For Prime Minister Meloni, Italy is among the countries with the most deaths from Covid: but is it true?

“Italy has adopted the most restrictive measures in the entire West, severely limiting the fundamental freedoms of individuals and economic activities; despite this, it is among the states that have recorded the worst data in terms of mortality and infections“. These words are those spoken by the premier Giorgia Meloni on the occasion of his first speech in Parliament, last 25 October. Expressions that the Prime Minister had already used in recent months and in the midst of the pandemic with the aim of attacking the Conte government and almost all the measures implemented to contain infections.

But is it true that Italy is among the states that have recorded the worst data in terms of mortality and infections? Is it also true that our country is the one that has adopted the most restrictive measures in terms of limiting personal freedom? The former premier Giuseppe Conte has no doubts and in responding to Giorgia Meloni, who in the meantime has reached one percentage of consensus among Italians that is close to 60% (data Demos) brings, among others, the data published by the University of Oxford on bringing them Our world in date. “According to the University of Oxford, for the number of deaths we are in 24th place”, commented the leader of the Five Star Movement, during the presentation of the book in Rome. To the left. From the beginning signed by the democrat Goffredo Bettini. “The vulgar lies fall like a house of cards. We were the first Western country where the pandemic broke out, we didn’t even produce masks. The data disseminated have nothing scientific at all ”.

To read the data with certainty, it is necessary to clarify which countries are used as a term of comparison. As the expert Roberta Villa explained, from the pages of Republic: “It is true that before us in terms of total mortality there are Peru and many Eastern European countries, some of which are full members of the Union, but they are undoubtedly still very different from Italy, France or Germany, above all for the efficiency of health services ». And again: “Among the Western high-income countries comparable to ours, however, it is undeniable that in terms of total deaths per million inhabitants, only the United States has done worse than us“. With 3272 deaths per million inhabitants against our 2972. Followed by the United Kingdom, the Eastern countries, Greece and Hungary.

Regarding the restrictive measures implemented by Italy, just go back to bringing Our world in date to verify two main things: the first is that measures such as curfews, the closure of commercial activities or distance learning have been approved and implemented in the management of the pandemic by numerous countries, the second is that the countries that have made the opposite choice, such as Sweden, are those with the heaviest data for the spread of the virus. “So that’s not true” Roberta Villa continues “that Italy has adopted the most restrictive measures in the entire West, if not perhaps in the tragic weeks between the end of winter and spring 2020, when it was the first to face an unknown threat”. Finally, each data is in any case the result of several factors that converge, as well as the cultural habits of each country, the level of health of the population, the tools available, which is why, as Roberta Villa points out, the comparison must always be made between equals. . And here the Italian situation cracks, if you think about the data “less dramatic than France and Spain, for several reasons more similar to ours”.

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