Italy Has Been Trying To Send Us A Warning. Will We Listen
Italians, their country locked down with the worldâs second-highest number of COVID-19 infections after China, are sounding a dire warning for other countries about what could be in store for them if they donât take the pandemic seriously.Italyâs coronavirus infections have surpassed 24,000. Over the weekend, the country reported 368 deaths in 24 hours â a toll that exceeded Chinaâs highest single-day number at the height of its outbreak, according to The New York Times.Humbled by the experience of showing the world what not to do, quarantined Italians, including health care workers, are sharing what theyâve learned, admonishing people to take the virus seriously and to heed advice not to gather.âIn Italy we waited too long, these countries should really start implementing aggressive containment measures now,â Italian researcher Silvia Merler wrote on Twitter last week. She posted a âlag trackerâ graphic showing COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and other countries are now following the trajectory of the outbreak in Italy 13 to 16 days earlier.Silvia Merler@SMerler France, Spain and Germany are about 9 to 10 days behind Italy in #COVID19 progression; the UK and the US follow at 13 to 16 days. In Italy we waited too long, these countries should really start implementing aggressive containment measures now.13.7K3:35 AM - Mar 11, 2020 ¡ Turin, PiedmontTwitter Ads info and privacy9,761 people are talking about thisOther Italians also are using Twitter to tell people that their situation is ânot goodâ and that they should learn from Italyâs âmistakes.âDr. Marco Vergano, an anesthetist at San Giovanni Bosco hospital in Turin, told HuffPost via email that itâs âevidentâ to him that âacting like a community, rather than personally feeling violated in individual freedom will be more difficult for Americans than for Europeans.âAmericans, Vergano said, âshould stop believing that COVID-19 is a âbad fluââ and âstop circulating low quality information and âfake news.ââThe U.S. âshould abandon woefully incompetent political leaders, that in an unprecedented emergency like this can lead the country to a catastrophe,â Vergano advised. âThey should not panic; but in case restrictive measures are difficult to enforce without panic, well... then a bit of âfruitful panicâ may be useful!â He said Americans should take âadvantage of the few weeks between Italy and US.âCristina Higgins, who lives in Bergamo, wrote on Facebook last week that Americans and some Europeans âare weeks away from where we are today in Italy.ââYou have a chance to make a difference and stop the spread in your country,â Higgins wrote. âPush for the entire office to work at home today, cancel birthday parties, and other gatherings, stay home as much as you can. If you have a fever, any fever, stay home. Push for school closures, now. Anything you can do to stop the spread, because it is spreading in your communities â there is a two week incubation period â and if you do these things now you can buy your medical system time.â Dr. Daniele Macchini, whoâs also from Bergamo, wrote in a heartbreaking Facebook post that Italy has so many patients itâs impossible to give all of them adequate care.âThe display boards with the names of the sick, of different colors depending on the operating unit they belong to, are now all red and instead of the surgical operation there is the diagnosis, which is always the same cursed: bilateral interstitial pneumonia,â Macchini wrote in her essay, according to a translation.Hospital employees wearing a protection mask and gear tend to a patient at the Brescia hospital, Lombardy, on March 13, 2020.  (Photo: MIGUEL MEDINA via Getty Images)âThe epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us,â Macchini wrote. âThe cases multiply, we arrive at the rate of 15-20 hospitalizations a day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the emergency room is collapsing.â Macchini warned people to stay away from âthe theater, museums or gymâ and to have âmercy on that myriad of older people you could exterminate.ââPlease, listen to us, try to leave the house only to indispensable things,â he added.Roberta Re, a nurse at Piacenza hospital in Emilia-Romagna, told The Guardian that working to help people recover from the coronavirus is akin to âa world war.ââBut itâs a war that isnât fightable with traditional arms â as we donât yet know who the enemy is and so itâs difficult to fight,â Re said. âThe only weapon we do have to avoid things getting even worse is to stay at home and to respect the rules, to do what they did in China, as this is paying off.â Giacomo Grasselli, a senior Italian health official working in Lombardy, likened the coronavirus escalation to âa bomb that exploded.ââEverything happens very quickly, if one had told me that in two weeks we would have created 500 new ICU beds ⌠I would have said âOK youâre crazy,ââ Grasselli told the United Kingdomâs Channel 4. âEveryone must understandâ what he said is âvery, very important for every country,â namely âto behave in some way in order to avoid the spread of the disease.â Many Americans appear to be ignoring the message. Despite warnings to avoid public spaces and crowds, many people over the weekend continued gathering at restaurants, bars and other places as they normally would in a world without a pandemic.On Baltimoreâs historic Fort Avenue, âevery bar and restaurant is packed,â a Baltimore Sun reporter tweeted on Friday. In New York City on Saturday night, people waited in a long line to crowd into a bar.Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.Mark B. Spiegel@markbspiegelWaiting on line to get into a packed Second Avenue bar...Millennial Darwinism.1188:44 AM - Mar 15, 2020Twitter Ads info and privacy62 people are talking about thisIn Washington, D.C., dozens of people waited to get inside the bar Sauf Haus.Alex Palomboâ@AlexPalombo ¡ Mar 15, 2020Replying to @PoPvilleYou should've seen the line outside @SaufHausDC tonightAnjali Kumar, Ph.D. @anjalikumar6Hereâs that line I took from across the street. It was really bad - that bar is tiny and should not have been open and packed today379:27 AM - Mar 15, 2020Twitter Ads info and privacy33 people are talking about thisAnd in Florida, Disney World looked typically congested.WDW News Today@WDWNTCurrent crowds at the Magic Kingdom for tonight's showing of Happily Ever After... #DisneyWorld9,6036:41 AM - Mar 16, 2020Twitter Ads info and privacy7,720 people are talking about thisThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday released new advice that goes along with some of what the Italians are saying, suggesting that gatherings of more than 50 people should be canceled or postponed for at least eight weeks. Some states and local governments imposed their own rules, closing schools, restaurants and bars.Whether the measures will help curb the coronavirus is yet to be seen. But perhaps itâs time to hunker down and listen to the Italians. Read the full article












