Former Senate Majority leader and dr bill frist is our guest dumbass of public taking. The politicking and im larry king the white house what comes up then demick hotspots while the infected president tells americans not to let the 19 dominate them a candid one on one about the Deadly Health crisis and the president ial race how his it up ended with former Senate Majority leader bill frist like hes a heart and Lung Transplant surgeon and a host of the podcast a 2nd opinion he joins me from nashville stop right there how has this affected bill frist like. Well larry its affected me like every everybody else has changed my ways of communicating you know still been able to be very active ive had a son and a daughter in law with coded and thankfully they came through it well and their children had an infection as well nashville itself being a Big Hospitality town Service Industry town has been devastated things are slowly coming back but it will be probably 2nd quarter of next year before theres robot talented back in the town. President drunk has given himself an a plus for a sampling of polls show about 2 thirds of american disapprove of where you are. The president 1st our government i would give a big he in terms of responsiveness and thats not enter your question directly yet but i think in terms of response by Congress Stimulus packages in the past looking after Small Business getting money out the door the war effort to create a vaccine in the partnerships our government has done with the private sector with the pharmaceutical firms a very impressive but at the country has not done well with 4 percent of the population and 20 percent of the deaths in the world 210000 people a 1000000 have died in the the in the world were not doing well and then it goes back to the answer to question President Trump has not done well as commander in chief his sole purpose should be at this juncture the safety and security of the American People and hes let us now he has come forward even just in the last week has said this mary she should not be afraid and as a heart transplant surgeon as a cardiac surgeon never tell a patient dont be afraid of this virus it is deadly people need to respond and in the response you told people to do the wrong thing that mask are not important and that social distancing really doesnt have the impact. What did you make of only returned home from the hospital landing on the lawn there and then taking off the basque well you know. The in the big picture and ill put my position hat on i think it was good he went to the hospital i think he had a potentially deadly disease we dont know what hes right middle of it he is still infectious i think it was good he went to the hospital he was ok he came home from the hospital much the doctors had cleared him still infectious my expectation would be he has he pretty protects other people in the hospital and i think the grandstanding in coming. It was totally unnecessary and i think the American People are very disappointed is seeing that 5 minute pause with the cameras going where he he clearly wanted to project leadership in that hes beat this virus but thats not the right message now for the American People the people here in nashville to our own families i think is totally inappropriate what do you make of this president. What you know he. Won a lot of things that he said and a lot of people dont agree with the things that hes put forward in terms of his campaign an issue lee but if you look at the progress has been made in stripping back regulations make it easier to start a Small Business hes done well overall i think with manufacturing jobs he has projected this image of leadership and i say all that and ive been broadly disappointed in the integrity and the trust into what i want my children and my grandchildren to look up to as president of the United States and really comes down to whats been manifested with this virus which shows that he has been anti science that he puts hypothetical things out which have not been proven and because his voice is so loud it leads people in the wrong direction so hes done a lot of positive things but this lack of integrity and directness with the American People when were talking about their safety and security has been disappointing. While from all of that can i assume we have all been for joe biden. Well i dont want to get in what im voting for larry a at this point and i think the we do have a choice in this particular election Going Forward and im very hopeful the next 30 days the differences in policies will be articulated a new think that the election will be determined in large part by president trout and what he does over the next 30 days a lot of people will be voting for him because of President Trump and there are a lot of people most people will be voting who vote for biden not me maybe not most people but a lot will be voting against what he has projected as president states. White houses now a call that hotspot is a surprise you. Know sadly it doesnt only because every image that has been projected out of the most visited most respected house in the world that is the white house has been one of disrespect for what science has said this is not like were just starting where we didnt know if masks really were good we didnt know how transmissible but this is after a 1000000 people have lost their lives we have this science and yet even at the beginning of last week we saw people without masks no respect for social distancing with the commander in chief having huge rallies with tens of thousands of people together not respecting the science. Its sad i was very hopeful that the president would use this as a pivot point and now show the empathy of the 2 100000 people who died in this country the 1000000 people around the world that there are things that we can do now and if we dont do that or if we continue to follow his example will be hundreds of thousands more people who die. What about the treatments the treatment that hes received including a call about cocktails and being viral drug things that the public isnt getting well to do issues of the equity issues of whether Vulnerable People would have gotten that trip lancers absolutely no because it does the United States and doctors were very open because he was president he got everything of the treatments been very good the room disappear or the antibodies agree and again a fantastic therapy that will be hearing a lot more of a lot of these monoclonal antibodies will come forward in the next 3 months and i think thats almost equally exciting as to the vaccine itself the next a method zone which is a steroid is a high high high doses steroids and i bacuna 1st met me of 25 years ago i use those steroids in my transplant patients and they are very effective figure the science shows but they can also show disturbances in manifest side effects of disturbances of of impulse evictee and lack of good decision making. Or when you have covert 19 how long a oh infected you know we dont we say 2 weeks or some people say as long as 20 days and that science is really being worked out today but the you know the best data today now is it from the onset of symptoms within 2 weeks if youre no longer transmissible but again its an individual thing it depends on the initial bara load and thats sort of a gross average so we dont really know if you take a particular person but we know on average about 2 weeks. How do you rate the quality of information that we get from from stock is at the white house. Has been so mixed i do think some of the media has it has been nit picking it i mean these are record doctors are not trained communicators a lot of it is stage you can tell its been staged by the president s people so i dont want to be too hard on the doctors and nor do i think that we need to know every single finding that is d out there so id give the doctors a b. Plus or a solid b. Plus as a physician id like to know more but you know there is a limit as to how much you should get out the American People whats the fine line of a train what a patient can tell a doctor to say can the president say dont say anything. Oh yeah oh youre absolutely you know i havent been implement office and been in that position once you are there it is generally expected that most personal information is going to be made public with this president weve seen a lot of withholding of information come back to his tax returns and hes been able to get away with it in this particular case i dont think that we need to know a lot more we know its a deadly disease we know hes in the middle of it we know he is still transmissible and and him but what is infectious that other people could be infected we know hes gotten the extent of the very best therapy thats out there today his care needs to be continued he again is sort of right in the middle of it and it is not over. Us about the white house projection from the back lawn in the steps he wanted to project that it was that he has beat this virus and comes back to dont be afraid of it and that is the wrong message he has like every other person of viruses dont know who theyre attacking they will attack anybody anywhere in the world and no person is above this virus and and people need to know that so that they will wear their mask and take the appropriate precautions which we absolutely know are lifesaving. The white house reportedly is not. Doing extensive Contact Tracing for people who attended the white house celebration for the Supreme Court nominees and a good idea no its crazy given what we know today and we know that context racing is one of the most effective tools that we have in order to prevent the spread of disease and we have a locus that is in the white house with as many as 20 people in the president s inner circle having been infected and this is exponential its not just one person infecting one person thats the end of it one person can affect one person poppy people 1050 or 100 and when you start seeing that many hundreds of people through the white house who had this exposure to this this nucleus this this note of infection and not be able to trace it as they fly back across the country is inexcusable what as a doctor this infection was living dr you had a little nuts right. You know you admit i did transfer heart transplants and Lung Transplants for unknown to him years and with that the viruses were my enemy i would actually give people the sort of steroids of the president is on and the biggest concern is that a virus would come in and take them out so i have always been afraid of these viruses and i have been trained in terms of barley jian and immunosuppression pretty heavily at some pretty good places and im petrified of them so i hate to see the leadership of our country come out and say dont be afraid dont worry d about it we can all be ok. Do you or me or youll get orders. I worry about a 2nd bump only because of the flu and the flu the common influenza and everybody do get a flu shot ive got mine just everybody just cant get your flu shot dont ask i should just go get it and i say that very seriously with the flu coming in it can be very confusing in terms of the symptoms themselves and people but we just hope that theyll still quarantine but will people get flu shots will they get the appropriate testing more people will be staying indoors and we know that this virus once its indoors is more dangerous its more deadly if its in a building that its outside it we know that increasingly people could be spending time inside in many states today are like 2 weeks ago were seeing an increase in the incidence of this infection i hope it doesnt continue and thats why its all the more important to do the social distancing Wearing Masks get a flu shot what we know words. Will be right back with bill frist and more politicking right after this. There was a very nice offer from president putin that i could have said no thank you or i could have said thank you and i said ill take it and now its time to introduce light is not bestial. The old child of thank yous is very much for the. Name whatever you want to name i mean i dont know how when i come that the news thats dishonest telecom that every quarter or even the network thats totally dishonest c. N. N. Is says you know 100 percent negative i clearly theres a change faster. Changes so fast sometimes i say wow thats going to be a great story id be a pretty good reporter not as good as you. And well see what happens who knows who is a who knows what well see and a failure will be a success. Join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and ill be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business im show business ill see that. One back to the problem taking bill frist the former g. O. P. Senator from tennessee who served as a Senate Majority leader from 2003 the 2007 heart and Lung Transplant surgeon and host of the podcast a 2nd opinion rethinking american healthy as in nashville tell me about your podcast larry we have been doing that by gas you kind of inspired me 25 years ago in terms of the communication field and i try to do a lot of your approach to trying to cut right now into the heart of the matter the bike yes we do weekly its on as you can imagine health and we target the Health Policy world with the medical world of medicine in code and wellbeing and Mental Health with this 3rd sector of innovation and how we can solve problems so its called a 2nd opinion and weve had huge success with it and we can cut right through the matter we have addressed all sorts of issues we have government officials like the f. B. I. With us we have leadership in government we have some of the smartest innovators in terms of pharmacology pharmaceuticals starting businesses around Mental Health and Behavioral Health and then we come back to talk about health and well being that health is not just going to the hospital or getting a flu shot but d it really involves our wellbeing our Mental Health and health so thank you youve been an inspiration and with that we look forward to another great. By the way the title a 2nd opinion is a 2nd opinion always a good idea. You know its a good idea but its a great question we talk about in our pilot guest a lot because it today where there is so much information coming in probably a 100 fold information comes in every day now than even 5 years ago that its next to impossible for a single physician to keep all of it in their head today with artificial in teligent synagogue minute intelligence and the use of Digital Communications and archiving of information its getting a little bit easier so a 2nd opinion is not always necessary but for those complicated whether its a diagnosis or potential treatment or a pathological specimen i do how they recommend a 2nd opinion what do you make of this rejection of science on the part of many politicians and many in the public quite why would you reject science. You know larry the whole fake news has made it worse and. When i came to the United States senate an issue when i was there just for 12 years and. I was the only physician in the senate the last one had been there in 192865 years before. Even in washington d. C. Where it has gotten a little bit better you know there are a few more people doctors in the senate but for the most part in washington there is a lack of appreciation in the legislative branch of science this anti Science Movement is difficult to to explain but people will come back and say well initially said dont wear a mask and we do same way or mask now thats not a rejection of science of saying science is wrong this is a science it depends on the accumulation of data over time and the collection and analytics of that data are what makes science overall d so it has been aggravated again by the white house which has had a clear anti science approach to the Biggest Challenges that weve had in a medical maybe in an existential sense in any regard in my lifetime and to have much of whats coming out of the white house either be anti science or having actively tried to influence what places like the c. D. C. Are putting out in terms of guidelines which are is based on science has been disappointing i will say i know the c. D. C. Well i know the scientists there well have depended on their information for 30 years and for 20 solid years when i was practicing medicine and they are the best and in america to go far in the world and to go from this sort of Gold Standard down to this sort of you know people have a bad distrust of that its been very disappointing to me it can be reversed course the science is good it is there and ultimately i think it can it can come back out on top. How do you explain it to yourself. I can explain they have the science you know everything that ive done when we 1st figured out how to do heart transplants in heart Lung Transplants in the 1st cardiac surgery it was all all based on science when you look at pharmacology in the monoclonal antibodies in the vaccines it all is science that is built around blinded to double blinded controlled trials so the rejection of all these fundamentals that we know have worked that have saved millions of lives in the past is really not understandable to me today it is complicated by the whole fake news that you wear but wear out there people say science does not mean anything so its incumbent on the scientists not only to do good science but to develop good communication in promoting what is healthier and that is effective science which we know is life savings. Couple of political questions you think the republicans will lose when jollity in the senate. You know it it depends on what happens in the next 30 days much of this election is built around a President Trump and hes in intensivist in the sense that how is he is going to be a vocal at the republicans and that base of republicans and the intensivist also for the democrats who basically just cant stand what he may so a lot is going to depend over the next 30 days i think if if the elections stays on coded lack of trust coming out of government lack of integrity anti science. This bravado of it were something that were not i think things will switch then we go democratic for sure i think if republicans and it can effectively go where president trop is strong at least at boeing today and that is that he can handle the economy better than biden. That it will swing bridge public and that the republicans will keep the senate and present trouble when i will have to say over the last 2 and a half 3 weeks where every day the Trauma Campaign has had a misstep has stayed on coded have stayed with this argument the American People just dont believe that we beat this virus it is going to be less likely that at least President Trump went and i think its too early to tell is too early to make predictions today we know all the popular polls we know what theyve been in the past but i think its going to be what happens to 2 or 3 days before the election if he stays on covert stays on health care stays on womens issues one thing i will say is is the debate comes these debates come forward the it will be interesting to see i think if we look at where where joe biden has the last few days he says i would be the president of all americans whether he voted for mayor you voted for for president trying im your president im going to listen to you and hes clearly reaching to the middle President Trump im not sure hes going to do that i think hes going to say. You know my base is mainly white men not women bidens basis is you know more women in a time in history and there are more women who looks like him to be voting for biden in a president ial race than ever the man is white man and therefore got a got appeal to this sort of strong sturdy leadership i got to show people that im strong on the economy yet we havent seen that even in the last few days so it really depends on where this messaging goes over the next 30 days do you miss washington. You know it was much it was a little bit different when i was there a 1000000 we had our disagreements we had our partisanship but i will say when i was majority leader we passed the big legislation in a nonpartisan way if you look at things like far hiv aids globally things that we know have saved 20000000 lives over time that was bipartisan that we look at what we did in medicare to make prescription drugs for seniors people so that was sort of a democratic issue as an expansion of medicare but no republicans led on it with democrats and today you dont see that is much sun i think for people such as myself who want to get the good out of both sides and bring them together stay principled its a harder place to survive its not that way forever i hope i think believe so i missed the big policy i miss the the ways of changing the course of history to the benefit of people and raising them up and health and education certainly not missed the politics of it how youll be voting by mail how will you handle it. You know in our primary a voted by mail but i am going to be in town so im going to vote in person. You know i think it is interesting because in talking to the pollsters people who are absentee balloting. And voting before election day tend to be. Fall into the democrats by a sort of overwhelmingly by absentee balloting of people who vote in person are going to probably end up voting more republican than democrat and course that means on election day if thats right and thats sort of maybe hypothetical a little bit but thats what the posters tell me then the day of the election it could well be that President Trump is a had a few Percentage Points but it wont be until 2 and a half weeks afterwards that the final election as they are will you have this huge week of democratic votes coming in and right now we are we have a council on an intellectual election integrities called the National Council of Election Integrity that just this week went public and with it have 40 people sort of 20 democrats or any republicans all former elected officials cabinet secretaries just a great group of people and this Election Integrity is the thing that every vote counts that everybody should vote and that the system can be trusted today and i think thats an Important Message and i would encourage the American People to to listen to adhered to because were going to hear a lot through you know different people in out of washington that the elections are messy and dishonest and you cant trust them and thats just absolutely not true. To sylvia medico or go overseas now larry i did up until about 4 years ago so. Every year i would spend anywhere from a week to a month even though i was in the United States senate for those 12 years and in the 12 years since then going to some country either in africa or in latin america and doing surgery and taking a team down there in an ethical way that would continue and stay there and ive stopped doing it about 8 years ago but continue to support those efforts which i think is so important i think our our standing in the world again this is not where the white house is today our our National Security today our National Health depends on what the health is of our globe these viruses come from around the world weve got to be involved with the World Community i did it in my own little way before but what i do hope is that our government will increasingly stay involved through things like the World Health Organization and others that are out there today. Bill youre an extraordinary american do you remain optimistic. Yet larry i am out to mistaken in a lot of people will just always say theyre optimistic but i say in part through the podcast my a 2nd opinion that that i hear people who see these shuji ensure mountable problems and they see them and theyre not visionaries but this area of innovation where we have this sort of technology elp they are the wisdom thats out there the smart its out there that solving these big problems in ways that we just cant even imagine today and i see it in a see it in health care a lot of see the emerging technology the innovation not just in the science but in the way we deliver that care you think of tele medicine you think a tele health when even think of that before coated in now millions of people millions benefit every single day because of that Single Technology when you say that you cant help but but to be excited about the future we get have a very wild election day. And 2 weeks afterwards i dont worry again people need to get out and vote vote are going to matter and the process weve got to be patient its ok to be patient to get the final result bill thanks for your time today always great talking with you and i thank you or you can listen to his podcast a 2nd opinion on Apple PodcastSpotify Youtube or add 2nd opinion podcast dot com 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 hash tag about saw for this edition of politic and. Theres a threshold at which. Big tobacco realised what they were doing and that they continued to do it they continued to put more and more things into cigarettes that needed done more addictive and made me want to snuff more of them and the point im trying to make is that social media and in particular these artificially intelligent algorithms are doing the same thing. As the u. S. Economy was booming growing numbers of people were made homeless. You can work 40 hours d in a week and still not have enough to get housing everybody believes america still is the land of opportunity the reality of it is the were not financial ecology and the lack of Affordable Housing for a living minimum wage gave many people no choice. Just been a problem with the city knows turn limits and told me stay away almost. 2 sins of the food the food is lawyers because yes that requires resources the most vulnerable are abandoned on the streets to become invisible cops. Show seemed wrong why dont we all just all. The world get to shape our disdain comes to educate and in detroit because the trail. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. Headlines this friday morning show in ruins in the storage cathedral in civilian losses are growing too with journalists. And we talk to mothers whose sons are fighting on both sides of the front. We all have kids serving my emotions in church only i feel bad i havent slept properly since september 27th as the soldiers mother and as a citizen i was there is a myself and on the front line on the diplomatic front moscow stepping in. And to hold still a tease between the media and i suppose offering to mediate talks to help stop the fighting. In berlin scott