After weeks of debate and confusion in Italy, in what seems like a blink of an eye I have actually gone from living in a nation in the middle of mild hypochondria to one in state quarantine-induced national panic And all of it started, literally, with an earthquake.
On the day the first reported case of COVID-19 hit Carpi, the little northern Italian town in which I live, a sizable tremor rattled our walls and windows– as if signifying the start of our ensuing war against an invisible enemy. Such words might seem significant, however it is indeed the language embraced by political leaders and reporters alike in Italy’s nationwide press.
At the time of the initial break out, remaining in a town still living in the shadow of a disastrous earthquake just eight years back, personally I felt greater worry about the seismic activity than coronavirus. As the dust settled, my attitude rapidly changed. All schools were unexpectedly closed, leaving myself, an English instructor, at home watching a relentless 24- hour news cycle, updating minute-upon-minute escalating rates of infection.
The typical hectic crowds in streets and piazzas were minimized to handfuls of high school kids enjoying their unanticipated vacation.
Individuals’s fears over public health intensified. Public centers such as fitness centers, libraries and cinemas soon followed suit. People stocked food from grocery stores as groups of cleaners sanitized the windows and aisles around them. Drug stores soon ran out of hand gel and face masks. The