Government it was instrumental in helping to pass president george w. Bushs 80000000000. 00 package to combat aids in africa and hes now one of 16 leading out the experts calling on congress to fund billions of dollars in coke about team testing before it can safely reopen the country for bush its stormy and i say Senate Majority leader republican from tennessee and a host of the proud care so 2nd opinion rethinking American Health is bill frist he joins us from his art farm in virginia god its good to see you again good larry great to be with you appreciate the chance to have this conversation my pleasure tell me about this letter you and 16 other help that actual you want the government to do. Larry the letter went out last monday and went to the president of the United States and to the United States congress and it basically has 3 parts all of which center on the really critical failure that this country has had in the last month but also the opportunity that its all built around testing we have this enemy the us but right now a lot less you have a city you have dont know who has it and who doesnt but it does infect people even if they sometimes and so what this letter does it basically says testing testing testing at the federal government through our request youre sure it should step or make it the number one priority and it puts or takes a Contact Trace things if you test positive if you get in touch with 8 or 9 or 10 other people somebody needs to pick up the phone or identify them through technology to keep them isolated just stop the spread that this. Isnt too soon to reopen the economy now. I dont think so and i spend a lot of time im with there in nashville but are not going or in tennessee states it is on track to open in back next week and i think theres a balance were moving today from this Global Mitigation where you shut everything down and were making that transition in to that individual containment that local containment and its not a matter of looking at Public Health in lives saved versus opening the economy thats the false choice the real choice is how do we open this account of me with what we call affordable containment and that is to like an accord begin to go out open it up if the virus is unleashed at all to close it back then now and the time is right to do it now because people now are about 6 weeks into hunkering down without jobs people pressed into poverty people losing their mortgages and theres a very real cost in terms of debt in terms of quality of life in terms of morbidity of having people without jobs with unemployment going to at highs 30 percent higher than in any time since the Great Depression so now is the time to begin based on science careful attention to analytics and data because of the virus raises its head we are like a settlement quarter you have to slow things back now but now is the time to begin now not are everywhere so in some places the bars are still increasing needs to be measured in the bars increasing they should not open if you stay shut down if you see this coming. Yes sadly you and i have talks really for 30 years and before coming to the senate i was in medicine and did heart transplants every week and the enemy there was the virus the virus is smarter than us it moves faster than a this and the enemy there because i do a transplant i would give my patients medicines to push your mutant system down and the barristers would attack so for the last really 35 years ive been biting viruses i went to the senate and we took on the hiv aids virus in a bipartisan way with 3000000 people dying every year we went after it aggressively again bipartisan addressed it and now 20000000 people are alive so we can beat these viruses after we did that in 2003 and i worked with at that time with president bush i worked with the leadership on the other side of the aisle to work with tony felt like we are today we started looking at pandemics and in 2005 when in your opening you mentioned it i gave about 30 speeches around the country predicting a pandemic coming out of asia some time in 10 to 15 years and i did that and put a plan on the table at that point in time because its inevitable in even today 15 years from now were going to have another pandemic equal to the size of this one a less we act and there are things that we can do so im very hopeful we didnt act last time the last 15 years now is the time to act and have our federal government come together with the very best science so we can preempt these pandemics of the future and frankly bill how how are we doing hows a federal government doing. Well it. Really encouraged in certain ways in the discouraged we were late at the starting block and we could have if wed had our global surveillance intact if we had listened 15 years ago to the proposals that i and others put on the table we would have been able to identify this virus earlier the doubling time of this virus is just 3 days and so if you have 100. 00 cases out there today in 3 days itll be 200 and it just grows exponentially over time so number one i think the president has done very well the 1st point i always mention in my original plan from the from 2005 was communication and they president every day has been out there talking air and now were come to the negatives but i think thats very positive number 2 i think having the experts up there people like tony who has been adequate 30 years hes been the head of the allergy is to to the National Institute of allergy since 1984 and hes done a great job dr burks so i applaud the president having them up on the stage that the negative side of it i think is weve seen it recently with these hypothetical polls are put out the other conferences go on way too are people people are suffering and they are there and they are anxious and their lives are at stake and they dont need anybody on that stage putting hypothetical things out there that have not been proven and sometimes Dangerous Things and also the communications is minimal to a lot of our biggest failure thats the president our biggest failure has been this lack of testing the lack of impulses on testing the enemy is out there we know it grows exponentially if we dont slow it down we know what slows it down we know we cant tolerate a total shutdown of this country for a year until we have a back same. And so what we need to do is test test test on it who has it who does not the people who have it do this Contact Tracing quine team them and then we will beat this basques Mitch Mcconnell who now holds the post you once held some majority of you here publicly stated his reluctance for economically packages going directly to the states you agree with that. Well ive heard him say and i heard the press present it but i havent talked to him about it i didnt think the states are going to need direct shell unlike the federal government then weve spent 2 trillion dollars in the initial bill 3 weeks ago another half a trillion dollars last week and will probably think spend another trillion dollars i think as we do this is not stimulus money because the experiment cant be stimulative got is not open today quietly why did you leave the same but larry if you recall when i came into the senate i spent 20 years in medicine and health and healing and doing the heart transplants and i came to serve 12 years as an legislate or so coming in i basically said im going to take for 12 years im going to do my best to represent the people of tennessee i didnt know it and at that majority leader at the time but represent the people of this country and then after that 12 years go back home and live under the laws that that i pastor helped to past and then work as a private citizen and do the sort of things were doing now in trying to help policy makers of the future of love love the opportunity to serve and appreciate that and its such a great noble profession but i didnt want to do it forever do you miss it. You know i miss it but ive been able to do some extraordinary things because. When i was there as majority leader it was a lot of politics it was a lot of taking care of and working with 99 other United States senators and since i left ive been able to help Start Companies that address things like hospice and end of life and Palliative Health Care companies built around telemedicine and tele health and some of that still state in the United States senate would have loved it im sure but it would have the opportunity to contribute in ways that regular citizens and Business People in philanthropy. As an aside and you share with joe biden did you not at dead and if we were on the Foreign Relations committee as majority leader during the time that he chaired that committee. What do you think of him and what do you think of his chance. Joe had given an a plus to. Do you know him very well i know his wife very well for. Travel with his wife to africa and she wanted to learn more about africa when he was vice president. Respects for his intellect i owned a Great Respect im from the opposite party as you well know but joe would do well as president it will be interesting to see the election and as we all know elections in large part are determined by the economy and if you look over the last 110 years of 10 times that we have not had a recession the president who is up for reelection would be reelected and of the times in the last 110 years if theres been a recession 4 of those 5 times that president has lost reelection so it looks like were going to be in a recession we are going to be in a recession during this period of time and unemployment is going to higher than its been since the Great Depression because of this and demi so i think it will be. At least based on history or for president to be reelected and theres a good candidate across the aisle so you know i would say 5050 at this point but shit if you look back in history you would say the president has an uphill battle well take a break and come right back with former senator bill frist well talk about his party pass right after this. So small seems wrong all right old roles just dont call. Me all that yet to shape out these days comes to educate and in games from an equals betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. This is like a horse race horse like the marathon there are 200 horses. More than 200. 00 participants in this marathon and the question is which technique plays out to save most lives and companies because its a matter of saving both. Sort of the movie before. Me who we can birth. Mom. She said thats. Just going to get it. Youre definitely walking into words all in all we not go know what were walking until they cant see march straight you wish it was if you need Steve Ritchie little bit back hes. Not. Exactly. Who she is possible sensible so. Well go right to the problem checking were talking with bill 1st former u. S. Senate majority leader host of the park as a 2nd opinion rethinking American Health tell me about your part cash out of where you are now does it work. The pod cast is really interesting it larry and its really in the feel that youre in but it was clear to me after i left the United StatesSenate People are getting their information in different ways ive been on the speaking circuit talking health care and hope in the healing and transplants and the washington and then a year ago started about a cast which is on every week its called a 2nd opinion with bill frist you can get away every people get their pod cast and we spend 30 to 45 minutes once a week for the last year and we will over the next year talking to people with a very specific interest in the interest at the intersection of health and healing and medicine all the things that we talked about today in terms of help feeling and that intersection with policy issues and how policy can address them and the 3rd big component is innovation so we look at innovative thought creative thought of newer people starting businesses and so Something Like the pandemic which were talking a lot of bell will bring policymakers and like Lamar Alexander will bring in tom friedman former head of the c. D. C. Or Jeff Copeland former head of state he said he and it will be talking to Health Specialists in the scientists like marty berry from Johns Hopkins who you see a lot on the code barrister toby cause were oh who ran the Cleveland Clinic and then we bring in elevators to sort of people who are like making back scenes and look looking to make those any sense so its on every week a 2nd opinion podcast dot com you can go there and look at it as well what do you think few more questions what do you think of obamas Affordable Care act. Well i thought it was really interesting because when he was campaigning he was campaigning on the cost of health care because thats what really people care about and cared about time and then once he got into office he switched to the access if you will get you a huge issue in this country that 20 percent of people dont have care or maybe 30000000 people 1215 percent only care today they dont they get the care but they dont have the insurance but people care about cost the horrible care act is an access bill cover more people did not address cost some people say it a little bit it really didnt so it did a pretty good job out there and the uninsured went from 30000000 down to about 15000000 people but it cost as you know a lot of money and everybodys prices that they had a prick health care went up to get the 1st 1000000 people a horrible access to insurance its good in that part the fact it did not direct did not address cost at all couple but the fact that it was passed in a partisan way and there was no piece of legislation social legislation during my time as majority leader or when i was in the United States senate was passed in a participant way without any democrat votes so you put those 2 things together is why it is in the big picture his but there are some really good things and there are vulnerable populations who have access today that they did not have before. You miss doing medicine. Now youre getting close to my heart. The 1st time he. Approached him it was in 1087 and at that time never thought about going into politics and the show that you did was on the heart transplant patient and the the shortage of organ donors and that little 2 year old boy we talked about is now 32 years old and doing well through this miracle of transplantation so yes i miss the opportunity to be able to be a vehicle to bring in life very directly to the individuals. I cant go back to and i continue to a medical mission work for now 20 years after that and im not operating now but have huge respect for those people on the frontline today who are doing lifesaving work so that you and i can sit here and have this conversation is such a great gash and you come back soon i mean you are about to let it. Go you can as a guy but. Now your great quote of my all Time Favorites one thing i want to ask there are people who was thinking that a lot of people may have heart problems and other things are afraid of or a hospital course in a pandemic what do you say that the. 1st of all there youre right remember for the last 5 weeks hospitals of essentially been closed down except for emergencies no elective procedures doctors appointments not not cancel or canceled not people not even seeing their doctors except to tell a medicine which has been very you know what that means is that people because they dont want to get sick and part are staying home with chest pain and theyre having little minutes or to call and not being treated and having Heart Disease maybe even heart attacks at home so what i do want to say is that hospitals are back on line in tennessee elective surgery yans this week and people can come to hospitals they are safe places to come to now unlike 2 or 3 weeks ago theres enough of that protective equipment youll go to isolated wards you go to isolated doors so youll be very safe in going back to these hospitals today and i encourage you to do so because the doctors are there to get the Preventive Care and the nurses and the ancillary personnel and just because we have this virus it doesnt mean people stop having a heart attacks and asthma and respiratory and so they do need to get treated very important thank you bill a see again real soon. Thank you larry president trunk continues to say that he inherited a broken response system to pandemics from the Obama Administration dr bob cochair who served in that administration a special assistant to the president for health care and Economic Policy on the National EconomicCouncil Joins me for reaction oh what do you make of trumps taken on. The world health organization. I think there are various nation is doing its best to help the world and endemic and every country america is trying to figure out how to respond to temper 19 out of 5 nerves and how we can Work Together to make a vaccine does the w. H. O. Have a bias toward china. I dont think they have mastered that trade what do you make of the president s claim those previous administrations lead up to this. To get out to lunch on that idea. Our administration. Under the h one n one outbreak skillfully and created a vaccine that protected millions of people around the world we set up a paradise council in the white house that was working on pandemic preparation which they shut down. And so im not sure what is referred to or what one of we dont write. I think weve done a good job in america having to break their lead and aggressively move faster than other government to go shot down high risk activities at all go off to prepare and also to develop Testing Capacity california where im sitting several her hospitals actually have created really effective tests for her the 19 were manufacturing testing supplies reagents the Sample Collection kits we have built our own Distribution Systems to ramp up these efforts and many states are now. In much better positions but we failed that i think testing we should have been doing really a graph of testing earlier and the c. D. C. Should have used the past already validated from around the world to make sure it can bring this test america get going if we contain the impact and more skillfully we wouldnt have as much of the country thats shut down as much as it is we know that there was really. This here in america well before the initial reports and thats we now know that after the act because people. Cant you test negative one day and positive the next. Like anything in life the way you catch it is the victim to be able to fact it. Whats great about coming n. T. s think is that p. C. R. Test that we use actually term positive really quickly and so theyre quite good and sensitive it figuring out whos in fact it and give us good information about one wish that people say oh. I can the United States open safely sometime soon i think so i think we have all learned a lot about how we can take precautions to be safer in a world with this virus thats. The way i think about it is your risk of in fact it is proportional to the number of people pretty that you come into contact with so workers who have more contacts would have think about how to protect them and how we should test them to make sure that theyre also not spreading the disease but i think weve learned a lot now about how we can more safely reopen the economy based on the history of viruses should some our help. We dont really know or viruses are different and some barristers are seasonal we dont know yet and this virus will behave differently in the summer we can say in a lot of hot humid as theres lots of outbreaks of. But im not very confident that summer is going to make it better not to fall gee for dixon written in the fall do you. I think its unlikely that theyll be more infections in the fall or merely because the main thing we know is that this virus is a very in action and if youre around people with it youll probably catch it and the more we make the economy more like it was before with more people interacting with more other people the odds arent that it will begin to salary and when you do things to continue to suppress it was a worse Case Scenario for the summer. That state for a lack of their guidelines too soon and not have great testing in place and so you have brakes and a bunch of places where we havent seen covered before as people travel more widely if theyre infected they can bring that problem to wherever theyre growing and in the summer we travel a lot in america and so im worried that it will spread this disease and were going to tap in a place that will really take hold in a bunch of communities that far havent been affected so i gotta say we should keep stan all in the summer. I think we should give advice to people about how far to travel. It would be better for people to be closer to their homes and in the regions where they live from a containment of the virus perspective i think its not possible to stay home and agree we are today and so we should make some accommodations so people can enjoy more freedom and have the economy to be. Heard again will we attend sporting events this summer i dont think so i think it be very hard to create safe conditions and practice bases so you break my heart here know baseball. They might play baseball and idioms theyre doing that in taiwan and so i hope that there is baseball in that theres other activities entertain ourselves but if we watching them remotely. And it said bob thanks so much great having you with us. Thank you for having me and wish you good health. You too and thank you audience for joining me on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my Facebook Page or tweet me at kings things and dont forget to use the politicking hashtag and thats all for this edition of politicking. Join me everything on the alex salmond show and ill be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business im showbusiness ill see if that. Is your media a reflection of reality. In a world transformed. What will make you feel safe. Isolation community. Are you going the right way or are you being. Direct. What is true what is faith. In the world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. Or a maybe in the shallows. Youre sitting somewhere right. Yes let me see yes. I was on the floor some things in my bathroom you know trying praying. Yes its time for us to die worms i was having chilling fever i didnt have any sense of snakes or smell from the most young. Girls would you. Recently she was on the oldest you tube. That was simon is on the grounds of the research. I have heard and. Push myself to do for me in the 58 im going to. Go. Hes. Been murdered before. He can prove. That she said thats. Clear definitely walking into words all in all we no longer know what were walking into i had said on march 19th. Which is uniquely Steve Ritchie when a look at that. Who shakes but also whole sensible. They corona Virus Outbreak has changed the world no one can say for sure when it might end for now news bulletins look more like dispatches from the front lines some countries have run out of coffins and others to digging mass graves doctors and nurses are the heroes of the day so we approach some to ask how theyre coping with the outbreak and what to expect. Just a monolithic a very