The Dangers of “Toxic Communication” on Twitter

dot com. If you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, and be sure to watch us too on YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News. J and Jay. Is highly anticipated single dose Kevin nineteen vaccine may not be authorized for use until March.

That's weeks later than US officials have suggested. No. But you know, as every day goes by, you're so good at like counting the numbers of the deaths that we see and people who come down with it, so you know, simple math that could be you know what I mean, Like every day that goes by, I'm not trying to know. I mean, look, it's important we do the bite of the day here on the radio and on on Quick Take. We do by the numbers, and the number today was

you know over it's a number of deaths yesterday. It's pretty it's pretty remarkable. It's pretty remarkable. And if we take a look at numbers right now, we've got cases of COVID nineteen topping now. Million deaths are passing one point nineties six million. That's a global number, and the vaccine tracker more than thirty point five million shots have been given worldwide. Lots going on. Let's see what our

guest has to say about all of this. Dr Kirk Garrett is medical director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Health at the Christiana Care Health System. He spent seventeen years at the Mayo Clinic clinic excuse me, and was a member of the team of physicians who first performed minimally invasive heart procedures there. He joined this on the phone from Wilmington, Delaware. Dr Garrett, nice to have you here with Tim and myself. How are you and what are you seeing when it comes to COVID nineteen

and your patients? Well, thanks for having me with you today. It's a pleasure. Of course. We're all struggling here to stay ahead of this. And the good news is I think that we're in most communities we're getting to a place where the peak of this resurgence period is coming into focus now as we start to roll out vaccines. As you were just discussing, we're optimistic that we're going to get control of this, but of course we have many weeks, probably many months ahead of us to still

manage this disease. What do you mean when you say many weeks, many months? I mean are we talking like, um, return to normalcy at the end of the summer or we am I going to be able to see my parents at the beginning of the summer. What's going on here? Yeah, you know, at this point, really it's anybody's guests, you know.

But what we do have as a pledge from government officials, both the current administration and the incoming administration to accelerate the rollout of the current stock of vaccinations, and that's very good news. Of course, we have to assure that we reserve enough to be sure everybody gets not one, but two injections. And then importantly, we have to continue production so that we as we use up the supply currently,

that we can replace it at the rate that's needed. Right, government that we were going to do that, yeah, well, you know, the US government now wanting to offer vaccines to millions more Americans, and so we're talking about reducing the age and opening it up. We're now clearing a path for about twenty eight million more Americans to be vaccinated. Sounds good, right, opening it up. But at the same time, I think now we're like, wait a minute, do we

have enough supply there? What are you hearing on that front? Well, I think we're hearing the same thing you are. We don't have any special conduit into the government administrative leaders here, and they're really the ones who are in charge. I think the War Production Act is is obviously a very important lever that's at the dispose of the administration to see to it that we can keep up production is needed. And we're all hoping that that happens quickly, but it

hasn't so far. Yeah, Yeah, And I think that's been I think it's been a real challenge for for Americans. I mean, I know from my own perspective, just trying to think about what a realistic timeline here is for widespread vaccination. Here we are in January, it's been almost a year since this pandemic has absolutely changed the way that we live and change the way that we work and change the way that we travel, and we still don't know when we are going to see widespread inoculation.

And I think it's just I think it's difficult for Americans. I mean, we asked, we have this conversation every day. We asked questions like what can we do to stop the spread until we get vaccinated? And you know, we hear the same thing over and over again, but it's

it's not working, because yesterday was another record for deaths. Yeah, and you know, um, one of the parts of the conversation that I think hasn't gotten enough attention is that we we talk about the the excess mortality that's occurred in twenty as a result of this COVID nineteen pandemic. And typically what we're doing was recounting up the number of people we know to have died as a direct

result of being infected. And that's tragic, and the number as huge, as you know, over the three hundred thousand estimate that was made early in we exceeded that. And you have the part of the conversation that I don't think we focused on those deaths that we know to be to have occurred in excess of expectations, but which are not attributable directly to a COVID nineteen infection. Well, well,

why would that happen? Well has happened because COVID nineteen, in addition to making a whole lot of people very sick, has disrupted the usual provision of care for people with chronic conditions, and that's allowed them to decline and deteriorate

and in some cases die. The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention that I work with closely conducted a survey in March of twenty and found that an alarming percentage of people he said that even if they thought they were having a stroke or a heart attack, they would not go to a hospital because they were so afraid. Well, that, obviously is is a very dangerous proposition, and indeed we now know that many people did die as a consequence

of delay of care. We repeated a survey in December and found that there have been improvements and fewer people are saying that they would be quite as reluctant, but still one in four Americans say they're still so afraid of COVID nineteen they won't even see their regular doctor in a regular doctor's appointment, and if you look at respondents who are African American or Latino, that number jumps to So we clearly have a lot of work yet to do to convince Americans that it's safe to remain

engaged in routine healthcare, which we know is the key to surviving heart and basket or disease. Dr Garrett, One thing that I'm curious about is the financial strain that the COVID nineteen pandemic has had on healthcare systems. What are the changes that you've had to make at the Center for Heart and Vascular Health that the Christianity Care health System because of the different ways that you guys

are prioritizing care. Well, you know, of course, it was it was a very substantial financial blow for healthcare systems across America when the when the pandemic broke out, and that was in large measure because the United States health system had to respond what it saw happening in places like New York City, which became quickly overrun with COVID nineteen victims. In order to prepare for that in every community in America, then hospitals went about emptying out their hospitals.

They stopped doing usual work, no more hip replacements, no more elective persus. Is that the right thing to do at the time, Yes, I think at that moment it was absolutely the right thing to do, because no one knew what was coming, so we had to prepare for the worst case scenario, and we did. Now. Happily, most communities didn't suffer to the degree that New York City did, and we learned then through the spring and summer that indeed we didn't have to empty out all the beds.

We could continue to provide normal services, just to care for neighbors in our communities and deliver the care that they needed, while also taking care of all the COVID nineteen patients. So we've we've learned those lessons, and at Christianitic Care, like other health systems, we've now remodeled our care delivery plan to accommodate both a large number of COVID nineteen patients and also be able to sustain care delivery for patient patients in need of other services. So

how do you do that safely? Well, you know, it's actually not as hard as you might imagine. You've got to remember health care has been in the business of taking care of people around infectious diseases for hundreds of years. We know how to do this safely. Of course, when you have a brand new novel infectious agent like COVID nineteen breakthrough and you don't know how overwhelmed you might be, you pull out all the stops to prepare for the worst.

Is mentioned. But now we understand what the magnitude of the of the resurgence is likely to be for us in our community, and we of course understand what safeguards need to be in place to take care of COVID and non COVID patients. Not quite side by side, that's a bit of hyperbole, but in the same setting, in the same building, sometimes even on the same hospital floors, and we can do that safely, and we are doing

that safely. So there's obviously the health of your patients COVID and non COVID that you guys are certainly focused on at this point. There's also the health of you know, your institution. And Bloomberg has done so much reporting. Back in April we had stories about hospitals racing to secure big credit lifelines from Wall Street. And we're not talking

about two smaller institutions, but like New York Presbyterian Hospital. Financially, there's been some strains too because people aren't doing those you know, kind of routine procedures. How strained are you guys feel feeling financially? And I know you can't speak for the hospital overall, but you are director of your particular area and probably see a lot of what's happening

or not happening and the strains as a result. Sure, and I think it's fair to say that Heart and Basket Or services and healthcare system are an important component to the vitality of the organization. Uh And I will say that at the onset of this pandemic, we have christianit Care here. I emptied out every impatient bed that I had for heart vascular care in order to be ready to take care of an overwhelming pandemic. And it was the right thing to do. It came with financial consequences,

but we prepared, We were prepared to face that. Now, of course, we don't have to do that. And although one of four floors dedicated to Heart and Basket or Care is still fully dedicated to COVID care, currently one one of four Heart and BASKETAR floors and the service as a usual man. Not where we were last year, and certainly not where we would like to be. But we're more important even than the financial balance of this.

We want to be sure that we're providing the services that are needed by our community and and that we feel we were able to meet today. Um. Dr Garrett, have you I just want to end with this. We don't have much time. Have you taken the vaccine yet? Yes? I happily got my first shot about a week and a half ago, and I can't wait to get the next. All right, there it is. I can't wait either first, Yeah,

exactly right. Sooner, sooner, hope hopefully rather than later. Dr Kirk Garrett, thank you so much, Medical director of the Center for Heart and Vascular Health at the Christiana Care Health System. Joining us on the phone from Wilmington, Delaware. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. Well, this week's cover story is about the love affair between Elon Muskin China. So far, so good, and yet time we'd how longer term? Let's hear more though with Bloomberg

Business Week Features editor Max Chaffin. He's one of the editors on this story. He's on the phone, and Queen's along with Bloomberg Business. We getittor Joe Webber on the access line in Brooklyn. I should point out several reporters contributing to this story, including Hayes Fan who's a member of Bloomberg News is Beijing Bureau, who contributed before being detained by Chinese authorities in December. So we did want

to put that out there. Um, it's an important story, and I feel like that note in terms of our reporters just reminds us of kind of the love affair and the conflict that we kind of have with China constantly here, including potentially maybe Joel Ellen Musk and Tesla going forward. Yeah, and the story is a real repeating, a real reporting um feat and the story is ultimately about how Tesla um and trying to find themselves in

this little love affair. And UM hence why our cover line is China's favorite Capitalist and that refers to Elon Musk and China has really given Tesla just an amazing amount of autonomy that most Western companies don't enjoy um when they do business in China, and it's been rewarded um by being able to have this autonomy, and Tesla's behaved basically by by having its own Tesla, Chinese operation

basically become almost autonomous within UM within Tesla itself. UM. But you know what what this really comes down to is you know what's in it for China here? And bring Max in on that note. You know, one of the things that China has been able to accomplish here is to almost use Tesla as uh, you know, like almost like a whipping agent that it can kind of kick the rest of it's ev aspirations into ligne with Max. What what is is the in game? Um, both for

for Elon and for China. Do you think so? On the China side, Uh, there are there are a few things. So so one, as you said, uh, Chinese government is very committed to electric vehicles. So so that means that you know, there are a zillion sort of incentive for purchases of electric cars as well as sort of disincentives, taxes and that sort of thing on those who want to purchase um uh, you know, conventional vehicles, gas power vehicles. So so China's got this idea, you know, this is

part of it. The sort of grand plan is is to create this gigantic um electric car industry, and you know, from the sort of Chinese economic policy makeup point of view, having Tesla in the country, especially and especially having a test of factory in the country, and that's that's one of the ways in which they really helped Tesla, you know, is a boon to to China because um, you know, it's it's not just the factory, it's the supply chain.

So on one hand, like Tesla rings added competition, maybe that gives a sort of kick to the other Chinese electric fart makers, but it also creates this supply chain where you have the people who supply batteries and people whose supply breaks you know, uh, software whatever, like, all of that gets set into this this factory in China, and that helps the local economy. Um. You know. On the Tesla side, it's kind of the same thing, which is that this is a big uh, this is a

growth market. It's it's arguably, um, you know, the most important electric vehicle market. It's it's where right now at least you know, Tesla's growth is going to come from. And uh, what sort of makes this interesting is that you know, Elon Musk has been able It's a really underappreciated part of about Elon Musk is that he's he's

very good at politics. Um, you know, at a time when you know there's been this trade war, when when lots of other companies have have struggled with China, he's been able to kind of figure out a way to work it so that he's able to to open this factory, make Beijing happy, uh, and sort of do do a

lot of business. That The risk, of course, is that really at any time, you know that the scales could change and China could create additional restrictions or do all sorts of stuff that would make Tesla's life not so great. Could do other companies? Can other companies learn from what

Elon Musk has has done in China? How Elon Musk has been able to succeed in a place where so many American companies haven't been able to because they have to be so jealous Max, because it's been so hard for everybody else, and it's taken a long time to

kind of get any kind of foothold there. Yeah, I mean I think that you know, Tesla had certain things going for it that that Elon was able to take advantage of And I don't know that this is I'm not sure there's a sort of like a how to lesson here, to be honest, because um Joel kind of hinted at this, But having Elon Musk open a factory in China has not just economic value to UH, to Beijing, it has kind of propaganda value, you know, at a time when you know, when sort of American companies are

dealing with you know, lots of hostility. When when when there's this trade war going on with Trump, um Elon Musk is able to sort of figure that out right. He was able to ask for more than pretty much anyone could ask for, and he got something that no other car company had gotten, you know to date, which is trying to change the rules on sort of foreign ownership UH and and Tesla use that to allow to to have a hundred percent ownership of its of its

joint venture. So I don't think this is a case of of of must doing something that you know, other companies could could could emulate. It's it's more a case

of Musk having things that China wanted. Yeah, I think that's just to underscore that, you know, no other foreign company has ever been able to have UM that deal struck that Elon got that you know, instead of having a joint venture, which is usually you know, a Chinese owned company will have to have a stake in whatever that factory was, Ellen got something that the Chinese have never given anyone else, which is he got to own that that and with that came even more floods of

Chinese backing. So it really was, you know, a subsidized venture. And that is something that back to this point, I don't know if you can really have UM any more how to lessons than that. And it was because I think, to give you a number here, like at one point, China has had as many as five electric vehicle startups.

And when you bring in a car manufacturer like Tesla that has that Western appeal, it allows you to start having a switch to basically say we can like really bring our our e V domestic e V manufacturers into line. Here and Max, I guess that's the thing I just wanted to bring it back to you to as we wrap here, is you know, it does incentivize UM. China needs manufacturers to get their stuff together. So what what does that competition end up looking like? Potentially for Tesla

and Max just got about twenty five seconds. Yeah, so it's going to be tight. There are lots of companies there and um and they're making products that are are good and that are competitive and in some case cheaper than Tesla's. The thing is, you know, none of them have that Tesla luster. I mean, this is a brand like Apple and that you know is going to mean

a lot to consumers all over the world, including in China. Well, I love the last line in the story of Shanghai based consultant said Tesla got all of this because it was in China's interest for Tesla to have it. It's a great story. Deep deep, deep dive. Alright, guys, thank you so much. Joe Weber, editor of Bloomberg Business Week, Max Chafkin, one of the editors on this story, over Bloomberg Business Week, joining us on the phone. This is

Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. Headline crossing uh, US Senate Majority Leader at MS McConnell saying uh that he's he's telling the GPS no, no decision has been made on how he will vote. He actually put out a statement him. Yeah, his statement says, well, the press has been full of speculation. I have not made a final decision on how it will vote, and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they

are presented to the Senate. But Carol, I think it's notable that McConnell's not coming out right now and saying no, no, yeah, exactly. That's a big deal. It is a big deal. And we heard that from our own team to weighing in who covers the White House? Uh, this whole idea that you know, that's a big deal. That what we got from McConnell last night the New York Times reporting on it. It is a big deal as the House votes on impeachment at issue. Though ultimately Tim and you and I've

talked about this a lot. Are President Trump's actions and words, in particular those in the social media world. There's a company that tracks toxicity on social media. Mayhabib is the co founder and CEO of Writer. It's an AI and n LP, which I now know stands for neuro Linguistic Programming Company learned something every day. She joins us on

the phone in San Francisco, where the company's based. May so good to have you with Tim and myself just quickly briefly for our audience, exactly what you guys are doing on a regular basis. Good morning Carol. Um. It's

actually natural language processing the other n LP. But we are an AI writing assistant, so we help correct language and in addition to stylistic and grammar type corrections, UM, we will also correct on what we call healthy communication, and that's a lot of you know, uh, stripping out passive, aggressive language and toxic language, mainly for a a workplace use case. So if our company has got a website right and is doing things that, that's what you're that's

what you're going through. You're making sure that their message comes across in a non toxic way. Yes, in addition to emails, they may find their customers or chats in between colleagues. But we basically kind of pointed this very powerful technology at the Twitter stream to some interesting results. Yeah. And one thing that it's really fascinating about this is you've been analyzing tweets since the election this fall, including the tweets from President Trump, from President Obama, and from

President elect Joe Biden. And I was surprised to see UM that Obama's tweets even though they have been relatively muted, they've come out strongly against the events on Capitol Hill. You said that of his tweets last Friday were classified as toxic between compared to as a daily average of less than ten percent. I was surprised to see that because I don't I don't wouldn't think of the President

Obama's tweets as toxic. Explain, yeah, absolutely, I mean what we tried to build was a data set where UM, inflammatory language on both sides of a debate is flagged, and you know, aggressive posturing, aggressive language is what gets UH flagged. And uh, you know, President Obama was absolutely very forceful in his condemnation and that's what we picked up on UM. And uh, you know, even even if you compare it to the ways in which uh Biden

condemned UM, there was you know, different different words chosen. UM. Now, of course that makes sense politically, right. One is a former president, one is an incoming president UM for whom UM uniting both sides of the country is something that he's wanted to do. But and both are in stark contrast to the language that you know Trump is a regular. But I want to ask you about that. But what makes something toxic? Is it using caps? Is it using

exclamation points? What you know makes something toxic? It's absolutely all of the above, Carol, So are models taken to account? Punctuation addictions since taps UM? And then the actual words, so UM, you know, stolen if it is in all caps, riggs regardless of how you write it, fite regardless of how you write it. UM. And then things that are you know, verifiably UM, untrue UM you know, are also part of UM like a fly business toxic. So what do you find when you tracted our you know, tracked

what President Trump has put out there? So there were there were some interesting findings. The first overall, on January six, all of Twitter was quite toxic UM. So thirty two percent of all of twitter UM was contained inflammatory of all tweets contains inflammatory UM language. It was really interesting. Is Trump's contribution to that? I remember he had eighty eight million followers, and and beyond just kind of his

immediate reach, things were ample. Things that Trump tweeted were amplified by virtue of just the degree to which he gets liked in and retweeted UM, and so by by virtual Those eight million followers. What we found, um was language amplified by him, which includes you know, steal, the steal, the word fight, the word rigged, Um, we're actually president, and almost half of all toxic tweets on the six across the entire Twitter stream, um, which is which is

really astounding. I mean, you know, there are a lot of ways that people are looking at his band from Twitter and and uh, you know it's being called his d platform ization across all of tech. Um and the reckoning for a Silicon valley, and the first Amendment is is really just beginning right, Um, may just got about

thirty seconds. I mean, in general, I don't know if you guys have gone back the last few years, and I'm not trying to make this a President Trump thing, but in general, have we seen the level of toxic toxicity overall going up on social media? And my apologies, we do only have about twenty five seconds. Yes, it is definitely something that has been going up since the

beginning of time. UM, and the you know, the valley has definitely definitely has a role to play and bringing that all down well really really interesting to get this from you, so thank you so much for joining us. Mayabe co founder and CEO of Writer. It is an AI and l N l P, which I now know is natural linguistic programming, so natural language process. Give it up. I'm giving up when it comes to acronyms. Thanks so

much for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Download the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or at Bloomberg dot com, and be sure to check out our daily radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio. And be sure to watch us to on YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News