I’m publishing below email correspondence from friends in Milan, IT and Hamburg, DE edited only to protect or omit private information not pertinent to the view my friends have of their countries’ responses and that of the world, in general.
The first message is mine.
We hope you are well and not made totally miserable by being confined to the necessity of a "small" life.
All of America has turned its eyes on Italy. The musical "flash mob" videos from your cities -- Milan to Palermo -- of people making music with songs and instruments from their windows and balconies created overwhelming admiration and comment online here. Warmth, love of life, good humor, even joy radiated from all the videos we saw. Particularly haunting was the one of the echoing harmony from the streets of Siena. Lovely! We hope you enjoyed that special evening of Italians united in spirit in the MOST Italian way. I think all the world did.
But yesterday we learned of the dire conditions there, especially in the Lombardy Region where you are. We were stunned to see the peak jump in recorded deaths, and I suspect the dreadful need for "mass casualty triage" protocols has led to the new scale of that statistic. We're aware of the supply chain inabilities to provide sufficient equipment and supplies for medical personnel, and we assume that like here already, medical staff and hospital support staff are falling sick in greater numbers. The only place that can give in these circumstances is who will be saved by meager resources and who will be left to Nature. Unimaginable.
China has had better success at the end of their experience than we seem to have now. It's possible that cases here will be in the millions and deaths in the tens of thousands -- if not more. Shortages, lack of beds, and staff illness are already everywhere. The 18-59 age group leads all others in cases, probably because that is the working population.
Every day, new announcements emerge about how life, business, and society are shutting down. Our hope is being invested in research efforts for effective anti-viral medicines and a vaccine. Human trials for numerous drugs and anti-body cocktails have been ongoing since last weekend.
In our material country, people seem more worried and focused on the economic collapse. My view is that the world is going to see another Great Depression that brings poverty, waves of refugees, more pandemics, and probably results in more warfare (if any country has a military fit enough). I also imagine entire countries will fail, unable to produce sufficient goods and revenues to sustain themselves. After all, South America and Africa are just beginning to get the first hints of cornavirus as the seasons in the two hemispheres exchange and climate below the Equator becomes amenable to coronavirus.
In spite of my dour speculation communicated to you, I remain cheerful and we are enjoying the blooms (not the pollens!) of spring. Mother Nature is phlegmatic and says only, "What will be, will be." We're fine with that. Who knows, perhaps Italy will produce another Boccaccio out of this plague?
This is the reply from Milan, Italy. I made no attempt to edit for English grammar or to suppress the natural anxiety that comes through in the writing itself. The correspondent is a retired native Italian physician.
happy of hearing you in good health and so serene-minded !
Here anxiety grows as deaths are reaching unbelievable numbers; no more room in cemeteries, military trucks carry corpses away to crematories. Death toll is payed (by now) mostly by over 75 people but also younger ones are starting die
It seems that Covid19 strikes harder than in China despite we're locking down a great part of our industries and business
Doctors, nurses, ventilation machines and individual protection devices are in a tragical shortage
Economic consequences are deadly as well (and already clearly visible)
I'm really scared at moment and I don't think people will be in a musical flash-mob mood for long to come
The only thing we can do, just now, is trying to reduce virus spreading, in order to stop the tsunami in hospitals
This is an unsolicited holiday greeting from my friends in Hamburg, Germany. Again, I did not edit, except for minor typos. (The correspondent is ethnically Irish and has a German partner.)
Best wishes to yourselves on a very memorable St Patrick's Day. I still remember your beef and cabbage. It aws really nice. What a difference a couple of days can make. When I wrote a few days ago everything here was fairly normal. Coronovirus was much talked about but that was it. Since Sunday evening it's all downhill. Except for foodshops and phamacies all the shops have restricted opening hours. Even the bars have to close at 6' clock in the evening. Naturally the advice is to avoid contact with others. The most anoying thing is that they closed the libraries behind my back. That I did not expect.
On Monday morning I went to a nearby supermarket, ______'s water was on special offer. Monday morning is usually quiet. The carpark was full and the atmosphere among the customers was hectic and aggressive. Where did they all come from? Most people should be at work. It didn't look it.
Access to medical treatment is no problem now but how it holds up when things get going. Nobody know. Look's as if all these governments will be printing money galore shortly. We will have to look around to see what we do with our savings. When the printing presses start rolling money will be quickly worthless. A worrying if interesting times
I hope to continue updating the community with the personal experience of my friends’ pandemic experiences as their emails come in. I hope they keep coming in until this is all over. I feel it is informative, even helpful, to know what life is like elsewhere as humanity grapples with a threat that makes us all feel united in One World. The only World there is.