WEBVTT - Not Clear That Regeneron Is Helpful, Toner Says 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.720 This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.320 Jason Kelly. We're right here every day bringing you the 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:11.160 latest news from the world's of business and finance, plus technology, politics, economics, 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:14.280 all harnessing the power of Business Week reporters and editors. 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.439 And of course Carol that's part of a team of 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.439 twenty seven hundred journalists and analysts more than a hundred 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.240 and twenty countries and Jason. You can download Bloomberg Business 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.240 Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, bl Bloomberg dot com. You can 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.640 also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.560 on Bloomberg Radio every weekday, or watch us on YouTube 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:37.160 by searching Bloomberg Global News. Let's get into the virus. 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:39.560 Understand where we are. It is a fast moving story, 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.320 to say the least, things changing minute to minute and 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.640 certainly day by day. We're lucky to have with this. 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.120 Dr Eric Turner. He is a senior scholar at the 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.080 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.520 of Public Health. Of course to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.200 of Public Health, you can probably guess by the name. 0:00:57.200 --> 0:00:59.040 It's supported by Mike Bloomberg. He is the founder of 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.279 Bloomberg Philanthropies as well as Bloombergilpie, the parent of this 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.520 radio station, and Dr Turner joins us on the phone. So, 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.200 Dr Turner, what's the most important thing we need to 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.000 know about the virus today? Well, I think the most 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.120 important thing we need to know is that RUSS isn't 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.520 going away. Um, more than half the safe states are 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:24.240 seeing increasing cases. And um, you know, it's still in 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.520 every state and still in every country, so it's not 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:30.480 going anywhere. We will be continuing to live with this 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.600 for quite some time. Is there anything though about the progression? 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.200 Like I was saying early at the top of our broadcast, 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.319 Dr Turner, that I was watching kind of I was 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.280 watching the evening news programs and they were talking about 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:44.479 the hotspot now that is was Wisconsin, Uh, and getting 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.200 towards you know, some really um tough situations right now 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.440 of running out of space and hospitals essentially where we 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.280 were several months ago. Can you see anything though, as 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.160 we continue to move further and further into this pandemic 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:01.320 that we are learning, we are learning how to treat it, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.160 we are learning how to quickly get hot spots under 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.959 control or yes, and no, Well, we know how to 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.200 get hot hot spots under control. We've done it now 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:16.600 multiple times. Uh. It requires that people adhere to the 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.280 same guidance that we've been giving them for months, which 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:23.359 is need to wear masks, you need to maintain distance, 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.880 you need to avoid indoor crowded spaces. Uh, you need 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:31.119 to be tested, we need to contact trace. Um. All 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:33.960 those things are still true and they all still work. UM. 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.560 It's it's when people don't adhere to the to that 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.320 guidance that we see these outbreaks. These outbreaks don't happen randomly. 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.920 That happen because people aren't adhering, um to what we 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:51.200 know works. So wait, all right, you kind of gave 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.320 us a softball there in terms of setting up what 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.359 happened over the last week. In terms of the President 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.720 and the White House. I feel like all those things 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:05.440 you said, from mass to social distancing to avoiding closed spaces, 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.560 like it was like a checklist of everything the White 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:14.959 House did wrong. Yes, yes, I mean it. You know, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.840 the science is clear, the messages have been clear. We 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:23.920 you know, we know they've worked in every location, not 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.480 only in this country but around the world. UM. And 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.880 the White House's refusal to follow their own government's advice 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:38.200 has led to this super spreading event that's been um, 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:43.240 you know, surrounding the president. And so once we saw 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.720 the president diagnosed, and we saw him go to Walter 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.800 Read and and I'll set aside for a second what 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.920 seemed to be conflicting information or lack of information that 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.440 we're getting from his doctors and leave that for another day. 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.960 But from what we know of the treatment meant Dr Turner, 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.000 what are we to take as sort of regular people 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.520 who you know, God forbid if we have to deal 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:10.360 with it personally or on behalf of a family member, 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.200 what do we take away from his course of treatment? 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.600 What do you take away from it as someone who 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:21.560 really understands the various therapeutics. So he got many of 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.719 the available therapeutics. Is the only one he did not 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:29.520 get his consolescent plasma UM. So they used a shotgun 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.400 approach and in treating him UM. It's not clear whether 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.760 this was because he wanted it or because the doctor's 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.440 recommended it, but nonetheless he got it UM. He got 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:47.839 UM the monoclonal antibodies from the regenera incorporation UM. That 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.600 is something that is not available to the rest of us, 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:56.400 it is not yet UM licensed or authorized. He got 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.400 steroids decks of methazone, which is readily availa bol um. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.520 He got from de Severe, which is the anti viral, 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:08.760 which is also pretty widely available for hospitalized patients. UM. 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.040 So many of the things that he got our things 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.040 that UM the rest of us to get. UM. The 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:19.240 one that stands out is the Regenerata Mono Colonel anybody, 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.000 which is not widely available. So if if he was 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.159 your patient, we we've talked a lot about this Dr 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.080 Towner that you know, executive medicine, if you're an executive 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.080 and have access. I mean, he has access to the 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.120 best healthcare in the world, understandably, and we do want 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.680 that for our leaders, right. UM. But I do wonder 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:39.719 if you were his doctor, would you have done the 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.800 same thing a shotgun approach? And I do also wonder 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.040 is that what it was or can we read something 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.400 into the case of COVID nineteen that he had And 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:50.760 we just have about a minute, then we'll do some 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.599 news and come back. Yeah, it's it's hard to know 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.640 because we don't have the details of this case, so 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.760 it's hard to know. UM. Yeah, it would be total 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.360 speculation at this point for me to comment on that, 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:05.520 But would you do the same the same thing in 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.160 terms of a shotgun approach if you had a CEO 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:09.800 who came to you and said, listen, this is what 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:11.920 I've got, you know, would you have done the same thing? 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.960 To be fair, Yeah, to be fair, I would have 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.800 given him everything that I thought was appropriate. And you know, 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.480 some of the things that we got were clearly appropriate 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.400 and some of them were, well, I don't know, maybe 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:29.120 maybe not so um, it's hard to know without without 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:33.600 actually having examined him, seeing his cat scan, seeing a 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.040 cyber so it's a little hard to know. Dr Eric 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.159 Toner Senior Senior Scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.120 Health Security and a Senior scientist in the Department of 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.000 Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.320 of Public Health. He's an internist and emergency physician, and 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.920 his primary eras of interest or healthcare preparedness for catastrophic events, 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.560 so like pandemic influenza. So perfect person to be talking to, 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:58.479 of course, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health supported 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.279 by Michael R. Bloomberg. UH and he's with us from 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:06.640 cape cod So Dr Turner, how do you see the 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.640 way forward? Um, Obviously it's a vaccine, I guess. Obviously 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.119 it's treatments for those who still get the virus. Because 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:14.960 here I'm looking at a day where New York, New 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.280 Jersey recorded the most new virus cases cases since mid May. 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.800 So we're gonna be dealing with this again. As you 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:22.920 said at the top, you know the virus is still 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.239 with us. So how do you see the way forward? 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:29.000 How do you see it playing out into I think 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.480 what we'll be seen is um what I call choppy 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:37.920 seas who will be seen UM increasing cases here and there. 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.720 They'll go up a bit, then people will started hearing 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.840 to the guidelines better. They'll they'll be some further temporary restrictions. 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.000 The cases will get better, so as they go up 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.640 and down in one location, and they'll be going up 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.840 and down another location, moving around, so it'll be a 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:01.320 chop it'll be. I don't think there'll be a giant 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:07.080 nationwide spike. I think will continue to see um, you know, 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:12.080 hundreds or thousands of local epidemics um, each one lasting 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.880 a month or two UM. So I think this will 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:21.440 continue UM well into next year and Hopefully we'll have 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:25.000 a vaccine sometime in the winter, but it'll take several 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.720 months UM before we can distribute that vaccine and ad 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:34.080 minister to UM, you know, most of the population, which 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.560 is what we need to do in order to get 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:40.280 the pandemic under control. And do you do you have 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.240 real confidence at the first vaccine that comes out that 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.520 gets approved, it's going to be safe. You have confidence 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.800 in that in our system that's currently in place. Yeah, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:55.760 I am reasonably confident that UM, with their career scientists 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:00.880 and the FDA won't get author is the use of 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.920 an unsafe vaccine. So I am I am reasonably confident. 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.960 And I think if you know, if they they indicate 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.640 that it's safe, effective, then I would be willing to 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.199 get the vaccine and recommend the vaccine. I think there 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:23.160 are probably political pressures, at least a political rhetoric um 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.320 on the FDA. I hope that they can't resist that. 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:31.079 Injustic to the science and Dr Turner, speaking of science 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.200 and politics, it feels like we're getting ever used to 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:38.839 the notion of emergency use authorizations. And you know, we 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.000 heard about that from Eli Lily. We've got more headlines today, 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:44.960 a lot of these stemming candidly from the treatment of 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.480 the president, seems like that was at least a catalyst. 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:53.160 Obviously emergency that it's built into the it's built into 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.600 the term. This is not the normal course of business. 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.679 How much should we worry? How much do you, as 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:00.800 someone who knows a lot about this, worry about the 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.200 fact that maybe we're moving too fast with some of 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:09.960 these therapeutics and potential treatments. Well, the the mechanism of 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:16.480 emergency authorization was never intended for a drug that had 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:22.720 not gone through complete clinical trials. It was intended to 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.360 allow the use of a drug or of vaccine that 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:29.880 had completed all the trials but was waiting for the 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.240 bureauxecy to catch up. Because once once the trials are 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.800 completed in there in there feel a good effect on 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.000 the move and the drug is safe, it takes the 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.640 f D a typically three or four or five months 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:45.800 to do all the paperwork and to get the license out. 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.840 So um this was a way to cut off those 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.800 several months. At the end. It was never intended to 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.600 be utilized for a drug or a vaccine that had 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:03.360 not gone through you know, full clinical trials. So um 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:07.880 I would be concerned about trying to get emergencies authorization 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:13.240 or a therapeutic that is still only partially part of 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:16.040 the way through clinical trials. Can I ask you a 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.679 quick question thirty seconds just because that a viewer who's 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.160 listening to our conversation, this whole idea of what the 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.959 President said about regeneral and how it helped him and 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.040 to provide it free to all Americans? Is that something 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.640 realistic and that we should expect and unfortunately just got 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:34.400 about thirty seconds here. It's totally unrealistic and it won't happen. Um, 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.360 it's not at all clear that that the Regenera product 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.560 helped the president. Um, it's going to be a very 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.160 expensive drug. It would be incredibly expensive provided to all Americans. 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:50.280 And it's not that it's not created even that it's 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.320 that helpful, but we don't know that yet. Thank you 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:55.440 so much for answering that. I really appreciate that, because 0:11:55.480 --> 0:12:00.640 I know everybody really UM appreciates everybody over on Hopkins 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:02.840 in terms of what they know about the virus, and 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.360 that includes Dr Eric Toner. Thank you so much, Senior 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:07.839 scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.600 Bloomberg School of Public Health. Really great conversation. This is 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.520 Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.199 Bloomberg Radio. So this week's cover story in the magazine, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.760 they are the Remarks, and they're written by UM Robert Langrath, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.480 who is healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News, who earlier you 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.120 might remember this year wrote another cover story which was 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.319 about Gilead and it's Dru's drug rem desseviere, which we 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.440 just talked about on air. This week, he reports about 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:36.800 what has been one of our top stories, safe to 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.640 say over the past week, about how a White House 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.040 COVID outbreak America's pandemic failure in microcosms. So let's bring 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.199 in Rob on the phone in New Jersey along with 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.160 Bloomberg Business we get it, or Jil Webber on the 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.200 phone in Massachusetts. I you know, safe to say, Jill, 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:53.480 we have all been obsessed by this story, rightfully, so 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:56.080 with the President having COVID nineteen and then just watching 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.440 it spread throughout the White White House and all of 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.960 his so see it. Yeah, it's kind of crazy to imagine. Um, 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:09.920 everything basically started a week ago today when Jennifer Jacobs 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:14.719 UM wonderful DC based White House reporter for Bloomberg News 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.960 actually broke that Hope Picks had it had tested positive, 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.920 and then, um, you know, basically a bunch of chaos 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.240 started to ensue, and you know, within a couple hours, um, 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:29.640 we had a positive confirmation that President Trump had tested positive. 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:33.040 And then we just started to watch more and more 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.400 people close to the president come down. Um. And so 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.480 we turned to Bob because you know, there's a political 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.280 story there, to be sure, but you know, the one 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.880 that really stood out to us was this the the 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:47.920 health side of it, right, and the science side of it, 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.560 and the disease side of it, and all of those 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:55.839 things are things that Bob knows, um incredibly well and uh, 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.160 you know it, this disease, as he points out in 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.120 this remarks, make makes no exception of anybody. It does 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:05.000 not care what your stature is, like what what president, 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.479 what what country you're president of? It is just ruthless 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.920 and relentless. Um. And I think we've learned a little 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.439 bit along the way, and Bob, like I wouldn't mind 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.400 actually just kind of opening up with that question, like 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.440 what did what did you learn over the past week 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:24.160 about COVID well, I mean it just it emphasizes just 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.920 very clearly how how infectious and how easily it spreads, 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.120 and how tricky a virus. This is because what happens 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.920 is is that people are very contagious, often a couple 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.400 of days before they get any any symptoms. That's one 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:38.840 of the peak contagious periods. A lot of the spread 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.320 occurs before people have symptoms symptoms at all, and that 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.000 is may that that may maybe something that happened in 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.160 the White House, and that's, you know, different from some 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:51.120 other diseases like stars are most of the spread occurred 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.600 when people have symptoms. So what the White Hush did 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:55.960 and this is kind of emblematic of the whole way 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:59.360 the administration has approached this pandemic, and they kind of 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.640 relied on kind of a single silver bullet quick fix 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.680 or relying on a kind of Abbott Laboratory's rapid test, 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.120 which is a perfectly good test, but if you use 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.360 it correctly, but it's really supposed to be used for 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.080 people with symptoms to confirm a diagnosis and get them 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.360 isolate them as soon as possible. It's not supposed to 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.680 be used as the sole line of defense to you know, 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:21.040 to keep to allow you to do crowded events without 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.560 masking social distancing. And that's what the White House is 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.840 doing again and again and and the problem with that strategy. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.520 Get one case slips through one false false negative, and 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.000 you have a super spreader event and not sure what 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.320 appears to have happened. Yeah, and Bob, I mean it 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:39.960 really is amazing because I feel like all of us, 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:42.800 even those of us who you know aren't president or 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.120 don't work at the White House, have been putting maybe 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.640 too much emphasis or too much hope on this idea 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.160 of like, well what if I could just get a 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.000 rapid test and then I could go to work, or 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:53.640 then I could go to a game, or then I 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.280 could get on a plane or whatever it is. It's 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.320 trickier than that, right, right, So the tests are very 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:03.160 good and they're useful. Uh and there there are part 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:05.440 of this part of the strategy, but they're not like 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.560 a you know, a solution for everything just in isolation, 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.840 because there's just a moment of time that will happen 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.720 is you get infected with the coronavirus and then there's 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.040 an incubation pure and not much is happening, and so 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:18.880 you've been infected. There's a time of the virus and 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:21.560 starting to grow and grow, and you don't test positive, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.360 you know, uh, you know, for several days necessarily, and 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.200 you know, so you could have a rapid test in 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.320 the morning it says you're negative, but you could be 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.840 infecting people in the afternoon, and then you're infected a 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:33.640 bunch of people and then like a day or so later, 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.640 the test turns positive, but it's too late. Bob. We 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:42.240 learned a little bit about how a certain course of 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.880 treatments can go if you're the president of the United States. 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:51.800 I suppose what what are doctors and others, scientists, people 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.560 in farm out, what what are people saying about sort 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:58.400 of the course of treatments that President Trump was put on, 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:01.680 because that's not something that the rest of us probably 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.000 have access to, right, I mean, he may have been 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:05.600 like the only one of the only people in the 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.640 world to get this kind of combination of three treatments, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.480 including this one totally experimental one from Regeneralan. Uh, you know, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.560 in such a rapid, rapid time for him. He got 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.280 this on a quote compassionate use basis. He got this 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.239 experimental antibody cottel from regeneral in which they have you know, 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.880 they're applying for authorization, but they have you know, very 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.760 few doses of so most people couldn't get that. And 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:30.719 then he quickly I was moved to airlifted via the 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.240 White House helicopters to Walter Reed Medical Center, where he 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.720 got from Dezaviere, which is a standard hospital treatment. That's 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.760 the Guilliad drug drug a cover story on before, and 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.760 he got that right away. And uh and uh, you know, 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.159 after he you know, he was having some breathing difficulties 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.440 on Friday and then uh like the next day they 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.320 put them on the steroid decks of methi zone and 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.480 after he had another bout of breathing difficulty and that 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.800 is a drug that's basically mostly a usually use for 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.159 severe cases, which you know suggests to a lot to 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.600 doctors and some people that you know, the the the 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:08.840 White House doctors may have been much more worried about 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:10.400 Trump than they you know, at all. And the fact 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.040 that they put him on this third drug that's really 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.879 for severe cases. You know what's interesting, Bob. We just 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.399 had on a doctor, Dr Eric Turner from Johns Hopkins, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.480 and we asked him about Regenera on specifically. And first 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.280 of all, he said it was like a shotgun approach 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.200 that they did with the president. He said, to be fair, 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.720 if he had an executive, senior executive, he probably would 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.479 have done the same thing. But that regeneration, you know, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.440 A listener said, well, wait a minute. The President said 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:35.639 he's going to make it available to everybody, make it free. 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.800 And Dr Turner said, does That's not really possible. It's 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.080 just not gonna work that way. It's expensive, that's not possible. 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:45.359 So you do wonder about here. You have the president 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.040 of the White House, right, that's supposed to be setting 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.920 the tone, you know, um, setting kind of the national plan, 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.840 and yet we keep hearing conflicting things. Well, right, so 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:56.960 let me give you some context the Regenera on drug. 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.080 They've said for this month October, they have like the 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.280 thousand total doses available of that drug. Now, that may 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:05.400 sound like a lot on the surface, but there are 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.400 fifty thou like roughly fifty tho cases of day being 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.879 reported in the US. And even if you say, you know, 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.480 maybe only five or ten those cases are higher risk 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.840 cases than your older patients or circret patients. Still there's 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:19.600 very little supply the regeneral on drug and even if 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.200 it gets an authorization, you know people, you know, there's 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.600 a tiny, tiny supply. It's not like everyone. It's not 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:27.320 true that everyone will be able to get it, absolutely 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.600 not true, but it's But it's also just like, as 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:32.280 you get to your story that what we're seeing in 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:35.320 the White House wood played out is pretty much, you know, 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.240 an explanation of why we never got the pandemic under 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.440 control in the United States. So it's a really really 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.960 thoughtful read and certainly in the context of the last week, um, 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:47.640 something that everybody should definitely check out. Bubbling gra thank 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.359 you so much incredible reporting when it comes to COVID 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.040 nineteen healthcare reporter at Bloomberg News on the phone in 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.680 New Jersey, and our thanks os to Jell Weber, editor 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.159 of Bloomberg Business Week. I mean, they have been the 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.600 magazine and those cover story, especially wh on the virus 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.600 to spot on well and this one is so timely 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.639 and as you say, just so rich with context and 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.040 really important context. Right now we're trying to figure all 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:11.359 this out. Check that out on Bloomberg dot com, on 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.840 the terminal and in the upcoming edition of the magazine. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.560 It's the cover. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:22.000 Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. All right, 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.960 let's do a little Business Week economics now, and really 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.920 no story I think is bigger to the economy than 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:32.959 the ongoing negotiations and by ongoing, I mean months and 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:38.960 months now between Democrats and Republicans over a new stimulus package. 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.440 How Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she caught up with our own 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:45.440 David Weston earlier today about the state of those negotiations 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:50.960 and working with Treasury Secretary Steve Manutin. He understands the challenges. 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.480 We have a difference of money in certain places, but 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.080 the difference in language is also something that we can 0:20:57.240 --> 0:21:00.440 I believe we can resolve it will take home promise, 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.600 but that's what a negotiation is about. So I have 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:08.200 confidence in the Secretary, I think the President. I have 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:11.479 confidence that the President does too. All right, so of 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.840 course US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, speaking earlier 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:20.000 to David Weston of Bloomberg Politics here on Bloomberg Radio 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.320 and Bloomberg Teeth, I sort of feel like if it's 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.560 like if you could just insert you know, if if 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:28.760 if some buds were candy and nuts, Like if if 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.439 confidence was candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas, 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:33.840 or at least a Phase four stimulus Like it was 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.720 kind of Bananas's honest, it's amazing. And we've talked about 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:39.280 this with some of our guests that here we are 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.040 just a few weeks out from an election like this 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:43.960 would be a no brainer for Paul, you know, for 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.200 certainly the President and I would think Republicans in Congress 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.520 would want to get it done. So let's see what 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:51.080 our next guest has to say about all of this. 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:53.920 In today's Business Week Economics, we welcome back Lindsay Piegsa, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:22:00.159 chief economist at Steeple Financial. She's on the phone from Chicago. So, se, 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.600 isn't it kind of mind boggling, Like it's the economy stupid. 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:06.720 We know that that's what matters when it comes to elections, 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:09.399 and you know, putting the virus aside, you would think 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.000