Coronavirus, Italy and empathy.
A couple of weeks ago a friend from Italy told me that some people were attacking a Filipino in the street. They thought he was a Chinese and told him to go back to his country and stop bringing diseases and virus to Italy.
Today china restricted all travel from Italy to stop the spreading of the epidemic. All the indicators show that it can go way worse in Italy than in China. We also underestimated china. A mix between preconceptions (it is a third world country. No, it is not!) and racism.
Some weeks ago, african people were dying in fragile boats, trying to reach Italy, fleeing from wars, countries with no safety, no resources and epidemics. A lot of Italians were very upset and wanting them to go back to their countries or even die at the sea. They were dying at the sea.
Today at the news, people are trying to flee from Italy, in fear that the epidemics will explode and kill a lot of people, trapped in a country with closed airports. Some scientific studies predict that half a million people in Italy can be infected with 20 or 30k deaths. They, we, don’t have the manpower of China, the experience dealing with sars, the ability of a fast response.
Sometimes we lack a lot of empathy. We are selfish, egoistic and we don’t want to hear about other people reasons to jump into a boat and risk their lifes and the life’s of the loved ones for an opportunity to survive.
Today Italy learnt that the hardcore way. No matter what first world country you live in. In a matter of one week you could be the refugee looking for help, trying to flee your country for an opportunity to survive.
I really hope the virus can be contained and all my Italian friends are safe. We are not doing better in Spain. With politicians still trying to blame the immigrants for what is happening and everybody complaining and saying that they would do better. Cuñados saying they will do tests for everyone at every airport with no idea about how a pcr test work, how long it takes to get a result, how many people (and tests) you need for that. People buying masks until the farmacies are out of them and then the infected people can not wear one. Everybody panicking instead of what we should do in any danger situation: stop, breath, assess the situation and then think.
Remember all the disaster movies you watched. It is always the same. It is the informed people and the ones who listen to the scientist who survive. Stop spreading fake stuff, stop listening to politicians. Listen to the scientists.
Use reason and not emotion to take decisions. We are forgetting how to do this.
And wash your hands. Wash your hands like you were picking habanero Chiles all the morning and now you want to wear contact lenses.
