[CharleysPride]

Coming Soon to a state near you.

[laplata]

People had better have plenty of food and prescription medicine at home.

[RayChuang88]

Between lots of retirees living in Italy, heavy smoking and the very physical way Italians greet each other, no wonder the disease afflicted so many in Italy.

[RummyChick]

so does anyone with knowledge of the people and the area know why Italy is so special in terms of outbreak.

They aren’t that much different than other countries.

Yes, they have a Chinese population there. But so do we in some areas.

[SpaceBar]

No African ‘migrants’ were hurt making this message.

[SaxxonWoods]

It is so strange what’s happening in Italy.

I’m trying to figure out how these numbers fit in.

Cases - deaths
Germany 1176 - 2
U.K. 321 - 5
Austria 131 - 0
Norway 206 - 0
Belgium 239 - 0
Sweden 260 - 0
Switzerland 374 - 2

[Berlin_Freeper]

Make your own safe room and lock the door.

[JennysCool]

Conte says the measures, “were necessary to defend the most fragile members of the community.”

It is fairly certain now the victims of the disease are predominantly seniors in their 80s and 90s and persons with pre-existing conditions that make them vulnerable. It’s an interesting moral choice. Do you shut down an ENTIRE COUNTRY for the benefit of essentially a small percentage of the population?

[MplsSteve]

Why am I suddenly hearing the lyrics to Pat Benatar’s “Little Too Late” right now?

[null and void]

All this fuss over a flag Flu!

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[DouglasKC]

Those stupid italians. Don’t they read Freerepublic to know that it’s just the flu? How dare they take such drastic action.

[Carriage Hill]

I sure hope we have enough Parma Ham, Parma Reggiano Cheese and Pignolia Nuts, to survive until this thing plays itself out.

[Sam Gamgee]

Over the weekend it was only Lombardy.

[ameribbean expat]

Conveniently favors resolution of two Italian domestic crises: the sad state of Italian banks, which want the ECB to prop them up, and the African migrant problem, which Italians want to stop.

[PROCON]

Just as well, you can't find a house to rent in Tuscany anyway.

[Salvation]

Keep the Pope there. We don’t want him visiting us.

[redgolum]

Pray this works.