Why Italy was hit so hard and so fast by COVID-19

Lessons learned from Italy's pandemic as death toll reaches 1,800

Life or death decisions

All the hospitals in Northern Italy are stretched to the breaking point. Health-care workers are totally exhausted, themselves terrified of contracting the virus and passing it on to their own families. Ventilators are the only thing that will keep the sickest patients alive, and there may not be enough to go around. Doctors have been put in the agonizing position of deciding who lives and who dies.

The elderly, and those with complicating medical conditions, might be sacrificed.

"If you have to choose between a 75-year-old person and a 20-year-old person, who are you going to choose? Obviously, it's the person with the higher expectation of life," Casani said.

"So there will be a moment that an anesthesiologist will have to take off the respirator from this 75-year-old guy and give it to the 20-year-old. And, this will be a horrible choice for the doctors, but obviously necessary."

Effectively that means that some people are being left to die because it's not possible to treat everybody," says Professor Yascha Mounk of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C..

He has studied the ethical dilemmas of what used to be considered "battlefield medicine."  

"I mean, I can only imagine how psychologically devastating it must be for the doctors and nurses involved. They are already at great danger to themselves, working around the clock, in an extreme situation, seeing many people die and now you add on top of that the psychological stress of having to look at a patient and say I'm not going to be able to do anything for you. It's hard to fathom.

There have been over 1,800 COVID-19 deaths in Italy as of Sunday, out of 24,747 cases. That's the highest mortality rate of any country, even above China, which has 3,200 deaths to 81,000 cases. 

Mounk thinks Canadians should not be reassured by the much lower number of deaths so far in Canada. 

"My message to Canadians is that many countries around the world have thought something about them makes them less susceptible to this virus than others, and that has proven wrong in every case."

"Canadians are not miraculously exempt from dying from this disease," he adds, "and not miraculously exempt from seeing it spread in exponential fashion."

Saltzy23 said:

My apartment is an 8 minute walk from where I live, and I am going completely stir crazy.

I'm going in.

oftenreading said:

It would sure be nice if people stopped posting misinformation and conspiracy theories. 

Thoughts_Arrive said:

mcgruff10 said:

So my old neighbor s sister who passed from this has probably infected her whole family.  Every single Sunday the entire family would get together for a big ole pasta dinner.  Eleven brothers and sisters.  I m not sure how many went to this particular dinner but the entire family is quarantined and a few others are in the hospital, one older family member is in a coma.  Details are slow to come out.  
Be safe everyone. 

mcgruff10 said:

So my old neighbor s sister who passed from this has probably infected her whole family.  Every single Sunday the entire family would get together for a big ole pasta dinner.  Eleven brothers and sisters.  I m not sure how many went to this particular dinner but the entire family is quarantined and a few others are in the hospital, one older family member is in a coma.  Details are slow to come out.  
Be safe everyone. 

Thoughts_Arrive said:

DONALD TRUMP: I've been briefed on every contingency you could possibly imagine. Many contingencies. A lot of positive. Different numbers, all different numbers. Very large numbers. And some small numbers, too, by the way.

A religious education teacher from Freehold has been identified as New Jersey’s second coronavirus death.

Rita Fusco-Jackson, who was in her 50s and lived in Freehold, died on Thursday, officials said this weekend. The Co-Catherdral of St. Robert Bellarmine, based in Freehold, confirmed her name Sunday afternoon.

Her death is connected to the death of John Brennan, a horse trainer who lived in Little Ferry. Brennan was the first New Jersey resident to die from COVID-19. Nationally, the coronavirus has killed 62 people.

State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said one of Fusco-Jackson’s siblings is friends with Brennan, and the virus likely spread through a family gathering. Several other people at that gathering also tested positive for the virus, officials said.

Fusco-Jackson’s family was also involved in harness horse racing, and she was one of 11 children, an obituary for her father says. She was both a parishioner and a teacher in the church’s confirmation program, the church said.

“I ask that every member of the parish please remember the Fusco-Jackson family in their prayers as they deal with the loss of Rita and for all who have been impacted by COVID-19 here in the parish and throughout the nation,” the church said in a Facebook post.

Another family member of Fusco-Jackson’s is a fifth grade religious education teacher at the church during the Tuesday evening service, and two younger family members are students, the church said. All three are self-quarantined and were not in class this week, the church said.

As of Sunday afternoon, at least 98 cases of coronavirus have been reported in New Jersey. The rising number of COVID-19 positive tests in the state has forced the closure of the most public schools, the suspension of all new jury trials, and put curfews into place.