Newt Gingrich: I Am In Italy Amid The Coronavirus Crisis. America Must Act Now--And Act Big

Newsweek ^ | March 13, 2020 | Newt Gingrich

[Reno89519]

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic poses two threats: public health and economic.

...

As I write:

• All schools are closed in all of Italy.
• All churches are closed (including St. Peter's Basilica).
• All weddings and funerals are postponed.
• All restaurants are closed.
• In fact, all stores except grocery stores and pharmacies are closed.
• People are urged to work from home unless they work in special designated factories

The streets are almost empty.

These steps are not an overreaction. The coronavirus is out of control of in Northern Italy. As of 6 p.m. local/1 p.m. EST on March 10, there were 15,113 total cases in Italy, with 12,839 active cases, 1,016 deaths and 1,258 recoveries. And there were 162 total cases here in Rome.

The hardest-hit region around Milan has had to improvise as its health system has been deeply stressed by the sheer number of patients. In Milan and Brescia, field hospitals have been set up in the fairgrounds as the local hospitals have been drowned in patients.

Because the demand for respirators and intensive care has been beyond any previous planning, doctors have been forced into the kind of triage thinking developed for intense battlefield casualty situations. There are reports that emergency room doctors are allotting respirators to those with higher life expectancy due to the limited equipment in the hardest hit areas of the province. If you are older or have other illnesses, you may simply not be eligible for treatment.

[murron]

Yes he can. American citizens can fly back but must be tested and self quarantine.

[DouglasKC]

No, not a hoax but an artificially created crisis. A seemingly created crisis that the Leftists always espouse to never let go to waste. That does not mean that anyone thinks a disease cannot make people sick. I'm not going to be told what to do by screaming doomsayers. I am going to do all I can to survive this but the fear-mongering must stop.

What is the artificially created crisis?

[nbenyo]

Italians are healthier than Americans. Their life expectancy exceeds ours by 5 or 6 years.

[FlipWilson]

Not anymore.

[JayGalt]

I think the comment is based on the medical system.

Italy has socialized medicine. They have 12.5/100k ICU beds/100K population similar to Iraq. Most of Europe is more like 20-30k per 100k/population, the US is the highest in the world at34k and we have stockpiled equipment as well.

[GnuThere]

He says we need to stand by to help with the impending European recession later this year - well, there may be a global recession by then but I’d prefer to focus on what the US can do for itself.

[JayGalt]

Patients in Italian ICU’s number ~ 12% in the age group 16-50 years old. The remaining 88% are over age 50. It stands to reason that more of that 12% are in their 40’s than in their teens & twenties.

[gogeo]

Ping

[IrishBrigade]

‘I guess the naysayers think the Chinese, Koreans and Italians shut their countries down because they thought it would be a funny practical joke.’

no, they did it in order to make Trump look bad; haven’t you been reading this forum...?

[Empire_of_Liberty]

“Not to rain on Newt’s moment but Italy seems to be an outlier. We may never understand why.”

From another thread,

“There are more than 300,000 Chinese nationals living in Italy”

[higgmeister]

Newt’s saying to nip this in the bud by any means possible...he’s seeing what’s happening if we were a few months down the road... he’s telling us what our future might look like if we don’t act quickly.

Newt has not been on my good side for a good long while.

He was my Congressman. I went to his rallies, shook his hand, put out his yard signs, and generally got him re elected term after term, against "the cookie monster", "the ginger", "Cooter" et al. At his rally in the parking lot of Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q I enjoyed standing in the back talking with his wife at the time while Newt was giving his stump speech.

Then just after his last election, won by a landslide, he resigns, flees Georgia and has stayed gone lo these many years like the coward that he is. His actions just after Bill Clinton's crimes allowed the Democrats to point at the Republican saying you Republicans have illicit sex too.

Newt Gingrich is the very definition of feet of clay. So when he tells us what our future might look like if we don’t act quickly, it seems really sad he couldn't look in his own crystal ball when it was really important.

[Avalon Memories]

Why would funerals be postponed? Some percentage of any population dies every day from all sorts of causes. Seems to me leaving bodies lying around would be a greater health risk thank the virus.

[IrishBrigade]

‘What are you...four?’

you can’t be serious; four...? he sounds at the very least six or seven...

[higgmeister]

What is the artificially created crisis?

Get real.

[SunkenCiv]

Figures he used to be an 'educator'. It's amazing how an actual virus -- that must either be much worse than China has admitted (but known *for a fact* by gubmint ciphers around the world) or has a virtual counterpart invented by media liars -- has suddenly turned US shoppers into survivalists and preppers.

Official statistics indicate there are at least 320,794 Chinese citizens in Italy , although these figures do not account for illegal immigration, former Chinese citizens who have acquired Italian nationality or Italian-born people of Chinese descent.

Chinese People in Italy [wikipedia]

• Italy hit with one-day record 368 new coronavirus deaths

  Official data showed the number of fatalities shooting up by 368 to 1,809 -- more than half of all the cases recorded outside China. [Italy's population is 60 million]

[GOPJ]

Bill Clinton's 'crime' was lying under oath in a sexual harassment case. He was NOT impeached for being 'unfaithful'.

Eisenhower and Kennedy were unfaithful... that's NOT against the law of the land. And they're just two of many Presidents who were 'unfaithful'....

Clinton was NOT impeached for HAVING CONSENSUAL SEX WITH A BIMO. Or 50 consensual 'affairs' with assorted bimbos... some who were bullied and threatened into silence.

Newt didn't lie under oath in a sexual harassment case. Newt didn't rape any women. For you to compare the two is nuts.

[MayflowerMadam]

“He’s 76. What is he in Italy for?”

With his wife who’s Ambassador (or something) at the Vatican. (Do we pay ambassadors to religious denominations with tax money?)

After him cozying up to Pelosi years ago, and a few other times straying from the straight and narrow, I guess he SHOULD pound sand.

[ETCM]

While various other viruses known as “the flu” will kill over 20,000 in the US.

Italy reported 368 deaths TODAY. That's equivalent to 2,000 in the USA, in ONE DAY. Now virtually shutting down their country to gain control over this virus, I'm sure Italy wishes they would have been a little more proactive. Spain, Switzerland, France, Germany and other Euro countries are desperately trying NOT to follow Italy's example. But I'm sure we have nothing to worry about. It can't happen here. It only infects Asians Italians.

[exDemMom]

What the government is trying to do is to stop a whole bunch of people getting really sick all at the same time. YOU can help by NOT getting sick. That means take it seriously. Don't walk around and act like this isn't serious and convey that attitude to others. YOU will be directly contributing to the devastation of our health care system and ultimately the economy.

Thank you, a million times over! Too many people don't take this seriously.

A case appeared in my county just this weekend.

People would do well to study the H1N1 pandemic of 1917-1919. It is naïve to think that our healthcare system is so much better than 100 years ago that we will not face some of the same issues. We'll face exactly what they faced.

[CincyRichieRich]

Isn’t the fact that he and his wife are over there enough reason to prove they are too stupid to listen to?