Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser. Every day
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Speaker 1: Global News. So let's get to our daily check on
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. Dr Anthony Harris. He is work Cares Chief
Speaker 1: Innovation Officer and Associate medical director on site clinical operations.
Speaker 1: He leads the company's COVID nineteen clinical response team based
Speaker 1: in Chicago. That is a city and a state of
Speaker 1: Illinois that is seeing virus cases spike. He joins us
Speaker 1: there from Chicago, Dr Harris, nice to have you here,
Speaker 1: How are you and give us, you know, a little
Speaker 1: bit of a feel of what's going on in Chicago
Speaker 1: right now and what you're seeing on the ground. Sure,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me on, Carol, And yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: where the rubber meets the road in terms of people
Speaker 1: out and about your We're noticing the difference. Right the
Speaker 1: restaurants are shut down again. People are kind of in
Speaker 1: that mindset of you know, the the quarantine m that
Speaker 1: we were used to back in the spring, and you know,
Speaker 1: the the number one thing that we're trying to spread
Speaker 1: the word about is these large gatherings in the home. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it's happening in the Midwest. You look at Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: you look at what's happening here in Illinois, and the
Speaker 1: mood is very somber as people are realizing finally that
Speaker 1: you know, this is serious. This is a spike that
Speaker 1: we're seeing sustained, and that it's not going anywhere. And
Speaker 1: personal behavior uh is playing a factor and so people
Speaker 1: are hopefully people are starting to wake up to that
Speaker 1: fact so they can act accordingly in their homes and
Speaker 1: in the community. How could a mandate from the federal
Speaker 1: government kind of affect things at this point in your view,
Speaker 1: you know, if we look across the pond, we can
Speaker 1: kind of glimpse and learn from what's happened overseas, you know,
Speaker 1: Paris and France, Look what happened in England. UM in
Speaker 1: the UK, right, they're seeing numbers per capita far greater
Speaker 1: than what we're seeing. So the impact there is tremendous
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis seven rolling day average UM,
Speaker 1: and so we're looking to see if those mandates that
Speaker 1: they put in place, curfews, et cetera, will have an impact. UM.
Speaker 1: We hope they will, but we haven't seen clear evidences
Speaker 1: as it is stands yet. UM. Some of the things
Speaker 1: that we're seeing in the States play out and hopefully
Speaker 1: are protective, are the mandates that when you go to
Speaker 1: mass trends and you better have that mass when you're
Speaker 1: not getting on right. Those are the type of measures
Speaker 1: that will indeed play a factor in helping protect the
Speaker 1: general public. Dr Harris, what about treatments in terms of
Speaker 1: COVID patients? And I know I've had a lot of
Speaker 1: conversations with UM, other doctors and folks in the medical
Speaker 1: care community, and we're definitely we've learned a lot in
Speaker 1: the last seven to eight months when it comes to
Speaker 1: dealing with different types of COVID nine team cases. We've
Speaker 1: made progress, but I'm still trying to get my head around,
Speaker 1: you know, the increase in hospitalizations. I mean, how bad
Speaker 1: are the cases that are coming into the hospitals and
Speaker 1: and are you able to Are you finding that the
Speaker 1: medical community has a better grasp on you know, preventing
Speaker 1: essentially these patients from dying. Yes, they do, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: I think we've learned a lot, like you said, since
Speaker 1: this all began and in the hospitals, and we talked
Speaker 1: to the frontline hospital workers that are in the docks
Speaker 1: and the nurses that are in the i c u
Speaker 1: s taking care of these individuals that have severe cases
Speaker 1: that are on mechanical ventilation. They've learned a lot, right, Uh.
Speaker 1: If you back when I spoke with my colleagues in
Speaker 1: the hospitals, um uh in the spring and summer, you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was a rough time. People would go
Speaker 1: into bed later they would try to manage them as
Speaker 1: we have managed patients in the past with similar presentations
Speaker 1: from a UH pneumonias standpoint, right, um, and people were
Speaker 1: still you know, succumbing to the illness. And so what
Speaker 1: we learned is how do you manage what is the protocol, uh,
Speaker 1: and what works best for these specific people that are
Speaker 1: coming down with stars Kobe two and UH, you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunately the death death that we're seeing was predicted. UM
Speaker 1: was predicted back in the summer when we anticipated a
Speaker 1: spike in cases with the thirty day lag between the
Speaker 1: spikes that we're seeing and the death break, and that's
Speaker 1: starting to play out, and hopefully we'll get control of
Speaker 1: it UM. But certainly the medicine, the treatments and whatnot
Speaker 1: have improved. It's just a tidal wave of cases right
Speaker 1: now that coure trying to keep up with. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's the ebbs and and flows, if you will,
Speaker 1: and the highs and lows of COVID nineteen. We did
Speaker 1: get some highs yesterday when we heard about the fiser
Speaker 1: treatment and a vaccine, a burst of good news finding
Speaker 1: some extraordinary results in ELI Lily also granted us emergency
Speaker 1: clearance for its antibody therapy Elily, Eli Lily excuse me.
Speaker 1: Chairman and CEO, David Rix, he caught up with our
Speaker 1: team over on Bloomberg TV and they talked about the
Speaker 1: company's coronavirus antibody therapy that was granted that emergency used.
Speaker 1: But I've got to say that Dave Rix also said
Speaker 1: it will still be needed even if a COVID vaccine
Speaker 1: is developed. He talked with Tom Jonathan Farrell at Lisa Bama.
Speaker 1: Let's check it out. We'll still need medicines like our
Speaker 1: antibody therapy to help those that will still get sick,
Speaker 1: hopefully at a much lower rate as we approach something
Speaker 1: like her immunity, but you'll still have endemic disease and
Speaker 1: we'll need therapies we have. There's many examples where this
Speaker 1: is true, including common respiratory viruses like RSV. And that
Speaker 1: of course was Eli Lily chairman and CEO Dave Bricks
Speaker 1: talking with our our colleagues over on Blueberg TV. Dr Harris,
Speaker 1: when you look at the treatments that are coming down,
Speaker 1: when you look at the news yesterday, what does that
Speaker 1: say to you about maybe where we are the timeline
Speaker 1: for getting COVID nineteen under control. Sure, so the next
Speaker 1: day's news was very positive, right, and for a number
Speaker 1: of reasons, first and foremost obviously for public sentiment in
Speaker 1: terms of understanding where the progression is of vaccine potential
Speaker 1: vaccine to be to be released. Right. But to me,
Speaker 1: what it points out in terms of yesterday's release and
Speaker 1: the positive sentiment is that we were anticipate painting from
Speaker 1: fightser exactly what has happened and transpired in November. UM.
Speaker 1: This was back in the summer that we were anticipating
Speaker 1: that basically clinical trials had started, UM they were showing
Speaker 1: positive early data in terms of results, and and then
Speaker 1: now that we're seeing more positive news around clinical outcomes
Speaker 1: with their with the vaccine. UM. This speaks very well
Speaker 1: and hopes that the timeline that we anticipate the vaccine
Speaker 1: to be released next year will play out well. And
Speaker 1: I stay next year because I'm speaking to the general
Speaker 1: public timeline of being able to access the vaccine most likely,
Speaker 1: and if we look at that timeline based upon H
Speaker 1: one in one UH and other releases of vaccines, it
Speaker 1: won't probably be until May June of next year that
Speaker 1: we see the vaccine widely distributed to the general public
Speaker 1: and the workforce. And that's what we're gearing up for
Speaker 1: here at work Care, partnering with state health officials to
Speaker 1: do so. We'll tell us about the work that you
Speaker 1: guys are doing because that specifically you work with officials,
Speaker 1: you work with companies right in terms of managing healthcare.
Speaker 1: You got it. Yeah, we're classic occupational environmental medicine. We're
Speaker 1: all physician lad been around for thirty five years and
Speaker 1: we've seen unfortunately, uh, you know, pandemics like this play
Speaker 1: out before and been a part of it, UM. And
Speaker 1: so our job in the workplaces to protect the workers
Speaker 1: first and foremost from injuries with trip and falls as
Speaker 1: well as exposures. And so during this period of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: it is exceptional, UM that we've been able to kind
Speaker 1: of pivot what we do a little bit in terms
Speaker 1: of providing digital platforms for screening workers that we started
Speaker 1: back in March, we've done well before million of those
Speaker 1: in the workforce, and we're launching, you know, strategies to
Speaker 1: help protect the workforce with testing regiments. Uh. And UM,
Speaker 1: it's it's working, you know, we know that it's working
Speaker 1: with the universities that we talked to, is working with
Speaker 1: the clients that we have with large businesses, and so
Speaker 1: we're we're really fortunate to be in this position to
Speaker 1: help so many people during this critical time. Where do
Speaker 1: you see testing going? And I ask, I mean, my
Speaker 1: company has been incredible and we have access to testing
Speaker 1: and they take care of everything. UM. I had a
Speaker 1: daughter who was trying to get a test yesterday and
Speaker 1: was sitting online. Uh, you know, and I just wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, are we going to get to a point
Speaker 1: where you just wake up in the morning you take
Speaker 1: a test. Is that where this is going or no?
Speaker 1: You know, if we look at the mass market, if
Speaker 1: we look at the you know what we're known for
Speaker 1: in the US, which is innovation. Right. Um, we're seeing
Speaker 1: devices that are bending the cost curve and increasing the
Speaker 1: simplicity of using these tests. And so a home test
Speaker 1: now is available for a rapid test molecular base. It's
Speaker 1: called isothermic amplification. But in short, instead of having to
Speaker 1: do PCR with heavy machinery or big machineries that as
Speaker 1: complex to do, it is simple as plugging something into
Speaker 1: your USB port of your computer, swabbing you're just the
Speaker 1: front part of your nose the nasal passages, uh, and
Speaker 1: then waiting twenty minutes to get your results. And you
Speaker 1: can do that at home. So that technology exists today.
Speaker 1: It's been euay UM approved by FDA, and uh, we're
Speaker 1: going to see more of that double down as we
Speaker 1: move forward because US again, we'll be dealing with this
Speaker 1: for months to come. If you really are trying to
Speaker 1: look across the horizon at how long we'll be dealing
Speaker 1: with COVID, and Andrew, excuse me, Anthony Faucia said this
Speaker 1: COVID may never go away, even with the vaccine because
Speaker 1: of the period of time in which the immunity from
Speaker 1: a vaccine will wane, and that maybe three months or
Speaker 1: six months. But certainly we're gonna be in this cycle
Speaker 1: for some time to come. And it certainly does feel
Speaker 1: like we are on the cusp of some changes when
Speaker 1: it comes to healthcare. I'm just listening to you talk,
Speaker 1: and I feel like more and more technology is getting involved.
Speaker 1: You know, we're able to kind of monitor things. Is
Speaker 1: that where it's all going? It really is, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know this may be all a turn for
Speaker 1: the better in terms of public health regarding not just
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, but other diseases that we deal with a
Speaker 1: seasonal basis. Right, there's a myriad of them. But obviously
Speaker 1: everyone knows flu, so um, you know, how we approach
Speaker 1: the flu on a seasonal basis will be enhanced and
Speaker 1: improved upon because as of the impact we're seeing from
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. The one thing we can learn from again,
Speaker 1: our neighbors across the pond is that on these type
Speaker 1: of events make a pivotal shift in how we do
Speaker 1: UH and maintain health in the community and in the
Speaker 1: workplace UH. And Korea was one of the examples where
Speaker 1: they were hit hard in UM UH it starts KVIE
Speaker 1: one back in two thousand and three, and they learned,
Speaker 1: and they learned a lot, right. I've talked to UM
Speaker 1: some of the leading physicians over there, and UM they
Speaker 1: were able to have in place quickly things that they
Speaker 1: learned from two thousand and three. And so likewise, we're
Speaker 1: going to be better off in terms of prepared and
Speaker 1: preparedness UM for this type of event far into the future.
Speaker 1: So preparedness also means what you know, thinking about the
Speaker 1: other viruses that are out there that might ultimately impact
Speaker 1: our community. It means we need to have kind of
Speaker 1: a global initiatives to kind of get the things in
Speaker 1: place right so that if we need another vaccine, it's
Speaker 1: not the race like we saw today. Dr Harris, thank you.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg. Ready,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get to a story that's in Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. It's about big tech It actually has an
Speaker 1: element to it that pertains to the upcoming new administration
Speaker 1: in the White House. It is about big tech, which
Speaker 1: we know has often been targeted by President Trump. It
Speaker 1: could have a different kind of Washington problem under a
Speaker 1: Biden administration. Let's get to Josha Breusting, technology writer at
Speaker 1: Business Week, on the phone in New York City. Joshua,
Speaker 1: good to have you here with us. Tell us what's
Speaker 1: going on. How we know big tech has certainly been
Speaker 1: on President Trump's radar. How might it be different when
Speaker 1: it comes to Joe Biden. Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I think that the first thing that will be very
Speaker 1: obvious is that the tone of the conversation around technology
Speaker 1: will change. The President UM has repeatedly harped on this
Speaker 1: alleged problem of anti conservative bias at Twitter and Google
Speaker 1: and Facebook. UM, there's no real evidence for that. I
Speaker 1: do not think it's something that President Biden will focus
Speaker 1: on much UM, but I do think that he will
Speaker 1: be under a fair amount of pressure from the progressive
Speaker 1: wing of the Democratic Party to pursue a pretty aggressive
Speaker 1: agenda that would target big text economic power UM in
Speaker 1: the form of stronger antitrust laws and stronger antitrust enforcement. Right,
Speaker 1: So it's not going to be like a free lunch.
Speaker 1: It's it's different from I'm not gonna say it was
Speaker 1: a free lunch under President Barack Obama. But it's not
Speaker 1: going to be that kind of relationship either, correct. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think in talking to people, UM in the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: a lot of them do kind of look back and say, well,
Speaker 1: maybe it was kind of a free lunch during the
Speaker 1: Obama administration, and we want to make sure it's not
Speaker 1: that way this time. Um. Yeah, I think that. You know,
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party is also very skeptical of big tech,
Speaker 1: and I'm very angry with um with the largest companies
Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley as our Republicans. They're just angry for
Speaker 1: different reasons, meaning what specifically, Well, the Republicans have turned
Speaker 1: big tech into a sort of culture war struggle in
Speaker 1: the same way that they have turned the supposed media
Speaker 1: bias into a kind of right versus left UM, right
Speaker 1: versus left argument, And the Democratic Party wants to look
Speaker 1: at you know, they're worried about the economic consolidations by
Speaker 1: large corporations UM, and big tech is sort of the
Speaker 1: prime example for that. You saw even during the Trump administration,
Speaker 1: a pretty thorough anti trust investigation carried out by the
Speaker 1: House Judiciary Subcommittee on Anti Trust, and I think that
Speaker 1: will lay the groundwork for an attempt to pass new
Speaker 1: harsher antitrust laws that will probably be kind of the
Speaker 1: main venue for the conflict. Hey, Joshua just quickly just
Speaker 1: got about forty seconds. He seconds section to thirty. I
Speaker 1: feel like we're gonna be talking a lot about that though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll be interesting. Section two thirty is the law that
Speaker 1: allows UM websites to be protected from lawsuits based on
Speaker 1: what their users published, and this has been a major
Speaker 1: issue for the president. UM Democrats are also skeptical of it,
Speaker 1: but I think it will probably take a back feed
Speaker 1: to some other priorities. They think that antitrust can deal
Speaker 1: with a lot of the same problems in maybe a
Speaker 1: different way. Well, I'm gonna put this story out on Twitter,
Speaker 1: check it out at Bloomberg business Week online in the magazine.
Speaker 1: Joshua Breustin, thank you so much, Technology writer at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. Joining us on the phone in New York City.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with kirol Messer on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week on this Tuesday, safe
Speaker 1: to say, uh, a little bit of a wait what
Speaker 1: moment yesterday, It's picked up some momentum on this Tuesday.
Speaker 1: It's about the Republican effort to overturn Joe Biden's victory
Speaker 1: in the election. This is among our top stories on
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg and here at Bloomberg Business Week, Bloomberg News
Speaker 1: national political reporter Tyler page Or He joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Wilmington, Delaware. Hey, Tyler, is so good
Speaker 1: to have you here. I just kind of want to
Speaker 1: make sense of what's going on. First of all, we
Speaker 1: just heard from the President elect, Joe Biden. You're in Wilmington's.
Speaker 1: He's in Wilmington's and he just made some comments obviously
Speaker 1: about the Supreme Court and the news we got there,
Speaker 1: but sports specifically, he took some questions from reporters about
Speaker 1: the transition, how it's going. Uh, And I'm just curious,
Speaker 1: you know, where are we in this process, because it
Speaker 1: seems like the Republican side continues to sow seeds of
Speaker 1: doubt when it comes to the outcome of the election.
Speaker 1: The election has been called correct, Yeah, that's correct. News
Speaker 1: outlets called UHI Networks presson called the elections for Biden.
Speaker 1: It's pretty clear that one, but Trump has not competed,
Speaker 1: and so the special transition um designated by a federal
Speaker 1: employee at the General Services Administration has not yet begun
Speaker 1: that process. UM. And so today Joe Biden, president elect,
Speaker 1: has received received quite a few questions from reporters about
Speaker 1: his his thoughts about the fact that Trump has not
Speaker 1: conceded and Republicans are backing him up and in this
Speaker 1: fight to try to overturn the results of the election. Well,
Speaker 1: so makes some sense. You know. What's the significance, tyler
Speaker 1: of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had been pretty quiet,
Speaker 1: it feels like after the election outcome when he said
Speaker 1: on the Senate floor yesterday that the president is quote
Speaker 1: a hundred percent within his rights to challenge the election results.
Speaker 1: I mean, he is to be fair right in terms
Speaker 1: of the law. Um. But what does it mean for
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell to come out and say something, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it gives Trump cover from the Republican Party to
Speaker 1: continue with for these legal fights. Um. And it shows
Speaker 1: that the Republican Party is fully behind Trump despite him
Speaker 1: losing um both electoral college and the popular vote, and
Speaker 1: it delays the process for an official transition to begin.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden does not have access to government funding to
Speaker 1: pursue the transition. He doesn't have access um to the
Speaker 1: State Department for secure phone lines with foreign leaders. He's
Speaker 1: already begun those calls, but there was a lot of
Speaker 1: formal kind of lines of communication that are opened up
Speaker 1: once the transition begin and without that designation, UM, Joe
Speaker 1: Godden is is kind of out there on his own today.
Speaker 1: He was pretty actually then about the conflict in the controversy.
Speaker 1: He said, look, we're moving forward. We're focused on on
Speaker 1: on building our transition. That's like we want we want
Speaker 1: this official process to begin. But it's not Hams treating
Speaker 1: us um that that it has not right. He didn't
Speaker 1: say that a lack of funds, for instance, we're preventing
Speaker 1: them from moving forward. And he also talked about expectations
Speaker 1: of having some cabinet members. You know, maybe I think
Speaker 1: putting out some names come November correct this month, and
Speaker 1: also didn't seem to be too We would hope to
Speaker 1: have go ahead um. He said he would hope to
Speaker 1: have some around Thanksgiving. Our reporting shows that it's probably
Speaker 1: gonna be mostly after Thanksgiving that we start to get them.
Speaker 1: But I think we'll get some of the your White
Speaker 1: House staff, uh shortly. So what are your expectations? What
Speaker 1: are you hearing from your sources about kind of what
Speaker 1: this all means where we go? What's what's is there
Speaker 1: a date we're all just gonna say, is that when
Speaker 1: the states officially call the elections that this is done? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean not that the timing is is really what
Speaker 1: the um is what we're waiting to to see. Uh.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden did not give any hint of of when
Speaker 1: he thinks that will be that will be called. His
Speaker 1: transition team how to call last night with reporters, and
Speaker 1: they said that they might pursue legal action to excercisee
Speaker 1: this process. Today Joe Biden kind of through cold water
Speaker 1: on that. And so that's that he did not seem
Speaker 1: that was necessary. UM. And so it's really, uh, depends
Speaker 1: on kind of what if Trump conceives how these legal
Speaker 1: fights that he's you know, filing lawsuits around the country,
Speaker 1: how they go. Most of them have been thrown out
Speaker 1: and disregarded. UM, but there are recount processes. UM. Likely
Speaker 1: and Orgia and in Wisconsin. So these are process you've
Speaker 1: got that have to kind of go through um to
Speaker 1: the end and then maybe we get that decision, or
Speaker 1: it's or it's until the Electoral College votes, which which
Speaker 1: doesn't come to him next month. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of points in this process where it could come to
Speaker 1: an end. But Trump and the Republicans could drag this
Speaker 1: on for quite some time. To be fair, and again,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of, you know, asking you to go back
Speaker 1: to your sources. I mean, if it was the shoe
Speaker 1: on the other foot and it was this closer race,
Speaker 1: could we have anticipated that a Democratic you know, the
Speaker 1: party would be doing exactly the same because it was closer.
Speaker 1: It really wasn't that close? Yeah, I mean it was
Speaker 1: it was closerro sixteen when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: and though she did not conceive the night of, she
Speaker 1: came back the next morning and conceded. Um. I think
Speaker 1: the difference here is Trump has been I'm very clear
Speaker 1: that he was going to cast doubt on the results
Speaker 1: of the election and if it did not go his
Speaker 1: way for a month. This is an argument in a fight.
Speaker 1: He's been telegraphing um and and Joe Bid it has
Speaker 1: not been doing the same and so um, I think
Speaker 1: it's most uh and even some you know, Republicans have
Speaker 1: have moved on Romney, Lisa Marokowski, Susan Collins, Bensass senators
Speaker 1: from across the country have recognized Joe Biden's victory. Former
Speaker 1: President George W. Bush, a Republican, has has also called
Speaker 1: in congratulated Biden. UM and a number of former Republican
Speaker 1: members of Congress have spoken out UM against Trump and
Speaker 1: the Republican's actions and said, you know, the party needs
Speaker 1: to acknowledge the results of the election. So I don't
Speaker 1: think that we could expect that Biden or a Democrat
Speaker 1: would have taken the same tax, just given the rhetoric
Speaker 1: that both parties had kind of been telegraphing for the
Speaker 1: months leading up to this election. What's next on the
Speaker 1: President elect Biden's calendar, So he has a lot of meetings.
Speaker 1: They have not really given a full public schedule, but
Speaker 1: we expect um that he continues to meet with his
Speaker 1: transition team as they build out the government. UM and
Speaker 1: and and possibly get some announcements quite soon about some
Speaker 1: of those senior sad position. Alright, Well, busy no, no
Speaker 1: doubt about a lot of stuff going on. Hey you
Speaker 1: sound you sound exhausted, but that's to be understood, a
Speaker 1: little crazy. You know, there's there's Uh. So we're staring
Speaker 1: on across across the government as they try to work
Speaker 1: through not only the legal fights and and and the trasition,
Speaker 1: but really starts to put in place policy and people
Speaker 1: to begin the Sex administration. Yeah, exactly, No, I totally understand,
Speaker 1: great stuff, and I know, uh, you are busy. So
Speaker 1: thanks for finding some time for us. Bloomberg News National
Speaker 1: political reporter Tyler Page or joining us on the phone
Speaker 1: from Wilmington, Delaware. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Messer from Bloomberg Radio. Well. In this week's edition of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week Small Business Survival Guide. There's an a
Speaker 1: report out that finds that hundreds of local and state
Speaker 1: relief funds have saved hundreds of thousands of businesses. Let's
Speaker 1: get into that with Bloomberg News editor Dimitri Cassads. She's
Speaker 1: on the phone in New York City. Kennedy Smith is
Speaker 1: senior researcher at the Independent Business Initiative at the advocacy
Speaker 1: group Institute for Local Self reliance. She joins us on
Speaker 1: the phone from Washington, d C. Demitra, let's kick it
Speaker 1: off with you. I mean, this is really a timely
Speaker 1: report because we've really got to get an idea of
Speaker 1: how small businesses are doing. Um, how are they? And
Speaker 1: and tell us how this came to your tension? Well, um,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, they're still struggling. And I think
Speaker 1: what was really enlightening about this was the fact that
Speaker 1: so many other resources were able to step up and
Speaker 1: step in and rather than just provide, you know, additional
Speaker 1: funding for businesses really were the difference between surviving and
Speaker 1: not surviving at times when the federal programs that we
Speaker 1: all know really you know, we're just kind of dogged
Speaker 1: with problems, uh not enough funding and slowness and questions
Speaker 1: over it all. So the report was something Nick liber
Speaker 1: are amazing freelancer who covers small business so abstutely for us.
Speaker 1: UM was in touch with Kennedy and the Institute was
Speaker 1: aware of the possibility that that report was coming recently
Speaker 1: and decided, you know, to look at what they're finding
Speaker 1: for so UM that is how it came about, and
Speaker 1: they have been looking at this thing, continued to look
Speaker 1: at it. Uh, it's sort of as was described in
Speaker 1: an article that we could recently a living breathing sort
Speaker 1: of look at and moving forward. So Kennedy, come on
Speaker 1: in on it, you know, give us a little bit
Speaker 1: more in depth. Um Dimita really setting the stage there
Speaker 1: really nicely, but tell us at a little bit more
Speaker 1: about what you looked into and what you found. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to we We started this actually not not
Speaker 1: with sort of the goal of doing some kind of
Speaker 1: a laungrytudal analysis, but it's simply putting together a list
Speaker 1: that might help local businesses UM find UM sources of
Speaker 1: assistance as that as this pandemic was kind of rolling
Speaker 1: out UM and then it kind of grew and blue
Speaker 1: and grew, and as it grew, we've been able to
Speaker 1: go back and look and see uh different sort of
Speaker 1: patterns of what kinds of programs communities have been launching,
Speaker 1: which hunter or are more are more effective than others UM,
Speaker 1: and in that have seen sort of cycles that businesses
Speaker 1: are are are experiencing. Obviously, in the first days of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, when UM shut down orders for first issues,
Speaker 1: UM businesses scrambled very quickly to find money to pay
Speaker 1: you know, the next month's rent um, and at that
Speaker 1: point there was no federal assistance available into the communities
Speaker 1: were very innovative in finding ways to cobble together money
Speaker 1: from economic development funds that have been earmarked with something
Speaker 1: else or for um you know, postponing public imprisonments projects
Speaker 1: they've been planning on. Weve my dound instances of a
Speaker 1: local city council that um decided all the members recided
Speaker 1: to to basically um um um forgo their salaries for
Speaker 1: a period of time to help copple together some money. Uh.
Speaker 1: Communities literally doing bake sales and things to make this happen.
Speaker 1: So uh, it really remarkable. But then after that, you know,
Speaker 1: we sort of we we we actually lost the businesses.
Speaker 1: It couldn't make it two or three months, and the
Speaker 1: communities didn't have the financial support yet to to sustain
Speaker 1: them um and so uh they're sort of a second
Speaker 1: wave of funding that communities have put together, which has
Speaker 1: been geared towards helping businesses. Pivots help them, uh you know,
Speaker 1: learned to be on the channel businesses and reach customers
Speaker 1: in a variety of ways and really we think their
Speaker 1: business plans. So in that we're seeing a combination of
Speaker 1: technical assistance and financial assistance, and now it was intercoming.
Speaker 1: We're seeing an entire new wave of programs coming out
Speaker 1: and that's I was just gonna say, I was going
Speaker 1: to ask. I mean, it's continuing them and they're finding
Speaker 1: ways to keep this going. This is meant as a
Speaker 1: report then, from what you said, Kennedy, for small businesses
Speaker 1: to actually get their hands on this report and look
Speaker 1: and see maybe what resources they then can turn to
Speaker 1: and task UM is that how it was pulled together
Speaker 1: ultimately is something that the small businesses themselves can really
Speaker 1: rely on as a as a guide. Almost. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: that certainly our original intent UM, and it still is
Speaker 1: being used that way quite a bit, and we continue
Speaker 1: to update it, you know, so it's if continues to grow.
Speaker 1: But we've actually found some of the major users of
Speaker 1: it are local officials and state officials who are looking
Speaker 1: through to see what other communities have done, how they
Speaker 1: funded their programs, how they administered them, how they've been
Speaker 1: able to roll money out quickly, and how they've they've
Speaker 1: found ways to meet the needs of particular types of businesses.
Speaker 1: These UM needs were not met by the paycheck Protection
Speaker 1: program UM, or they don't have other resources available to them,
Speaker 1: don't have a close banking relationship for example, UM finding
Speaker 1: ways to help get money to them and keep them alive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of interesting, and I'm curious what you're hearing
Speaker 1: from the small business UH community about what the winter
Speaker 1: months look like as we watch those rising virus cases
Speaker 1: and we continue to see cities really kind of go
Speaker 1: back into lockdown. And just got about thirty seconds here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they're terrified, and states are taking action,
Speaker 1: even though Congress hasn't yet done so. A couple of
Speaker 1: states just in the past week, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, for example,
Speaker 1: have dug back into their Pearzack funding and allocated work
Speaker 1: for a new wave of small business spending to try
Speaker 1: to keep them going over the next couple of months.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna leave it on that note. Listen.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Kennedy. I appreciate your time. Kennedy Smith,
Speaker 1: she's senior researcher at the Independent Business Initiative at the
Speaker 1: advocacy group Institute for Local Self Reliance. With a check
Speaker 1: on fund stage relief funds that I've really raised a
Speaker 1: lot of money ain't a half billion for small businesses
Speaker 1: thanks to her as well as Dimitri Casiniti. She is
Speaker 1: editor at Bloomberg News, joining us on the phone in
Speaker 1: New York City Road Mac Journal. Yeah, but you let
Speaker 1: me drive home, please, I'll do vel. I want to drive. Drive.
Speaker 1: It's the questions drying. This is the drive to the
Speaker 1: Globe community. Thanks. We'll dry us to Dawn on Bloomberg Radio. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a little bit under eleven minutes until we bring the
Speaker 1: closing bail here on the Tuesday session on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: Time for the drive to the close. Sarah Merino is
Speaker 1: with US managing director and Emerging Market's equity portfolio manager
Speaker 1: at the registered investment advisor Jennison Genesis Jennason Associates. Let
Speaker 1: me try that to get Gennison Associates. They've got about
Speaker 1: two and three point seven billion in assets under management,
Speaker 1: She joins us on the phone from Boston. I'll get
Speaker 1: it out. I think I'm thinking yes, And I was
Speaker 1: thinking Genesis we were talking rock bands. I thought that's
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying, sad. That's my excuse, um, how
Speaker 1: are you? How do you see this market environment right now? Well?
Speaker 1: I think you know it's certainly the excitement of the
Speaker 1: vaccine is trumping everything and I think that's um, you know,
Speaker 1: gonna in the short term have some correction in the
Speaker 1: market in terms of who the winners and losers are.
Speaker 1: That as a fundamental bottom up a stive house, this
Speaker 1: growth biased would believe in the long term secular growth
Speaker 1: opportunities that we see across emerging markets, and that's what
Speaker 1: we're focused on, which are what are those long term
Speaker 1: things when it comes to emerging markets. Well, I think
Speaker 1: what we've seen with with the pandemic and is an
Speaker 1: acceleration of the ongoing just the shift from offline to online. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, we saw it in how consumers adapted to
Speaker 1: the pandemic with things like grocerly delivery, e commerce, cloud computing,
Speaker 1: online video, online education, telemedicine, in gaming really be the
Speaker 1: early winners, but it really just accelerated a trend that
Speaker 1: was already happening before the pandemic. And we see that
Speaker 1: given how low penetration has been, especially in emerging markets,
Speaker 1: that this is a long term structural underpin that is
Speaker 1: further underpinned by the growth and the expansion of the
Speaker 1: emerging market middle class. Okay, I just want to mention
Speaker 1: I looking at the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, it's up
Speaker 1: about five point seven percent this year. That compares with
Speaker 1: the MSCI World Index, which is up about six point
Speaker 1: four percent. Just I wanted to put that out there.
Speaker 1: So Sarah, though, let me ask you about emerging markets
Speaker 1: and emerging markets. I think it's China the largest emerging markets.
Speaker 1: I don't know really call it emerging, slash developed or
Speaker 1: trying to be developed. But I think about the news
Speaker 1: where China really just stopped what would have been the
Speaker 1: world's largest I p O. I'm talking about and financial
Speaker 1: and what it says about China and its comfort with
Speaker 1: innovations and companies that might become big Chinese tech companies
Speaker 1: and then kind of raining them in. Does that worry
Speaker 1: you about some of those names within that market right? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I can't see common and specific stock, but
Speaker 1: the trend like what does what kind of environment and
Speaker 1: what kind of message does that send to global investors? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, it's about globally there has
Speaker 1: been a trend to do regulate some of these big platforms.
Speaker 1: Um it's happening in the in the West as well. Look,
Speaker 1: it's what's happened to to some of the social media platforms.
Speaker 1: So there's definitely a consideration and a factor. But I
Speaker 1: think the reality is is that there are companies out
Speaker 1: there that are giving consumers access to something they don't know,
Speaker 1: they don't otherwise have, be it to you know, apparel,
Speaker 1: to retail, to products online, to financial services, to access
Speaker 1: to financial services that they don't otherwise have because they
Speaker 1: don't even have a bank account. So I think there's
Speaker 1: a balance here and the opportunity is certainly there for
Speaker 1: the companies that can address it. Are there certain emerging
Speaker 1: markets or is it really just a company play? And
Speaker 1: I do wonder like do you look at certain regions
Speaker 1: of the world when it comes to emerging markets. We
Speaker 1: take a bottom of active approach, so about the companies
Speaker 1: and so it's about identifying the companies that are serving
Speaker 1: and admit the need um or really transforming UM and
Speaker 1: disrupting you know, existing brick and mortar or existing technologies.
Speaker 1: And that's where we see that disruption. Innovation is really
Speaker 1: replenishing the investment opportunities across the emerging market. What's the
Speaker 1: healthcare play in China that you like? And I know
Speaker 1: you do like Chinese healthcare stocks generally speaking, So what's
Speaker 1: the healthcare play? How does it contrast with a healthcare
Speaker 1: play in a developed market like the US. So what's
Speaker 1: interesting about what's happening in China is that you have
Speaker 1: a in market that is getting older, thicker, but also richer,
Speaker 1: and the opportunity is much bigger because you have wealthy
Speaker 1: have more older people. By you're going to have four
Speaker 1: or eight seven million people over the age of sixty
Speaker 1: five in China. They're getting sicker. You have four point
Speaker 1: three million new cases of cancer diagnosed in China. That's
Speaker 1: twice the level of the United States. So they're getting
Speaker 1: much sicker, but they're also getting richer. China only SPENSI
Speaker 1: five percent of GDP on healthcare verses in the US.
Speaker 1: So the wrap up or opportunity posts a very aggressive
Speaker 1: reform agenda to not only to create a method to
Speaker 1: reimburse um, but also to create innovation in the market.
Speaker 1: It's driving incredible you know, talent and capital into this
Speaker 1: um into this subsegments of China healthcare such as biotechnology,
Speaker 1: so it sounds like healthcare e commerce. Those are some
Speaker 1: of the interesting that you guys have certainly targeted Yes,
Speaker 1: then that's that's really serving that emerging middle class. To
Speaker 1: think put numbers on it, There's gonna be one million,
Speaker 1: one billion more people entering the emerging market middle class
Speaker 1: by four five hundred and forty four million of those
Speaker 1: will be from India and three two million of those
Speaker 1: will be from China. That Chinese cohorts. That's the size
Speaker 1: of the US population. Know, when you talk Indian and China,
Speaker 1: they're like just on a scale all their own. Does
Speaker 1: this do you think ultimately? You know, we've been talking
Speaker 1: about the rise of certainly the Chinese domestic middle class
Speaker 1: for a long long time. And I know global multinationals,
Speaker 1: whether they're based in the US, are based in Europe,
Speaker 1: you know, have been just salivating over them. But are
Speaker 1: we when it comes to, you know, investing in emerging markets.
Speaker 1: Do you ultimately see the play continues to be and
Speaker 1: will increasingly be domestic companies in those emerging markets. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think it's it's it's the most the most alpha
Speaker 1: generating we to do it is to do it directly
Speaker 1: in the companies that are you know, that are that
Speaker 1: are being generated as locally, that understand the local consumer
Speaker 1: base and understand the regulatory environment, that understand how to
Speaker 1: function within the markets that they're in. And also that
Speaker 1: the fact that some of these companies are aggregating the opportunity.
Speaker 1: When you take a think about the players in Latin America,
Speaker 1: you know it's they're aggregating an entire continent and offering
Speaker 1: an entire population a continent, not just one country. All
Speaker 1: the e commerce, sin tech, digital payment services that that
Speaker 1: that those consumers need and want. So our quick question,
Speaker 1: and you've got to be quick. We have a listener
Speaker 1: writing in and asking do you think portfolio managers are
Speaker 1: not visiting companies now and how that might affect fun performance?
Speaker 1: Is that a handicap? Just quickly? Amazingly, it has not.
Speaker 1: I would say Zoom has been amazing and it's also
Speaker 1: blessing in those guys, given that I do change out
Speaker 1: China hours. I'm I'm literally on all the time. It's
Speaker 1: both a combination of we need the information and companies
Speaker 1: are making themselves readily accessible. I have more calls than
Speaker 1: I have hours in the day. It has not been
Speaker 1: problematic at all. All right, good to get a response
Speaker 1: on that, Thank you so much. Sarah Marino, Managing Director,
Speaker 1: Emerging Markets, equity portfolio manager Jennison Associates joining us on
Speaker 1: the phone in Boston. Thanks so much for listening to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com, and be sure to check out
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