Category Archives: COVID19

06/16/21

The Return to Eating Out

COVID knocked the snot out of the restaurant business and folks have been holding their breath to see the pace at which the industry returns now that places like Texas are fully open. I have some good news:

 1. Texas is seeing some “make up” or “revenge” dining out with the rate of Yelp related reservations showing a 2X increase versus pre-COVID.

This is a stock photo. Notice the watermark. I stole it from the Internet. It is owned by Depositphotos. Please do not report me.

That is so high it is hard to believe, but call a restaurant in Austin and good luck getting a reservation.

 2. California is reporting a full recovery to pre-COVID rates of eating out. Again, my source is a report from Yelp.

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12/22/20

Exclusive Interview Nancy Pelosi II

We were minding our own business when a call came in: “Standby, Big Red Car, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the one and only Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, would like a word with you. Let me warn you, she’s drunk with victory.”

In the background, I could hear the woman who called me saying, “Your Highness, I have that annoying Big Red Car for you.”

“Hello, Madame Speaker, what an unexpected pleasure,” I said.

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12/14/20

The Nightmare Recedes

As I write, Americans are being vaccinated against the COVID19 virus within the same zip code in which I sit. It began four hours ago.

For some reason it reminds me of D-Day, the radio reports wherein our countrymen listened with anticipation:

“This morning, under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces supported by strong air forces began landing Allied armies on the northern coast of France.”

Within five days, more than 326,000 Allied troops would have landed with more than 100,000 tons of equipment and Paris would be liberated two and a half months later with the Germans destroyed within a year.

I wish the same fate to COVID.

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12/5/20

A Letter to Joe Biden In Regard to Vaccine Distribution

Don’t be a baby, get the shot.

Dear Joe:

I hope this note finds everything well for you and yours. I keep watching you saying there is no “plan” to inoculate the country with the soon-to-be approved vaccine for COVID.

I thought I would share with you what I have learned doing minimal research on the Internet because, apparently, there is a plan.

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12/4/20

Planning In The Age Of COVID

If you are the CEO of a startup or small business, the months of November and December are when you must be planning what you will make happen in CY 2021 — and, yes, there will be a Calendar Year 2021 whether you plan for it or not.

You should be following a discipline something like this:

Review 2020 performance — review and discuss with your senior folks with an eye toward segregating the loser from the winners, the saints from the sinners

Based on 2020 performance, create your 2021 plan with input from your senior folks

After a careful review, publish the “preliminary” plan and sit down with your Board to get feedback

Revise the plan

Publish the plan

Brief the plan to the company and get buy in

This can take two weeks or six weeks. It should be started in November, finished in December, and published before Christmas. 

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12/3/20

COVID Exposes The Weaknesses

Business environments are impacted by laws, regulation, and leadership. This happens at the state level.

The business environment in, say, New York and California is different than the business environment in Texas.

COVID and the pressure upon Governors — the CEOs of their states — to steward the business environment in their states whilst simultaneously dealing with the pandemic has accentuated differences in state leadership and regulation.

These differences have triggered meaningful mobility amongst companies and investors.

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11/18/20

The Vaccines Are Coming At Warp Speed

We have been greeted with good news of late — two vaccines, both built on an mRNA model, meaning an engineered solution rather than a dead vaccine model — will apply shortly for an Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Agency based on the successful completion of Phase 3, large scale (44,000 persons) trials and the attendant data with both showing an efficacy rate of 95%.

Efficacy rates, Big Red Car?

To put that 95% number into perspective, know that the common flu vaccine has an efficacy rate of 40-60% — meaning it shelters 40-60% of Americans who receive the shot from the flu.

So, the 95% efficacy rate for the engineered model is quite extraordinary.

American health officials required a 50% efficacy rate, had hoped for 60-70%, and are deliriously happy at 95%.

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