Today, Explained - Living in lockdown

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

Italy has quarantined the whole country in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. Vox’s Julia Belluz explains why the US might look like Italy soon.(Transcript here.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Italian Prime Minister has announced restrictions on movement across the entire country in the most drastic response yet to the spread of coronavirus. We understand that all these measures will create inconveniences. We understand that these measures will impose sacrifices, sometimes small and sometimes very large. But this is a time where we must take responsibility for ourselves. So Italy is effectively on lockdown. They've shut down the entire country in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19. So that means something like 60 million people are under strict travel restrictions.

They're being told to basically stay home for everything but essential work and getting things like food. If they want to move around the country for work or health reasons, they need to get special permission. People mandated to keep at least three feet away from anyone else or face up to three months in jail. Streets are quiet. Public gatherings and meetings are off limits now. Theaters, gyms, ski resorts, clubs, sporting events, they're all closed. Even weddings and funerals need to be delayed. And places that are open are empty.

The shops in the tourist areas of Rome are standing empty. Bars and restaurants are empty. Grocery stores are still up and running and so are pharmacies. But they're apparently only seeing patients through a glass or plastic barrier. And I've spoken to Italians this week who tell me how dramatic this change is, how sudden it feels. Italy is this densely packed country. A lot of people live in apartments. They're used to gathering and meeting in public spaces, having their evening passaggata, like a walk around the main streets in the cities and towns where they

live and congregating in these places and now these public spaces are dead. We have to remain positive and calm and live in the best way, taking all precautions. We have to adapt our lifestyles but we carry on. When the quarantine was first imposed on the north of the country, which is where the outbreak is centered, people were a bit skeptical and maybe resistant to following the quarantine orders. And now I think with the death toll and the case toll rising so fast, so again, more than a thousand deaths there, people are scared and they're more willing to follow instructions and to take this seriously. There had been worries for the Pope himself after he cancelled a retreat because of illness,

but the Vatican said he simply had a common cold. I am close in prayer to people who are suffering because of the current coronavirus epidemic and to all those taking care of them. And you even have like public figures like pop singers and artists taking to social media to encourage people to stay at home. There's an EO Sto a Casa hashtag going around, so it means I'm at home. And famous people are sharing little photos and videos

about their quarantine experiences. So I think it's kind of shifted from maybe some skepticism to acceptance that this is what needs to happen. And it might change, though, in the coming days. The government has said anyone found flouting the ban could face jail. But patrolling the region to ensure everyone stays put will be another challenge for a government dealing with Europe's worst coronavirus crisis. So Italy is in China, so they don't have this massive army and police force

to keep people in line. But for now, it sounds like most people are obeying the order. They're staying home. Julia Balouz, senior health correspondent at Vox. You've been covering the coronavirus outbreak in Italy from your base in Austria. Just how bad is the outbreak in Italy? It's bad. So as of Friday, they have more than 15,000 cases and 1,000 deaths.

And just to put those figures into context, that's bigger than the other major outbreaks that are happening outside of China. So it's bigger than the outbreaks you've probably heard about in South Korea. It's bigger than Iran. It's the largest outbreak in Europe, and only the numbers in China rival what's happening in Italy right now. And the one thing that makes the Italian case so startling is just how quickly it escalated. So just three weeks ago, Italy had reported only three cases to the WHO. And again, now they have more than 15,000. And so this virus really took off there. And it appears to have caught the authorities off guard. Is that why it spread so quickly? Because Italian officials were caught off guard?

There are a few theories. So the outbreak started in the north, in the Lombardy region. This is a densely populated area. It has lots of business ties to the rest of the world. Ten million people living there, people coming in and out. And that might have helped accelerate the spread. But there are many parts of Europe that have these dynamics, so that might not explain everything. Another idea is that they were simply testing more aggressively than other places and finding more cases and that might have inflated the picture of what's happening there relative

to other countries. So, for example, as of March 8th, only 1,700 Americans have been tested for COVID-19, and the number in Italy was 50,000. And Italy was also taking a different approach than many other countries and not just testing people who had returned from China. They were also testing people without any travel links or even symptoms at the time. Another theory is that this virus got a foothold in the hospital system

before doctors realized there was a problem, and that might have amplified the outbreak. So something like 10% of medical workers in Lombardy have been infected. There's also speculation about whether COVID-19 has been particularly severe in Italy because they have an aging population and we know that the virus hits elderly people particularly hard. But the bottom line I think is that the government was forced into this catch-up position or reaction mode, like as soon as they found cases. So Italy certainly isn't unique in that sense,

but I think they're sort of representative of what can happen if the virus does get a foothold in a country, how quickly it can spread and how fast things can spiral. How's Italy's medical system been? Has it been able to cope with the rising numbers? So Italy has a system of universal public health care. So they're like Canada or the UK. But Italy wasn't prepared for the surge in sick people that they've seen.

And so doctors there have gone public about just how unprepared the health system was. There are not enough hospital beds, not enough space in intensive care units to treat people. In the more severe form of this disease, people need ventilators for help with breathing, and Italy hasn't had that. So you have these doctors taking to social media and writing about how they've been forced to ration care and choose who to treat. We are facing a war now here.

We need more beds, more doctors, more nurses. And recently, a few doctors wrote a letter to the rest of Europe saying, get ready, you might look like Italy in a few days, so make sure that you are prepared and you don't see this complete deluge of your health system. What happened in Lombardy is just like a bomb that exploded, you know. The problem is that it exploded there. And before you can realize what's happening, you are like overwhelmed by the mass of patients.

So hopefully in other countries, it's not behaving like this. What's important to know is that where this outbreak started in the north, it's one of the richest regions in Europe. So this isn't an Italian backwater. This is an economic powerhouse. And they have a very strong health system there. But again, what seems to have caught them off guard is that the case count just escalated so fast. That's what makes this example particularly frightening, because you have a place with a strong health system that in theory should have been able to respond to this kind of crisis, but wasn't. And so the implications for the U.S., like I've spoken to ex-director of the CDC, other health experts who say something like this could play out in the U.S. And so if we haven't had a wake-up call yet about

how effectively this virus can spread, how it can overwhelm health systems, how it can obviously have massive reverberating effects on the economy, Italy should be that warning. You're saying it's frightening. I mean, I hope it's okay to ask. I mean, you're about to have a baby and, you know, you're in Austria, which is right next to Italy. I'm guessing this is more than just a story you're covering. So what is amazing to me is how quickly this outbreak went from being something that was like a far off problem in China to a worldwide threat and something that's very personal to my home. My husband was traveling in Asia.

I didn't know when he came back if he would have to be quarantined while I was going into labor or what would happen. I've had family have to cancel their trips who were coming to see the baby they were supposed to have soon. One of the obstetrical wards in Vienna has shut down. Cities have shut down, schools, universities. My due date is next week and I'm wondering if my hospital will still be open and if my doctor will still be there. I've had some of my sources who know I'm pregnant suggest that I should get induced to avoid the peak transmission here in Vienna. So, yeah, I think this is going to have long-lasting repercussions for all of us, for sure.

But hopefully it will just be a good story to tell our child in the future that he or she was born in a pandemic. After the break, what it's like in Rome right now, living on lockdown. I'm Noam Hassenfeld, filling in for Sean Ramos for him while he's on vacation. This is Today Explained. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend.

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Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. My name is Tiffany Parks. I'm an American citizen living in Rome, Italy for the past 15 years. I'm married to an Italian and now have Italian citizenship myself and we have a four-year-old boy. So when they initially made the announcement,

it was said that, you know, you can take a short walk around your neighborhood if you need to. You need to take your kids out, walk your dog. But just the other day, they took it even further, and they said, actually, only walk if you're walking to the supermarket or the pharmacy. We don't want people walking for recreation. We don't want people congest for recreation. We don't want people congesting the street. You need to stay in your homes. And it's hard to feel like you don't

have any freedom of movement. I live in an apartment in the outskirts of the city, and we luckily have a terrace, so I can have some outdoor time. There's also a courtyard, but it belongs to the whole building, and so it is communal space, and so we don't really know what to do there. I mean, yesterday we took our son out for a bike ride around the courtyard, but today we decided not to do it because we thought, well, it is a communal space. We also have a little playground across the street from the house.

That's where most kids will play. That's completely closed. It's locked. So that's not even possible to go in there. Honestly, though, being kind of cooped up with my son is not the only challenge. It's also challenging to be cooped up with my husband. It's only been two days and I'm already like thinking, hmm, how in the world are we possibly going to get through a month of this? My new highlight of my day is to go grocery shopping. Just get out of the house is a treat. But here they'll only let a certain number of people into the supermarket at a time. And you have to wait until someone comes out and they let one person in. So that means that a line builds up outside, but you have to have at least three feet of space between you and the person in. So that means that a line builds up outside, but you have to have at least three feet

of space between you and the person in front of you. So it ends up being a very, very, very long line, but it does move quickly. And I thought I was going to be in line for hours today, and it ended up being only about 20 minutes. And once I was inside the supermarket, it was pretty empty because they're letting so few people in at a time. And I was pleasantly surprised the shelves were more or less full. Italians are very social by nature. Italians congregate in piazzas. They sit in cafes. They hang out together.

They walk arm in arm down the street. They kiss each other when they see each other. And for them to be told, okay, not only can you not go out to dinner, not only can you not go to your coffee bar, but you can't even hang out with someone on the side of the street. You can't get within a meter of another person. And if you can, stay in your house. It's hard for Italians. It's hard for most people, to be honest, but I think it's a particular challenge for Italians. I think that particularly for Italy, this whole pandemic, this whole virus could change some of the social or cultural tendencies of the country. There's an expression here, which is menifregismo, which means sort of like, I don't give a damn-ness,

if that could be a word. And it's just sort of this attitude of like, whatever, I don't care. I'm going to do what works for me. Italians are famous for being line cutters. You know, some of the people will wait in line, but a lot of people will just sidle up to the front and slip in. And I think that this whole thing that we're going through together as a country right now could change that to some extent. And I think that I see people coming together sort of for this collective good of the country. And it's very easy for a young person to

say, I don't care. I'm not going to get sick. Even if I do get this, it's not going to kill me. So why do I care? But there's been a shift in the way people are looking at it. And they're starting to think about the older generation. And we have a lot of older people in Italy. It's the oldest country in Europe. So people are starting to think, well, no, I'm going to be much, much more careful because I don't want to carry this disease to my grandparents

or other older people or sick people. And so you see people really doing their best to follow the rules. And there's always going to be a couple of people who, you know, who don't. But for the most part, I've been really surprised at how Italians have sort of pulled together and been like, OK, this is hard. We're going to sacrifice and we're going to do it. And there's an expression that's sort of floating around on Italian social media, which is we're going to sacrifice and we're going to do it. And there's an expression that's sort of floating around on Italian social media, which is we're going to stand far from each other now

so that we can embrace each other later. Tiffany Parks is the co-host of the podcast The Bittersweet Life. Italy may be on lockdown, but in at least one city, residents have found a new way to stay together by singing out their windows. This particular song from the city of Siena is an ode to the beauty of the city. Residents actually put a new verse in, which goes like this. Even with thunder and lightning, we are not afraid of you, garbage virus. E anche se torna un lampa, e a noi non fai paura, e odore spacciatura, e odore spacciatura, Thank you.