Surveillance: Virus Response With Mayor Gimenez

and you have the experience of Little Havanna. Carlos Amanez joins us right now, the mayor of Miami Dade County, Mr Mayor, wonderful to have you with us. I need an immediate update from your little Havana down to the south across all of your county. Give us a virus update. On this Tuesday, we have a Paul activity rate depending on who you look at around we have about people in the in the hospital right now, about five hundred people and are in ic u s and about three

hundred people are on ventilators. That's you know, the highs that we've had here. But the good news, the good news if you can set there news year is that it looks like the rate of increase has decreased, and so hopefully we're reaching the hotel. So that's that's what's going on in Miami Day County right now, Mr Mayor, and our discussions on Bloomberg surveillance this morning. It is a Washington going from lunch to another meeting to another

meeting with the presumed idea of getting to August. How urgent is for you for you to see a stimulus package now from Washington, I think, well, I know that we need a stimulus package because I know that there's a bunch of restaurants or a bunch of businesses that may not come back right now. What we have closed are but wing alleys and casinos and places of assembly.

They're closed. We have a trying to attack clock purfew are the interior spaces of restaurants or clothes or dining rooms bars have never opened since the beginning of the pandemic. So those kinds of businesses really need a lot of help. So h yeah, an economic package to help those are unemployed get through this and business owners to come back, uh and open their business once they're allowed to open,

is I think very important. Mary human as your position is a nonpartisan one, but you've self identified as a Republican and as a Republican, how do you feel about the response to the virus, both nationally by President Trump as well as more locally with Governor Rhonda Santis. I have no problem with them. We get we get the resources that we need here uh in Miami day the

governor has been excellent with us. Actually, we've asked for additional medical personnel to help staff and supplant some of our medical personnel that have actually gotten sick of the virus to keep it open, to expand our capacity. We've been able to do that. He's allowed us to have a certain level of autonomy down here because things are a little bit different in Southeast Florida than they are

in the rest of the state. So I have no problem with what the governor is has done and so like it's just this was it got out of hand. We had it under control, and then sometime in June, young people started doing what young people do, I guess, and they went out and started the party and gotten together and UH and people and families got together. It's

a little bit different down here. Families are here, the core family is here and so we get together a lot more often, and then it started this the spread. We can I think we can get this under control. And like I said, I think it's plateauing and uh, you know, and it's up to it. Really, it's up to the individual person us. You know, this, this this pandemic is about us, okay, and the actions that we take, as you know, as Americans and a citizens, Mr. Mayor,

without a doubt it personal responsibility, without a doubt. It has to do with social distancing and mask wearing. But that said, the virus has no borders. How important is there for to be some sort of nationally coordinated effort to prevent the virus from simply migrating from one state to another as families want to get together. Well, the problem is is you know, it's it's that's easier said than done, number one, all right, and uh and two we uh you know, we've even closed our our hotels.

Even though our hotels are open now, we're not getting too many people from outside our Our airport is down about one tenth of its normal activity. And so it's not this cross contamination of people coming into Miami, Dad. Uh, it's it was here, and then once the social activity started, it's a highly contagious, you know, disease. And so all of the South, you know, the southern portion of the United States is getting enough techniqually because we're we're reversed.

I mean, in the North, you're you're indoors in the winter and you're outdoors in the summer. In the South, because it's hot, you're outdoors of the winter and you're indoors in the summer, And so I think that that's has something to do with it too. So, Mr Mayor, the childhood of your little Havana, I'm going to guess nobody there cared about the payroll tax uh program the

president is talking about. Now, can you support your president wanting a payroll tax policy in this next stimulus I'm sorry, I'm look, I don't I haven't heard that, So I can't really give you a good opinion on one way or the other what the plans are. I know that the people here in Miami Dade they need help, especially those that are unemployed. Are restaurant industry, bar industry, nightclub industry.

They're all been hard hit because they're closed. So those folks that are now unemployed and needs some money in their pocket. And those business owners need some kind of a help to get them back. And we were able to open to get them back and get employ those people and then get back to a normal and the fast we get back to that normal of the better

will be. And yeah, you need, you need, Mr Mayor, thank you for your straight talk, Lisa John and I look forward to bringing Bloomberg surveillance to Miami Dade County. We're thinking the second week in March. Carlos Amenace with the Miami Dade County of course their mayor right now on the virus, I want to do something different. We love.

We talked to a lot of fancy people at Johns Hopkins, Dr Hotels, Donna Baylor, and of course we talked to Deborah Fuller of microbiology at the acclaimed University of Washington School of Medicine. I can't say enough about her accolades. Dr Fuller. I want to talk about the guys in the trenches, the people working for you, and I want to focus on Jesse Erasmus, who's one of these people where we're all going yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, And someone like Jesse Erasmus is the doing of finding a vaccine

in your case with primates. What does Mr Erasmus do every day? Yeah? Dr Rasmus is a post doctoral scholar in my laboratory and he's he's really a superstar. He actually just joined my laboratory in January, and that's you know, when the sequence for stars covie to the virus that causes COVID nineteen was published and he messaged me, I think it was in the middle of the night sometimes, hey,

you know, can we make this vaccine? You know, because our laboratory works on RNA and DNA vaccines and which only really require the sequence of the virus to make. And I'm like, well sure, so I mean within a week he had a you know, a series of vaccines designed and was already immunizing animals with him within three weeks. So yeah, so he he's the superstar. Well he's been there in the every day. Yeah, he is a superstar. Like on the top I'm hotspurs in England. I get that.

But Deborah Fuller or Jesse Erasmus, what would you say to the president today is he starts his virus press conference, You guys are the doing of it. What do you

say to any given politician. Yeah, I don't really get so much into into politics, I guess, but in that regard, but certainly I think that, you know, we really need to continue to uh to address this pandemic, and just in the court obviously the research behind it, not just for for vaccines, which obviously is going to be critical for for shutting down the pandemic, but you know, also to follow the science in terms of how the virus is transmitted and what we can do to to reduce

that transmission and to control and until you know, we have a vaccine, UM, we're going to all have to work together as a public uh to wear masks to uh, you know, follow the guidelines of the health care professionals and scientists as to how best control of this. Dr Fuller, when will we get a vaccine that can actually be

widely enough distributed to put an end to the pandemic. Yeah, you know, the last few weeks in terms of vaccine research has been really uh you know, you're really groundbreaking.

There are four uh manuscripts published in the last uh four weeks on clinical trial results from uh, you know, from Fiser, from mcderna, from buy in Tech, um number of different companies including the Oxford University with in coverage with Astra Zeneca and another group out in China, and all of the data are indicating positive results in those

first initial UH clinical trials phase one. In phase two that they're getting uh you know, uh serial conversion antibody responses in these UH subjects as well as testyle responses, and all of the data has supported them continuing forward into the next phase of their clinical rouse And this is really critical because this is you know, the steps that you have to take before you can bring a vaccine into the market. You have to confirm that they're safe.

We have to confirm that they're effective in initial clinical trials. And so all of these groups met their endpoints are benchmarks to be able to move on to the next step. And so the trajectory right now is like prediction is like early one late even you know, some people are projecting even uh you know late you know, right before one, that maybe they'll have some of the initial vaccines uh seven hundred millions of doses going into into into the public.

So but you know, it means to be seen. There's always potentially some other hiccup. They still have some additional phases to pass before we can bring in uh, you know, out to the public. We'll talk. Let's talk about what we need still need to learn as we investigate and research this particular virus. Do we have a firm handle on how the immune system responds to this virus and why this particular one as unique. Yeah, we don't have

a firm hand on that. One of the couple of things that we're learning are two important aspects with regard to vaccine development. And one is that in uh, you know, convalescent patients, we're seeing in a more rapid waning of antibody responses uh than we had hoped for, you know, and that means that possibly the the just getting infected itself may not build up immunity, might need to have uh you know, even if you were infected before, I

still have to get the vaccine um. From the perspective vaccine side, we don't know whether the vaccines are going to do better than that. We try to make vaccines do better than nature. But so you know, in most of all of these clinical trials to date have not followed uh, the immune response long enough to know whether or not the vaccine is going to be able to

do better than that. A second piece is really exciting, actually, I think, is that there's data emerging that another type of immune response, stellular immunity T cells that can act you see and eliminate infected cells from the body are because they're fighting. That's correlating their associated with better recovery. And people who have become infected with COVID nineteen, if they had better T cell responses, they can have less

disease and recover more quickly. And that means that's the kind of immune response that we're likely going to want to Also have our vaccines induce both T cells as well as antibody, and both those types of immune responses may be able to work together to to provide a more effective protection to Those two final points are absolutely critical and we look forward to counting on the conversation

with you. Thank you for joining us today. Full of that University of Washington School of Medicine, micro Biology professor. Part of this is about academics. He is from one of our most esteemed families, three generation of public service and academics. Is grandfather at the acclaimed Middlesex School outside Boston. His father our ambassador to Sri Lanka and now he serves a nation as a senator from Maryland. Christ Van Holland, the Democrat, joins us right now, Chris, this is gonna

be really interesting. And to me, it's almost cultural warfare and economics. Miss Shelton has her own qualifications and many say they simply don't fit the job. Where is she deficient? Well, I think she's primarily deficient in two areas. One is her economic theory, which is way outside the mainstream, which is great for private conversation and writing columns. But we're talking about the Federal Reserve, the machinery of the US

economy at least a big part of it. And so when she talks about you know, going back to the you know, gold standard, when she talks about anything's rid of things like federal deposit insurance. Uh, these are things that are pretty scary. The other piece to this is if you look at her statements over a period of time, at least over the last ten to fifteen years, the only pattern is a political one. She criticized for Nankee and yelling for the measures they took at the Federal Reserve.

She was very opposed to lower interest rates. But now that President Trump has been calling for lower interest rates, all of a sudden, Uh, there she is, uh, you know, calling for the same. So at the Federal Reserve, we really want independence. And I think what we're getting here is somebody who's more political than anybody we've seen, at least in my time on the Federal Reserve. So sentence, it's not the more important dimension here, is not the

canidar of the candidate. It's eros eroding the perception of central bank independence. Well, that is a big part of it, and that's why you had republic con senators also opposing the nomination. Apparently something has changed in the last couple

of months. I don't know if the White House brought political pressure to bear or what, but the reality is, if you go back and look at the statements of my Republican Senate colleagues, they expressed exactly the same concerns um and so this is a very worrisome development because we don't want someone at the Fed who is a political rubber stamp for for anybody, in this case the president. Senator.

You could argue that there already has been a blurring of the line between the federals, or between monetary and fiscal policy and an attempt to combat the effects of the coronavirus. I know that there is a Congressional commission questioning the use of federal funding to buy corporate bonds by the Federal Reserve. How concerned are you about that being a precedent going forward given some of the plans

that have been implemented this year. Well, the the issue with the FEDS actions when it comes to corporate bond purchases really goes to the gray line between what is their authority and not their authority. I think the FED has overall done a good job during this period of time.

I think there are legitimate questions to be asked regarding their purchase of junk bonds UH and especially the question about whether or not they're purchasing bonds from companies that were already in trouble and very over leverage before the coronavirus hit. What we need to be focused on is is really helping companies that have been hard hit because the coronavirus, not that not those that you know took took risks and we're already in trouble before the coronavirus hit.

So that's kind of at the intersection of fiscal and Fed policy, and it's really goes to the question of what the Fed's mandate is. But again, I think if you listen to Power when he comes before the Senate, he's very careful not to wade too deeply into fiscal policy. And you know the FED continues to obviously that have jurisdiction over monetary policy. Well, Senate to let's talk about

fiscal policy. At the moment, there's a two trillion dollar spread between what Republicans are looking for and what House Democrats have asked for and a bill that they've already passed. I just wanted to have that narrows in the coming weeks. Of course, the negotiation begins, and when you start a negotiation, you start with your boundaries and your red lines. What's your Senator, Well, look, I'm I'm supporting the Heroes Act.

This is the bill that passed the House weeks ago now, and you know, now we're coming down to the um last couple of weeks before things like the unemployment insurance run out, the enhanced benefit. Uh, so you know, my my view is we've got to find a way to come together. I think the House bill is exactly the right starting point. We haven't even heard from Senator McConnell and the White House in other than a few press statements.

So hopefully today and tomorrow we'll be able to get a lot more definition as to what they want to do. I looked a senator at this fiscal debate, and it's an overlay upon over I want you to explain, as a reasonable guy from Maryland, how the nation absorbs a four and on its way to five trillion dollar deficit? Scoop Jackson, Hubert Humphrey would be appalled. Christ LBJ would be appalled. How how did democrats adapt and adjust to

the deficit that is to come? Well in this case, Uh, you know that the challenge we faces if doing nothing um and allowing the economy to say totally of course also has a huge negative deficit impact. Right, So in this case, we're spending money to try and keep afloat and so there's no doubt that this is going to add trillions to our our our deficit. I've been one of those, I've been one of those who have argued that we need to be uh you know, prudent here

when it comes to deficits. I think we're gonna have to look at a variety of things. As you know that the two trillion dollar addition to the deficit from the Trump tax cut just put us further in the hole. That's that's not my number, that's the Congressional Budget Office number over ten years. Uh So, look, we're gonna have to We're gonna have to figure this out going forward. But uh, probably the worst thing for the deficit at this point would be for the economy to be even

harder hit. You know. I look at the past here, Senator, and I think of Pep Buchanon, Richard Nixon, and of course of Maryland, and a gentleman by the name of Agnew. I'm assuming Mr Agnew never had lunch with your father. But what he did is identify the silent majority. How does your candidate, your guy win the silent majority? This time around? The president assumes he owns it. Look, I think Joe Biden has a reputation and a career for

really listening to working men and women. Uh, and his policies, uh, you know come from that that center of his of his character, and I believe that at the end of the day, most Americans, they want that sense of opportunity they want a sense that everybody in America can make it. Uh. And they also want a sense of decency. I mean, they want a president who you know that they can they don't have to hide the kids every time the president makes a statement. And I do believe that the

silent majority UM also believe believes that. And I think when it comes right down to it, people are going to go into that voting booth, uh, and they're going to look at the economic platforms of the candidates, and I think, you know, Biden will do very well there. But I also think they're gonna use a measuring stick of common decency. Senator, what kind of character do we

want in the White House? Senator? When people go into that voting booth, are they going to be voting for higher taxes when it comes to a former Vice President Biden given the fact this latest proposals do include levying higher fees particularly unwealthier individuals, well when it comes to very high income individuals. Yes, I mean we just we're talking about issues of the deficit as well as issues

of investment in opportunity like education, including early education. Uh. And yes, what what Vice President Biden has talked about is the folks at the very top can contribute more. They got a tax cut under Donald Trump. That really that that wasn't something that was needed for the economy. Uh. And now we need to make important investments. And so, yes, the Vice President has called for a reversal of the

tax cuts for folks at the very top. I think that that position is supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people. Said, it's a one final question for you, and I know it's something passionate about. It's China and

the Chinese Communist Party. How difficult is it going to be for the former Vice president Joe Biden's convinced the electorate that he can't influence the behavior of Beijing after being in a government for eight years with President Obama and feigning to do so well as as you know, when it came to issues of standing up to China and human rights and those important issues standing up for the principles we believe in. Uh. In fact, the Obama

Biden administration was much stronger than the Trump administration. I mean, we've got a president right now. We know from John Bolton's book who essentially praised President Jee's approach to the leaders. Um, we know when he was a private citizen. President Trump actually was. He was envious of the ability of the government of China to crackdown in Tianamen Square. This is a president who did not want to stand up to

China when it came to Hong Kong human rights. That the Trump administration opposed the bill that centered to me and I had right to the very end. It was only because there was an overwhelming bipartisan veto proof majority. Present signed that bill the other day. So I would put the Joe Biden record up against Donald Trump when it comes to standing up to China any day of the week. Senator, what I'd love to do is carry on this conversation on China with you, in particular in

the coming ways. We'd love to get you back on Senator Chris van Holland there of Maryland. This is the day after European Union leaders agreed on this unprecedented stimulus package with seven dred and fifty billion euros. Well, we are delighted to be joined now by Paolo Gentiloni. He's the EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, and he's been keeping us abreast of a lot of these situations throughout the last couple of weeks and Commissioner, you were

always optimistic that a deal would be reached. Is it the right deal or is this deal enough? It is the right deal and it showed that yes we have divisions, but Europe is stronger than our divisions. Uh So, something unprecedented will happen in the next UM two or three years the European Commission. We will raise hundreds of billions of euros in the markets and distribute them in grants and loans to member states. And this is really something

changing the perspective of our solidarity in the Union. UM Commissioner one world countries actually see disbursements from the fund. Well, countries that will reach the higher level of disbursement will be the more affected countries, and the timing will be next year. UM. We need time for final approvement from National Parliament, and we need time to raise in the markets this amount of money, and we need time to have plans from member states that should be coordinated and

towards our strategic priorities. We can't spend this huge amount of money without having a more competitive and more sustainable European economy. The Recovery Fund will be financed by seven and fifty billion years in joint the issued bonds. Is this the first step towards a safe euro asset? Uh, well, it is not the decision that was taken today, honestly, UM. Indeed, today several member state stress the fact that this is really extraordinary and it is linked to the emergency that

we are facing. And I think we have to to stay to this decision. Then in the future, I think that if this solidarity will work and if we will have good results from risk common issuing in the markets, I think this will be an experience to be used also from the Union in the future. But it is not the decision we are taking today, UM Commissioner. I understand there's a lot of cost for celebration and Europiles are happy that the continents staying together and that it

came to an agreement. But are you concerned that more than fifty billion euros will be paid out to fiscal hawks in budget robates in order to get them to sign this agreement? Oh well, I could. I could not remember how many compromises where necessary in these four or five days to reach the agreement. So you are mentioning one of them, and rightly so. The one on the so called rebates. Unfortunately, we had also cuts to the

multi annual financial budget UM. But all in all, I think that six months ago the very idea of the European Commission managing a financial tool of seven fifty billion, which is adding to another one that is called sure that is one billion euros and distributing this amount of money to member state would have been considered completely crazy. So yes, we had compromises to reach the deal, but the deal is really extraordinary, so the compromises were worth it.

I know. They were also compromises on, for example, the in sent for climate change, the rule of law linkage to the new budget, it was abandoned. Is there any chance that the Parliament is actually not happy with this deal? Uh? Well, I think that discussion with the Parliament will be essential because the parliament criticism is in several of these compromises fully justified. UM. But also I think we need the

support of the Parliament to go forward. As far as the investment are concerned, yes, we have cuts in some investment programs, but at the same time huge part of the UH this enormous amount of common money will be targeted for investments. So all in all investment will grow, and especially in test Man for the Green Deal and

the digital transition. So as we go through the numbers, I think that the fiscal transfer will be of about zero point seven or zero point five percent of GDP, but below one percent of GDP in terms of fiscal transfers. Do you think will be enough overall to deal with with the kind of crisis that we're facing. Oh? Well, until now we had four percent of GDP UH in expenditures from the Member States UM and even twenty five of GDP in guarantees and liquidity measures from Member States UH.

This is something completely different and new because it is common money addressed to UH countries and realities in deeper difficulty, and common money to support our strategic priorities. So the commitment of member states and the European commitment are combining themselves to have I think a strong recovery. So this percentage of common initiative is adding up to a strong

member state initiative. But it is absolutely crucial to avoid differences among different parts of Europe more or less affected by the pandemic. Commission, do you think that this fund will actually deactivate some of the euro skepticism that we've seen in certain European countries. UM. I do think so, because the message of this initiative is that UM, in front of this pandemic crisis, you can't have winners and losers,

and you should react as a community. And this is also a message of Europe protecting its citizens and it is absolutely what is needed to UM weaken the euro skepticism and the nationalistic positions in member states. Mr Paulo Gentiloni, thank you so much, as always for giving us a little bit of your time on Bloomberg TV. He's the you Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs. After this landmark deal that was reached by European Union leaders, thanks for

listening to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast. Subscribe and listen to interviews on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm on Twitter at Tom Keane before the podcast. You can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio.