Micol Nakash from Italy: "Israelis Must Wake Up Before It's Too Late"

"Do not be complacent," warns Micol Nakash to the Israelis from her home in Milan, "if you are complacent, you may find yourselves one day in our situation."

Nakash, formerly Israeli, describes in our conversation what happened in her country step by step and finds no good words to say about the authorities in her country. "What is happening here is a huge blunder," she says. "The authorities here acted clumsily and irresponsibly. Not only when the situation was just beginning and the whole world barely understood where this pandemic was going, but also much later – when the number of infected in Italy was in the tens of thousands and the number of dead was increasing daily, Italy continued with a negligent and complacent policy."

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"The Authorities Awoke Only in Recent Days"

For those who do not closely follow the situation in Italy, it's worth noting that Italy has recently become the face of the coronavirus pandemic worldwide. In the giant country of about 60 million inhabitants, over 50,000 have been infected with the virus so far, and about 5,000 deaths have been counted, and the situation is only worsening. The daily death toll is about 800, and this number is constantly rising.

But yesterday, a rather cruel directive was conveyed to Italian doctors: patients over the age of 60 will not be connected to ventilators and will be left to their bitter fate. This was reported yesterday on Channel 12 News. The Israeli doctor, Dr. Guy Peleg, said this is the unspoken directive received by the teams in the country, in light of a severe shortage of ventilators. The sad directive was given to allow Italian medical teams to cope better with the severe outbreak of the pandemic in the country.

"At first, everyone here said there was nothing to worry about, that it's like a regular flu," describes Micol. "Later, the situation began to become clear and the authorities started taking practical steps. Italy was indeed one of the first countries in the world to prohibit the entry of citizens from China, but this directive did not hermetically seal the country's borders to citizens coming from China, as they still allowed Chinese citizens to enter Italy, so Chinese citizens who wanted to reach the European country did so via another European country, thus continuing to enter Italy. This was the first mistake of the authorities in Italy."

According to her, the closure of businesses was also done inadequately. "About three weeks ago, they closed commercial centers and schools, but at the same time, they left restaurants and bars open, so people continued to go out on the streets, eat in restaurants, and transmit the disease from person to person. Authorities recommended that citizens not leave their homes, but people did not heed the recommendation. They did not understand where this might take them. And the bigger problem is that even after the situation became very severe, people here continued to disregard the instructions, so the outcome is no surprise," she says with pain.

"Only in recent days, the authorities in Italy have awakened and began addressing the chaos that prevails here. Police forces have taken to the streets of the cities, and the lockdown started to be enforced. Now, anyone who wishes to leave their home can do so only to purchase food or medicine. Police forces patrol the streets and enforce the lockdown. They do this by checking the residency of people when they see someone on the street, officers verify where the person lives, and to prove they have not violated the lockdown, they must show they went to the nearest store to their home. Otherwise, they break the lockdown laws and may face fines or even imprisonment. All this only happened in recent days, even though we were daily reported on hundreds of deaths," she complains.

However, Micol clarifies that the severe situation in the boot-shaped country happens only in parts of the country. "Italy is a huge country, so even if part of the country is very contaminated, other parts do not feel the outbreak significantly. The virus is rampant mainly in the northwest of the country, with the peak outbreak occurring in the wealthy Lombardy region."

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"Dear Brothers, Wake Up!"

What do you know about the situation in the Jewish community in Italy??

"In our area, the Jewish area of Milan, I know of two Jews significantly affected by the virus, a 75-year-old man who passed away, and another about fifty years old, my friend's husband, who is now hospitalized. I myself am very apprehensive about the situation, and therefore I barely leave the house, since the outbreak began."

How are you coping with the lockdown?

"Fortunately, I have a beautiful view from home, so at least I can find comfort in that," she says optimistically. "The supermarket is right across from my house, so my outings outside are very short. But it is clear that to successfully deal with this severe illness, we will have to stay this way for a long time, for all of our benefit.

"Moreover, one can work from home. In Italy, unlike what happened in Israel, people continue to work almost normally. In this aspect, our situation is better than in Israel. Here most workers continue to work from home. Even my children study from home the series of lessons they were accustomed to studying so far.

"I spoke with my cousin living in Israel," adds Nakash, "and she told me about many Israelis going out to parks and beaches. I told her, 'You are making the same mistake we made.' I sincerely hope you do not reach the situation in Italy. What's unique about this virus is that it's contagious very easily and quickly, so if people do not close themselves off – they might get sick," she warns.

In conclusion, Nakash wishes to convey a message to the citizens of Israel: "Wake up," she urges. "We also did not believe we would reach this situation, and now we have hundreds of deaths here every day. Sadness covers the entire country. The media shows doctors crying and saying they have never seen people suffer so much without being able to save them, due to a severe lack of ventilators and the fact that there is no cure for the virus, so please, take care of yourselves and your loved ones."