Why Has Italy Been So Hard Hit by the Coronavirus?

Amici,

The Federalist reports that both China and Iran have been far too close to the Chinese for comfort -- and now pay the price. One might easily observe that in the U.S. and Europe, universities are full of Chinese students, and Chinese travel regularly back and forth -- or did. Therefore, one can ask why the close connections between Italy and Iran result in this disaster, but not in other places.

Perhaps the example of the many deaths at a rest home in Seattle tell the tell: it was just one individual from Wuhan, or had just come from Wuhan after visiting, who brought the disease. (It doesn't seem to be caught person-to-person, by the way, but by contact with things an infected person touches.) One person was the vector that killed 40-some old folks. Same thing could have happened in Italy and Iran, and they might have had more individuals from Wuhan in their midst. But the article has more details. Also relevant: China dealt with the Wuhan bug in the way Commies do, as the Soviets did Chernobyl: coverup and denial. That enabled the disease to spread as rapidly as it did.

Also, remember that Italy has one of the oldest populations in Europe, and Iran's population is aging as well. And of course, their medical systems are not the best (Italy has a "single-payer" government run healthcare, like Britain and Hungary, and unlike France or Germany or, of course, very unlike the U.S.).

An excerpt:

What Has Happened in Italy

Italy’s economy has been struggling for two decades. It has seen three recessions in 10 years. Its unemployment rate stood at 10.3 percent, and its youth unemployment rate was 33 percent as of 2018. According to Marco Annunziata of Forbes, the living standards in Italy today are roughly the same as they were 20 years ago because very little growth has occurred.

Italy’s economic woes are caused by aging industries, ruinous regulations (especially its overly rigid labor laws), an inefficient banking system, high levels of corruption, and constant political turmoil. From 1946 to 2016, Italy had 65 governments. No matter who was in charge, he lacked resolve to implement serious structural reform and deregulation to boost the economy.

Instead, every one of the 65 governments hoped they could spend their way out of an economic mess. Italy’s debt burden as a percentage of annual economic activity measured by GDP is at 132 percent as of 2018, the second highest in the EU, only slightly better than Greece.

The most recent political upheaval in Italy took place in May 2018. Weeks after an election, the anti-establishment groups and pro-EU lawmakers failed to produce a new coalition government. The final compromise resulted in a virtually unknown law professor, Giuseppe Conte, becoming the new prime minister.

Like his predecessors, Conte has been unwilling to implement any structural reform. Instead, he sought an “easy” way out. Almost exactly a year ago in March 2019, against warnings from the EU and the United States, Italy became the first and only G7 country to sign onto OBOR. As part of the deal, Italy opened an array of sectors to Chinese investment, from infrastructure to transportation, including letting Chinese state-owned companies hold a stake in four major Italian ports. The deal gave communist China a foothold in the heart of Europe, but Conte downplayed it as “no big deal at all.”

Lombardy and Tuscany are the two regions that saw the most Chinese investment. Nearly a year later, the first Wuhan coronavirus infection case in Italy was reported in the Lombardy region on Feb. 21. Today, Italy is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak outside China, and Lombardy is the hardest-hit region in the country. As of March 14, Italy reported 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths. Now the entire country is in lockdown until at least April 3. Its economy is expected to contract 7.5 percent in the first quarter, opposite what Conte had hoped.