WEBVTT - Preventative Health Programs for Fighting Covid-19 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.240 This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser. Every day 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:05.200 we're bringing you the latest news from the worlds of 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.920 business and finance, plus technology, politics. So much going on 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:12.160 in the world of politics, economics, and it's all harnessing 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.000 the power of Business Week reporters and editors. You can 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.720 download Bloomberg Business Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com. 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.000 If you can also listen to our radio show at 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.759 two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio and be sure to 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.040 watch us too on YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:31.320 New York City with checkpoints around the Thanksgiving holiday. We've 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:33.639 also heard the World Health Organization come out and say 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.520 that people will probably have to take precautions against COVID 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.280 nineteam for the next year as countries continue to vaccinate 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.239 and UH and and actually needs some time to vaccinate 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.479 their population. So just some of our headlines on this Tuesday. 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.880 Let's bring in though, with an interesting perspective on really 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:54.560 our whole wellness situation, if you will, against the pandemic. 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.880 Let's bring in Dr Rachel Do. She's Board certified doctor 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.680 of Natural Medicine and she's also the CEO of Moody house, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.680 she joins us on the phone in Los Angeles. Dr Do, 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.840 nice to have you here with us UM. How are 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.440 you What is your world been like on the West 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:15.080 Coast and and and especially with just some of your patients. Hi, Carol, Well, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.480 thank you so much for having me on UM. It 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:22.480 has certainly been UM an interesting season, right, So we 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.640 are all having to make so many adjustments and transitions, 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.640 not just in how we care for patients, but also 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.360 how we care for ourselves in this time. So we're 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.240 seeing a lot of those adjustments and the needs to 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:41.000 be more flexible and to really take personal accountability. What 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.000 does that mean? They'll break it down. So if I'm 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.080 a patient, I'm listening to that, I'm sitting at home 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:47.280 and I've got stresses of working, I've got stresses of 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:52.559 taking care of my family. What are you telling me? Absolutely? So, Look, 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.680 you know this pandemic, we have the concerns around catching 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.760 COVID nineteen, we have that, but also the pandemic has 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.280 really caused an uptick in many other health crisis right 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.360 from mental health and emotional health to physical health, everything 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.120 from injuries, illness, and chronic disease. And you know this 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:15.880 is really due to patients avoiding in person care due 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.280 to safety concerns and putting off treatments and things like that. Right, 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.440 So tele medicine has been providing a solution to meet 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:28.400 these concerns, and now Telly Care is really easier and 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.840 safer to access in order to get that continued care. Right. So, 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:36.840 we're seeing this as a major shift that that we've taken, 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.519 we've needed to take in order to care for ourselves 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.000 and also practitioners needing to care for their patients. But 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.640 what we also see is that the need is greater 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:51.239 now more than ever for a whole person care approach, 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.040 really an integrative approach, and that really includes not only 0:02:55.080 --> 0:03:00.200 traditional health care prevention, but also well being. Well We're said, 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:01.639 and I'm going to be quite honest with you, You're 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.320 you're preaching to the choir, because I'm someone who certainly 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.560 believes in kind of that holistic approach when it comes 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.600 to health care, having done yoga for years and you know, 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:13.880 believe in meditation and things like that, that you really 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:15.760 do need to take care of your whole being. It's 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:19.200 just not physically, you know, it's not just about physical ailments, 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.200 but it's also about mental well being, And I do wonder, 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.280 you know, is there something about this time of crisis 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.640 and it's conversations that I've had to be quite honest 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.520 with a bunch of my guests about are we looking at, 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:34.200 you know, our health very differently. Will we come out 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:38.800 of it being smarter in terms of preventive health and 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.280 and thinking about kind of holistic care when it comes 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.880 to our well being? Absolutely, and I think that that's 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.840 one of the positive set's coming out of this pandemic 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:50.840 what we're seeing. So at Moldi Health, we're the only 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:55.840 hell of medicine and hell a wellness integrated platform in industry. 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.200 What does that mean because there's lots of tele medicine 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.160 out there. We've been talking about We just off with 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.480 Susan Lan yesterday. She's a venture capitalist saying, you know, 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:04.080 that's one of the things that all of a sudden 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.240 it has just taken off. So tell me about what 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:12.080 that means that integrative platform. Sure. Absolutely so. While there 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.360 are many telemedicine platforms out there, and there's a lot 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:19.040 of wellness platforms out there, like health clubs are moving 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.560 classes and yoga as you mentioned, are moving classes online, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.799 there's really no marriage between the two of this holistic 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:31.320 care and traditional care. So Moody Health on our integrative platform, 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.640 we offer access to virtual care with both traditional medical 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.800 practitioners as well as complementary, alternative and natural and then 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:47.440 also wellness things like mental health practitioners, life coaches, fitness instructor, nutritionists, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.480 all of those different types of needs under one virtual 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.400 roof to be accessed. And I think that that's what's 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.960 critical right now and we're seeing at Moody Health so 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.159 many people are focusing on wellness and prevention through a 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.559 more fulistic approach or a whole person approach to help. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.360 And so people that are coming to our platform are 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:14.680 really concerned about being as healthy and also as resilient 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.120 as possible. Well well, who, well, who is your demo? 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:24.520 Who comes to your platform? Every person you can possibly imagine. 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.400 So we have, you know, all different types of care 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:32.080 available for people that are younger demographic millennials, we have 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.200 baby boomers and everything in between. Really, the pandemic has 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.360 created this massive need to shift and begin using online 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.760 platforms to access care. So it's really invited people that 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:48.320 may not have considered doing that type of care before. Um, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.720 it's really invited them into using and experiencing the ease 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:57.279 and safety of telecare. UM, I totally get what you 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:58.960 guys are doing, and I do think when it comes 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:00.880 to health care, we do need to think about kind 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.360 of top to bottom, you know, all the layers that 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.800 make up a person's well being, right, And there's different 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.839 forms of treatment. There's certainly, you know, traditional medicine, there's 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.600 you know, evolving medicine. There's just different things that are 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.479 out there, and you really do feel like it's maybe 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:19.560 not one person but multiple people who really have to 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.039 look at someone and say, Okay, here's here's the here's 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.760 the full picture, right, and here's the different things you 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.880 can be doing. Having said that, I do feel like 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.200 kind of newer waves of thinking or newer ways of 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.479 thinking when it comes to healthcare. Your traditional insurance companies 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.520 aren't so great to embrace it, at least not so quickly. 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.080 So where are we on that? Absolutely? I am so 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.200 glad that you brought this up. It's it's something that 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.440 I'm hugely passionate about. So we have a unique approach 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:51.120 at multi Health since we are founded by practitioners and 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.520 we really believe that patient care needs to shift. The 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.920 patient care should be dictated by doctors, not health insurance companies. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.920 And right now, most holistic or alternative care, as you mentioned, 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.919 is out of talkt which not only limits access, but 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.200 it really restricts access to those who are unable to 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:14.920 afford that kind of care out of talket. So at 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.160 Motive Health we've addressed that by making consolts more affordable. 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:22.600 But as we're shifting and as we are seeing this 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.840 whole person care approach, and we're seeing so much more 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.360 research and data that is pointing to the future of health, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.040 including that type of full person care. With the future 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.960 of health insurance reimbursements, there's a huge market demand and 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.800 that's only going to continue to grow. So insurance companies 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.040 will eventually need to address this by increasing wellness care 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:50.400 and complementary and alternative care coverage and also reimbursement. So 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.720 we need to shift the focus on people, keeping people 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:58.720 well versus just treating health crises and problems once they arrive. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.240 So how do we do that? I mean, if anything, 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.400 the pandemic has an earth uh and laid bare once 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.280 again is the inequities that are out there right and 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.800 it's it's easy, maybe for some of us to say, okay, 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.840 I can focus on well care, right, Uh, wellness care 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.200 because I've got the time, I've got employers who understand 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.360 I've got a great health care plan. There are those 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:21.280 folks who are just trying to you know, pay the 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.800 rent and keep food on their table for their families, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.520 and you know, health care is often a emergency situation, 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.600 if you will, and that's really important if we're going 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:36.520 to raise the wellness of society. So how do we 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:40.480 deal with that which is so important? Right? I mean, 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.160 we keep doing things that you know, people who are 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:47.000 already in a good place get to kind of top into. 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.520 But it's if we're gonna if we're gonna learn anything 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:51.679 from this past year, right, is figuring it out how 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:56.760 more people get to benefit from the successes of society. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.240 I completely agree with you. It's such a critical point. 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.439 I mean, we're really seeing this shift when it comes 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.520 to wellness and preventative and alternative care. We're seeing that 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:12.280 it's becoming only accessible by the wealthy. So it's becoming, 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:16.160 you know, a social level of achievement to be able 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.120 to access. But we've got to make this type of 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:24.079 not only care, but life healthy lifestyle choices and options 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.480 more affordable and accessible to the masses, and you know, 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:30.480 I mean that's something we're really passionate about and we 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.640 worked really hard to a motive health to do, you know, 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:37.040 not only by making you know, consoles more affordable to 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.800 live virtual care, but we've we've come up with some 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.800 creative solutions and really it's going to take all of 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.160 us doing you know, putting our minds towards creative we're 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:49.080 solving this problem. So you know, what we've done is 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.760 we've created a health streaming service. So where someone might 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.199 not be able to afford meeting with a nutritionist or 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.160 a personal trainer or a health coach for example, um, 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.520 they might be able to afford a nine dollar you know, 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.920 a month virtual streaming service that gives them access to 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.840 all different types of health and wellness classes and health 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:12.199 education and fitness classes. So it's really about getting creative 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.800 in order to solve this, right, which is what it's 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:16.400 going to take. You know. It's interesting the Bloomberg New 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.080 Economy Forum was just held virtually with global leaders and 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:21.920 one of the verticals, one of the pillars, is all 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:24.480 about health and this whole concept of you know, how 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.720 do we learn from what happened this year in terms 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.400 of the virus, But more importantly too, is how do 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.400 we fix some of those elements, whether it's heart disease, 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.240 whether it's a lung disease, whether it's cancer that you 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:38.480 know certainly has an impact on people generally, but also 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.959 holds back society from being even more prosperous uh than 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.880 it could be. So um, these are good conversations to have, 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.160 Dr Do. Thank you so much, UM, good luck and 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:49.240 want to you know, we'd love to hear back from 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.760 you as you guys can continue to proceed with what 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.240 you're doing. Dr Rachel Do she is Board certified doctor 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.080 of Natural Medicine. She is CEO of Moldy Health. Joining 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.199 us on this Tuesday on the phone from Los Angeles. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:06.679 This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:08.720 Safe to say, there are many heroes that have stepped 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.319 up during this global health pandemic, and that includes this 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.720 really cool story about a small army of data gathering 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:17.920 gatherers and most of them are volunteers and they have 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:20.800 become perhaps the most trusted source on how the pandemic 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.600 is unfolding in the US. Let's get into this story 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.760 with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Webber. He's on the 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.040 phone in Brooklyn along with Bloomberg News US Healthcare team 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.280 leader Drew Armstrong, reporting once again for a Business Week 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:36.360 Drew with another incredible story, Joel. Yeah, we like to 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.959 keep Drew busy. I hope to have many more Drew 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:44.000 Armstrong stories in our future. Um. This is one that um, 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:46.079 he came to us with and and as we started 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:48.160 talking about it, I was like, Wow, this is actually 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.719 just a great story for the moment because these are 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.840 basically data heroes, UM. And we're talking about the people 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.160 behind the COVID tracking project. And at the beginning of 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.920 the year, we didn't have any data about how many 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.520 cases there were, and you would have expected the federal 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.600 government to fill that void, and federal government still not there, 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.600 and these folks have just kind of kept it going. UM. 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.920 So Drew, tell us more about who they are, what 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.240 they do, and and you know, I want to know 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:20.280 more because you also did some of this data entry yourself. Actually, yeah, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:24.199 you know, it was a fascinating story to work on, 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:29.440 in part because I think that it really revealed some 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.959 of the weaknesses with this country. UM. And and its 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.320 ability to react to an unknown crisis. You look at 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:38.760 disease agencies like the CDC, which I have to say 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.320 are full of very kind, very smart people trying very 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.439 very hard, but when they were confronted with this kind 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:49.240 of new, unknown disease, it showed us how bad we 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.640 actually were at being able to find out what was 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.199 going on in the country. And this project was basically 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:57.679 an effort to try and answer the question of how 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.040 hard are we looking for covid um and this was 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.600 back in early March, and how much of it are 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.520 we finding? And what they began to discover as they 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.520 did the really gritty work of just calling around states 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.920 and scraping state websites and pulling data from states is 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.840 that we weren't looking for it nearly as hard as 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:17.880 we thought we were, and we didn't really have a 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.840 great grip on how big the outbreak was or wasn't um. 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.600 It's then evolved into this thing which is a very authoritative, 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:30.240 authoritative source of statistics on how covid is spreading, where 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.199 hospitals are, what's the death count of and things like that. 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.800 But at the start, it was just fundamentally about asking, 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:37.960 you know, what's going on and are and are we 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.240 finding as much of the stuff is actually there? Well, 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.240 drewe I gotta say, as we all kind of pat 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.160 ourselves on our back, you know, enter a couple of 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:51.120 journalists and then a really other smart investor. Basically, yeah, 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.480 you know, the one thing I will say with these 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.079 folks UM, and you mentioned there's there's a handful of 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.040 journalists Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Myra for The Atlantic, who 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.439 are kind of started a version of this. UM. One 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:06.040 of Alexis is college friends with this guy, Jeff Hammerbockers 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.040 actually started the data team at Facebook, and they teamed 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.720 up with UM, a woman named Aaron Cassine who essentially 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.600 is a you know, her job title kind of defies description, 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.920 but she builds communities and works with tech tools and journalism. 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.640 And what they eventually pulled together was a a kind 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:26.960 of a basically just a Google sheet to go and 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.160 start answering these questions and cataloging these data. But it 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:35.480 took this really unique combination of curious journalists, UM, some 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.680 serious data and numbers talent, and somebody who could help 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.840 build the communities they had. And the community is something 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:44.960 that they emphasized over and over again. This thing is 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.160 powered by volunteers, people who show up into their black room, 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.720 the only place this organization exists, and do the hard 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.520 work of going to state websites and pulling this data 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.680 every single day. And it's just a lot of work 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:01.360 to be able to pull this together. But they've been 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.720 doing it for nine months. Um. It's amazing that they 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.120 built this kind of volunteer powered engine to do this 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:12.720 stuff that's basically data gathering, day in, day out, UM, 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:16.520 to better understand this pandemic and bring some sense to it. Andrew, 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.200 you raised your hand to actually help enter some data. 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.560 How did that go? You know? This was wonderful of them. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.840 They really trusted me, and they said, we want you 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.840 to understand, you know, both what we do, how we 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.640 do it, and alter the culture that is behind this 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.040 whole thing in the volunteer effort. So they invited me 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.480 into their slack. They put me through a data gathering 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.760 training that they did that everybody else. I was on 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:39.960 a zoom call with lots of other people around America, 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.560 you know, seeing everybody's living room behind their computer camera, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:45.920 just like I was. They taught me how to go 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:48.440 through their process and I worked a data gathering shift, 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:54.640 um you know, entering everything from the hospitalization data in Maine, um, 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:56.200 you know, to what was going on to some other states. 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.480 One of the things you realize when you do this 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:01.640 work is just how just pointed that David gathering system 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.680 is some states have wonderful portals that has you know, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.160 updated every day. The definitions of what counts as a test, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.520 as a positive, go, and so forth are very clear. 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.360 Others are not at all. I mean Hawaii, when I 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:15.200 was doing this, the place you had to go to 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.440 get the number of hospitalizations in the state was the 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.640 tenant governor's Instagram account, which, when you think about a 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.000 country and that's been singing like that is not where 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:24.840 you should be getting this type of public health data. 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:28.160 So do I also, let's just stay on the data 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:29.880 for a second, because I think one of the things 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:31.960 that they've also sort of done that you you kind 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.160 of talk about in the story is that they've actually 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.640 sort of effectively helps standardize what the data is even. 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:41.320 Can you talk more about about that element of the 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.400 story and the effort. Yeah, you know, one of the 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.040 things that is really really really important that I think 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.160 is hard to appreciate until you've tried to make sense 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.720 of medical data, is that it's vitally important that you 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.760 have kind of standard definitions for what stuff is, so 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:02.320 that a, you know, a test means a certain kind 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:04.960 of test, or do you separate out the different types 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.840 of COVID tests to get run into different categories. And 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.920 they ran across this problem of you know, states didn't 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:15.000 all report the same information. Sometimes they were report things 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.360 that seemed like they were similar, but in fact we're not. 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:22.520 They started to give states great letter grades, basically say okay, 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.600 this state gets a plus for the type of data 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.760 of courts. This when gets a D. And the reason 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:28.520 for that was they had someone on their advisory board 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:32.160 would work in government who said, I know this seems stupid, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:37.120 but government officials really love grades. And you know, when 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:38.960 they started giving out these letter grades, one of the 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.080 things they saw was that the states they're done well. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.840 They had public health officials and the governors out there saying, hey, 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:45.760 we got an A plus. They gave us an A plus. 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.280 This prominent website that everybody's looking at. Things were really great. 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.119 And they began to see other states make efforts to 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.440 get more transparent, to get better about standardizing their data, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.960 their data. They have helped kind of push along the 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.840 quality of the data to better understand this. Listen, there's 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:01.760 many good moving parts in this story. I love where 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:04.960 you say the project demonstrate is a demonstration excuse me, 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.640 a citizen know how and civic dedication at a time 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.040 when the country feels like it's being pulled apart, right, So, 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.440 when all else fails and you feel like things aren't 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:15.600 working like you see the community come together and we 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:18.199 understood that the importance of community, especially when it came 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:19.959 to COVID, how important it was, and to see them 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.359 come together on the COVID tracking project is pretty remarkable 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.120 and really makes you feel good ahead of this Thanksgiving 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.280 Day holiday. Um, Drew, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:31.520 We'll put this story out on Twitter for everybody. Bloomberg 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.040 Business Week editor Joel Webber along with Bloomberg News US 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:39.320 Healthcare Team leader Drew Armstrong read everything that Drew puts 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.960 out at Bloomberg dot com. You're listening to Bloomberg Business 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.639 Week with Carol Messer on Bloomberg Radio. All right, So 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:48.840 that's caught our attention. It's among the most read stories 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.440 on the Bloomberg gets a top story on this Tuesday 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:54.360 about how Amazon is doling out hiring bonuses as high 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.000 as three thousand dollars. It's all about making sure it 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.720 has enough people to get through the busy holiday shopping season. 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.880 So everyone's happy, right, Not so fast, Let's get more 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:05.600 on this story. I go to when it comes to 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.040 all things Amazon, Spencer Soaper. He's Bluemberg News technology and 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.440 e commerce reporter follows Amazon really really closely, and he's 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.000 back with us on the phone in Seattle. Um so, Spencer, 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:21.480 good to have you here. So what's going on? Uh? So, 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.320 I guess we have an example of just how tricky 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:26.560 that the job market is right now in terms of 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.399 employers trying to keep people happy. So yeah, Amazon was 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.040 you know, it's giving out bonuses of up to three 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.320 thousand dollars because it's got to get make sure it 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.520 has enough people to meet this explosive demand in online 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.119 commerce that just keeps, uh keeps growing, and this is 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:45.040 going to be a record busting holiday shopping season. But 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.480 that that that's angered existing workers who have been toiling 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.560 all along, and you know, many of them got vouchers 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.840 for turkeys, you know, as little as ten bucks. So 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.160 there's this kind of disparity and how Amazon's taking care 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.960 of existing workers who have been working all through the 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.959 pandemic and then the new recruits that they just need 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.800 to get through the holiday shopping season not to be ungrateful, right, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:09.960 And we see this right where people get hired and 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.000 they come in at one salary and then somebody comes 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.119 in later and they get a better salary. Like this 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:16.480 kind of stuff happens, but it does make you wonder 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.920 about what Amazon is thinking that they're willing to do 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:22.600 this and they know it's going to get out there 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.600 publicly right about the discrepancies. You know, what were the 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:30.240 you know, inside conversations that that they had about this 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:32.399 before doing it, knowing that they were going to be 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:34.879 workers are like, what they're getting three thousand and I 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.240 got a fifteen dollar turkey voucher. Yeah, well that's that's 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.240 a good point. And we don't even know if there 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.240 were conversations like that because they're just right now, they're 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.000 just trying to manage to chaos and and and and 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:50.000 meet demand and so on. These bonuses they offer bonuses 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.840 every year, uh, and so they're coming. We just haven't 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:55.679 seen them quite this high, this three thousand dollars, and 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:59.200 so the UM the significance there and the new tish 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:00.920 there is that even a lot of people are out 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.200 of work, they're still scared of COVID and so having 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:05.960 Amazon's having to ratchet up the amount of money it 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:10.200 will pay to compel new workers to come in UM, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.000 and then that's that's angering the exist the workers that 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.199 are already there. Well, so how is Amazon, spencer, you know, 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.560 this company, you talked to a lot of people who 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.360 are willing to go, you know, tell you what's going 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.720 on behind the scenes. How is Amazon handling UM workers 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.360 and making sure that they stay safe amid COVID. Amazon 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:34.439 has been pretty public about that in all of these 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.239 safety measures, you know, they're going to spend more than 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.400