As the number of coronavirus cases rises, why is Italy being hit so hard?

This is partially why Italy was hit so hard by Corona. They are old, they smoke and they kiss and hug as a form of greeting. Add socialized healthcare to that and you have the perfect storm.


“So what has put Italy and its people at higher risk for severe disease? The answer is multifaceted.

To start, part of the answer may lie in the age distribution of Italy's population. Italy has an older population with a greater percentage of adults over the age of 65 than the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control cautions that older adults may be at risk for more serious COVID-19 illness.”

Data from China, where the majority of COVID-19 deaths have occurred, shows that about 80% of adults that have died were over the age of 60.”


https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/number-coronavirus-cases-rises-italy-hit-hard/story?id=69513697

 

Well we now know that is all obsolete.

 

This is a long read but well worth it...
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56

Summary of the article: Strong coronavirus measures today should only last a few weeks, there shouldn’t be a big peak of infections afterwards, and it can all be done for a reasonable cost to society, saving millions of lives along the way. If we don’t take these measures, tens of millions will be infected, many will die, along with anybody else that requires intensive care, because the healthcare system will have collapsed.

 

While, Italy does have an older population which certainly can contribute to their problems, and the italians kiss and shake hands when greetin in ALL occasions which CERTAINLY has helped spread the virus (we have the same problem in France). I think that the socialized health care is exactly the opposite. Why do you think that socialized health care is a factor?
Because as far as I see it, especially living in France, there are more hospital beds here per capita, and more general practitionaers per capita. I would go to the US any day of the week to treat some rare disease, because I know that the US will have the best and the brightest available (for a price of course)n but there are more doctors, more hospital beds, state paid taxis to bring you to the hospitals, and patients who are used to going to the doctors at the first sign of ill health (because they are all insured). So I would think it is the exact opposite. What is your argument as to why socialized medicine is a contributing factor? I am curious; thanks

 

Socialized healthcare has more beds per capita but not as many intensive care beds or specialists or specialized equipment such as ventilators per capita as the US private system does.

 

They also had the hug a Chinaman hug fests in the town squares. They "woke" early.

 

Now it is but the curve became so steep so fast due to all of the above.
As a result of the China travel ban Trump initiated in January we had added time to learn from Europe’s experience and immediately came up with social distancing which will flatten our curve.

 

Italy's experience may have stood out until recently, but the numbers from Spain show them catching up to the Italians. Already, the staggering 'new deaths' reported today from Spain sees them leapfrog Iran and take 3rd position in terms of total deaths, behind Italy and then China. Whatever you have seen from Italy, you are basically seeing in Spain as well, but maybe even faster.

 

Chinese tourism and the age and condition of the population.

When the US comes up with a vaccine I wonder if the Chinese will put huge tariffs on its importation like they do everything else?

 

They're average ages are higher, and higher percentage of smokers. Also, they failed to stop travel between Italy & China until it was way too late as northern Italy is home to thousands of Chinese working in fashion houses (clothing factories) & Chinese tourism.

I saw a report that nearly all of the Italian deaths were of peeps with previous meaningful health issues.

 

The Chinese in clothing factories was a huge factor in both the severity and timeline in Italy.

 

It kills me to cite CNN, but their story pretty much tells us that political correctness made the situation in Italy worse than it needed to be.

 

There's also the fact that about 66 million people are crowded into an area about half the size of california.

 

It might have been intelligent if it had included testing of the non Chinese coming to America. And since he supposedly took this all seriously three months ago why are we still short of test kits, face masks, hospital beds, etc,etc, etc.

Oh and the answer is there is no problem our idiot President doesn’t think can be solved with tariffs or travel bans.

 

Too funny.

Your attempt to demonize liberal politics is noted. But it's not resisting the facts.

I'm Canadian.

Here we have had universal health care for 70 years.

And we will be far less afflicted by disease than you Americans.

Why ?

Because we took the threat seriously from the beginning, we have a PM who took drastic measures long before you did, and that is why we have proportionately 40% fewer cases than you.

 

i have had a tough time getting numbers on that claim. Different sites report radically different numbers. I have seen no pattern. Germany has twice as many ventilators as the US. The UK has more per capita than the US. Both have socialized medicine. France has half as many per capita, and Italy a fraction. So I am not sure that this notion of socialized vs private flies. If you have a comprehensive source coroborating your claim, I would ba happy to have a look. As I said I got numbers form disparate sources that gave disperate numbers for the same country, so it was hard to judge.

 

And that was/is the Biden position.

Italians live very close together, I'm sure excess weight from all that pasta doesn't help either.

 

Did Canada ban travel from China in January as Trump did? Does Canada have half or less the population of America?

Think

 

Italy 12.5 per 100,000
America 32.5 per 100,000


https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/21105/number-of-critical-care-beds-per-100000-inhabitants/

 

So Trump came up with social distancing in January?

 

Pot calling kettle. Kinda made me chuckle.

 

I think we could mention the absolute incompetence of Italian authorities, to that we could add that Italian took some time to respect the curfew imposed by the state. The same reason that why France was hit so hard.
Apparently, this thread is full of frenchies, we just need Lafayettebis now.

 

I heard that Spain refused to stop some celebrations due to money over tourists or something. That seems to have been its mistake.

 

Pause for a moment. When Johnson was having his Corona daily he was asked that given he was saying we were two weeks behind Italy he thought he should point out that we are in a worse state than Italy was then. He asked Boris to speak about this. Boris managed to not answer. Same could be said for the US. You probably at Government level were the most held back country though obviously your States have been doing what they can.

 

But the one town they put into lockdown with soldiers is now clear.