The Daily Signal - Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, What Daily Life Is Like in Italy Now

Episode Date: April 3, 2020

Italy has been hit hard by coronavirus deaths, with over 13,000 total coronavirus fatalities to date. "The worst part's been witnessing all these elderly people just fade away and die by the hundreds every day," says Aura Latorre, a Venezuelan immigrant who now resides in southern Italy. She shares on the podcast what it’s like to live in a country under quarantine, how daily life has changed, the attitude of the Italian people, what she hopes Italians will learn from this time, and much more. We also cover these stories: 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last full week of March. Another sad milestone: here have now been over 5,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. The Democratic National Convention, originally set to take place in Milwaukee in July, has been delayed one month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Friday, April 3rd. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Kate Trinko. Today, our podcast co-host, Rachel Del Judas, interviews a woman living in Italy about what life is like there right now, as the nation grapples with a massive COVID-19 crisis and quarantine. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the last week of March, according to the Department of Labor, showing the economic fallout from coronavirus continues. Unemployment was a record low of 3.5% in February, and now that number has likely jumped to 9.7%.

According to the Heritage Foundation Research Fellow Rachel Gressler. Gresler says the 3,000% increase in unemployment claims compared with February's weekly claims can largely be attributed to the passage of the CARES Act, which provides broad unemployment benefits to many Americans and President Trump's extension of business closures and social distancing practices through April 30th. In an op-ed for the daily signal, Gressler suggests that the temporary higher-than-usual unemployment benefits may encourage some businesses to lay off workers who would otherwise keep them employed. In other words, some workers might actually make more being unemployed than working right now. Gresler recommends

that unemployment benefits be capped at 100% of workers' previous wages. This one common sense fix could prevent millions of lost jobs and help reboot the economy once this public health crisis subsides, she says. Another sad milestone in the United States, there have now been over 5,000 coronavirus deaths in our country. According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, there are now 226,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. Out of the 5,300 Americans who have died from the coronavirus, about 2,000 were from New York City or New York State. Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, made a sobering announcement Thursday during a press

briefing by the Hill. We are also still in the business of looking for ventilators to buy ventilators. It's too late to ask a company to make them in any way that would work for our time frame. You look at our time frame, seven days to 30 days. No one is going to be able to make a ventilator for you in that period. of time. Cuomo pleaded with able businesses to step up and begin producing needed supplies, such as gloves, gowns, and mass. He said the state of New York would compensate companies for their efforts and cut through red tape to allow production to begin ASAP. But we need what we need.

If a person comes in and needs a ventilator and you don't have a ventilator, the person dies. That's the blunt equation here. And right now we, We have a burn rate that would suggest we have about six days in the stockpile. But we are taking all sorts of extraordinary measures. I've spoken to health people all across the nation, Dr. Zerker's done all sorts of research. And we have extraordinary measures in place that can make a difference if we run into a real ventilator shortage. The federal government is sending medical supplies to New York and New Jersey.

Recently, the FBI found a whopping 192,000 medical masks and 598,000 medical gloves being hoarded, and under the Defense Production Act, they confiscated the supplies. Now, the government is sending supplies to two of the hardest hit states, New York and New Jersey. If you are amassing critical medical equipment for the purpose of selling it at exorbitative, prices you can expect a knock at your door, said Attorney General William Barr in a statement. The Department of Justice's COVID-19 hoarding and price-gouging task force is working tirelessly around the clock with all our law enforcement partners to ensure that bad actors cannot illicitly profit from the COVID-19 pandemic facing our nation. Arizona Republican Senator Martha McSally is asked.

the World Health Organization Director General to step down. Here's what she told Fox Business in an interview. I've been studying communist China my whole life in the military. I've never trusted a communist. And their cover-up of this virus that originated with them has caused unnecessary deaths around America and the world. So this report is not surprising at all. They need to come clean.

And another piece of this is the WHO needs to stop cover. for them. I think Dr. Tadros needs to step down. We need to take some action to address this issue. It's just it's irresponsible. It's unconscionable what they've done here. Well, we have people dying across the globe. Are you going to, are you going to? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a new congressional committee. It will be chaired by Representative Jim Clyburn, who is the number three Democrat in the House. And it will examine how the money and the aid packages passed by Congress in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. is spent. The select committee will root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and ensure money makes it to those who need it most, the working family struggling to pay rent and put food on the table.

Pelosi tweeted, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters per Fox News that inside the bill that we passed, we did put in oversight and it seems really redundant to have a new committee. The Democratic National Convention originally set to take place in Milwaukee in July has been delayed one month due to the coronavirus pandemic, as reported per the Hill. The four-day convention will now begin on August 17th. The Democratic National Convention Committee may change the structure of the event to lessen the number of attendees, but they have not made a formal statement yet. Governor Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, sounds open to the idea of using the coronavirus crisis to promote left-wing ideas. Here's what he said in remarks on NBC, via Graebians, Tom Elliott. I'm wondering if you see the potential, as some others in the party do, for a new progressive era, if you want to call it that, in national politics and policy, and whether there's the opportunity for additional.

progressive steps, such as the ones that I listed on the national and state level, going forward, you know, because of this crisis. You know, we've had some very deep policy conversations in this space now for weeks. Let us remind, despite the fact that California was running historic economic output in terms of our GDP growth, in terms of our net, well, from job creation to low unemployment, to record reserves, surpluses, the wealth distribution, the income inequality was not something that was substantially improving. Later, in response to that same original question, Newsom concluded.

But absolutely, we see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern. And that shouldn't put shivers up the spines of, you know, one party or the other. I think it's an opportunity and new for both parties to come together and meet this moment and really start to think more systemically, not situationally, not just about getting out of this moment, but more sustainably and systemically to consider where we can go together this historic moment if we meet it at a national level and a state and subnational level. So answer is yes. The New England Patriots are stepping up to help in the fight against COVID-19. A team airplane was used Thursday to fly one. 1.2 million medical face masks to America from China. The governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, tweeted a photo of the plane being loaded and said, thanks to some serious teamwork, Massachusetts is set to receive over 1 million N95 masks for our frontline workers. Huge thanks to the crafts and several dedicated partners for making this happen.

In a statement reported on by ESPN, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said, It is an honor for our family to be a part of this humanitarian mission. We knew that purchasing greatly needed N95 masks and providing the Patriots plane to expedite their delivery to local hospitals would immediately help protect our courageous healthcare professionals. Next up, we'll have Rachel's interview with a woman living in Italy about what it's really like on the ground there. The Daily Signals priority is to make sure you and your family are essentially. receiving the best information on how to stay healthy and keep the coronavirus from spreading. Here is an important message from U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams, discussing how young people can help slow the spread of the virus. A question I often get asked is why should young people

care about the spread of coronavirus? Well, we know that people with underlying medical conditions over the age of 60 are at highest risk, but they've got to get it from somebody. And it's why during our 15 days to slow the spread initiative, we're encouraging young people to avoid large gatherings of 10 people or more because we know that if you get coronavirus, you're at risk for spreading it to someone else. I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Aura Latore. She joins us from Bari, which is on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy.

Alda, it's great to have you on the Daily Signal podcast. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, to start off, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your job? and if it's been impacted by coronavirus? Well, I'm from Venezuela, originally. Today, it's 10 years that I moved in in Italy. So, yes, my work is in media and communication. We have a platform that gives communication and marketing

for companies, manufacturing, design, furniture, lighting, carpeting. So the problem is that since we can do all our work from, from everything is digital, our clients are not, they are manufacturers. And the part of Italy, mostly hit that is a northern part, is where almost all the middle and high end furniture and lighting is made. So everything's pretty much on a stall. So, Ara, can you set the scene for us right now on what things are like in Bari? Well, everything's a little bit eerie. There's no people in the street.

This is a small city. Well, it's medium-sized city. And everything pretty much switches off at 7 p.m. Everything closes. But there's just a little bit of people on the streets. And the only problem we have got, maybe in the beginning of the lockdown, it was people didn't, you know, want to, didn't want to follow the instructions from the mayor just to not assemble, not to have more than two people together. So that was a little bit of a problem. People were not taking this seriously from the beginning. And they would go, you know, running and meeting the squares. And, you know, we are by the beach. So people would just, you know, want to do like normal life and now people pretty much got it.

And but everything's very quiet, which is normally not the way Barry is. So it's very strange. Yeah. The first, you know, the first days where we would go out to the balcony at midday or at 6 p.m. to sing the hymn, the national anthem or, you know, to try to change. cheer each other's up. That's not happening anymore. People are just trying to go, you know, get through the day.

And that's pretty much it. The only thing we can do is go outside for grocery shopping or, you know, to go to the pharmacy. And that's pretty much it. Yeah, I was going to ask you, are they still, so apparently they're not singing anymore. And as a follow up to that, what is Italy like? right now in your town especially, are people still going outside for walks? What is allowed and what isn't allowed? Okay. We have a very strict lockdown. We are not allowed to go out just to, you know, within the radio up 200 meters from home. If you have a dog, you can walk it,

simple stuff. They said yesterday, you know, the prime minister that the odd, walk about with your, you know, infant is allowed, but that's pretty much it. And not even, you know, both parents. There has to be one parent taking the, the baby outside just for a little bit. And that's, no, you know, you don't have access again to these little parks. It's not about playing outside. It's just about catching some fresh air and then go back to your house. So we have a very strict lockdown. It's not allowed that much to go running because they know that people, you know, if everyone's, you go out running, there will be a lot of people. And yes, yeah, it's been very strict. Wow. So are you, you are able to go outside just for physical exercise, but are you

needing like permission slips or anything like that to prove like that is what you're doing or has it come to that yet or not? Well, we have a, we need to carry, um, you know, around a, like an auto certification that you live in the, in the neighborhood where you're going or going out. They could be, you know, they could ask you for the ID and for this Bonafide certification that you are, you are a neighbor of that district, that you live there. There has been a lot of a lot of fines already that people from people, you know, on the streets that are walking or just, you know, with other people and making conversation, not squares. So that we got to the point where people are being fined. So I'm sure no day is typical for you just because, you know, things happen.

And I don't mean, maybe it is typical now that you're quarantine. But can you walk us through because the quarantine is so strict what you're. days have looked like? Well, my days look like being at home. I work eight hours because I can carry on with my work in my case. So I do nine to six and I stay home. I go out only twice a week for grocery shopping. Fortunately, I don't have to go to the doctor. I don't have any conditions. So I'm one of the lucky ones. So that's pretty much it. I stay home. I really stay home. So you had mentioned before when we were setting up this email that the eerie feeling that you perceive every time you go grocery shopping and how disheartening it is because you sense distrust among your neighbors. Can you tell

us a little bit more about that? Yes. It's when I, when you're walking on the sidewalk, people are just, you know, they try to avoid even eye contact. It's amazing. We are very, it's, it's, people are very anxious. And we have every, every day at 6pm, we have the report from the national authorities on health. And they continue giving us this amazing, this horrible numbers of, you know, the death toll. Today it was 7, 730 something. And that's so disheartened. So people are, you know, we feel we're under attack and the next person you find on the street could be

the person that might get you infected. So that's very strange. People are very friendly here and, you know, talkative and, you know, and that's it's not it anymore. So is it sort of changed the mood of the Italian people and even like their hospital, you know, their hospitality just because this is how Italians tend not to be. But in today's society with coronavirus, it's changed. Absolutely. Yes. Especially in the South. We are, you know, people here are very friendly and they will talk to everybody. And I, you know, you saw me. I'm Venezuelan, so I am, you know, my physical aspect makes you think that I'm not original from Italy. So I'm always being asked questions about where I'm from. If we're very curious, this is not happening. So, yeah, you're not talking to anyone. How are grocery stores doing where you're at?

I know in the States, like we're running on things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies, but how are you all doing when it comes to the grocery and other things? We're doing good. I haven't encountered any problem when it comes to the grocery shopping or supplies or, you know, basic staples or even, you know, every time I go out and try to find, you know, even special things like, I don't know, almonds or strawberries or whatever it is, imported goods, I find everything. There's no shortage of anything here. We're very lucky, you know, when it comes to what we consume, when it comes to food, everything is produced in Italy. So we haven't had any problems, and there hasn't been any particular problems. Maybe in Sicily, like a couple of weeks ago, there were attempts or lutein or something, but it was just, you know, there were just outlaws of trying to,

profit from a difficult situation, but no, it's, I'm not worried about that. Well, it's so good to hear that that's not a worry right now. I know you mentioned that you're not really interacting with anyone, but if you have any, have had any interactions with neighbors or friends, what have those been like? Oh, in this moment, you mean normally? Yeah, like if you have run into anyone, like maybe a neighbor on your street or someone in your apartment. Have you have talked to anyone, if that's even happened, what has that been like? Well, yeah, this is, this is, I live in the city center, so you can do everything by foot. So everything is like very close. And I would, I used to see my friends to meet my friends two or three

times a week. So that is something that's not, it's not happening. You're not allowed to invite anyone over that only the people that live, you know, in the year and in the same household are supposed to be together. So it's not busy people or anything. This is this is not holiday. We are, he was isolated, who lives alone should remain alone. We cannot take any chances. And, you know, that's why they closed all activities and they closed all activities, you know, like beauty salons or cinemas, theaters, everything's closed. So they even close the bars. You know, the typical bar where you go in the morning and have the coffee and your cornetto,

your croissant, they're even closed those. So they are trying to, you know, avoid any social contact apart from your, you know, household. Have any parts of Adelaide been put under martial law? or is just police patrolling without it actually being martial law? Well, we don't have a curfew. So you pretty much can go out and do whatever you have got to do, grocery shopping, pharmacy, doctor, and go back.

Or even if you work in a basic industry, you have to go to work. But you need to carry your bona fide certification to show if you're stopped. So you see the patrol going around and just, making sure that everyone's safe and that there's no problems. I haven't seen myself anyone being stopped, but I, you know, I talk to my friends every day and they all have, you know, this short stories that these things are happening. And they say it on TV. Today we had to find 100 people because they were here, they were there. People are also and we are exerting a little bit of social, you know, social content.

control among us. People, when they see gatherings, they send a picture, they can do it anonymously to the mayor, the webpage profile, and they, yes, they let the authorities know when things are not, where there are these parts of the city where people are not following the rules. But we are not on the martial law. So the law enforcement, though, they have set up ways where Italians can basically tell law enforcement or their authorities, oh, I saw this, you know, social gathering going on. Yes. Yeah.

Interesting. Yes. They asked us to do that, to try to help each other and help them make people understand that they need to be home. Well, do you know anyone who has gotten coronavirus or any friends of friends? Have you heard of any personal stories of anyone you know being sick? I've got a friend of a friend whose children are in school, so one of the mothers are, yeah, they've been to, I think they've been to the hospital, but everything was just, they got better. But I don't have any direct, direct friend, fortunately, who has got it.

Well, that's definitely fortunate to hear. what is your perspective of how the Italian government has handled the whole situation? Well, I think they're doing it well now. The thing is this is very strict and people are concerned about their civil rights or, yeah, the basic freedoms. But everything happens because we should have done this before. we should have done this in February when it was clear that something very wrong was happening. And we have these many flights direct from Milan and Rome to different parts of China. And our airports were not closing.

Then Italy closed those kind of flights. But then Germany kept on bringing people back and forth. And, you know, many people just use German airports or French airports to get to Europe and then they just move by train or, you know. So, yes, we should have done this before. Maybe it didn't have to be this bad, this strict. But then we got to the point where you cannot hide anymore. And we were asked to be to social. distance like for real on March 9th.

So that's three weeks, almost, almost four weeks now. So yeah, but I think they're handling, they are constantly on TV. They're reassuring people. They're telling people, you know, figures and what to do. And you have the Ministry of Health constantly giving advice, trying to, you know, advising people on what fake news are around and trying to debunk myths and, you know, they pretty much every day with the help of, you know, the mayors. You know, addressing the people and doing lives and answering questions. We, I feel safe and I feel it's for me it's best to be here that anyone, and anywhere else in the world, I guess, in this situation.

So what do you think, given that you think the quarantine might have started a little bit too late, do you have any idea when it might end? Well, countries that have been through this situation before, they've done pretty much eight weeks of quarantine. Whoever can stay at home, eight weeks seems to be the right amount of time. it seems like it's a lot but it seems like if you don't want to pay a higher price afterwards that's a minimum you should

you know you should keep most of the people at home so I think it's pretty much the end of April we're going to go this way and then it's we're going to we're going to go back to normal but little by

little and think there will be you know, like groups of people that would be allowed first and then, you know, what I mean? It won't be like all at once. It'll be more gradual. Yes. So what has been the most difficult aspect of Italy's coronavirus crisis for you personally? What has been the hardest part about what you've had to go through in the past couple weeks and months? When it comes to, it seems like the hospitals in the south,

of Italy are still are hanging in there. Actually, we are getting patients from the north because the north is just a different, it's a different story. There it's like it's warfare still. They are, today they were reporting that the number of deaths have been, a little bit lower, but still that's way too much. But they have less people going into reanimation. They have less people needing ventilators. I think that's a name for it. So it seems like the contagion continues, even if it's, you know, decreasing, but they seem to be more stable now. I think that the worst part's been witnessing all these elderly people just fade away and die by the hundreds every day. That is something we, I think we're, we're, that would be

very difficult to to overcome and to get over from if ever. And it really has such a large population of elderly people that is really heartbreaking to see. Yes. That's, We are the second oldest population in Europe after Germany. And people live long here. You take pride on, you know, you see over centennials going around and living their lives. And that's amazing. So, yeah, getting to the point where you can make people live good, live very well for such a long time. And then something comes and just start swiping them away.

It's heartbreaking. I cannot imagine. So looking at how hard it has been, are there any aspects of the situation that could be seen from any sort of a positive perspective? I don't know. This is, it's not, there has never been a better moment for, to reflect on your daily lives.

your daily life, your routine, what's important for you. I think this is something that changes your perspective. With everything, from the appreciation you have for the things you buy, to the holidays, your, your, planning or you were planning to the value of your family, the moments well spent all, or the missed opportunities to be with people you really care about. I think this is a great moment for reassessing everything.

And let's see, I hope we can learn from that. The worst thing we can hope for is to go back to normal. We should go to normal, but it's a new normal and maybe not going back to the, the rush we had before. We were rushing through the day, like no end. That was a little bit unhealthy, I guess. Well, Auda, thank you for sharing that perspective. I hope a lot of people hear that and take that to heart because I think that's something we all need to take to heart. You mentioned earlier the need for ventilators and just the continuing death toll. We've heard a lot of news reports saying that there aren't enough doctors or

medical equipment in in orderly to treat everyone. What are you seeing and hearing? Well, the problem is, especially from in the beginning, there was a lot of contagion among the health professionals. They pretty much didn't know what they were dealing, what they were dealing with. And so many of them got sick and they had to be quarantined. So you don't have, That's for sure that you don't have enough personnel to replace such a hole. So some of them are going, you know, out from the quarantine and go back to better equipped and more, you know, conscious of what they're doing. And now it's clear what's going on. And that's pretty much what's been happening.

Also, you know, we have a universal health care. We pay a lot of taxes in Italy, but we have universal health care. So the problem is there's been this investment in the past 15 years when it comes to employing new doctors and improving the hospitals and everything. So now, of course, a pandemic can occur every 100 years. You never expect to have these kind of problems. The thing is it happened. This is a situation we have now, and now we have a shortage of people that are currently working permanently at hospitals and professional institutions.

So I think that is something that the government already said that they were, that are about to change their policies in this matter and reinvest a lot more because this has been very important for us to at least have the people have the opportunity to being treated, regardless of their income or whatever it is, because we are treated pretty much the same here when it comes. to health. So yes, they are a lot of doctors that unfortunately got sick. Some of them have died. They called back people that were already retired, which is that's a little bit dangerous because those are people over 60. So they become, they are part of the risk group. And then there there has been these missions coming from abroad with doctors and nurses, but that is another problem that can be, you know, that could be another problem because they don't speak the language.

And anyways, they are, yes, they had to call people that were retired. Wow. Or very young or just graduating. They're very young. So it complicates things a lot for sure. Sure. Yeah. So lastly, Aura, what would you want the United States and even the rest of the world to know about what Italy has been through? I think that the best lesson to be learned here is never underestimate a threat and never think that if your neighbor, our neighboring countries having a hard time, that it cannot happen to you. And that we make, we must make sure that

you know, almost all people can have a continuous healthcare system that can't cater for everyone. And, you know, always prepare for the worst. And try to, I think, try to pretty much imitate what we've been doing here when it came to social distancing people. to not let, even if it could be a little bit controversial, don't let the public health of a whole country depend on people's opinions or, you know, the lay person talking and thinking what's best. I think there must be one voice, a strong voice,

aided by local authorities, to lead the people in these difficult circumstances. Well, Alta, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Signal podcast. It's been really great to have you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. It's been great, you know, talking about this. Keep safe. And that'll do it for today's episode.

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