Comment by fulvioterzapi | Hacker News Reader

Comment by fulvioterzapi | Hacker News Reader

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The government is calling to unity, and the situation is tragic enough that no-one can ignore the call.

However the left wing (and the current ruling coalition) has some serious responsibilities here, and I hope they are held accountable once this mess is over. A few weeks ago we were told that 'the only virus there is, is racism', implying that people worried about the virus spreading were doing so because of an anti-Chinese sentiment. The other popular talking point was that there are more flu deaths every year, so one shouldn't worry.

I see a link between this attitude and the current disaster.

The situation is bad, though. I was particularly shocked by an ICU medic from Lombardia declaring that in his hospital they cannot treat all the patients, and that they have to select those that appear to have the highest survival chances, something you do in times of war.

(throwaway since my coworkers know my username here, and they wouldn't like my political opinions, I hope this is allowed, otherwise please remove.)

Since genome analysis has shown that the Italian strain came from Germany, they were right in denouncing racism against Chinese people living in Italy. Just like it's now incorrect to treat Italy like the European Wuhan.

I am not sure how you can say the government's response is worse than other countries, where other governments are doing absolutely nothing even after they reached a thousand cases.

(BTW the right spelling of your otherwise beautiful nick should be furioterzapi).

> they were right in denouncing racism against Chinese people living in Italy.

In my opinion there was no actual racism, just common sense measures. That work against any strain.

> I am not sure how you can say the government's response is worse than other countries

I am thinking of our prime minister, for instance. Two weeks ago he was on TV 16 times in a single day, to denounce the emergency. Then we went into the 'business as usual' phase, and the situation slipped out of hand. Today he was quoting Churchill, and I had the impression that it was more to inflate his ego, rather than to do something useful for the country.

All in all I see a very amateurish management of the crisis.

> furioterzapi

That's a debated point, on live versions of the song you can clearly hear "Fulvio". On the booklet they write "Furio".

Common sense measures include washing your hands, not avoiding Chinese restaurants. But yes, it wasn't perfect. At least there was no generalized denial.

It seems like we should be reconsidering all restaurant meals? Why take the risk if you can eat at home?

It lessens the impact on the local economy. Restaurant workers are a generally vulnerable population in the US with little or no PTO and they often have poor access to health care.

Left or right, all governments seem to be doing less than stellar job fighting this, to say the least. I don't understand why it is relevant.

Some are doing a good job eg Taiwan https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/taiwan-reins-spread-c...

* Health services in Italy are entirely controlled at the regional level

* The two worst-hit regions (Lombardia and Veneto) are ruled by right-wing coalitions

* Not even the administrations of those regions, who should be politically on the same page, can agree on what to do / what should have been done

* Prato in Toscana, the "unofficial Chinese capital of Italy", has seen no cases whatsoever.

But sure, let's use a worldwide pandemic to throw around some casual racism - like the rest of Europe is doing against "dirty Italians" right now.

I don't think pointing out business connections between individuals belonging to particular nation states is an example of "casual racism". It's no kind of racism at all.

But the rest of the information you provided is very interesting! That the "Chinese capital" of Italy has no cases is very interesting, in particular.

> It's no kind of racism at all.

The political situation in Italy has been an absolute powder-keg of not-even-casual racism for years now, not unlike some areas of the UK. The "political boss" of those two regional administrations I mentioned, Matteo Salvini of Lega Nord, tried to scapegoat Asian communities pretty brutally at the onset of the epidemic, with the usual result (Asian-looking people being shouted at in the streets etc).

We now know that the European "patient 0" was likely from Germany, so these right-wingers were left with egg on their faces and are now running around like headless chickens - just yesterday Lombardia asked for more rigorous lockdown measures, whereas Veneto was asking for the opposite. So I get pretty pissed off at the strenuous attempts to go back to the original talking points about discrimination of entire ethnic groups, particularly when Italians abroad (a category that includes me) have to suffer the same idiotic attitudes at the moment.

> so these right-wingers were left with egg on their faces

You could say the same of the left-wing, that promoted for weeks a reckless attitude, pushing the message that we just needed to do business as usual, and to "overcome the fear".

The secretary of the most prominent left-wing party, Zingaretti is now infected. About two weeks ago was posting picture of him drinking at a bar with other people. On top of the picture he wrote: "Our slogan is: normality. [...] Our economy is stronger than fear: let's go out and drink an aperitif, a coffee or have a pizza".

While I wish him a speedy recovery, it's undeniable the left wing downplayed the risks.

I do not disagree (most governments outside China have failed, including US, UK, Australia, Germany etc), but at least they did not spread hate.

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