Italian politicians apparently wanted to “exploit” German Corona cases to protect their own image. Internal Whatsapp messages are also a burden on the government.
Rome – At the beginning of the corona pandemic, Europe was looking at one country in particular: Italy. As early as March 2020, the Mediterranean state had more deaths than China. Due to the broken health system and overburdened hospitals, there was not enough space to treat all patients. pictures of military convoys in Bergamo, which have now turned out to be significantly less threatening, went around the world. As is now becoming public, Italian politicians were initially more concerned about their own image than the health of the population.
Whatsapp chats about Italy’s Corona policy: “It’s like a world war”
The British Guardian reports on internal Whatsapp messages between Italian politicians and senior health officials. Accordingly, Italy, where there had been the most Covid cases at the beginning, wanted to distract from their own infection situation.
Former Health Minister Roberto Speranza is said to have written on March 5 that one had to “exploit” that there were reports of the first Covid case in Germany. Some of these cases originated in Italy. Giuseppe Ruocco, then Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, made himself loud Guardian funny about it. “Today we gave away 2 Covid cases in Austria, 1 in France and 1 in Spain… and maybe 1 in Germany,” he wrote. On February 29, he wrote: “A lot is going on: the scientific committee is arguing with Conte and Speranza, pushing for a rethink … It’s a world war.”
Sea Guardian The public prosecutor’s office has now launched an investigation into former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, ex-Health Minister Speranza and 17 other officials. It is about the suspicion of a “severe culpable epidemic” and manslaughter in connection with the government’s response at the beginning of the pandemic. The Italian daily newspaper The Republic also reports a lack of a pandemic plan.
Italy’s Corona chats: “You can’t tell the truth”
The epicenter of the infection situation at the time was Lombardy. In Bergamo alone, 6,000 excess deaths were recorded during the first wave of the virus, and prosecutors say 4,000 could have been prevented if the province had been immediately quarantined.
However, local politics hesitated. A WhatsApp exchange between regional health officials Aida Andreassi and Marco Salmoiraghi indicates an attempt by those responsible to hide the truth about the seriousness of the situation. “Do you know what the President of Lombardy said?” wrote Andreassi accordingly. “You can’t tell the truth. I said, ‘Well, then it’s like we’re in China.’ He countered that we are worse than China – at least there is a dictatorship there.’ The fact that local politicians wanted to hide corona cases is not only heard from Italy. There are similar accusations in Austria. (as)
