Spikes in COVID-19 Cases Nationwide

Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, bl Bloomberg dot com. You can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio every weekday, or watch us on YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News. So, Jason, I know you've been busy, um, and we're gonna talk a lot more about Lebron later, But there have been a lot of buyers headlines today. We've got New York moving to Phase

three that starts on July six. You've had Texas as governor halt new phases of reopening in its state economy, also suspending elective surgeries in a bunch of big cities, and Florida once again showing a really big jump in new cases so lots of headlines. Jason Farley is a professor of nursing, an infectious disease trained nurse epidemiologist, and a nurse practitioner and the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and Medicine the Bloomberg

School of Public Health. I just want to remind everybody, supported of course by Michael R. Bloomberg, founder Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Jason joining us on the phone from Baltimore. Jason, it is great to have you here with us, help us make sense of these headlines. You know, we are increasingly moving towards reopening. Most folks, CEOs and the like. Even people from the medical community like yourselves come on

and say, we've got to move towards reopening. But how do you, you know, cross that with the increases we're seeing in some of the states around the country. Yeah, I think we have to look at the data so far, and the fact of the matter is is that the places that reopened early and fat are the ones seeing

most of the spikes. Um. You know, there was a lot of delay in California, and so they're a little bit of an anomaly in those in the areas that we're seeing because they were more um methodical in their reopening. But um, what we're seeing is this return to normal life in many jurisdictions, and as a result, I returned

to the need to lock down in several of these spots. UM. Houston, just noting specifically this really big rollback on my brothers right now in Houston for some cancer related treatment and and you know he's reporting that, you know, they're now messaging in the city right now that you know, we're about to think about canceling electrive surgery like you mentioned, and other related rollbacks. So the our decisions to open up too fast have you know, ultimate consequences? And so

what do we do at this point? Because I know, Jason, there is real reluctance to completely shut down, But is that potentially the only choice from a medical perspective? And I think most importantly and you know this better than I from just a capacity perspect active in a bed perspective. Yeah, And I think you know what, what what places are seeing in terms of our concern really is can we meet the demand of hospitalizations and ultimately the demands of ice.

It's the same concern that was before. And while we're better prepared in terms of PPE and and ventilator capacity, we are not better prepared in relation to surge capacity. Right, So we still have the same number of beds we've always had. We've turned other units into more functional I see you like units, and and also more of than

a latter capacity and many settings. So those are all good things, and so we're better prepared, but we also still have a limited bandwidth in terms of the total bed capacity, the total health workforce capacity, and so when we see large spikes in cases, particularly large spikes in cases that result in substantial increases and hospitalization, it's the question at hand is can the health system you know,

deal with that, sirs? And if so, is there any associated excess mortality in cases that may be delayed, in

cases that may not receive optimal levels of treatment. Well, that's interesting and that's where I wanted to get to um Jason, if if I may, is that in terms of treatment though, it feels like we are making some progress with treatments for those who might have a moderate case or you know, m a severe case, and so maybe that is helping kind of stem some of the increases in the number that ultimately have to be in

the hospital for a long time. Yea. So our our biggest um recent advance has been the data that came out on methzone. Now, yeah, dex A, meth zone is a great, you know, very cheap, very available steroid. And what the data show, dous is that basically patients who needed mechanical ventilation about twenty nine better mortality than in patients who did not receive the drugs. So so that's the at least a glimmer of hope for patients to

need mechanical ventilation. And then in patients who needed oxygen supplemental oxygen support, so they weren't quite at a point of ventilation, but they were sick enough to need hospitalization and oxygenation. And in those patients, one in five or actually improved using the drug compared to those who did not receive the drug. However, there was no benefit whatsoever in patients with more mild or moderate that he had

not yet needed hospitalization and not yet needed oxygenation. So what we've seen is is that if you are sick enough to need oxygenation, there is a benefit, and sick enough to need mechanical ventilation. There is even a bigger bit of it. So what that does the drug does is basically quiet the immune system. Right, it helps our

bodies begin to heal, but not over respond. Let's get back to our conversation with Dr Jason Farley, professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and Johns Hopkins A Blueberg School of Public Health is you can probably tell by the name. It's supported by Mike Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, the parent of this radio station. Jason got to talk vaccines here. We hear so much about development. We hear about all the various things going on,

some great collaboration going on across the world. What's realistic here? Yeah, well we are hearing some some glimmers of hope. You know that we've got the Maderna vaccine that is moving into phase three trials um and that's great because that's the final efficacy kind of level trial that we need. Does it works is it not? You know, the phase one in phase two are really about safety and what we would call immunogenicity. So does it does a vaccine

actually produce an immune response? And so we've gotten the great data from that. A phase to study from Maderna has been completely enrolled and enrolled in like really really accelerated speed less than two weeks, I believe, um, which is all great news. That means answers about it, how good it's impact on the immune system is. But what we really must have to know for sure is the phase three thousand people study UM that will begin enrolling

in July. All right, to walk us through that and understand and explain the timetable for that one, because this is this is to make sure it's really safe with lots of people. Yeah. Absolutely, So the FDA cleared and made that particular vaccine candidate, and they're they're many, so

we are focused on just one at the moment. But so so with this particular vaccine candidate, they cleared it in May, gave it a dosing structure of a hundred micrograms to get the dose up for two vaccines one days apart, and then they're going to follow this cohort of patients for twelve months after those two vaccinations, and so they'll be looking at everything from does an immune response occur after vaccine, which we expect that it will

and then how long does that last? And so ultimately one of the things that influences the speed in which we get answers is how many cases coronavirus we have because the lower the population incidents, right, the higher the number of people they have to enroll to find new cases. So that's real, that's really critical. So so that's why a worldwide study, that's why you know, you know, as many places that we can get to, some that have high incidents, some that have low incidents, is going to

be really critical. It's interesting that you bring that up. And I was watching um a local news not a local network news piece last night and they were talking about I think it was a lot of testing. It's also going in I think was it Africa? Um, where they've lined up a lot of people. I mean, is this what's involved? Like we have to do this on a global scale? Absolutely, I mean we need to know because we've got to remember, does the vaccine work is

the first question, and how does it work? And how much? How much does it? In response, we get how long did it last? And then does it work equally in all people and all populations? Right? Because there could be subtle differences genetically from a host perspective, sos as humans that that we need to just ensure that there is no difference in response across the world. So wait, wait to them, what does it mean if this goes through?

Don't we get it when? Maybe? Yeah? So, you know, I think that's the billion billion dollar question, you know. Um So, obviously the FDA is going to be paying very very close attention study and and it's gotten already accelerated, uh, you know, status in terms of moving forward to production. Um So, the question is, you know, what's the incidents in that location? How many pass are expected in the placebo group, how many expected in the actual intervention group,

and then how many do we actually see? And based on that data, the Data Safety Monitoring Board, which is the group that says, hey, we we have enough data that we can stop the study, and we can stop it early because we are sure of the answer will be following to tell us the answer to that question. So could it be the end of the year. I'm not gonna let us go. Could it be the end of the year? Could it be or is it or

is it more likely early? Next steer, I'm I'm thinking a landscape that's really into and I wouldn't even use the word early interesting. So Dr Jason Farley, last question for you, only about a minute left and you probably don't even need that much time. What do we need to do in the meantime, Because what Carol and I keep saying to each other wear a mask. Three words. Yeah, absolutely, common sense is what we need to do. There are

the two words. Absolutely. All right, very good, Thank you so much, really good to catch up with you, and uh, thanks for bouncing along with us as we try and figure out this this new world. You're on the front lines of this, and we always appreciate our friends down at john hop Johns Hopkins sharing their insights with us. Dr Jason Farley, Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Of course, support

to buy Mike Bloomberg. Carol, that gives me some optimism. And the thing is Maderna is doing one. But remember we've had guests on to that just and as as Jayson and pointed out that there are we know, like two hundred plus you know, um cases where people are pursuing different types of vaccines. And then there's probably equally that many just going after different types of treatments, you know,

to deal with the virus at different stages. So there's got to be something that comes out of this, Yeah, everybody. So many people are just hoping for, you know, an almost like cinematic miracle, and look, maybe it will happen. You know that somebody there will be with all these brains focused on it, there'll be some breakthrough that helps us solve this. I mean, here's hoping for sure. I do believe in science, so I do too. It's a

good thing. I'm an optimist too, and I really love to see everybody kind of what was the resilient Optimists. That was good Grossman, that's another T shirt, exactly, so many T shirts. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. The cover story

might have heard in Bloomberg Business Week this week. It's all about lebron Jay James and Maverick Carter, the company that they're building a big multi media extravaganza that I pulled off with my very good friend Joe Weber, who is the most patient man on the planet. Before we get to him, let's listen to a little bit of that interview. There is something about this company that feels not to be glib about it, but very l A

in many ways, walking around seeing seeing people. What do you take from sort of l A that informs what this has become. It all stems from from my upbringing interest them from from Akron. It all stem from all these people that we've met along the way that grow

up in similar situations. And for us, when we when we talk about storytelling, we want to be able to hit home hit a lot of homes where they feel like they can be just as part as that story or they feel like, oh, you know what, I can relate to that story because I am someone that's going

through that same situation. So, you know, being authentic to what we do as far if it's you know, TV, if it's digital, if it's uh, if it's apparel, whatever the case may be, just trying to to hit home on in living rooms, you know, in families and households, and we've been able to capture that because our stories are very authentic. So you know, it's because we're here in l A and we use a lot of facilities

that's here. You know, you know that that is the correlation with that, But as far as what we do, um, you know, it's very organic to it, you know, to our bringing. It's the platform, but also it's the when

you grew up like Lebron I did. It's more than anything, honestly, it's the exposure because when you grew up in a place like we are, no matter how talented you are, no matter how good you are at something and you believe it, if you don't even know things exist then and you're not exposed to them, then there's no way for you to ever even feel in power because you're like, I'm confined to this small world. And because of him, as I said that he was my platform, then I

got exposed to this big world. So now as a company, we feel that's our duty too. Is is a lot of exposure, exposures through storytelling, exposure through experiences, exposure through job creation. At our company, we have you coming to our company. There's people from all over the country, all different walks of life. All right, Well, that is a part of my conversation, actually part of the February conversation I had in Los Angeles with Lebron James and Maverick

Carter Maverick being the second voice you heard there. Let's bring in Joe Webber, the editor of Bloomberg business Week, and Carol. Not to turn this too much into a love fest, but I cannot say enough good things about Joel Webber on this story because he has been my partner through all of this and just a relentless supporter. I'm so grateful to him and so happy to have him. So exhausted he had to take a vacation in Massachusetts. Did a leave Brooklyn and take a break. Jason Kelly,

I wore him out. I wore him out. So Joel, I mean, let's talk about this. What your thought when we started talking about it, UM what how is how does Lebron James get a hundred million dollars and then what does he do with it? And you know that that remains like, UM, you know, I think this really interesting business decision and talk about the most perfect moment in the world to to have UM capital at your back and have this big idea and a strategy that

they're going to execute. I just think it's going to be a kind of uh, just a behemoth UM and Jason, I think, you know, one of the ways that you sort of were able to articulate this was it's a little bit of a mashup of sort of how you know, you said, like one inspiration is kind of Disney, frankly, which is obviously in their backyard um in l A. When you talk to them, what what kind of uh, what kind of strategy do you feel like they're gonna

unveil going forward and regarding content. Well, I'm glad you brought that up, because throughout this whole process, you and I and Jim Hailey, one of the senior editors one of your deputies on Blueberg Business Week, we would get together when we used to be able to get together

and say, so, what is this thing? And and and it's it's a great question, and it is you know, Maverick cartercles at the House of Brands, and Jim Alee actually was the one who came up with this nice thing in the story where I think we say it's you know, it's part Disney, it's part Nike, it's part Patagonia in some ways, Carol, because they're the way you describe the facial mission underneath it that obviously has come

to the four I think especially right now. Can I just say, first of all, the cover when Jason shared it with me, jahal like gets spectacular and it just

made me stop. And I think I've been thinking so much, really deeply, as many of us have been, certainly about the virus and the impact and the inequalities that have been you know, laid bare, and then of course what happened in Minneapolis and racism and talking about things over the last month, and I just felt like, man, you know, we need to see more companies like Lebron and Maverick Carter are building right where diversity is just intrinsic to

what they're doing. Yeah, that's right, I mean, And to be clear, you we should. You know, we shot Maverick and Lebron together, and um, I did have this thought which was like, we shot them before the pandemic, and you know, they're very up close and comfortable. They are not so they are not socially distanced, they are not

wearing a mask. But it was taken before the pandemic kit and you know, um, Jason and I had a nice little tug of war of like do you do you do Lebron solo or do you do Maverick and Lebron, and I was like, you're crazy, Like Lebron is the arguably the most recognizable human on the planet, Like, how

could you not do them solo? And and I think Jason made a really strong point, which I you know, we we ended up reinforcing with the cover line which became the King and the CEO, which is he didn't build this thing on his own right, and he's got on a network. Maverick and he have been together for years.

You know, they go back to Akron high school days together and you know, Maverick Um has been with him, and you know, even like the decision when Lebron announced that he was going to Miami taking his talents to

South Beach, you know, Maverick was was there. And I also think that speaks to like the journey that they've been on, because I think that they would acknowledge that that would didn't go well, but it was a learning experience and it helps inform how they make business decisions today and going forward, because I'm sure there will be more. It absolutely does. Yeah. Well, our thanks to Joel Webber My personal thanks to Joel Webber, the editor of Bloomberg

business Week. He and I've been doing this together back when he was an editor on Bloomberg Markets, then the editor of Bloomberg Markets, now of course the editor. My garden has grown in the time that you guys have been working on this. I'm just saying we've been working on this one for a long time, but really happy it got over the finish line. And anyway, Joel Webber joining us from Massachusetts. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So I

have to say that this story definitely caught my attention. UM, and maybe because last night I was kind of actually looking at the cannabis industry and the CBD consumer It's like last night, it's been a long week already, it was Wednesday. My husband I said, no, no, no. But what's interesting is there's someone that we talked to a lot about the cannabis industry, especially CBD Consumer, UM, who is no longer CEO of that company anymore. So we've

seen some fallout. The industry definitely going through some growing pains. UM. This story on the Bloomberg this morning about pot m and as mystery antitrust reviews linked to a crackdown by the U S. Attorney General William Barr. I wanted to do this story. David McLaughlin is with us, his Department of Justice reporter at Bloomberg News. He joins us on the phone in Washington, d C. So, David, what's going

on right? So? Um, there was a hearing yesterday about on Capitol Hill about politicization of the Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr. And you know, most of the focus on the hearing was it was about Roger Stone. But but there was this interesting piece of it that

was focused on marijuana mergers, cannabis mergers. And according to this whistleblower who testified and uh he's a lawyer inside the in the Justice Department's Andy Trust Division, he said that the Attorney General William Barr ordered basically special scrutiny of these mergers because he had a sort of personal dislike for the industry. And so that was unusual because un be pretty fragmented. You know, it there's not you know,

there are many companies. It's not like a consolidate industry like you know, mobile phones carriers or for other industries that might get come of a lot the tension. Um, so this was kind of strange at the time, and now we know now we know why according you know

this was the blower is correct? Well, you know, I was going to ask you another question about the weed business, David, but but I have to say what you said leaves me in another direction, which I think you you know the story so well, which is this is a different sort of Department of Justice that we're seeing, fair to say, or a different justice or a different Attorney general. Maybe, yeah, of course, I mean this, UM, a lot of controversy

about the Justice Department right now. UM. So obviously the high profile cases are things like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn and UM William Barr's involvement in both of those cases, that's gotten a lot of the headlines. But in terms of business case is on any trust, there's been controversy there too. So if you go back to the beginning of the administration, there was controversy about, um, the Justice Department tried to blog a T and T S take over a time warner and that got caught up under

or over Trump's criticism of CNN. Was that political? Um, there was controversy about an investigation into the automakers for automakers that reached an agreement with California about admissions that Trump didn't like, and then the Justice Department for investigations, so that seemed very political. Of the marijuana case, there are many of them, and so these these criticism keeps coming up. But what I think about for the marijuana industry, right,

it's a Nassan industry. It's definitely gone through no pun intended, you know, growing pains. We saw an explosion, you know, whether it was Canadian companies and US companies. We talked about out you know, Jason, I would have a lot of guests CEOs who are running different companies, you know, and most I think we're pointing to you're going to have to see consolidation, right and really create stronger players.

It just made sense, you know, to be able to deal with especially because the regulatory environment was taking so

long to kind of get its act together. And I do wonder what role potentially, David, that this kind of slowdown potentially by the U. S. Attorney General, what impact it's had on the industry unfairly so perhaps, right, So, you know, these reviews, because they were ordered by by A. G. Barr Uh these in depth in investigations and murders can be really burdened some so, like we interviewed UM, the

head of one of these companies. He talked about how you responding to the Justice Department's request for information cuts you know, millions of dollars. That takes many, many months to satisfy the government's questions and their demands for information. So that kind of uncertainty, I mean that is that for really for any merger UM that kind of waited

girion UM. But in this case, UM, a lot of companies were getting We're being affected by and so in fact, one of the deals, even though it eventually got approval of the companies, blamed this delay, we're having to ultimately

terminate the merger. Wow. Yeah, I mean this is having real world consequences for these companies in an industry that and we know this, Carol, and you mentioned this from the Bloomberg fifty and others has been booming in many ways, certainly in Canada and across the United States as well. Some really nice reporting. Thank you so much. David McLaughlin, Department of Justice reporter for Bloomberg News on pot M and a's mystery anti trust review. Well they are going

back to a g bar. Yeah, don't you feel like little doom to take it? So? But don't you feel like for so long we worked constantly doing interviews with CEOs, and I feel like the momentum has slowed down, like we even't had the conversations. Yeah, yeah, well, I mean it was a very acquisitive industry. I mean that's how it was getting built. Bobby d just let it play. I'm road journal. Yeah, but you let me drive? Oh no, no, no, no, honey, please,

I'll do the riding drivel. I want to drive, Just drive, baby questions trying. This is the drive to the globe. Give me thanks. We'll drying us down on Bloomberg Radio. It is time for the drive to the close back with us as Alan Lance, he's research director at lants Global dot com, President of allenby Lance and Associates. Allen joining us once again on the phone from Toledo. Hi, Allen, great to have you here again with Jason and myself.

I was looking at my notes that you sent over and you are lands Global that is at its highest cash level since late summer two thousand seven. Not because you're a bear, though, because of profit taking. Yes, you know, this has been pretty predictable. You know COVID, Uh, you know the way the market has gone and and and basically, Carol, what we've seen is that initially the market hit new highs into February, even though people were aware of COVID

the melt, most investors underestimated the impact. And then as a sell off began, Uh, you know, what we did is we focused on uh companies that we thought that would come out of the pandemic even stronger than they went into. So we were buying the Amazons and the weakness and and and ups and Amazon had only a few days of weakness really and it was gone straight up since UPS has been up and down. So we

just stuck to our price parameter. And then as a sell off intensified, we bought the fortress balance heat companies, and into the depths of of the sell off, we started buying the cyclicals. Our latest purchases last month were the travel industry, which we avoided the whole way through, and um those had really rebounded in the past few weeks.

And we took profits this week. And I'm figuring that it's a little bit a long way before the even international routes are are going to be uh anywhere back to normal. I mean we're talking a year or two and a lot of those stocks had really uh surged and rebounded quite impressively, actually more so than we expected. Uh and uh, you know, we thought that profit taking was warranted and so Alan, how much do you worry about a second wave when it comes to coronavirus here

affecting especially some of those particular names you're talking about. Yeah, definitely, Jason, And that's why we we got out of the travel UM as far as sector completely, anything related to travel,

we'd recommend avoiding or at least being dramatically underweight. And you know, right now, what we were buying like today is like a fives or under thirty two or has a you know three and a half three and three quarter percent yield mark at seventy five um you know, boring companies like IBM a a hundred and fifteen with a five and three quarter percent yield, or we added coke for the first time in years UM training at four with you know, again a very impressive yield, boring companies,

but I think, uh, you know, I'd rather have that in into a second wave than owning a cruise uh you know company or or an airline at this stage.

And and if you own the SMP five hundred, if you're a passive investor, I mean you own a lot of airlines and a lot of cruise companies and and uh, you know, if you weren't uh smart enough to take profits in February when the market was hitting all time highs, that think this is a gift here where where some of these travel related companies have not really factored in a second wave. And as we see that more and more here, I think there's more risk than reward and

that's what we really look at it with each investment. Yeah, I mean, is it safe to say, Alan, I don't know how you look at this. And obviously you're looking at you know, individual stocks and whether it makes sense or not to to own them at this point, but you've got to look at an industry like airline or hospitality. I mean we're already seeing it, certainly the fringes of retail. Increasingly companies that were just on the edge, you know,

either filing for bankruptcy. But what about when it comes to the airline industry, do you anticipate that there might be a big name that just doesn't make it through. Well, it's been an amazing thing, this floodl liquidity care all, you know, between the central banks that fed and and even you know uh uh as far as UH in the markets in general, there hasn't been really a problem

with raising UH money in this environment. And that is really I think what fueled these uh graval hospitality related stocks to to to really surge beyond what we expected. And like I said, I consider that as a gift because I mean, they are getting money. Interest rates are low, it's cheap, and and you know it might they might avoid bankruptcy. But boy, it's gonna be a difficult environment.

I'd much rather be in the names that I just talked about and buying those in the weakness than chasing airlines or or or um you know, the cruise cruise companies. At this stage, you got to pay back the debt. I'm just gonna say, at some point in fashion. Yeah, so Alan, before we let you go, you mentioned a

couple of names coming into the top of this. But UH tech stocks, I mean just defining gravity and and leading the way in so many cases, how do you play that at this point in the cycle, and at this point in the pandemic, I guess, well, it's really difficult. We we transferred a gatten a lot of new accounts, and you know, they might have the nasda q q q s and they might have the SMP. And the way we play that is we keep the NASDAK and then sell the SMP because we don't want those travel

related companies. So so we like tech, we like healthcare, and healthcare is underperformed, and even to financials will probably the next area if you see a sell off, that will buy just again the highest quality companies that have a good, strong income stream. But I think that's the best way to play it is just to be smart and use these extreme uh as far as moves up

and down to your advantage. So so when you have eight straight days up on the NASDAC, you know, uh, take some profits and and then uh you know, when you get these uh sell offs, you know, try to uh prepare your buy list and and accumulate wisely. And I think that's gonna be you know, the difference maker into the balance of this year and in the one the discipline investor is going to do a lot better than the passive investor or or the investor that's jasm

at Um. Don't be too greedy either, Yeah, exactly. Strong stomach this market takes all right, Alan Lance, I send like Yoda just then, director of research for Lance Global dot Com, President of Allan by Lance and Associates. Jonny's on the phone from Toledo, Ohio. Better Yoda than Dorothy. Strong stomach, This market takes. I don't even know what I'm doing at this point. I'm so tired. We're gonna count everybody down at the closing bell, even though we're

kind of up near our euves of the session. I was just looking at the weekly numbers. DAOs and p are down a little bit, about seven tons of a percent for the week. Over all, nastacs a little bit higher. We still have another day to go. But that's been the tone this week, Jason. I don't know who is what's going on with the music today, but it isn't fired like my playlist, Like I just want this playlist and I'm gonna go sit up back. Can I just

do that little Ohio here deal? Young, great stuff. Thanks so much for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on I tuned South Cloud, Floeberg dot Come, or wherever you get your podcasts, and of course you can always listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, or watch us on YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News m