{"id":10224,"date":"2020-06-22T23:57:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T06:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10224"},"modified":"2020-06-24T04:47:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T11:47:09","slug":"post2-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10224","title":{"rendered":"“\u2018The U.S. has hamstrung itself\u2019: How America became the new Italy on coronavirus”, Politico"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dan Diamond and Sarah Wheaton, 6\/22\/2020<\/p>\n

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Three months ago, public health officials feared that America would be swamped by Covid-19 like Italy. Today, the U.S. would be lucky to swap its coronavirus crisis for theirs.<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s sudden surge of coronavirus in March swamped hospitals, pushed the nation into a strict lockdown and forced its doctors to ration life-saving ventilators. About 200,000 Italians were sickened and 29,000 died from the virus by May 1 alone. Global health officials seized on Italy \u2014 as the first country outside of China to be battered by the virus \u2014 as a disturbing case study for the rest of the world. In private meetings, White House officials worried that Italy was a preview of the storm about to hit the U.S. health system.<\/p>\n

But Italy announced just 264 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday \u2014 the same day that the United States reported nearly 32,000. The European nation opened its restaurants and stores a month ago, albeit under new, national safety measures, even as U.S. states wrestled with inconsistent, hasty reopening efforts that have been blamed for new virus spikes. And Italy\u2019s outbreak has dramatically ebbed from its mid-March peak, while America\u2019s new per capita cases remain on par with Italy’s worst day \u2014 and show signs of rising further, with record hospitalizations in states like Arizona, Florida and Texas last week.<\/p>\n