Mattia Ferraresi, an Italian journalist, warned British people to ‘stay home’ as top doctors of the country warned Covid-19 is ‘apocalyptic.
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He said the Italian government wasted time in not acting more drastically and decisively early on, claiming that the country’s universal healthcare system has been ‘felled’ by over 17,000 confirmed cases.
Mr. Ferraresi, who writes for II Foglio, described the lockdown situation as an ‘exercise in humility.’ He is now urging people to sacrifice ‘individual freedom in order to protect everybody.’
He wrote in The Boston Globe newspaper: “Until last week, the Italian public health care system had the capacity to care for everyone.
“Our country has universal health care, so patients aren’t turned away from hospitals here. But in a matter of days, the system was being felled by a virus that I, and many other Italians, had failed to take seriously.
“It didn’t have to come to this. We of course couldn’t stop the emergence of a previously unknown and deadly virus.
“But we could have mitigated the situation we are now in, in which people who could have been saved are dying. I, and too many others, could have taken a simple yet morally loaded action: We could have stayed home.”
Mr. Ferraresi also blasted Governments’ ‘less-than-urgent appeals to the public’ and argued ‘when the terrible outcomes they are designed to prevent… become evidence, it’s generally too late to act.’
He added: “When everybody’s health is at stake, true freedom is to follow instructions.”
Giuseppe Natalini, head of intensive care at the Fondazione Poliambulanza Hospital, also called the crisis in Italy ‘catastrophic, unimaginable.’
He said to The Times newspaper: “If someone had told me on February 21 that today we would be in this situation, I would not have believed it.
“Two or three weeks ago I would have considered the strict measures that have been in place in Italy disproportionate and alarmist. Now, absolutely not.”
“You’d be fools to get burnt like us,” Dr. Natalini added.
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