Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomePublic HealthItaly shows that draconian quarantine measures don't work in the West

Italy shows that draconian quarantine measures don't work in the West

Quarantine in China is a world away from the less-absolute and rather haphazard measures of Italy, writes The Telegraph columnist Ross Clark.

Clark writes that there’s quarantine and then there’s quarantena – the Italian version: “I am going to sign a decree that can be summarised as follows: I stay at home,” Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte told the nation. “Travel must be avoided across the entire peninsula unless it is justified by professional reasons, by cases of need or for health reasons.” And how did Italians react? By rushing out and crowding together in the country’s supermarkets – ignoring, it appears from many photographs, the three-foot personal cordon sanitaire they had been ordered to observe.

The report says it didn’t seem to occur to the Italian authorities, in extending the quarantine zone to the entire country, that people would need to eat – with the result they all rushed out in a mass shopathon. As for not travelling, Italians have tweeted that not only are airports fully operational, budget airlines have been enticing passengers with special offers. Buses and trains continue to run.

The report says Italy is not China, and it shows. A “lockdown” in Hubei province is not the same as one in Naples. In Hubei, residents really did retreat into isolation, with food parcels delivered to their doors. Public transport ceased, and the streets were put into what is essentially martial law. It is a world away from the less-absolute and rather haphazard measures of Italy – and indeed the sort of measures we are likely to have imposed in Britain and other liberal democracies. Towns in the north of Italy have supposedly been in quarantine for days, yet there have been reports of people continuing to converge in bars and parks.

The report says isolation certainly seems to be working in China where new infections – which were running at 3,000 a day in early February – have slumped to just 45. Assuming that Chinese reports to the World Health Organisation can be trusted, it is a story of huge medical success – albeit bought at considerable economic cost. The report says in Italy, however, there is scant sign of the virus abating yet. In the past five days the number of new infections has run as follows: “587, 769, 778, 1,247, 1,492.”

According to the report, there is a long way to go until Italy’s cumulative total of 7,375 cases gets any near China’s total of 142,823, but it is worth asking now: what will it mean for the world if it ends up with Italy – or another Western country – being the worst-affected country, while China is judged successfully to have tackled it? It will not be a great moment for liberal democracy.

[link url="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/03/10/italys-chaotic-lockdown-proves-draconian-pandemic-measures-dont/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter"]Full report in The Daily Telegraph[/link]

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.