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Coronavirus global pandemic

The vast majority of people here are being sensible and sticking to the distancing rules, which is good.

But there are idiots. And when I say "idiot", I genuinely cannot think of a milder word for anyone stupid enough to believe a conspiracy theory that Covid-19 is caused by 5G mobile signals: that literally makes the "flat Earth" bunch seem in touch with reality. And what's worse is that some of these morons have responded to this stupidity by abusing telecoms engineers and setting fire to mobile phone masts. Seem that any time you gain a little faith in humanity, there are always a few morons out there to remind you why you despaired in the first place...
 
MoodyBlues said:
There's a new word in today's jargon: covidiot. :rolleyes:

A few days ago, some deranged covidiot deliberately derailed a train, at full speed, near the USNS Mercy, which has been deployed to the Port of Los Angeles. He wanted to "wake up" people to a government plot...well, here, see for yourself...
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That is criminally, lethally stupid. Though there is another word for someone who is prepared to kill others (the likely consequence of a train derailment) in order to send a political message...

However I can't actually read the article: it seems that the site in question admits that they can't comply with European privacy standards and so won't give me access (OK, it says this is a temporary measure "while we work to ensure your data is (sic) protected in compliance with EU law", but given how long they've had it's clear that they don't actually intend to do it).
 
here is the article:
A train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles is facing federal charges for allegedly charging a locomotive off tracks toward the USNS Mercy, which he suspected is tied to a government plot, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro, was handed over to FBI agents Wednesday and charged with one count of train wrecking in Tuesday's derailment, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

Moreno admitted he purposefully ran the train off the end of its tracks at full speed near the hospital ship in two separate interviews, officials said.

He allegedly told investigators he believed the ship — which docked at the port last week to relieve strain on area hospitals during the coronavirus outbreak — had a secret purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover.

Moreno said he wanted to “wake people up” and hoped the derailment would get media attention so “people could see for themselves,” according to prosecutors.

The 1,000 bed ship became the largest hospital in L.A. when it docked last Friday. On Sunday it began boarding non-coronavirus patients, to free up space at other area hospitals.

Firefighters responded around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to the port, where the train came to rest about 250 yards from the Mercy after crashing through a series of barriers. No injuries were reported, but it did trigger a fuel spill that prompted a hazardous materials cleanup.

Moreno tried to flee the scene but was detained by a California Highway Patrol officer who witnessed the incident, officials said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the officer reported seeing the train smash through a concrete barrier, steel barrier and chain-link fence before sliding across a parking lot and lot filled with gravel, coming to rest against another chain-link fence.

The officer told investigators that when he spoke with Moreno, the suspect said things like, “You only get this chance once. The whole world is watching. I had to. People don’t know what’s going on here. Now they will.”

Moreno was later turned over to the L.A. Port police, who interviewed the engineer and searched his residence.

Video recovered from inside the train's cab allegedly shows Moreno holding a lighted flare, as well as the train nearly careening into three occupied vehicles as it crashed.

Moreno told authorities that he acted alone and hadn't plotted the move ahead of time, officials said.

The engineer is scheduled to make his first appearance in court Wednesday afternoon.

If convicted as charged, he could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

The FBI and L.A. Port police are continuing to investigate.
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I am truly ashamed of my country. Amidst the paranoia and accusations, xenophobia and racism, my next door neighbor, a Chinese national who came to this country 18 years ago, brought me a bag of fresh vegetables today. They own a Chinese restaurant and have been forced to close because of the pandemic. They took the food for their business and distributed it among their neighbors.
 
lunatic59 said:
They own a Chinese restaurant and have been forced to close because of the pandemic.
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There are two ways to take that--and based on your post's first sentence, I think I know which one you mean.

By "forced to close because of the pandemic," do you mean restaurants in the area were required to close, or this restaurant closed because customers stopped patronizing them?
 
You immediately popped into my head, @Hadron, when I visited the COVID Tracking Project. I wonder why...? :thinking:

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I've been watching those data through other sources (many outlets are basing their stats on the John Hopkins data collection).

The tricky bit is knowing the best way to read and present them. Different countries will collect the data in different ways, there will be delays between an infection or death being noted and it entering the statistics (so "today's" data will generally not be today's, and likely won't all come from the same day). Looking at averages over a few days probably makes more sense than looking at a single day's figures (the Financial Times recently switched to showing most stats as rolling 7 day averages rather than daily counts, and I'm hoping this realisation was the reason why). And of course some of the variations between countries will be due to their different approaches (e.g. Germany has many more cases but fewer deaths than the UK, but that's probably in part because Germany does an order of magnitude more testing than the UK and so has a better idea how many cases it has).

So yeah, I check these stats every day, but with the best efforts anyone can make their interpretation will never be as simple as a graph may look.
 
The last thing I read today is that this virus is a so-called conspiracy to destroy small and medium-sized businesses around the world. I don’t know whether to believe it or not ...
 
ocnbrze said:
that is very interesting indeed. i heard one dog gave a weak positive for the virus. i wonder how much our pets are in danger of getting infected.
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We should be concerned, since even less is known about COVID-19 in non-human animals than human animals. But I don't personally feel worried.

My four cats never leave the house--excluding those dreaded trips to the vet, of course--so their chances of being exposed to this are the same as mine: exceptionally low.

"Our" dog [long story there] is more of a concern. She's somewhere around 15, and does go outside a few times a day for pottying purposes. Plus, she's spent several days at my vet's lately [because that's where my live-in helper works now], and she needed several procedures done.

But overall I think we're okay.

On the other hand, people who are still taking their dogs for walks...yeah, I don't know about that. If I still had dogs [and pretending I could take them for walks], I wouldn't be doing that right now. Too many unknowns with how this virus spreads, and too many variables when out 'in the wild,' so to speak. Other dogs could approach mine, coyotes in the area could be infected, raccoons...mountain lions...skunks...possums...mice...shit, for all I know, even my favorite peacock could be a carrier! :o
 
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