Italy's Plight (Huffpost)...

[tkwalker]

Italians, their country locked down with the world’s 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 don’t take the pandemic seriously.

Italy’s coronavirus infections have surpassed 24,000. Over the weekend, the country reported 368 deaths in 24 hours ― a toll that exceeded China’s 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 they’ve learned, admonishing people to take the virus seriously and to heed advice not to gather.

“In Italy we waited too long, these countries should really start implementing aggressive containment measures now,” Italian researcher Silvia Merler wrote on Twitter last week. She posted a “lag tracker” 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.

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4:35 PM - Mar 10, 2020 · Turin, Piedmont
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Other Italians also are using Twitter to tell people that their situation is “not good” and that they should learn from Italy’s “mistakes.”

Dr. Marco Vergano, an anesthetist at San Giovanni Bosco hospital in Turin, told HuffPost via email that it’s “evident” to him that “acting like a community, rather than personally feeling violated in individual freedom will be more difficult for Americans than for Europeans.”

Americans, Vergano said, “should stop believing that COVID-19 is a ‘bad flu’” and “stop circulating low quality information and ‘fake news.’”

The U.S. “should abandon woefully incompetent political leaders, that in an unprecedented emergency like this can lead the country to a catastrophe,” Vergano advised. “They should not panic; but in case restrictive measures are difficult to enforce without panic, well... then a bit of ‘fruitful panic’ may be useful!” He said Americans should take “advantage of the few weeks between Italy and US.”