(by John Blackeye) Let's make a premise: the problem we have in Italy at the moment is that people infected with the virus but who do not know they are, are turning freely on the national territory. You don't want to shoot on the Red Cross and in these moments you need to move towards national cohesion which, for reasons of political affiliation, has never been cultivated in Italy. However, we want to at least try to wake up an Executive who seems totally unprepared to make (drastic) decisions appropriate to the contingent situation.
Perhaps there is no need to wait for provisions from the European institutions, also because if friends meet in times of need, Brussels on the question of the epidemic in Italy seems to me to be a spectator at the Scala theater in Milan which, at this time, is closed.
If we look at the planetary geographic situation, we can see that in China they managed to manage the infection in a geographic area comprising sixty million inhabitants. We know that they did it by force, that is, by introducing drastic measures to contain the movements of people and safeguarding these measures with the use of the military. In South Korea there are twice as many infected but less than half of the deceased than in Italy. In Germany, France and other European nations the infected remain limited to a small number that can easily remain under control.
Why in Italy does the virus proliferate by infecting hundreds of people every day and sending a percentage to the creator that is higher than that initially identified with the mortality rate of the disease?
An answer would be this: the government is not taking adequate health measures.
The appropriate measures could concern a drastic and immediate closure of the red areas, perhaps with the help of the Italian armed forces and law enforcement agencies, with the peace of mind of entrepreneurs and large industrialists in the North who see the economy as the only problem correlate with the epidemic.
It is also true that in Italy, blocking an entire infected area can provoke the intervention of the Judiciary with complaints for "kidnapping" against those who decreed this measure - given the precedents in other sectors - but if we do not get out of these limits that institutions impose on themselves, the virus will continue to take the streets of Central and Southern Italy, bringing an entire nation to its knees.
For example, you could start think about the next scenarios. That is, the thousands of beds made available by healthcare facilities and available in the event of an increase in infections they do not have a corresponding number of intensive care places and these are the details that should be worked on. It is understood, in fact, that if the virus takes you "lightly" you come out of it but if the virus takes you seriously, you need to be put in intensive care and supported with artificial respiration. Question: Are the intensive care places that can be guaranteed in Italy compatible with any possible scenarios that lie ahead in the immediate future? Numbers in hand throughout Italy should be about 5 thousand intensive care places. In a catastrophic scenario, all places could be destined for the coronavirus emergency, leaving other ICU healthcare cases in disarray.
It seems that the companies that manufacture masks have been nationalized in France. In Italy we have not been able to do it, perhaps always for fear of seeing the judiciary intervene. But in cases like these, could we not do the same in Italy? What are you expecting to increase the production and distribution of these devices to the whole population?
Another question could be asked. In addition to providing economic incentives, is it possible to start hypothesizing interventions on the national industry so that it focuses on the production of medical devices useful for the treatment of intensive care?
It seems, however, that the government continues to live for the day. But living for the day means counting the number of infections and that of the dead.
Maybe the time has come to play in advance
Someone among the top leaders of the state has wondered whether it is not appropriate to block entire regions for three weeks, keeping everything closed: Offices, trains, airplanes and means of transport? In fact, if such a drastic initiative would cause limited economic damage comparable to what we are able to endure in August, when everything is stopped, on the other hand it would obtain the triple advantage of blocking the spread of the virus, exceeding the period incubation, identifying the subjects already infected and thus preventing them from passing the virus to the healthy ones.
Someone would say: "Elementary Watson" but the suspicion is that the Governing Bodies are still looking to Brussels waiting for "provisions" that will probably never come.