L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020 E verything start- e d w i t h t h e A e r o n a u t i c a Militare's first flights to bring back home all the Italians living in China. They lived, worked, studied in Wuhan, in that far away, incredibly modern province where a virus we believed distant had begun killing. But clo- sing our airports was not to b e e n o u g h t o p r o t e c t o u r country. We couldn't even imagine what was to happen from the 2nd of February onward. The repatriation of the first 56 Italians, on board of a KC767, part of the 14th F l o c k o f o u r A e r o n a u t i c a Militare, the medical scree- n i n g s s u p e r v i s e d b y t h e S p a l l a n z a n i h o s p i t a l , where the first two Covid-19 patients in Italy were cared for — two Chinese tourists who were to be discharged 49 days later — the quaran- tine in the military citadel of Cecchignola: everything was just a short prelude to what was to come. The whole system, thou- g h , h a d b e e n m o b i l i z e d a l r e a d y : t h e M i n i s t r y f o r H e a l t h , t h e M i n i s t r y o f F o r e i g n A f f a i r s a n d International Cooperation, the Farnesina's crisis unit, the Ministry of the Interior, the Protezione Civile (which d e p e n d s f r o m t h e P r i m e Minister, but is a capillary a n d e x t r e m e l y w e l l o r g a - nized entity present all over our territory), the Ministry for Defense, the Operational C o m m a n d o f t h e A r m e d Forces, responsible for the organization and use of our Army. Antibodies: operational against panic. B u t t h a t 2 0 t h o f February, when Italy discov- e r e d h e r p a t i e n t o n e , t h e state of emergency becomes o f f i c i a l . T w o d a y s e a r l i e r Mattia, 38, a young, athlet- ic sportsman, went to the Codogno hospital ER, where he was diagnosed with mild pneumonia and was told to g o b a c k h o m e . B u t h i s health quickly deteriorates a n d , w i t h i n a h a n d f u l o f hours, he ends up intubated in an ICU bed. He'll start breathing on his own again only on the 9th of March. In the meanwhile, outside that small hospital near Lodi, M a t t i a ' s p o s i t i v e t e s t t o c o r o n a v i r u s u n l e a s h e d a storm upon the country. The useless chase for our patient 0, leaves space to the attempt to isolate clusters that seems to pop up every- w h e r e w i t h i n " r e d a r e a s " always too small to contain them all. And indeed, they w o n ' t b e e n o u g h t o s t o p Covid-19 from spreading. From then on, it's all about the fury of a tiny, incredibly p o w e r f u l v i r u s t h a t k i l l s more than 27.000 people in two months, makes positive to tests over 200.000 and infected an unknown num- b e r o f I t a l i a n s ( s o m e s a y o f f i c i a l d a t a c o v e r o n l y a b o u t 1 0 % o f t h e r e a l a m o u n t o f p o s i t i v e s ) , i n s p i t e o f t h e s u p e r h u m a n efforts of our doctors and n u r s e s , a l l o f a s u d d e n thrown into war trenches. They fight with resiliency, but without proper equip- ment and with unequal wea- pons, against an unknown, invisible enemy that kills 8 0 0 - 9 0 0 p e o p l e p e r d a y , every day. It's agony, it's an u n s u s t a i n a b l e e f f o r t f o r h o s p i t a l s w h e r e m a s k s , coats, respirators, ventila- tors, oxygen and medica- tions are insufficient. It's David against Goliath. That's when solidarity comes in. Volunteers of all ages start bringing food and essentials to the elderly, to the poor, to those who can't move; local authorities put i n t o p l a c e e v e r y t y p e o f social assistance; 8.000 doc- tors and 10.000 nurses from all over Italy offer their help to their exhausted collea- g u e s , t h o s e w o r k i n g i n hospitals about to collapse. This happens at the end of March. O u r A r m e d F o r c e s began working immediately: trained, organized, prepa- red. Regular training ses- sions and simulations have been crucial for the protec- tion of our collectivity. The f i r s t 5 0 0 s o l d i e r s w e r e d e p l o y e d o n t h e 2 5 t h o f F e b r u a r y ; o n t h e 3 r d o f M a r c h , t h e M i n i s t r y f o r Defense makes 2.200 rooms and 6.600 beds available in military hospitals across the country, while the Marina Militare takes part to the rescuing of the passengers o n t h e D i a m o n d Princess, the cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, w i t h i t s h e a v y b u r d e n o f infected. On the 8th of March, Italy welcomes the yellow — just like mimosa flowers — bio- containment suits worn by our specialized army women and men: soldiers trained to fight bacteriological wars move patients from a region to another with last genera- tion HH-101A helicopters, u s e d f o r t h e t r a n s p o r t o f highly infectious patients. T h e m e d i c a l a n d n u r s i n g staff of our Army, our Navy, o u r A i r F o r c e a n d Carabinieri brings help to the hospitals in Lombardia that have been struggling the most. 7.000 soldiers bring their s u p p o r t t o o u r p o l i c e a t c h e c k p o i n t s a l l o v e r t h e country, to make sure the necessary "staying home," essential for both public LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE BARBARA MINAFRA L'Italia Chiamò: uniforms and white coats in our war against an invisible enemy Army forces at work for the transport of a Covid-19 patient from a hospital to another during the pandemic (Photo courtesy of the Stato Maggiore della Difesa) Continued to page 34

• Cover