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.