Unsolicicited advice to other countries: DO NOT underestimate #coronavirus. Politicians in #Italy told people to carry on suggesting it was just a little more than a flu. We’re now in total lockdown 1/n 1ttps://www.politico.eu/article/italy-orders-total-lockdown-over-coronavirus/
Balancing containment measures with personal freedoms and the economy isn’t easy: governments face difficult choices. But if #Italy’s crisis can serve as a learning lesson to anybody the key takeaway is: forget the politics, focus on the science and work on communication 2/n
Experts like @WRicciardi and @RobertoBurioni called on drastic measures to contain the outbreak from the very start. Politicians focused on reigning in the panic, showing support to the affected communities and avoiding a catastrophic economic impact and ignored this advice 3/n
Aside from the initial “red zones” across 11 small municipalities up north, after the initial panic on Feb 22-23 people in other parts of the Lombardy region (including Milan) and in the rest of #Italy we’re just living their ordinary lives, including dining out, ski hols ect 4/n
Not sure if the spread or the virus is directly linked to such behaviors, nevertheless the number of cases climbed and the virus spread nationwide. Surely, the virus is highly contagious and people across the country largely behaved as people that weren’t facing an epidemic 5/n
The public’s reaction has forced the government to implement more extreme measures, starting from the Lombardy + 14 provinces in lockdown on Saturday night but the communication strategy was an epic fail and it ended up triggering much of the chaos and confusion. 6/n
People fled Milan on Saturday night on crammed trains headed south increasing the risk of spreading the virus in poorer parts of #Italy where the public health system doesn’t have the capacity to care of hundreds in need of intensive care. This sparked alarm among authorities 7/n
Monday night’s dramatic announcement is the obvious consequence of weeks of underestimation & insufficient containment measures. “We’re running out of time,” said PM Conte as doctors warned of a shortage in hospital places saying they will have to chose which patients to save 8/n
I’ll discuss whether 🇮🇹 will follow the rules or not sparately (spoiler: we’ll have to) but allow me first to ask everyone to take this virus 🦠 seriously even if it doesn’t affect young people &children as much, it really has the potential of killing our parents & grandparents.
Ps. Apologies for the typos in this thread, I was trying to do too many things which is never a great idea. My editors @andrew_r_gray @pdallisonesque @ZiaWeise and @John_Rega would not be happy 😃
Ps. Apologies for the typos in this thread, I was trying to do too many things at once which is never a great idea. My editors @andrew_r_gray @pdallisonesque @ZiaWeise and @John_Rega would not be happy 😃
