Quarantined Italians Record Messages to ‘Themselves from 10 Days Ago’

If you’ve been reading all updates taking over your phone about the COVID-19, aka coronavirus outbreak, you’ve probably seen that it’s believed that the U.S. is about 10 days behind Italy in the virus’ progression.

After the numbers of infected people with coronavirus and deaths from the disease skyrocketed, Italians are on a serious quarantine, where they aren’t allowed to leave their home unless it’s for serious emergencies.

At this point in America, governors of many states are starting to ban gatherings of large kinds, in addition to limiting restaurants and bars to only takeout. Schools are closing down for a period of time. People who are able are working from home. We are taking action, but is it enough?

With the idea that the U.S. is a week and a half behind Italy, we have the luxury to know what to do—and take action to help flatten the curve and get the spread under control.

Italians have recently begun recording themselves, making videos for what they wish they knew 10 days ago, which can help Americans become really aware on a personal level just how bad the situation can get if we don’t take serious action.

The people in the videos all agree on one thing: to take the situation seriously. It’s easy to downplay the situation, comparing coronavirus to the flu or how there’s only a limited amount of people who have it.

But how quickly it can spread and become a pandemic is not a joke—and the people making these videos make that clear. As one person noted in the videos, the number of infected people went from 2,000 to 18,000 in mere days. The death rate is over 1,000 at this point.

The videos aren’t to scare us — they’re to educate us on the severity of the situation. We can really learn a lot from this. Check them out below.

How are you taking precautions in the U.S. to slow the spread of coronavirus?