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 there's robot taliban back in the town president drunk has given himself an a plus for a sampling poll 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 that's 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 we're 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 of the safety and security of the american people and he's let us now he has come forward even just in the last week has said this maurice you should not be afraid and as a heart transplant surgeon as a cardiac surgeon out never tell a patient don't 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 doesn't have the impact. what did you make of only returned home from the hospital landing on the lawn there and then taking off the bat ask what you know. the in the big picture and i'll put my position a hat on i think it was good he went to the hospital i think he had a potentially deadly disease we don't know what the 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 was he pretty protects other people in the hospital and i think the grandstand thing in coming home 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 he's beat this virus but that's 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. well you know he. won a lot of things that he said and a lot of people don't agree with the things that he's put forward in terms of his campaign and initially but if you look at the progress that's been made in stripping back regulations make it easier to start a small business he's done well overall i think with manufacturing jobs he has projected this image of leadership and i say all that and i've been broadly

disappointed in the integrity in the trust in to what i want my children and my grandchildren to look up to as president of the united states and it really comes down to what 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 he's done a lot of positive things but this lack of integrity and directness with the american people when we're 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 don't want to get in what i'm voting for leiria at this point and i think the we do have a choice in this particular election going forward and i'm 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 house is now a call that hotspot is a surprise you. know sadly it doesn't 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 we're just starting where we didn't know if masks really were and we didn't 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. it's 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 don't 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 he's received including a call about cocktails and being viral drug things that the public isn't getting well to do issues of the equity issues of whether vulnerable people would have got metric lancers absolutely no because it was 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 that's almost equally exciting as to the vaccine itself the next a method zone which is a steroid is

a high high high dose of 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 of a d. and lack of good decision making. or when you have covert 19 how long a oh infected. you know we don't 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 you're no longer transmissible but again it's an individual thing it depends on the initial bara load and that's sort of a gross average so we don't 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.

it's 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 of dell has been staged by the president people so i don't want to be too hard on the doctors and nor do i think that we need to know every single finding that is out there so i'd give the doctors a b. plus or a solid b. plus as a physician i'd like to know more but you know there is a limit as to how much you should get out the american people what's the fine line between what a patient can tell a doctor to say can the president say don't say anything. you know you're absolutely you know having been implement laws and been in that position once you are there it is generally expected in that most personal information is going to be made public with this president we've seen a lot of withholding of information come back to his tax returns and he's been able to get away with it in this particular case i don't think that we need to know a lot more we know it's

a deadly disease we know he's in the middle of it we know he is still transmissible and and him but what it's infectious that other people can be infected we know he's gotten the extent of the very best therapy that's 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 we're at the end you asked about the 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 don't be afraid of it and that is the wrong message he has like every other person of viruses not know who they're 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 life saving. the white house reportedly is not doing extensive contact tracing for people who attended the white house celebration for the supreme court nominees of a good idea no it's crazy given what we know today and we know that contacts 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 it's not just one person infecting one person that's 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. well as a doctor this infection was a living dr you had a little nuts right. you know it did transmit 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 at the present 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 i'm petrified of them so i hate to see the leadership of our country come out and say don't be afraid don't worry about it we can all be ok. do you or your oreo get orders. but i worry about a 2nd but only because of the flu and the flu the common influenza and everybody to get a flu shot i've got mine just everybody is going to get your flu shot don't ask i should just go get it and i say that very seriously with the flu coming in is can be very confusing in terms of the symptoms themselves and people but we just hope that they'll 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 it once it's indoors is more dangerous it's more deadly if it's in a building that it's outside it we know that increasingly people could be spending

time inside in many states today are like 2 weeks ago we're seeing an increase in the incidence of this infection hope it doesn't continue and that's why it's all the more important to do the social distancing wearing masks get a flu shot what we know words. we'll be right back with bill frist the mall politicking right after this. was a pandemic no certainly no borders and just blocking 2 nationalities. has emerged we don't come with the we don't look like seeing the whole world needs to be. judged as comedy crisis with mr intensity times we can do better we should.

everyone is contributing each of our own way but we also know that this crisis will not go on forever the challenges created with the response has been massive so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we're in it together. there's a threshold at which. big tobacco realised what they were doing and that they continue to do it they continued to put more and more things into cigarettes that made them more addictive and made me want to smoke more of them in the point i'm trying to make is that social media in particular these artificially intelligent algorithms are doing the same thing.

that's. american citizen and he didn't want to talk that's. not an attack on the other. guy and. i wouldn't vote for a republican or trump i would vote for anyone who is not equal and has half a brain defeat. the feeling. that my 2nd wife. she can handle. she and i divorce because our trouble is what the president and i for it for him and she can't stand for. when the most important election. in our history. list of the months to go before the next presidential election is the atmosphere in the us now. what are the

highest priority programs will they vote they do next. just some of the questions we put in their. welcome back to politicking bill frist the former g.o.p. senator from tennessee who served as a senate majority leader from 2003 to 2007 heart and lung transplant surgeon and host of the podcast the 2nd opinion rethinking american healthy is in nashville tell me about your podcast larry we have been doing that but i guess you kind of inspired me 25 years ago in terms of the communication field and i tried to do a lot of your approach to trying to cut right. down to the heart of the matter the

bypass we do weekly it's on as you can imagine health and we target the health policy world with the medical world of medicine in coven and wellbeing and mental health with this 3rd sector of innovation and how we can solve problems so it's called a 2nd opinion and we've had huge success with it and we can cut right through the matter we address 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 it really involves our wellbeing our mental health and behavioral health so thank you you've been an inspiration and with that we look forward to another great. by the way is the title a 2nd opinion is a 2nd opinion always a good idea. you know it's a good idea but it's

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 that even 5 years ago that it's 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 it's getting a little bit easier so a 2nd opinion is not always necessary but for those complicated whether it's 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 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. him 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 don't wear a mask and we do same wear masks now that's 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 we've had in a medical maybe in an existential sense in any regard in my lifetime and to have

much of what's 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 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 it's 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 the anti science you know everything that i've 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 thing where but where out there people say science does not mean anything so it's 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 he's in intensivist in the sense that how is he is going to be a vocal at the republicans and that base of republicans on the intensivist also for

the democrats a base they just can't 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 we're something that we're not i think things will switch do that we go democratic for sure i think if republicans if 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 don't believe that we beat this virus it is going to be less likely that at

least president trump went and i think it's too early to tell it's too early to make predictions today we know all the popular polls we know what they've been in the past but i think it's going to be what happens the 2 or 3 days before the election if he stays on covert stays on health care or stays on women's 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 me or you voted for for president try i'm your president i'm going to listen to you and he's clearly reaching to the middle president trump i'm not sure he's going to do that i think he's going to say you know my baby. it is mainly white men not women biden's basis is you know more women in time in history and there are more women who looks like him to be voting for biden in a presidential race than ever the man is white man and therefore gonna go to appeal to this sort of strong sturdy leadership i got to show people that i'm strong on the economy yet we haven't 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 a russian 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 pepfar hiv aids globally things that we know of 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 don't see that is much shot i think for people such as myself who want to get the good out of both sides and bring them together stay principled it's a harder place to survive it's not that way for ever 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 will you 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 i'm 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. involved to the democrats but a sort of overwhelmingly by absentee balloting of people who vote in person are going to probably end up voting more republican than democrat in the course that means on election day if that's right and that sort of maybe hypothetical a little bit but that's what the posters tell me they're the day of the election it could well be that president trump is a had a few percentage points but it won't be until 2 and a half weeks afterwards that the final lesson is there will you have this huge wave

of democratic votes coming in and right now we are we have a council on an intellectual election integrities called a national council of election integrity that just this week went public and with that 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 that it's an important message and i would encourage the american people to to listen to adhered to because we're going to hear a lot through you know different people in out of washington that the elections are messy and dishonest and you can't trust them and that's 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 i've 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 we've 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 you're an extraordinary american do you remain optimistic. yet larry i am out to mistaken in a lot of people will just always say they're optimistic but i say in part through

the podcast my a 2nd opinion that they have i hear people who see these shuji ensure mountable problems and they see them and they're not visionaries but this area of innovation where we have this sort of technology alp they are the wisdom that's out there the smart it's out there that solving these big problems in ways that we just can't 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 of 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 can't help but but to be excited about the future we get have a very wild election day. and 2 weeks afterwards. i don't again people need to get out and vote vote are going to matter and the process we've got to be patient it's ok to be patient to get the final result bill thanks for your time

today always great talking with you you know thank you. you can listen to his podcast a 2nd opinion on apple podcast spotify 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 don't forget to use the politicking hash tag and that's all for this edition of politicking. with election day looming it's important to ask donald trump exchange the g.o.p. if at all is there such a thing as trump is just a politico established in a week and understand why it's the good in the 1st one just populism on the right but you. 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 has the lead up to the reality of it is we're not financially equality in the neck of the floatable housing living minimum wage give many people no choice. that's been a problem with the city knows turn around and told me stay away oh miss. the food if there is no answer because yes that requires resources the most vulnerable are abandoned on the streets to become the invisible cops. become a battleground in the us in vermont people are demanding the shutdown of the. local plant from my yankee is right now my focus because it's a very dangerous oh no clare power plant the owner is attempting to run the reactor

beyond its operational limit this case just sort of puts a magnifying glass on where's the power in this country where's it going is it moving more towards corporate interests or is it more in the idea of a traditional participatory democracy as are power lie with the people this case demonstrates that struggle in the very real ways our struggle on artie. a dog industry comes to life in los angeles every night. dozens of women sells their bodies on the streets many of them underage. los angeles police reveal a taste of their daily challenge no if you're going to exploit for a child here in los angeles all they were going to come out is a officers going undercover as 6 workers and customers to fight the 6 trade.

armenia and azerbaijan agreed to talks in moscow to stop the fighting in a corner cutting back following vladimir putin's quarter and hostilities their foreign ministers from the 2 warring parties are heading to the russian capital. killing destroys in the story cathedral meanwhile in the disputed region civilian losses are growing too with journalists also getting heads we talk to mothers whose sons are fighting on both sides of the front right. we all have kids serving i can show my emotions in church only i feel bad i haven't slept properly since september 27th as a soldier's mother and as a citizen of is there a john as i myself am on the front line on the french president of the arabic language taught in schools he says it's meant to clamp down.