L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano B eing quaran- t i n e d l e a v e s you a lot of time to ponder upon stuff — even if y o u a c t u a l l y w o r k f r o m home so you need to pump through your 8 hours a day writing and editing anyway. Some reflect on the meaning of life and the necessity to "slow down" for real, even after Covid-19 will leave us alone, others have taken up the romantic role of their household's philosophers, others still more prosaically embraced the homemakers in them and just ... started baking the heck out of this lockdown. Now, while I admit I have b e e n d o i n g s o m e b a k i n g m y s e l f — w h i c h I h a d t o recently give up, after jump- ing on the scale and almost fainting at the numbers I read — solitary confinement made me considerer a thing or two about my country and my people, some more seri- ous, some more lightheart- ed. For instance, what do the world really think about us? Do we really eat too much pasta and are Italian men really the best? Yes, I know, that's some random stuff, but I told you: quarantine. B u t t h e n s o m e t h i n g occurred to me: we always think about what others like or dislike about us Italians, b u t i s t h e r e a c t u a l l y anything we can't stand about ourselves and what is it? So, I did a bit of soul searching and came out with four things about us that, in m y h u m b l e o p i n i o n , w e Italians would happily get rid of. Let's see if you agree. W e c o m p l a i n a b o u t everything T h e a v e r a g e I t a l i a n never makes mistakes and is never responsible for anything: it's the govern- m e n t , t h e n e i g h b o r , t h e boss, the weather, Fate, God, the cat, you name it. Italians complain, they do that a lot more than anyone else and those telling you that soccer is our national sport are ridi- culously wrong. Soccer has n o t h i n g o n c o m p l a i n i n g , Italy's number one activity, t h e o n l y w e m a s t e r s i n c e childhood and finely tune t h r o u g h o u t a l i f e t i m e o f practice. But let's be honest, when we complain, we do it with flair and, as dramatic as we may be, we always end up smiling: this is because, a l o n g w i t h b e i n g w o r l d champions of complaining, we are also a people who knows how to find happi- ness in the smallest things and make do with what life gives us. Provided we have those we love around and a good meal on the table to share with them. Drama! L e t ' s b e c l e a r , I k n o w w e ' r e t h e m o t h e r l a n d o f opera and all that but guys, drama here reaches levels unknown anywhere else in t h e w o r l d . A n y t h i n g , anything is a good excuse for being dramatic: we're a people of Victorian ladies fainting at the drop of a silk h a n d k e r c h i e f d o u s e d i n lavender essence. Did you k n o w t h a t D a n t e l o v e d fainting, too? Yes, in La Vita Nova, the work he dedica- ted to Beatrice, the love of his life, our poet laureate would pass out quite easily when in the presence of his beloved. In the middle of Florence. Now, if that's not being dramatic, I don't know what is. We lack in efficiency Right, the previous two were kind of funny, but this is an issue we are all well aware of and single handed- l y d e t e s t : b e i n g i n e f f i - c i e n t . W e c a n ' t d e n y i t : when it comes to bureau- c r a c y , I t a l y i s a m o n g t h e most inefficient places on E a r t h . O u r c u m b e r s o m e legal system, along with an equally complex and redun- d a n t p o l i t i c a l s t r u c t u r e , makes even the simplest of decisions an endless process that can last anything from a day to a century, but this doesn't come as much of a surprise, I am sure. If you are familiar with René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's Asterix and Obelix, then you probably remem- b e r t h e 1 9 7 6 ' s a n i m a t e d movie The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. The eighth was all too real for us Italians: the Gaulish pair had to retrieve a permit from an office and t h e e n t e r p r i s e e n d e d u p being virtually impossible: I suggest you all go search the clip on YouTube: it depicts quite accurately what can happen, sometimes, when you deal with Italian bureau- cracy. On the other hand, you know the way we are: there is no stressful situation that can't be solved with a smile, a slice of cake and a dinner with our family. It's hard to bring us down, in the end. We are too "provin- cial" There's nothing wrong in b e i n g p r o u d o f y o u r country and in accepting it a l l , g o o d a n d b a d . W e I t a l i a n s l o v e t o c o m p l a i n about Italy (see point one above), but in the end, we w o u l d n ' t c h a n g e o u r Belpaese with any other, and this sometimes means we have little curiosity about other cultures, other coun- tries and other realities: yes, we Italians can be a bit "pro- vinciali" and have been accu- sed to have little interest in learning what's outside our little corner of heaven. In reality, it's not that we have no interest in knowing about other cultures, it's that we, sometimes, are barely aware of how much there is t o l e a r n , s e e a n d l o v e i n ours! We're still struggling to c o m e t o t e r m s w i t h t h e immense patrimony we, as citizens of this lovely coun- try, carry within and around us, on every single day of our life. A h , I t a l i a n s ! A r e n ' t w e special? Dramatic, provincial, too relaxed and perennially com- p l a i n i n g , b u t a l s o g o o d hearted, strong willed, cre- ative and genial when we want to. Now, if we could only focus on these last char- acteristics and let go of the others… LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Four things Italians don't like about themselves FRANCESCA BEZZONE a n d P a u l G u y r e (Dartmouth Univ.) in the m i d - 1 9 8 0 ' s . T h e y h a d shown that dexamethasone (DEX), the synthetic form of GC, which is more stable than GC, could effectively regulate cellular immune responses by blocking the p r o d u c t i o n o f t h o s e c y t o k i n e s t h a t p u s h t h e system forward and their receptors on human cells, while boosting the produc- tion of those cytokines that suppress the response. In other words, steroids such as GC and DEX could fine- ly regulate cellular immu- nity: yes, steroids block inflammation, but more than that, they act very specifically to regulate the f u n c t i o n a l r e s p o n s e o f i m m u n e c e l l s . I n f a c t , research, including mine o v e r s e v e r a l d e c a d e s , demonstrated that steroids (GC and DEX, and others) are part of a fine immune physiological regulatory loop, now known as neu- roendocrine-immune mod- ulation. The Oxford group ran a Randomized Evaluation of C o V i D - 1 9 T h e r a p y (RECOVERY) trial to test whether DEX — which is a w i d e l y u s e d i n c l i n i c a l m e d i c i n e w o r d - w i d e , i s cheap, easily available and (relatively) safe — could be b e n e f i c i a l t o C o V i D - 1 9 patients. The results are p r o m i s i n g , a n d s u g g e s t t h a t D E X c a n i n d e e d reduce CoViD-19 severity and mortality. Specifically, t h e s t u d y o f o v e r 2 , 0 0 0 patients who received low- d o s e D E X , c o m p a r e d t o about 4,000 patients who r e c e i v e d s t a n d a r d c a r e , s h o w e d t h a t D E X t r e a t - ment reduced the death rate of CoViD-19 patients o n v e n t i l a t o r s b y a b o u t one-third, and reduced the risk of death for patients needing oxygen by close to one-fifth. That means that, in the US alone, DEX treat- m e n t c o u l d h a v e s a v e d 25,000+ lives over the past three months alone: a stag- gering fact! The drug DEX seems, the researchers stated, "to reduce the damage from a hyperactive immune reac- tion called cytokine storm." Quod erat demonstran- dum! D o t t . F r a n c e s c o C h i a p p e l l i , P r o f . E m e r . U C L A C e n t e r f o r t h e Health Sciences. For com- m e n t s , q u e s t i o n s o r t h e Italian version of these few thoughts, please contact: C h i a p p e l l i . r e s e a r c h @gmail.com Continued from page 16 We Italians are friendly, we love having fun and we're creative. But there are also things we don't like a lot about our- selves! (Photo: Dreamstime)

• Cover