Dr Serena Masino, Lecturer on the International Development Management MSc course, recorded a social media video for The i Paper about what the UK can learn from Italy’s fight against coronavirus.
Italy has seen increasing cases of coronavirus and the number of deaths across Italy has reached over 20,000, while the UK has over 12,000.
Dr Masino said in the video: “It is important to look at the lessons we can learn from Italy at this point in time because this could potentially save some lives and also potentially reduce the size of long-term consequences. COVID-19 cases have increased rapidly in the UK in the last few days and with those unfortunately also deaths.
“To start with, the UK has really had a lot more time to prepare for the crisis whereas Italy was largely caught unprepared. So intensive care units and bed capacity has been increased. Protective equipment for healthcare staff as well as ventilators from companies like Airbus and Dyson have been ordered and new staff have also been hired.”
She went on to say: “Moving to the social demographic factors, many have pointed to the fact that family structure in Italy could be behind the high rates of contagion and deaths. This is because the elderly, who are the most vulnerable in this current crisis, typically live together with their families in Italy, which makes it easier for them to catch the disease from younger members of their family.”
