Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country • Hacker News Board

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#71

Post by deerIRL » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:22 PM UTC

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #52

fulvioterzapi wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wasn't able to find anything, but admittedly my Italian is not great. > I find it hard to believe, and given Italy's recent problems with the far-right surge, it seems to be more fake news. So you don't speak enough Italian to verify, but still you got a hunch. And since we're at it, let's accuse whoever says things I don't like of spreading fake news. What a constructive attitude! Besides not speaking Italian we…

When someone writes > "The only virus there is, is racism", they told us. That typically means that some specific person, one with power and influence, said the exact words (or something which can be translated to the exact words) "the only virus there is, is racism". If you just mean that some people are talking about racism caused by the coronavirus, that's a very misleading way to phrase it.

Thank you! You said my words better than I could have.

I probably shouldn't compose comments when I am rushing between things!

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#72

Post by DrNuke » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #57

DrNuke wrote: post #50

Tocilizumab drug in Naples hospital seems promising: «The health of the patient suffering from covid 19, who arrived in critical condition, intubated and treated with the new drug therapy is recovering. Maybe we extubate him because his conditions have improved a lot ». They also say they got confirmation from Chinese colleagues who tested that earlier on 21 cases. The drug is now undergoing trial at Roche. https://w…

I'm incredibly ignorant, can someone explain why a drug used to treat arthritis might work against a Coronavirus? I just don't understand the connection/interaction, or why this was even tried originally? Genuinely looking to learn.

The two doctors in the video say that it interferes with a similar auto-immune reaction that happens at pulmonary level because of the Coronavirus, so that it works.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#73

Post by pkaye » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #6

For anyone claiming that this is just a flu: I've never heard of an entire country being shut down because of the flu.

But the flu does kill a lot of people yearly. I tried to look up the mortality rate for Italy. The best I found is estimated 68000 attributed to flu over period from 2013-2017. And you will find similar high numbers in many other countries. Perhaps we are expecting it to be worse that this?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197121...

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#74

Post by thefz » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:23 PM UTC

alfyboy wrote: post #2

For anybody living in quarantined areas of Italy. How much has your daily life been affected?

So far, nothing has changed except there's less and less people in the streets. Tomorrow I'm commuting to work as usual.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#75

Post by giovan-ni » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:24 PM UTC

I think the sequence of choices is what matters most. First they ‘quarantined’ Lombardia and some surrounding provinces. This looked nonsensical, or worse, as the contagion spread was nationwide already. Not two full days after, they are extending the restrictive measures to the whole of Italy. The net result is to have scared back home a lot of people working or studying in Lombardia, thereby easing the potential burden on the collapsing regional health system.

The restrictive measures themselves are hardly enforceable, with some very important exceptions, e.g. schools. Hopefully, they would induce some change in habits.

I am from Milano, and my daily life has certainly been affected. I left the city two weeks ago. It was easy for me, though, as I can distance teach and I have a place in the mountains.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#76

Post by H_Pylori » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

vaidhy wrote: post #17

fulvioterzapi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I do not believe it is left-wing or right-wing specific behavior. We are seeing the issue being handled the same way across the world. So, making a political statement does not contribute anything. If you remove the "left-wing", the point would be equally valid.

Actually, in Italy, leftists political figures grossly underestimated the extent of the problem, urging people to behave normally. This is Zingaretti, current secretary of the Partito Democratico, at an after-work gathering in the epicenter of the epidemic: https://www.iltempo.it/resizer/670/-1/true/1583598486385.jpg...

Zingaretti is at the moment quarantined in his house and he's infected with the virus.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#77

Post by autojoechen » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #57

DrNuke wrote: post #50

Tocilizumab drug in Naples hospital seems promising: «The health of the patient suffering from covid 19, who arrived in critical condition, intubated and treated with the new drug therapy is recovering. Maybe we extubate him because his conditions have improved a lot ». They also say they got confirmation from Chinese colleagues who tested that earlier on 21 cases. The drug is now undergoing trial at Roche. https://w…

I'm incredibly ignorant, can someone explain why a drug used to treat arthritis might work against a Coronavirus? I just don't understand the connection/interaction, or why this was even tried originally? Genuinely looking to learn.

One of the ways the virus kills the patient is causing a cytokine storm [0][1]. And tocilizumab suppresses one of the cytokines in humans [2].

0: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/02/here-is-w... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytokine_release_syndrome 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocilizumab

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#78

Post by thefz » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:25 PM UTC

Melting_Harps wrote: post #66

cleandreams wrote: post #34

The fatality rate of Italy is scary high. I read the reason is that they have such a high percentage of elderly.

> The fatality rate of Italy is scary high. I read the reason is that they have such a high percentage of elderly. And has one of the lowest fertility rates [1] in not just the EU, but in the World. Odd considering how just a generation ago having a large catholic, and poor, family was one of the most prominent qualities of Italian life. They keep trying to monetarily incentivize increasing birth-rates, much like Jap…

>just a generation ago having a large catholic, and poor, family was one of the most prominent qualities of Italian life.

I would not say so, no. That's speculation, this has not been true even for the south for a long time now. The only large, poor families you see are from immigrants nowadays.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#79

Post by vkou » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:26 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #56

vkou wrote: post #6

For anyone claiming that this is just a flu: I've never heard of an entire country being shut down because of the flu.

A political overreaction does not make the severity of a disease. I am mostly following the french news on this and the doctors interviewed (some of whom seem to have impecable credentials) are calling this an irrational panic. It is a serious disease, one of many viruses around, not a particular dangerous one either. But mostly not something that calls for these drastic measures.

Fortunately, the universe will be able to resolve our dispute rather convincingly, and rather soon, even.

I predict that:

1. France will have an exponential explosion of cases.

2. France, after dragging its heels, will eventually undertake similar quarantine measures.

3. Whatever economic damage that early mitigation would have caused will be inflicted multi-fold, as the country reacts too late.

4. Those same doctors will be shrugging their shoulders, and crying: "How could anyone have foreseen this?"

5. People in the next country over will be busy arguing that the virus is causing irrational panic, and that all these measures are an overreaction.

Re: Italy is extending its coronavirus quarantine measures to the entire country

#80

Post by BjoernKW » Mon, Mar 09, 2020, 10:27 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #57

DrNuke wrote: post #50

Tocilizumab drug in Naples hospital seems promising: «The health of the patient suffering from covid 19, who arrived in critical condition, intubated and treated with the new drug therapy is recovering. Maybe we extubate him because his conditions have improved a lot ». They also say they got confirmation from Chinese colleagues who tested that earlier on 21 cases. The drug is now undergoing trial at Roche. https://w…

I'm incredibly ignorant, can someone explain why a drug used to treat arthritis might work against a Coronavirus? I just don't understand the connection/interaction, or why this was even tried originally? Genuinely looking to learn.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder. The severe cases who contracted the Coronavirus seem to experience an autoimmune reaction towards otherwise healthy lung tissue.