Covid Swabs Supply Depends on Two Cousins

dot com. You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern Time on Bloomberg Radio or watch us on YouTube search Bloomberg Global News. The global COVID cases a hundred and twenty one point three million deaths topping two point six eight million. So let's get an

update on kind of where we are. Let's bring in Alexander White, Assistant Professor of sociology and the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which is supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Alexander on the phone in Baltimore, Alexander, nice to have you here. It does feel like vaccines are getting out to more people globally, certainly here in

the United States. At the same time, you know, we still have a lot of cases, and we still have areas of the world that are going into lockdown. How do you see kind of where we are when it comes to COVID nineteen. Hi, thank you, thank you so much for having me. So I think we're we're in an interesting I think we're an interesting inflection point um with with the pandemic. We're obviously we're seeing large and much higher rates of vaccination, but we're also seeing concerning

risers in cases. So at this moment, you know, it's very critical that we remain um masking, we remain social distancing, while also getting out as many vaccines as possible. Well, and to that point, we have often talked here on

Bloomberg about the difficulty in reaching all populations. Are all populations wanting to take the vaccine, but it does seem like increasingly the story is people want to take the vaccine, but they can't always figure out how to sign up for it, or they don't have access to the technology to sign up, or they just can't get to a place to get the actual vaccine. How are you seeing that. Yeah, that that's exactly right. UM. I think it's a very

serious concern. You know, in the early days of when the vaccine was being rolled out in the United States especially, the concern was overwhelmingly about vaccine hesitancy, especially in UM, black, Indigenous and minority populations that have historically been UM negatively exposed to public health interactions, incidences of medical race and etcetera. What we're seeing now is actually, you know, in many ways, the those initial concerns about vaccine hesitancy and really dropping.

And what's much more serious is you you know, as you mentioned, increasing access to vaccine, increasing accessibility on how to to access a vaccine, how to access technology and allow you to sign up UM, and and these issues which are becoming more and more important as we scale up the vaccine delivery across the country. Well, let's talk about this organization that you've been working with, communivacs Exactly. Who are they, what are they, what are they setting

out to do? Yes, so, UM Communitas is a national alliance of social scientists, public health experts, and community advocates who seek your last sting solutions to this particular serious problem. As we all know, in the United States historically underserved, underserved in the realm of healthcare. Black, Indigenous and Latin populations have endured negative health and economic impacts from COVID

from COVID nineteen pandemic at tragic and disproportionate rates. And while these communities could benefit greatly from safe and effective to the nineteen vactinations, longstanding biases and barriers hinder their

access to the vaccine. And you know, our coalition is is strengthening an attempting to strengthen national and local COVID vactination efforts in the United States by really putting communities of color at the center of these endeavors, with the goal of building towards not only the equitable delivery of COVID nineteen vaccines around the country, but also pushed towards collaborative and equitable public health service the place minoritized community

is really at the center of decision making. Alexander's Alexand let me just let me just jump in for a second. Is it safe to say that the problem is because I'm curious, how come there isn't the same access to all communities within the United States? And is it kind of similar to great healthcare. It isn't the same access to all communities of the United States. So there's a bigger,

broader problem here. It's not just vaccine distribution, but it it really digs more deeply into you know, the access to overall great health care here exactly exactly, and it is it is a bigger problem, brother problem, and it's something that you know, we can't get account very seriously. One.

You know, in the United States, we've seen public health funding really decrease UM acutely in the last twenty years, but also really over the over a longer period of time, UM such that you know, as we've as we've seen we've been generally unprepared for large scale UM pandemics of

this sort. And there's a result. You know, we've especially seen lack of public health support, funding and investment in underserved communities that would all already be UM as a result of systemic launch of systemic and equalities such as segregation or even out of housing situation, or broader lack of infrastructure support really without the out access to healthcare, to public health intervention. And also, you know, as we see most pressingly in this case, a lack of access

to UM to these vaccines. So it's a critical, critical problem. Hey, you just got about thirty seconds here in terms of the work that you guys are doing at community acts, do you see that you're making progress and reaching out to these communities to make sure they do have that access to getting the COVID vaccine just quickly. Yeah, we

are seeing progress, and I think it's very exciting. We're working in local communities across the country and we're amassing not only you know, great um strategies for increasing access, increasing transportation drives and things to too sites, but also you know, we're seeing ways of really building a collaborative public health care campaign for the future. COVID nineteen backs bactinae Um. Your mission is really only the beginning. Well, good luck with with all of your work. Great to

hear about it. Alexander White. He is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, of course, supported by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder, Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Alexander joining us on the phone in Baltimore. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. So, yeah, it's been a pretty busy week for this next reporter

and the venerable Wall Street firm, Goldman Sax. We've got two stories, not one, two stories about Goldman today on the Bloomberg terminal. They are the most read number one and two in the past eight hours on the Bloomberg reporting on Goldman Street. Not Rajan, He's our finance reporter at Bloomberg News. He joins us on the phone in New York City. You've had a busy week. Well, it's a prominent institution. I was making you. What can I do?

I know, Oh, I know, indeed indeed, so listen. First of all, let's talk about that move down south to West Palm Beach by government. It feels like it's picking up some momentum in reality to it. Oh absolutely. If you remember back in December, we talked about how government's act executives were weighing the option of centering their asset management business uh somewhere in South Florida. They were looking at offices in between the Miami to Palm Beach corridor.

The idea of being you create a new hub and that pretty much fits in line with the David Solomon's strategy of moving more jobs into cheaper lookouts to trim expenses for the Bank Florida. Of course, garners more interest just because this is also the time in our economy, in fact, in New York's economy, if you may were, a number of firms from this experience of remote working.

Over the last year have had serious conversations and this is the discussion that is happening across many boardrooms in corporate America is do you really need all your employees to be working out a one big central location or prominent cities when you could offer uh possibly ostensibly a better standard of living in cheaper cities further away from

the center. And the experience of remote working, the experience of working almost seamlessly for many of the big firms from disparate locations, has given rise to this idea, to the art of the possible, and they realized that they could move more jobs away from big city centers like New York, Chicago, San Francisco and still function properly and improve the bottom line. So, and this is what what

David Salomon calls is it high value cities. That is that is indeed a very goverment terminology, high value locations. But simply put, it translates to locations that are not as expensive as New York City. Yeah, well wasn't you know shred. Does it come down to that it's just about cutting costs or is it? Is it some thing more?

Because it does feel very much I feel like the conversations we've been having with you as of late, if David Solomon, he calls himself a modern CEO, you know, really kind of remaking Goldman to some extent in his own image, but maybe also for the twenty one century. I mean, one thing that we have to be clear about it this is this idea of moving jobs to high value locations at Goldman has been underway for about

a decade. Uh. You know, in the last and years we've seen places like Salt Lake City in Utah, Dallas in Texas where where you've already shifted in a number of jobs because Goldman did realize that it could. Gonner benefits from moving jobs there. A lot of their jobs that especially back office roles in their new consumer operations, are are centered out as Salt Lake City. They have also moved a number of legal compliance and similar roles to places like Dallas. So it is a shift that's

been happening. But under Solomon, I think Goldman has leaned a little harder into the strategy. You've heard them talk and earning s calls and at conferences that the experience of the pandemic has taught them that they were not giving themselves enough credit for how well they could operate from a varied number of locations. And at the end of the day, if it is going to help with

the bottom line, why shy away from it? Yeah? Why not? Right? Hey, listen, your second most read story on the Bloomberg Today has a talk about Goldmen bankers, Goldman analysts, those first year analysts begging to work only eighty hour weeks. Basically, they're pushing back. Just got about thirty five seconds. What do

we need to know about this story? Well, the most important thing you need to know is if I ever beg for saying, please let me work only eight hours a week, please take me to the back Ellen shoot me. But that is the reality of Wall three. You you work these big crazy ears for the big bugs. The hope is or the real it clashes against this idea that the softer kind of Wall Street was promoting a

better work life balance. But this, in this past twelve months of crazy banking business, it seems uh that dream hasn't quite fanned out. They just want to shower, They just want to each tree. They're just asking for a little bit of time. Sounds like they just had a kid and they're trying to juggle who work and life. Yeah, we all can relate to that. Alright, three great stuff. Really appreciate it. Tree not a rag. And he's finance reporter at Bloomberg News joining us on the phone in

New York City. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. Well, this week's cover story is about an essential business during the pandemic that also happens to be the one company in the US that makes a very important thing for COVID tests. And it also is about the two feuding cousins behind the business. The tale told by Bloomberg News

technology reporter Olivia Carvel. She joins us right here in our interactor Broker's studio along with Bloomberg Business Week editor Joel Webber on the Access line in Brooklyn. First of all, Joel, I mean, who knew so much was going on behind those very important nasal swaps? That's right. This is I think one of my favorite stories that we've bushed over the last year. UM. I think it's a great untold

story of the pandemic. UM, which is basically, imagine having a business that, UM, you know, a year ago, you basically the world discovers, Um, we're gonna need a lot more nasal swabs than you. Happen to be basically one of two companies in the world that makes them. And it's a company called called Puritan. It's a closely held

family company in Maine. UM, at the very outside of the pandemic, we happen to have done a photo shoot UM, basically showing their their operation and UM Olivia came to us a couple of months later and said, by the way, do you guys know about this epic lawsuit between the two cousins who own the business. And we're like, no, tell us more so, Olivia, tell us more. Who are the owners and what are they fusing over? Yeah, well

thanks for having me, UM. The owners of Puriton is Timothy Tinpltt and John Cartwright, the both based up in Maine. This is a family business. It's been around for you know, more than a hundred years now, and they haven't liked each other for a really long time. One of the most fascinating things about reporting the story is the timing of it all. Like in the lead up to the pandemic, probably two years before COVID really hit or became a

household name, they stopped speaking to each other. One of them just walked out of a meeting and refused to have anything to do with the other. And um, they refused to be in the same room, didn't want to talk to each other, And that led to some really big problems inside the company. There was their manufacturing equipment wasn't being modernized, they weren't updating their technology. Their back

office technology system was twenty years old. They had and updated their wages or given staff salary increases, and then, um, three weeks literally three weeks before the White House called this company to say we need you to ramp up swab production, one of them filed a lawsuit against the other to dissolve the entire business all right, and then walks in the government exactly. Yeah, that brought them all together, and they're not happy and living happily living, you know,

ever after. Well, that's a really interesting part of the story is that the government was like, we need you to sit aside your differences for the good of the country, and they said that they would, but we access the legal file and inside private courtroom sessions, they continued to fight and are still fighting to this day. Which, um, you know, let's let's go ahead and talk about the

money here. Um, how much money is the US government put into making sure period and keeps coming Over the past year, They've invested two hundred and fifty million dollars into the company and plans are underway for another facility in Tennessee. So that's only going to go up. I mean, why don't they get along? And I know in your story you talk about that it might have started as

they were kids. I mean, but it's noticeable. Employees know it, and it wasn't until right the President visited that they were actually seen together. Yeah. I think that they're just both really stubborn. Um, they both have their own vision for how they see the future of the company going. Puritan has actually got a sister business called Hardwood, which started out making minted toothpicks like a hundred years ago.

And John Cartwright, one of the cousins, is really heavily involved in the hardwood side of the business, and Timothy Template is involved in the Puritan the medical side, And as these two companies had kind of gone in different directions, they really felt struggled to kind of work together to see a future for both of them. So, you know, just two stubborn people who had their own vision and just didn't want to back down. Okay, so you got to spend some time in me in the summer, which

made the reporting like so much greater, Carol. Just to have Olivia basically being like pitching the story and then being like, by the way, I'm going to be in Vain for a little while. I was like, oh my god, you can't make this up. Amazing. So you got to know basically everyone in Guilford. So put us on the wasn't that hard, Jol. There are only fifty a hundred people who live in Guilford. Tell us about the company and how it fits into mean and the meaning of

it all. Yeah, Well, Guildford is a tiny town. There is one restaurant there, which also serves as the local bar. There's no Starbucks, there's no McDonald's. Like very very small town America and Hardwood Puritan or the business is the biggest part of the whole town. They do a lot for the for the town. They often put on fireworks shows, they donate playground equipment, They help maintain the local parks.

Everyone who lives in Guilford knows the company had has either worked there, had a family member who worked there, or you know, knows the owners specifically. Everyone knows where they grew up. They can point out their homes. John Cartwright has quite a big, sprawling estate on one of the highways hitting out of Guilford, and people actually direct, you know, make directions based around his home. They're like, oh, take a lift after the John's giant white mansion on

the corner. So that the feud between the owners was really really well known in the town as well. Okay, so you've spent months on this story. What's your favorite detail from all the report, the great reporting that you did, and just have about thirty thirty five seconds. Yeah, sure, I think it was really going through the court documents

and seeing just the extent of the fight. They disagreed on everything from the location of the case to delaying the case when the pandemic hit, to expediting it to putting it off all together. And then when Bloomberg filed a motion to access the legal documents, they actually disagreed on how to respond to that as well. One of them said, no, we're going to fight it and push back, and the other said, oh, it's okay, go for it, like you can access the documents if you want them.

So just the extent of their disagreement was unbelievable. All Right. I do say there's several times, but I do feel like this could be again like a Netflix or Amazon series because it's amazing and what I hear is there's going to be an Olivia Crevell Street and gil Ford. No, I don't know that. Uh, it's a great story. Um, so much information and we'll put it out on Twitter and I highly recommend everybody check it out. M Olivia, thank you, Olivia Carvell of Bloomberg News, along with Joe

Webber of Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Broom mac Journal. Yeah, but you let me drive no no, no, d N please, I'll drivel lets me. I want to drive, just drive baby, it's good questions drying yea, this is the drive to the globe. Give me thanks. We'll drying us to dawn

on Bloomberg Radio. And gotta say, taken just a leg down in the last hour or so, and we are pretty much at our loads of the session when it comes to those major equity averages down one point five on the SNP DAL off half a percent, and the NASDAC really taking it. The biggest decliner on a percentage basis down three or decline a four hundred six points.

Let's get into it with Alan Zaffron, founding partner and co ce io at i e Q Capital eleven point six billion in assets under management, joining us once again from Foster City, California. Allen, nice to have you here with Tim and me. So, okay, how do you see like a trade like today where we're seeing more momentum to the downside pickup on the equity trade, particularly the tech trade. And one day after the FED where some said you know where Jpal came out and said, listen,

we're gonna keep rates low for some time. Yeah, Carol, Tim, thanks for having me back on the show and today as a microcosm of the battle we're going to see in the next three to six months, and it's the battle between rising rates and inflation scares stopping this massive large cap growth rat had for many years, versus the fact that if inflation is kept under control, you're actually gonna have productivity growth, really nice world GDP growth, actually

earnings growth better than expected, and that drives stocks higher. So what's really spooking the market is something called the base effects. The next three months, when we talk about inflation, it's gonna look like it's going crazy because in March and April and May last year, prices were falling, and we compare inflation year over year, it's gonna look terrible for the next three months. It's going to spook everybody. This tenure is headed to two question. We have to listen.

It could be weaks. I mean, this market is moving quickly, right, but the short end isn't going anywhere, because al told you is staying there if you believe him three more years, if you believe the futures market at least two more years. So the kurb Stevens but two isn't a problem. It's the speed at which this moves. The market can't calibrate quickly enough, right, It has to move and fits and starts.

But that the question, Tim is really is this inflation going to be tolerable or is it going to get out control? I will tell you that we still believe it's tolerable, which is what J believe it, which is kind of what Alan J. Powell seemed to say. To hang on a second though, because Tim and I were like, what did he say? Did he say baked defect? What did you say? The base effects base? Okay? Meaning what? So you're comparing year when you read about what's going on,

you compare year over year statistics. If I'm arbitrarily comparing last March, April and May when we're in the throes of locking down and prices were falling, and now you look at prices this year, we will look like we're speed up extraordinarily because you're comparing rising prices this year with falling prices last year. By the time we get to July and August, even though prices this year are

going up, prices last year we're also going up. So the spread will begin to narrow and it will calm down. Investors at the rate of inflation again is moderating. We have to get past the next three or four months to see the mod rating rate of inflation, which tim will probably stop long term rates from going higher. And then everybody will chill say, oh Apple, And now you know, Apple and Microsoft are still solid businesses and they're gonna do just fine. And let me give it the other

irony of all this. This is definitely a year where probably value stocks, non large cap tech stocks probably outperformed. You know, Zone do as well to large cap stocks. But pre COVID, we have a slow grinding economy and growth stocks, the companies that generate growth regardless of the economy, outperforming in a slow going economy. We're going to head right back there when we get through all the sugar

hiph from the fiscal stimulus. So it's possible a year from now we'll be talking about growth stocks outperforming value stocks again. So what are you telling clients? Wayne? So what are you telling clients right now? Are you? Are you telling them? Essentially, just sit tight for a few months, don't you anything? Yeah, and by the disk if it comes in, because this is going to be a that

you're gonna see real GDP growth. The FED is saying six and a half percent this this economy, you just could go up eight to this yere and if it's really non inflationary, we're gonna have huge earnings out performance relative to expectations. And cash is trash and zero percent and bonds don't pay you much. So stay the course. Value stocks are maybe a trade, but ultimately you need balance. Don't throw away the growth stocks have both, don't you know,

Stay rational, stay diversified. So just quickly twenty seconds when you say by the dip, are you talking about by the dip of those growth stocks that you like so much. Yeah, but let's be clear about these growth stocks are like, you know, wild roller coasters, So don't buy on the first day it's down. Pick a spot where you can get comfortable and be a long term investor. Don't think you can gay trade these. They are insanely bald. All right, I'm gonna leave it on that note. Hey, Allen, have

a good weekend. Alan's Afron founding partner in co CEO of i e Q Capital eleven point six billion in assets, under manage it with us from Foster City, California. But on a day where Nazac is a little bit more on sale because it's down about Hey, he's saying buckle up, yeah, but he's longer term, still likes those growth names right and sees that's where the momentum will be. Thanks for

listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com, and you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio or watch us on YouTube. Search to Bloomberg Global News