Why Italy???

dreher

Why is Italy having such a rough time with the virus??  There has to be a reason!  Spasmcreeksrun said on another post "Small country with loads of tourists???"  That was one of my thoughts also.  Is the fact that on a % basis more of their tourists are from China than other countries part of the answer??  An aging population is another of my thoughts.  Is it as simple as to many people in to small an area so people that are living on top of one another are spreading the virus more  quickly??

I've always thought the GB crowd was a smarter group by far than most groups of people.  (There are a few exceptions!)  So what do you GBers think?? 

He Dog

Among other things Italy apparently has the oldest population of any EU country, which could be making them more vulnerable.  While tourism could certainly be a factor, much of the outbreak is in the industrial Northern part of the country, while much of the tourism is south, in Florence, Rome, the Amalfi coast.  The main attractions in the North are Pisa, Venice and of course Beretta.  Curiously there appears to be a sex bias in the mortality rates with men a 70% of the dead.  This also has yet to be understood.

Rocky Raab

High influx of transient people, crippled with a "universal health care" system run by a wholly corrupt government.

select-fire

It is killing men more than women. That is unexplained. 

select-fire

It is known that the virus can live airborne for up to 3 hours. Just think of all the apartment buildings with the same ventilation to all the units. Someone gets sick and it will go to everyone.

yonson

Only takes one carrier to start. Just happened to be a place wholly unaware and unequipped to control it.

chiefr

Rocky Raab said:

High influx of transient people, crippled with a "universal health care" system run by a wholly corrupt government.

Yep GOVERNMENT health care.

mac10

genetic make up might have cause

Brookwood

If you were to ask this same question a month from now, you will probably know the answer.  

I sure hope I am wrong but...….

mogley98

Not sure of the "airborne" qualification. If CDC and others are correct that it needs to hitch a ride on droplets I would think it highly unlikely droplets containing the virus would make it through a central HVAC/heating system and filters and still be a droplet. We use 95% Hepa filters in the Operating room but regular 70-80% filters elsewhere. I suppose a tiny particle could make it through with a viable virus still attached but I think a greater risk is non porous surfaces and transfer. The virus is reported to have a fatty lipid coating that breaks up with good hand washing. Still sounds like the best defense.

select-fire

Moisture in AC units in apartment complexes or multiple units. Looks like a hitch hiker situation.

oldWinchesterfan

I understand the biggest risk factor in Italy is the structure of their family units. Usually three generations living together, sometimes a fourth generation member. So old folks living with young adults and kids. The perfect situation for this virus to spread and do the most damage. Higher average population age is also a contributing factor. But their family unit structure is the biggest issue.

hobo9650

Just read an article that indicates the college students are coming from the north to their home in the south spreading the virus to older family members.

truthful

Apparently there is a lot of back and forth traffic between Italy and China for some reason. And it is easy to see how Italy infected much of the rest of Europe what with no borders.

mjrfd99

Good read..
https://uncoverdc.com/2020/03/20/why-italy/?fbclid=IwAR2Rl_MU3gxLlY64-XcOXn01KahEsbl_bCD46D0ol-pP6EytghorZFKH1Lw

shilowar

It has also been suggested that culturally Italians are a very touchy feely people, with alot of regular physical contact which may have contributed to it's quick spread.  I don't have any personal knowledge of this, just passing it along as a theory for the transmission rate being so high.

spasmcreeksrun

Italy and California are about the same size....calif has 37.3 million and italy has 60.5 million people and the  northern part has the highest concentration of chinese in Europe.....maybe travel while virus was downplayed in china is a jump start factor ???

RobOz

They ignored it and have a pretty good pop of Chinese

dok2u

In order to keep the Chinese "proletariat" pacified and under control, the Chinese communist leaders regularly award "vacations" to them.  In general, the package tours are preferred by the Chinese communist rulers because they can be easily controlled.  Several years ago I was working in a large sporting goods store and suddenly buses of Chinese tourists began showing up.  There were usually 3 or 4 people in charge, herding them like cattle into and around the store, all the time lecturing to them in Chinese.  Then just as suddenly after about 6 months these visits stopped.  I thought (and hoped a little) that it might have had something to do with all the firearms on display for sale being seen as a threat by the Chinese communists handlers.  But some time after that somebody explained that a couple of the people on these tours had managed to slip away and get to a federal courthouse where they asked for asylum.  It's not as easy to break away from the tour when you're on a ship most of the time.