This op-ed was written in Spanish by a few Italian friends during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic (something my friends liberally label an epidemic at this stage). The original text can be seen here.
In Italy, it was only a couple of days ago we were living a very similar situation to the one we have here in Spain today. The epidemic is spreading, the government announcements, the experts on television and makeshift commentators, the political opportunists taking advantage of the media alarm to have a little bit more visibility, the media bombarding us with loads of contradictions. Many newspapers opted for sensationalism, seeking clicks and sales, while the detailed facts were diluted by fake news and misleading titles. Thus, we went from the irrationality of, “Save yourself while you can”, to the trivialization of, “It’s only the flu.”
One of the first recommended measures for containing the epidemic was to avoid crowded places. We followed that recommendation by avoiding unnecessary trips to the supermarket, thinking to barricade ourselves in our houses for weeks, but not to renounce aperitivos, dinners, crowded shopping malls, bars, pubs, or clubs—including in established “red zones,” or areas with high risk of catching the virus. The economy didn’t have to stop, because while they told us to stay at home, they asked some of us to continue with our normal life as consumers.
Meanwhile, the hospitals started filling up with patients infected by the virus, and intensive care units in the regions most affected in the north were heading towards full capacity. Doctors and public health workers took on extra shifts to take on the rising wave of patients, pleading with the public to follow the outlined preventative measures. “Stay in your homes to avoid infection.”
The government’s containment measures turned more and more drastic by the hour. We didn’t listen to them.
Not long before they halted the freedom to move in and out of designated “red zones” in the north of Italy, the news leaked out in the newspapers. Many fled in the night to their home towns and villages in the south, ignoring the risk of expanding the infection, an infection that would thus start with the members of close family they were running to see.
At the same time, social media users insulted us one after another; young people and very young people calmed by the idea that the risk was only for the elderly, kept going out to crowded parties and nightclubs. All the while, many ignored the preventative measures, even though the national health system is on the brink of collapse in certain areas of the country and runs the risk of not being able to cure many of those with bad infections.
In the race against time to contain the epidemic and avoid inundating the resuscitation departments, the government has finally declared the entire country a “red zone” so that the only permitted movement in the country is for work or emergency reasons. Under the pressure of the labor market, production has still not stopped, many workers are still obligated to show up to their jobs, exposing themselves to greater risk of contraction as the number of infected, hospitalized, and dead continues to rise.
The infected are no longer just numbers, we are beginning to put a face on them—these are family members and friends. “The others,” are now us.
During this week, the longest in our country’s history, the epidemic has exposed our contradictions. We have been witnesses to the triumph of individualism, of “Save yourself,” of “I don’t care,” of the incapacity to renounce our individual freedoms in order to perform our civic duty to protect those around us, the community, the vulnerable peoples in our community.
The noise of panic, the silence of indifference.
We have seen the advanced, and technologically-proficient Western society, crumble in front of our eyes. The incapacity to predict, to prevent harm, to act, to act without panic, to practice unity. We weren’t prepared, we didn’t understand.
With time, after this serious state of emergency, the deaths, and the non-peaceful predictions, may we rediscover, little by little, the importance of unity and education, of empathy and care, in our frayed social fabric.
Maybe we are beginning to understand that nobody can be saved alone, that borders don’t exist, that health is a universal right, that the economy can wait, that life is fragile and that to protect it should be a collective effort. Regret grows with each turn of this contagion curve: Not understanding it before, we think, had been a mistake. Spain, our adopted home, we wrote this so that you can all have this in mind as well. So that there can be more prevention, without waiting until it’s too late.
