Coronavirus: Talk About It Here, Please

70000 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:14 am

Here in the UK, most Museums seasons start at the end of March, or Easter, whichever is the earliest. Only thing I know of that has been cancelled so far is one Model Railroad show, though we are awaiting an announcement from the Govt. later today that is supposed to take the (so far, limited) restrictions up to the next level. Could have a major effect on the preservation scene here if we end up with "Italian" style restrictions for any length of time.
The Irish Republic this morning have announced all schools/colleges shut until the end of the month and restrictions to size of gatherings/events.
I was supposed to be on a plane somewhere over the N.Atlantic at the moment of typing this for a vacation in NJ, but I called that off yesterday as it appeared that things were heading for the next level....

Edit - An RPSI Irish diesel hauled railtour scheduled for early April has now been cancelled as a result of the above, so that is the first "high profile" rail event in these islands to be affected

whodom · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:47 am

Chris Webster wrote:

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

the ageist stereotype of railroad-museum board members

Covad-19 is especially devastating for older people:

Attachment:

Rates.png

Source for this chart?

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 9:52 am

Just notified, the Akron Railroad Club has cancelled it's scheduled "Member's Night" pizza and image sharing night scheduled for 3/28, out of concern about the pandemic, given the average age of our membership. Talk about the economic consequences, that's about $150 worth of pizza that won't be made that evening, and a $20 tip a delivery driver won't be getting. I just checked, and in-spite of all of this the NMRA train show at Lakeland Community College in Kirkland, OH, East of Cleveland, is still on for this weekend. So, mixed bag. Hopefully, events planned for May into Labor Day will be able to go on, if the pattern of this virus follows other similar epidemics and usual flu seasons. But then what happens after September becomes a major concern.

KevinM · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 11:49 am

Rick Rowlands wrote:

It is a sensible precaution to limit contact with other people over the next couple of months. It is coming and we had better prepare for it. Fortunately most of our seasons don't start in earnest until schools is out in June and by then hopefully the infection rate will have reached the top of the bell curve and started down the other side.

Yes, it makes a ton of sense for governments and private organizations to be acting NOW, to limit gatherings, travel and other situations that require close human contact, at least for a period of weeks. Right now, the spread of the disease has been limited, but we can already see that without intervention, it will spread by leaps and bounds in the coming weeks. Better to intervene now and shut this down, than to wait until the healthcare system is overwhelmed with sick people. It will be orders of magnitude more difficult to shut down then. Surely, there will be economic impact. The markets are already dialing in that effect. We all need to suck it up and take the action now to eliminate this disease, or the impact will be much greater down the road.

BTW, I see a ton of discussion in the press about the how the availability of test kits is limiting our country's ability to fight this. I just do not understand this. No doctor is going to order a test for someone unless:

1. They have symptoms of the disease
2. They've been in contact with someone who is now known to have the disease
3. The have recently traveled to one of the "hot-zones."

Guess what? The people in these categories will either know or will be told of their status. Who cares about a test at that point? They should all be self quarantining.....just for safety sake.

That's what's sensible.....for me, at least.

/Kevin Madore

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 12:41 pm

santafeboy wrote:

I understand Winterail in Oregon is still on

Not any more:

Quote:

Due to information from the State of Oregon, we’re sorry to announce that Winterail has been postponed. We will reschedule to a later date and all tickets purchased for 2020 will be honored. Watch for updates on Winterail.com and thanks for your understanding.

Chris Webster · **Joined:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:45 am **Posts:** 1087

KevinM wrote:

Right now, the spread of the disease has been limited,

I do not think that is true, Kevin.

I'm looking at the graph of Covid-19 cases that is attached to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Italy Wikipedia article/

There were only *two* (2) cases of COVID-19 in all of Italy back on February 1. I'm in Georgia, where there were 31 confirmed cases as of this morning..... so this one state already has the same number of confirmed cases as Italy did back on Feb 21/22, 2020.

KevinM · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 1:01 pm

Chris Webster wrote:

KevinM wrote:

Right now, the spread of the disease has been limited,

I do not think that is true, Kevin.

I'm looking at the graph of Covid-19 cases that is attached to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Italy Wikipedia article/

There were only *two* (2) cases of COVID-19 in all of Italy back on February 1. I'm in Georgia, where there were 31 confirmed cases as of this morning..... so this one state already has the same number of confirmed cases as Italy did back on Feb 21/22, 2020.

Hi Chris,

Certainly, there are potentially thousands of undocumented cases nationwide. My point is not to argue the specific number of cases, but to argue that there is no time like the present to begin serious (meaning temporarily life-changing) measures to curb the spread.....or you are absolutely correct. It will take only a few weeks until thousands become hundreds of thousands or millions.

Here is the thing.... The average human being does a really poor job of curbing the spread of his/her germs when they are sick. We see this all the time. People show up for work or in public places or on airplanes coughing and sneezing.....and doing nothing to contain the plumes of microbes. It is as if many people do not understand how viruses are transmitted.....and perhaps they don't.....or perhaps they simply don't care. Unless we start forcing people to curtail their activities, this will get worse and it will not take very long for that to happen. As noted in my post, it will be far easier to control now and the economic impact will be far less than if we do nothing and simply let nature take its course.

/Kevin

Frank J. DeStefano · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:18 pm

Loco112 wrote:

Corona, is a seasonal "Flu", whatever that really is. Like all other "flu", they only effect you when you are: cold, weak, eating low nutrient food (winter crops), etc... You can also get a "flu" like illness from inhaling: Glysophate (Roundup), exposure to heavy metals poisoning, bacteria, etc.. The Mercury and aluminum in: vaccines, flu shots, etc. also cause these "Flu" type illnesses. See a pattern here?

The outbreak began in Wuhan, China. Wuhan, China, one of the most: heavy metal, chemical exposed areas in the world, still the locals are protesting the fake "Virus" quarantine.

Hong Kong is angling for its independence from China. Who owns China? Its not the Chinese thats for sure! Who owned Bolshevik Russia, thats right, its the same people. Who owned the West bank of Gaza strip prior to WW2? Same people. Who owns the world Monetary system, the Federal Reserve, etc... ? Now your getting warmer. Its the Blue Bloods, the royals, the: Rockefellers, Shifts, Rothschild, Morgans, Vanderbuilt, etc. etc.... The same people who own every single media company. If you watch news, you watch their Programming and you'll never wake until you learn to think.

Corona is a big ol inside joke to cancel the fake moon re-landing, and to stop Trumps tariffs on China, which is a regional response to the global plan to build up china and India at every developed countries expense. This is way bigger then democrat vs republican.

How much money do you think the elites made yesterday by bouncing and closing the market when they knew what they were going to do and they held "Short" positions on the entire market. They, the people that own our slave colony, made a few trillion ($3,000,000,000,000.00) dollars yesterday alone. Look it up, look at who held short positions yesterday and last week.

Was this conspiracy theory laden rant intended to be serious?

I don’t believe this rail preservation site is the proper forum for this opinion piece.

Mount Royal · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:27 pm

Connecticut’s governor has asked that any events be cancelled where 100 or more people are to attend. St. Patty’s parades in New Haven, Hartford, and Danbury have been cancelled and schools throughout the state are closing until further notice. Colleges and universities are following suit. A couple of rail groups are discussing it as well.

the Alco kid · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:31 pm

An the CVSR has called it.

p51 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 2:39 pm

Pretty much all the model train gatherings/swap meets in the Pacific NW have been cancelled.
Winterail in Corvallis has been postponed, just announced today.

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:33 pm

Headend Shield wrote:

Frank J. DeStefano wrote:

Was this conspiracy theory laden rant intended to be serious?

He forgot to mention the Koch Bros.

And Lizard People.

Loco112 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 3:59 pm

Mount Royal wrote:

Connecticut’s governor has asked that any events be cancelled where 100 or more people are to attend. St. Patty’s parades in New Haven, Hartford, and Danbury have been cancelled and schools throughout the state are closing until further notice. Colleges and universities are following suit. A couple of rail groups are discussing it as well.

Absolutely, cancel everything. You'd be nuts not to.

Alan Walker · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 4:27 pm

The only big event that has been canceled locally is the University of Arizona Festival of Books. I haven't heard of any other public events being cancelled here and our museum work sessions will continue for now. We have only had one diagnosed case of coronavirus and that was in unincorporated Pima County. Most of the cases in Arizona are in the metro Phoenix area.

The next big event that our museum is participating in is Cyclovia Tucson at the end of the month. That event is still on at the moment.

Dick_Morris · **Posted:** Thu Mar 12, 2020 4:34 pm

Quoting me from yesterday,

Quote:

This may be a perfect storm for the state of Alaska.

Quoting a headline in today's Wall Street Journal,

Quote:

Princess Cruises Cancels All Voyages for Two Months