In northern Italy, data in hand, there are 49.4% more deaths than in the same period of March 2019 and also compared to the 5 years before 2020. But in the center-south there was even a drop in deaths with 9% less.
So, apart from a few sporadic cases in the central and southern regions, the southern regions seem to have managed better to cope with the pandemic. These are the statistical data that emerged today after the start of phase 2, which began on May 4, regarding the gradual reopening of Italy after 2 long months of blockade.
Therefore we are dealing with the resumption of some work activities in Italy: factories, bars, restaurants, pizzerias, dedicated in particular to takeaway dishes, etc. But other businesses are not yet operational, such as hairdressers, barbers and other stores in general, which opened on May 18 as required by government ordinance.
Already populous cities such as Milan, Turin, Brescia, etc., in northern Italy, the same ones that have been seriously affected by the pandemic, see the traffic and commuter movements progressively increase, forced to wear masks and gloves respecting the safety distance prescribed by the standards.
Will Italy be able to recover after the previous explosive closure which saw its economy on its knees with a sharp drop in GDP, as well as that of other European countries?
It is all to see in its evolution after these days of cautious openings.
But one thing is certain: if it is true that the virus had a natural genesis, then one should ask why it hit China and especially the most industrialized countries in the world so hard. Much, in the opinion of eminent scientists, has to do with climate change, pollution and excessive urbanization. We should re-study our cities and redesign them on a human scale as in the Italian 16th century, when a right balance between man and nature had been established.
So here is how the keywords, used as awakening from the numbness of the block, namely:
Renaissance – Responsibility – Trust – Sustainability
they take shape and acquire an important value in a phase like this which implies not only a physical and spiritual awakening of the consciences narcotized by a long isolation, but also a moral, civic and environmental growth of each of us as part of a whole.
Going back to being like before will be completely impossible, so we should quickly start the road of rapid change, a metamorphosis of our wrong habits, gangrene from advertising and tam-tam consumers, from the paradox of an artificial life that does not meet our needs as responsible men of a planet that has been entrusted to us by the creator and that we, unscrupulous human beings, have made uninhabitable.
So Phase 2 acquires a new dimension, perhaps less structured at an economic-financial level, but certainly more human.
The problem now is to seek the right balance in our numb and dependent consciences to the wrong routine inculcated by the media sponsors of unscrupulous businessmen.
This is the real test to be passed in all countries of the world. The vaccine is linked more to this level of awareness than to Coronavirus.
When the number of infected becomes 0, i.e. when a double period of time has elapsed, compared to the incubation of COVID-19 which is 14 days, then we can see that the infection has ended, taking about two weeks to become infected.
What predictions, therefore, pending an improbable, although touted vaccine, profitable deal for who will succeed first in this race?
I believe that if in one month (twice the time compared to the 14 days of incubation by the virus) there are no more infections, we could cheer: the pandemic would have disappeared.
We just have to wait for the evolution of the national course on the pandemic (it differs from country to country) and in those countries like the United Kingdom and the United States where Trump, thinking only of the economy, risks killing over 150,000 people by August.
Currently the death toll is 70,000 only in the United States and 30,000 statistically in Italy, mainly concentrated in the north (Milan, Bergamo and surrounding areas, notoriously more polluted and populated). This is the situation updated to today 5 May 2020.
I hope this article of mine is a comfort especially for those countries that are fighting this battle. My thoughts go to everyone, but in particular to Palestine and the mistreated Kashmir, under the Indian curfew since August 5, 2019 and still prey to vile and repressive actions taking advantage of the blockade due to the coronavirus.
That the post-pandemic is the right opportunity to stop all kinds of repression around the world.
The current belief in large area green spaces and large population cities from a public health issue was a no go from the beginning. The consecrations of people in small areas has always been the point of disease transfer. Plain as day. The organisational purpose of concentration of people is management, non public health. Almost all the virus concentration is in large cities that are too dense. The idea of tall building complexes and underground cities has been going on for 50 years. Smaller towns or smaller cities place enough apart that they permit some control of disease. Put and end to this idea that people can live in giant cities- like cow feeding lots. (Russian planners thought small city approach in the 1960’s) I think the world wide web can help this happen. Done right wild animals will adapt. Small towns in Italy are one good example. We have known this a very long time.
Thank you dear Glen Smith for your meaningful comment. I am sure that the small abandoned Italian villages will be repopulated again precisely as a result of this devastating pandemic.
My discussion on the indiscriminate use of skyscrapers and excessive urban concentration is reported in my article in LTEconomy blog: http://www.lteconomy.it/blog/2019/07/15/soil-overexploitation/
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