Why has Italy been hit so hard? While at first this sounded like Fake News, this is actually real.
In 2013, Italy signed an agreement with China called the "Belt And Road Initiative", also known as the 'Silk Road". Because of Italy's poor economy and high unemployment, they agreed to have Chinese workers build roads in Italy, using financing from Chinese banks, that would benefit Chinese trade routes. This move was widely criticized by members of the G-7 because it was another move by China in their ultimate goal for world domination. But because Italy was in the midst of an economic crisis, they signed on.
Chinese workers, mostly from Wuhan, made daily flights to and from Italy with many relocating their families in the process. When the first case of COVID-19 broke out in January 2020, the U.S. and Italy announced travel restrictions on China.
The CDC and WHO proposed isolating Chinese people coming from the epicenter in Italy. The Italian government balked at the idea because singling out travelers from China would be construed as racist.
On February 1st, Dario Nardella, Mayor of Florence, Italy, initiated a ‘Hug a Chinese’ campaign on Twitter. "We follow the directions of the health authorities and we use caution, but no psychological terrorism," Mayor Dario Nardella said in a tweet announcing the initiative while blasting those he said "could not wait to use this excuse to hate and insult."
So videos were taken of happy Italians hugging Chinese people on the streets of Florence, Milan, and other cities.
Obviously, this was a bad call by the mayor of Florence, but this act, along with the fact that Italy has the oldest population in Europe, and elders were not aware of the virus until it was too late, is why Italy has the greatest number of COVID-19 cases, and the highest death toll per capita.
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