[PGR88]

I read elsewhere that the median age of victims was 82

A perfect storm for urban/modern Italy: one of the demographically oldest societies in the world, with many elderly living alone or connected only with other elderly, urban density, and a disease that seems to target the elderly.

[noiseman]

It should now be clear that the extreme measures being taken are not “crazy” or an overreaction. And we need to stop trying to minimize the impact by saying that this virus only attacks the elderly. The biggest issue is that if the infection increases at a rate beyond that which hospitals can manage, it won’t only be the elderly dying from it. What does everyone think happens to you if you are in a serious accident, suddenly have a heart attack, etc., regardless of age, when you are rushed to the hospital and there are no ICU beds or equipment available to treat you because some people scoffed at the reaction to the virus as “overblown” and as a result behaved in ways that caused the virus to explode?

Think people; it’s straight forward logic and simple math.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

Add this to the mix:

Italy’s outbreak has also marked some of the first reported cases of coronavirus being imported back to China. Qingtian, a small county in China’s southeastern Zhejiang province, confirmed eight new cases of coronavirus on March 2 from Chinese nationals living in Italy’s Lombardy region. There are more than 300,000 Chinese nationals living in Italy, and roughly 90% of them in the Zhejiang Province; the garment industry there has attracted Chinese workers.Fortune Magazine - March 6th