Coronovirus message from Italy

This is rapidly becoming a forum for people with out of control health anxiety.

The conversations I’m hearing and having in real life are certainly a lot more measured. Including with medics.

informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/covid-19-coronavirus-infographic-datapack/

Have a look here might get it in perspective with other illnesses around

and other countries not just Italy and China

I have a lorry driving friend abroad who makes regular trips to Italy and says there’s a lot of scaremongering about Italy and the coronavirus. He says everything is pretty calm there, shops are not empty and people are not panicky.

What is scary more than the illness is the amount of denial out there. Good luck.

Couldn't agree with you more. All the people criticising the source - the message is nothing new. It's been coming out of Italy for weeks.

As for saying it's fine to go to public events because it can't live outside, if you believe that, you need you head tested. Bringing together tens of thousands of people is ok, so long as it isn't indoors?

As pp says, good luck.

The trajectory for all of us apart from Japan is exactly the same. We are all following the same infection rate as all other infected countries in the world.

We are two weeks behind the Italian crisis. 14 sobering days.

We are walking blindly towards this, and no one in authority seems to grasp the severity of this.

Italy is not a third world country with poor health care systems. Their system is better than ours.

If we cannot take what happening right in front of us and heed their advice, what hope do we have?

So many of our older and vulnerable will die because it wasn't suitable for our economy to be affected by shutdown.

The government will shut things down when it's too late. I just can't get my head around not doing it a month earlier when it could make a difference. What good is shutting down later?

I'm despairing of our government, at the point swift action was needed to reduce the impact on our healthcare systems, we get Boris advising us to 'wash our hands' OMG.

I came here to say about denial scaring me more which someone has now said. I know some people playing it so cool but it's not helping them to be ignorant. Many of my generation have never lived through any kind if serious disruption and therefore just can't understand anything disrupting their daily life or affecting them.

I have heard this same message from other people in Italy speaking on Radio 4 (I wish I could have transcribed what they were saying).

I've read the same message in interviews. They are all saying that too many of the population laughed at this virus. Their failure to take it seriously has lead to the state that Italy is in now.

It mirrors where we are going. Why are so many people being not only complacent but, frankly, reckless. We have a responsibility for our own lives and those around us. We must take nothing for granted.

These people in the midst of this crisis in Italy are trying to help. We must stop laughing and instead listen to them.

Just on the private healthcare thing - yes, don't assume that if you have cover that it will give you any help in this situation. My very good friend who is a matron in a London hospital has already been part of emergency planning meetings which include the government having the power to take over 90% of ICU beds in private hospitals if necessary, and as she said, there aren't that may to start with, as most ICU is already done in the NHS.

This is the graph. We are in line with the rest of the world. The UK does not have special immunity!

All we have is is the option to cut down on social exposure so the virus has less opportunity to infect others.

It's not forever, but a strong message now will save lives.

I'm shocked at all the assertions that no one would fake this, FB is full of made up or exaggerated drama. People love attention for whatever reason.

Things are clearly bad in Italy but I'm not convinced they're "that" bad. They don't appear to have mobilised the Army (which is bigger than ours) or to have asked for any international assistance.

So what are the people that are perceived to be not taking it seriously supposed to do? Start stressing and worrying about it?

@planningaheadtoday and do you realise how much of an effect an economic shutdown would have?

What happens when you don’t get paid as your off sick? You sign on to universal credit, what happens then when universal credit is not taking any new applications as its closed as the economy has shut down? How do you get food to feed your children when the shops are shut because of this economic shut down? What happens when your kids are bored as the internet is down and no one comes to fix it because the economy has shut down. Then your toilet blocks but no one will come to fix it because the economy has shut down then NHS workers decide why should they have to go into work when the rest of the country doesn’t because the economy has shut down.if you think the country can just shut down for a few weeks then you are delusional.

If we’re 2 weeks behind Italy and are peak will be in 2 weeks it means that Italy is currently seeing its peak for 10 weeks so likely to be 1000 cases a day and 80,000 come the end of their peak that is a tiny percentage of their population and only a small percentage of that 80,000 will need hospital treatment! It seems much worse from China Italy and Iran because it caught them all by surprise so were not prepared!

I've also seen a video from an Italian grandmother handing out eight suggestions on dealing with coronavirus e.g wash your hands, no hugging and kissing, no discrimination because coronavirus goes away but discrimination stays.
There is a resounding air of 'don't panic' in her video, so I'm going with that.

Things are clearly bad in Italy but I'm not convinced they're "that" bad.

I will just repeat I have heard this very same message on Radio 4 and in main newspapers. The facebook message posted by OP is no more shocking than what I have heard from other Italians talking about the situation in Italy.

Do you watch Newsnight? Every night their main subject is this virus - at the moment. They speak about it very rationally and have ministers from Italy on. The message is the same. It is a disaster out there at the moment and Italian ministers are (carefully) issuing the same warning to the UK.

@Sparklingbrook , sneering at other people would be a good start. Not saying you are doing that but the tone of some posts is childish.
There is a middle ground (where most people are) between not giving a shit and panicking. Too many voices on here sneering.

It is, yes, but in Italy, not here. It could happen over here, yes, but may well not

May well not? There are likely already thousands of cases here. Look at the numbers in Germany, Spain, and France? Why would we be any different given our travel happy population?

The only difference is the testing.

twitter.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1237514020560744448

From Newsnight last night. Italian minister warning the UK.

You know-it-alls can raise your eyes as much as you like at someone’s lack of paragraphs or misspellings when writing in a foreign language (that in itself says it all) but you won’t be laughing when what she/he says comes knocking at our doors. Everything in that post is exactly what all my REAL FRESH AND BLOOD friends (italian and british) have said to me.
Someone is trying to give you the heads up and tell you to take care of yourself before the gov decides what to do and what do you do? Shit on it.

If not common sense I thought we could at least do with some empathy.

I am intrigued how they are enforcing the self isolation.

I think there's a disconnect between the top-line advice of wash your hands and carry on, and what is actually happening in many places.
The government advice is getting most publicity and implies not much is happening but at a different level
there have been changes. Some companies are restricting travel, moving to working from home, etc.
I know some of our local schools have cancelled large gatherings, UK trips, overseas trips and even visits to external sites in the same city.
It might be helpful to share what practical steps are happening where we are and what differences we're seeing.

People think the government will pay for all that stuff emsy, no one can comprehend what happens when no one's earning so no one's paying any tax, which TBF is a long way off.

Quite apart from the increased mortality that poverty brings, much more certain and short term would be the fact that when there's an increase in business failures and unemployment there is always a spike in suicides.

It's not just money, protecting the economy protects lives, harming it will kill people.

Nobody is saying “panic” and “fill your garage with big roll”, people are telling you to be careful and not underestimate it. That is all. If we are lucky that it does not come here as virulently as it had done Italy it could also be because we are learning from them.

@Smartanimal that is bollocks, I’m in the north and it is absolutely in lockdown. Shops are open but you are let in one at a time. Ditto railway stations, all doors are locked except for one entrance. There is no scaremongering it is real. Even my SIL who is a doctor but took a desk job after Mat leave has been asked to go back on the wards as the medical staff in the hospitals now are exhausted.

@BookMeOnTheSudExpress I agree entirely with your post of 8.20 👏👏👏

The healthcare is better in northern Italy than the UK, the hospitals are better equipped. Hard to believe for the “but we’re British” crowd but it’s true. It is in probably most of continental Europe now, most other countries spend more per capita in public health than the UK now.

No country would cripple their own economy and bring it to its knees if they did not thing it was serious. The economic impact will be disastrous but they had no choice, I guess.