COVID-19 and streaming video

[GreyGeek]

Since the COVID-19 RNA virus affects the very young and the old (I'm 79, my wife is 77), we have decided that we won't be going anywhere for the next month, and see how things pan out. The church we attend decided to begin streaming their service, something I've been trying to get them to do for years. Unfortunately, they are going to stream through Facebook, which I will not join. Since they will be streaming from the auditorium it got me to wondering if I could stream the service from my Linux server. After some searching I found this web page:
https://helpdeskgeek.com/linux-tips/...er-with-linux/

I gave it a shot and it worked very well. With an outgoing bandwidth of 2.6Mbps I can stream at 60fps.

Now, all I have to do is intercept their stream and redirect it to my server for re-streaming, IF I can figure that out.

A neat bonus is the ability to start or stop, enable or disable the nginx server using nginx.service.
(The more I use systemd the more I like it)

[Snowhog]

The 'mania' that appears to be increasing among the population is disturbing (to me). I think that people are 'over reacting'. I'm not saying that one shouldn't take reasoned measures to protect themselves, but I think that too many people are on the verge of 'panic'.

[jlittle]

(This is interesting to me as I sit at home with a little sniffle, normal for me in the morning at this time of year, most likely hay fever.)

The church we attend ... will be streaming from the auditorium it got me to wondering if I could stream the service from my Linux server...

Now, all I have to do is intercept their stream and redirect it to my server for re-streaming, IF I can figure that out.

How would you do that without logging in to facebook?

[claydoh]

The 'mania' that appears to be increasing among the population is disturbing (to me). I think that people are 'over reacting'. I'm not saying that one shouldn't take reasoned measures to protect themselves, but I think that too many people are on the verge of 'panic'.

Only panicking over toilet paper, it seems. At least locally, the stores are well stocked on food, etc, but not the expected sanitizers/cleaners, as well as teepee and paper towels.
I am down to a mere 1.5 month supply , and can't find poo tickets anywhere . Well, not at the two places I stopped at today, for unrelated shopping.

However, it is not overly difficult for stores to run out, with the huge package sizes and people simply stocking up a little earlier than they normally would, so I won't call it a tp panic, really.

Thanks Australia, both for starting the tp panic, as well as the nice name for toilet tissue

[Don B. Cilly]

I realise it's the "wrong place" but allow me...
This CORVID-19 thing... I write on Italian forums... it's worse than absurd.

Please consider some real data.
Compare with the media's scare campaign.
Consider that seasonal flu kills some 300-600,000 people worldwide every year. And that it ranks 8th in disease deaths. Covid presently ranks 17th, and is not likely to rise much.
Consider that cases is China, after two months of epidemic, are now virtually at zero. They started earlier.

To say that people are 'over reacting' is an understatement. Media and governments are doing real damage, that will result in more deaths and suffering, than the virus possibly can.

It doesn't really seem to "affect the very young" though. The very old, yes.

[EDIT] Even among the "very old", it seems that if they have no "existing conditions", the mortality is only 0.9%. Of course, among the "very old", some conditions are to be expected.

[jglen490]

Don't ever minimize what kills real people

[mbohets]

Indeed, in Italy, hospitals are flooded, and there are not enough respirators to treat everyone, so doctors have to start making difficult choices on who will be put on a respirator and who will die.
So in order to prevent infection peaks that flood hospitals behind their capacity, these measures to restrict contacts cannot be called an overreaction.

China managed to get it under control just by taking these strict measures,
Italy applied them too late, and now their hospitals are flooded behind their capacity.

In the US, Trump first ignored the impact, but now he seems to have got a wake up call, and starts to do something.

[GreyGeek]

(This is interesting to me as I sit at home with a little sniffle, normal for me in the morning at this time of year, most likely hay fever.)


How would you do that without logging in to facebook?

By gaining access (legally) to their IP address from which they stream to Facebook.

But, as it turned out, they made their FB stream public, so I could connect without creating a FB account. The downside is that there was no connection to the comment thread.

[GreyGeek]

I realise it's the "wrong place" but allow me...
This CORVID-19 thing... I write on Italian forums... it's worse than absurd.

Please consider some real data.
Compare with the media's scare campaign.
Consider that seasonal flu kills some 300-600,000 people worldwide every year. And that it ranks 8th in disease deaths. Covid presently ranks 17th, and is not likely to rise much.
Consider that cases is China, after two months of epidemic, are now virtually at zero. They started earlier.

To say that people are 'over reacting' is an understatement. Media and governments are doing real damage, that will result in more deaths and suffering, than the virus possibly can.

It doesn't really seem to "affect the very young" though. The very old, yes.

[EDIT] Even among the "very old", it seems that if they have no "existing conditions", the mortality is only 0.9%. Of course, among the "very old", some conditions are to be expected.

Those were my first thoughts. I found these figures for flu in the US during the 2019-2020 season: https://www.worldometers.info/corona...us-death-toll/

36,000,000 – 51,000,000 - flu illnesses
17,000,000 – 24,000,000 - flu medical visits
370,000 – 670,000 - flu hospitalizations
22,000 – 55,000 - flu deaths

Those numbers swamp COVID-19 numbers .... so far. The graphs include linear and logarithmic presentations. The logarithmic curves are showing a tendency towards a horizontal asymptote. The large Feb 12 spike was due to the way the diagnosis was changed.

A BIG difference is that the flu is a DNA virus and COVID-19 is an RNA virus, like SARS and MERS.

Also, I would never trust information coming out of China. Their leadership controls all info and suppressed initial reports of the corona virus in Wuhan. Why? After the 2003 SARS epidemic, China constructed the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory (Level 4) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A second P4 facility in Wuhan, the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the only declared site in China capable of working with the virus. Then, after the outbreak, this event takes place: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lab-Wuhan.html

The Chinese do outstanding science, and I have no doubt about their expertise in bioscience. But, accidents can happen.

The suggestion that COVID-19 is a bioweapon that escaped from Wuhan's P4 facility has been labelled a "conspiracy theory" all too quickly, IMO. IF it is/was a bioweapon the question I have is "did they engineer it to mutate quickly?". If not, then it will fade just like MERS and SARS did. If so, then there may not be a quick end to it. The flu goes away by the end of spring every year, as UV rays do their work. If COVID-19 stretches into summer and fall then things could get worse.

Regardless, the COVID-19 threat is greatest against the elderly and health compromised. I'm 79 and my wife is 77. I've got persistent AFIB and she has had two heart surgeries and has moderate pulmonary hypertension. Being flippant about CORVID-19 is NOT an attitude we will take. We'll wear masks and gloves when out in public.

[mbohets]

There are all kinds of conspiracy theories, also one that claims the US released it in China as part of their war with China, to ruin their economy.
So it goes both ways, and there is no evidence for either of them, so as long as there is no evidence, it is pure speculation.

[Don B. Cilly]

Since this has been moved to the Water cooler... just to say (personal beliefs, can change) :

- China numbers may be unreliable, but they probably do look like this:

(Source: Wikipedia)

So the outlook on the pandemic isn't bad.

- Doctors having to make life-and-death decisions in Italy is mostly media hype.
I don't doubt that intensive care wards are strained, but...
They have at present 1500 people in intensive care in the whole of Italy. 60 million people. 700 in Lombardy, true. But that region has more than 10 million people, and is the richest.
So the numbers, however bad the shape the healthcare system in Italy has been left in, are hardly catastrophic.

So there probably are cases where a ward doesn't have enough respirators.
Probably not many, and from personal experience, if someone is on a respirator, his chances of survival are very slim and not very long-term.

- Travel restrictions probably don't work in reality. Take a look a Flightradar's real-time air traffic over Europe.
Each one of those planes is full of people sitting a lot less than a metre apart and not wearing masks. None of them are from Italy, but there's enough COVID everywhere else...

Nevertheless, I'm not "minimising what kills real people ", I realise it's a real problem, just saying that if the cure turns out to be worse than the illness, and it ends up killing more people - through social and economic disruption, it's probably not a good thing.

And obviously I applaud GG's stance, at that age.
A friend of mine (62) just tested positive in Switzerland a few hours ago. He's not worried.
I'm 63 and not worried either. But at over 75 and with some conditions, I certainly would be.

[Goeroeboeroe]

I almost started to think I was the only one who thinks it's a bit (ahem) overdone. And I'm 68. I understand all kind of measures, but it's getting really hysteric here in the Netherlands.
This afternoon I was in a very big supermarket to do shopping for a 90 years old lady. I've never seen this: all vegetables, fruit, potatoes, toilet paper, fish, meat, ..., nothing left. Absolutely nothing.
People are driving each other crazy here. I'm no expert, so the only thing I can do is have a little trust in independent experts. They all say about the same, but television, radio, papers let all kind of people that know nothing about viruses or epidemics tell horror stories.
I'm not that much worried for my health. But I AM worried about the kind of hysteria at the moment.
And about that 'conspiracy' theories: I've been thinking about that too. But I guess if it's some kind of virus that escaped, we'll never know. But it may as well be some kind of illness that developed in a 'natural' way.
Anyway: I'm glad there are some more people that don't believe it's the end of the world.

[jlittle]

I'm glad there are some more people that don't believe it's the end of the world.

The world is plunging head first into an economic disaster, to be compared with the depression of the 1930's, only with the onset more rapid, and maybe the recovery more rapid, too. Mass unemployment, a collapse in world trade, famine, and a rise in radical politics, leading to major wars. Not the "end of the world", but still pretty bad. A disaster caused by panic.

I suspect we (all the people of the world) would be better off if we just ignored the disease, and accept that, say, 4% of us are going to die, and carry on as close to normal as possible. Hundreds of millions of dead, a lot of people really sick for a while, but the economic disaster mostly averted. Not the "end of the world", but still pretty bad. A disaster caused by complacency.

If we want to avoid the disasters, IMO, somewhere between panic and complacency is called for.

Of course, my ideas are coloured by my own health; I'm prone to respiratory illness, and a cold often leads to bronchitis, and the scars open and I'm coughing blood. Add high blood pressure and age, I might be one of the dead.

[Don B. Cilly]

I really wouldn't know about a 4%. Again look at China. They have almost 1.4bn people. 4% of that would be, what, 56 million?
They have had some 3'000 dead - the vast majority with very low life expectancy already - and new cases have been at near zero for a fortnight already.
The bulk of the thing lasted for about a month.

Now, if the "measures" do cause things like "mass unemployment, a collapse in world trade, famine, and a rise in radical politics", let alone major wars, the death toll is likely to be a lot worse, of people with better life expectancy - a lot of children - let alone the suffering. Time will tell, of course. But when it's over, however they try to spin it, the "cry wolf" effect may be worrying. In the sense that if and when something serious actually comes, nobody is going to believe it any more.

[verndog]

The 'mania' that appears to be increasing among the population is disturbing (to me). I think that people are 'over reacting'. I'm not saying that one shouldn't take reasoned measures to protect themselves, but I think that too many people are on the verge of 'panic'.

I agree what your saying up to a point. Grocery hoarding;water bottles toilet paper, purel.
BUT, just read an ER doctor is in critical condition with the virus. he is 40! What chance do I have @ 76. My guy closed which made me upset... NOT ANYMORE.