Italy: Virologist says fears of racism slowed Italy's coronavirus response; Florence Mayor urged Italians to "hug a Chinese" - Voice of Europe

Italy: Virologist says fears of racism slowed Italy's coronavirus response; Florence Mayor urged Italians to "hug a Chinese" - Voice of Europe

• An Italian virologist has said that fears of being accused of racism slowed the Italian government’s initial response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.

Dr. Giorgio Palù is a Professor of Virology and Microbiology at the University of Padova, and he was formerly the President of the European and Italian Society for Virology. In an interview with CNN, he said that the reason the disease has struck Italy so fiercely is because the government delayed imposing travel restrictions on people coming from China until it was too late. 

He said the country’s response was “lazy in the beginning” because of “too much politics.”

“There was a proposal to isolate people coming from the epicenter, coming from China,” Palù told CNN. 

“Then it became seen as racist, but they were people coming from the outbreak.”

Since then, Italy has become the hardest-hit country in the world after China..

Dario Nardella, the Mayor of Florence, who is from the Left-wing Democratic Party, was urging Italians to “hug a Chinese” in early February out of concerns that coronavirus fears were leading to racism against the Chinese...

...Other videos from February show Chinese people getting hugs from Italian passersby..."

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