“Bottom line is we don’t know. The author says he does not know why the situation in northern Italy is so bad relative to other places. He also writes that he does not know the basis for Merkel saying that 70% of Germans will become infected. There is so much uncertainty that dismissing this as no worse than the flu is not how I am looking at it. BTW I thought Hannity was awful last night - the show was literally 100% about politics and unrelentingly dismissive of the virus. Just my opinion FWIW.”
I can think of several reasons why this has hit Italy particularity hard. First, they were hit with a large number of cases at once. It can be assumed that many Chinese traveled home for the lunar new year and brought the virus back with them to Italy. So instead of starting of with a few dozen cases Italy started off with hundreds, maybe thousands of imported cases from China. This cause the virus to get a strong foothold in the country before the authorities had a chance to ramp up their response. News reports indicate that many hospitals are overwhelmed with the staff getting sick as well. A high initial infection count would cause that.
Next the average age in Italy is older than many countries, the disease affects the elderly more than others further straining the medical system.
Finally, the nature of the fashion industry itself may be to blame. Producing, textiles and turning them into clothes involves creating a lot of airborne fibers. Sufficient fibers can cause respiratory problems. Growing up I had a very good friend who’s dad owned a furniture repair shop. He really specialized in recovering furniture. He had to give it up in his late fifties because the fibers had compromised his lungs. I wonder if this could have an effect as well.
See post # 19
Very interesting - thanks