With roughly 69,000 reported cases for corona-virus in Italy, it is currently second of the top three being ravaged by this virus. Lack of preparation, elderly population and an unprepared healthcare system are some of the many reasons that this has burned through the proud country. Other countries are using Italy as an example for just how deadly this virus can be if not prepared.
This is not the first or even most serious outbreak in history, but this is showing just how ill prepared many modern countries are to pandemic level issues. How the US fits into this is that currently we are third worst in the world with over 51,000 confirmed cases. Unlike many countries like South Korea, we didn’t start taking necessary precautions when this virus was just a nuisance.
Lack of preparation
The United States enacted an early travel ban to and from China during the start of the virus. This was a good first start but didn’t account that traveling the world is incredibly easy. In an article by the Washington post they go over how negligent government officials were about the start of this epidemic.
The problem is that when countries started “evacuating” their citizens they didn’t take the precautions of screening before flying. Healthy people were put on plains with those who were potentially infected.
Italy didn’t officially lock down until March 9th, 2020. Up until that point people were still roaming to and fro and trying to get out of the epicenter. Not unlike what America is doing now with some parts of California and New York. People can still travel from state to state without any repercussions according to LA times.
The other is the ignoring of the self quarantining and less than 10 people etiquette in place. Mass hysteria ensued once Italy went on lock down. Everything from toilet paper to tomato sauce were gone in a day as hundreds to thousands rushed to their local and chain grocery stores.
Lack of Health Care
Italy in recent history has never had an outbreak worse than the Flu. The most recent and deadly they had to deal with is the Spanish flu in 1918 which killed 20 million worldwide. Every country felt the deadly effect of this, but it was over 100 years ago.
Though they were hit the hardest they have probably been the most upfront and hardest hitting at dealing with corona-virus. Taking a page from Korea they are testing anyone and everyone that may have been in contact with corona positive people. They are also putting this information out publicly, mortality rate and all.
America has had to deal with many different outbreaks in recent history. Measles, Polio and even HIV have wreaked havoc, and yet the treatment of these has never been as severe as how we are treating corona virus now.
We are nowhere near as many tests as we should be. Having 100 per million according to the CDC
Our system and mentality are just not prepared for this type of crisis. The Trump administration back in 2018 enacted a rescission of funds cut funding by $15.4 billion to health and services (among many others). This included the CDC and other response units that could help in times of pandemic.
Spread of Information
One of the most defining things about current history is our ability to communicate almost instantaneously. Computers and smartphones with social media are being used to spread information and misinformation like wildfire.
If you were to try and google recovery rates, you would still get death tolls anyway. There is also a lack of information on what after effects the corona-virus does to those who actually recover.
