Following a surge in daily and active cases on the island, Malta has been placed on the EU’s travel red list. Despite the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)’s recent weekly update does not have any immediate effect, it still acts as a guide to member states and travellers to assess the epidemiological situation before embarking on a voyage.
When a country falls into the red zone, the notification rate of said country is between 75 and 200, with the positivity rate higher than four. Malta ranks at 122 in terms of notification rate, with positivity rate ranking at 4.08.
Malta has noted an alarming rise in daily and active cases, which stand at 1,832. A total of 18 COVID positive patients are currently being treated at Mater Dei Hospital, with one of them in intensive care.
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Photo Source: The Guardian
The event marked itself in the history of the 20th century, but a strange anomaly also lingered on. On a silent 8mm colour motion picture sequence shot by Abraham Zapruder using a home-movie camera, a man was noted carrying and opening an umbrella on the sunny day the shooting took place.
Upon seeing the strange figure wielding the umbrella, many people took to conspiracy theories. They could not understand why, of all days, a man wielded an umbrella and lifted it up as soon as President Kennedy passed him on the street, only to be fatally shot mere seconds later.
Assassination researchers speculated that the now titled ‘Umbrella Man’ acted as some sort of signaller for the shooting. When asked to come forward however, the mysterious Umbrella Man, whose name was Louie Steven Witt, denied the accusations and gave a reasonable explanation as to why he held the umbrella.
The umbrella was a form of protest of Kennedy’s appeasement policies when he ambassador to the Court of St. James’ in 1938-39. Umbrellas as this form of protest started in England after British prime minister Neville Chamberlain who sought to appease enemies of the UK. Chamberlain carried a black umbrella wherever he went, prompting opposition to wield umbrellas in protest.
This protest continued on into the 1950s and 60s, with Americans on the far right employing umbrellas to criticise appeasement policies. Vice President Richard Nixon even banned his own aides from carrying umbrellas out of fear of being accused as an appeaser.
This anomaly sparked huge conspiracy theories, all because the little piece of political history was not known to the general public. Witt was thought to be in cahoots with JFK’s assassin, but a little context revealed the true intention of the mysterious Umbrella Man.
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