Economic Club of Minnesota “Our Economy and Health in Crisis”

I was able to attend the Economic Club of Minnesota’s webinar today on “Our Economy and Health in Crisis”. My brother-in-law Hector Fernandez pointed me to some of their earlier events. It was moderated by Margaret Brennan of Face the Nation, and Neel Kashkari, CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota were the two panelists. I recommend watching.

Their perspective was sobering.

  • Real unemployment more like 25%.
  • 2nd inning of a 9 inning game.
  • 5-15% have had today. Need 60-70% for herd immunity.
  • Consider pain and damage to get to 5-15%. But is this really linear? Doesn’t seem like it should be.
  • Vaccine will also have to be weighed with potential side affects and what duration will it be.
  • Childcare recommended by fall? Don’t have the info to know if that will be prudent or not.
  • Critical question: what is our comfort level with these risks? Cannot shutdown everything, but cannot be unmitigated spread. Variable, not binary.

I didn’t take thorough notes throughout. I became pretty absorbed with the content itself.

We made the jump to an electric lawn mover tonight. We bought the 21" Self-Propelled EGO Power+ from Home Depot. Initial impression is amazing. Much lighter, powerful, easy to use, pretty quiet. Won’t miss pulling on that cord to get it started!

EGO Power+ 21-inch self-propelled battery-powered lawn mower on a brick paver surface, with green-lit 56V battery installed on top.

Nice spin session on Peloton this morning, 30-min Rock & Roll class with Emma Lovewell! Geeky fun looking at the mPaceline graphs. #FitByFifty

mPaceLine heart rate zone graph for a 30-min Peloton rock ride showing 619 cal, 321 kJ output, 179W avg, 145 avg HR, 164 max HR Peloton workout summary for a 30-min Rock Ride showing heart rate zones, 619 calories burned, 321 kJ output, 179W avg, 82 rpm avg cadence.

All data that I have read points to this pandemic lasting for a long time.

“The World Health Organisation warned that it might take five years to bring covid-19 under control and that the virus may never be fully eliminated. It could become endemic, albeit manageable, in the way that, eg, HIV is. Meanwhile an eagerly awaited study suggested that only 5% of 2m people tested in Spain have been infected; nowhere near herd immunity.” — Economist Espresso for May 14th, 2020

Great Season 40 of Survivor “Winners at War”. I wanted Natalie to win though. Tony played a strong game, but Natalie did something nearly impossible!

“The average number of passengers on a commercial flight within the U.S. right now: just 23. Every day, the airline industry is losing almost $400 million.” — NY Times Monday Briefing

Just upgraded one of my Pi-Hole servers to v5.0! All went completely smooth. The new group filtering is interesting. I may put all my Apple TV’s in a group and restrict the DNS dramatically for example. Maybe block all for some Smart Home stuff and only whitelist what it needs.

Lake & Irving is one of our favorite restaurants and they re-opened last week with a limited takeout menu. They have a great setup for getting it to your car and is completely contactless. The Cheeseburger is so delicious! 🍔

Brown paper takeout bag with receipt attached sitting on a round table outside Lake and Irving restaurant

Family was craving for some Pavarotti ice cream tonight so Tyler and I made a stop at Sebastian Joe’s! Cold day but they were doing a steady curbside pickup business.

Happy Mother’s Day to my amazing wife Tammy! She is the center of our family. 💕 Our very first pandemic Mother’s Day! 🤠