >> that's a great question, i think, from the early daysof etsy and hiv, we built up this infrastructure of not only tar ng care of most vulnerable patients at all times, and having an open-door policy. but, by creating ase inucture to support clinical research around investigational drugs. and, as you pointed out, providing the activism, to make sure thatthe people who need

it the most will get it. it came as no surprise that with vaccines studies we were we situation situated to study these. >> dr. peter chen hahn with with stanford university. thank you both so much for joining us. you can find more of our covera at kqed.org/newsroom. i am priya clemens, you can find us on facebook and instagram, from all of us at kqed, thanks for watching, good night.

and when he knew it.sident kw >> i wanted to always play it down. robert: the president tells bob woodward that he knew thena corus was deadly and airborne in february. and sparks a firestorm. >> it's disgusting. >> he's waving a white flag. he didn't do a damn thing. think about it. >> it is the latest explosive book in this cpaign season and comes amid a new whistleblower report. will the president pay the next.ce anno this is "washington week." fundings provided by -- >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind.id withity wealth management a dedicated advor