However, unlike what is happening, the environment is experiencing a moment of rebirth. Measures to combat Coronavirus, in fact, are allowing the climate to "breathe".

We wonder if, now that the virus is expanding globally, the rest of Europe and America will also apply policies that reduce emissions.

Italy is ‘flattening the curve,’ it means that it is slowing the spread of the virus. 

Currently Italy has the second highest number of confirmed cases worldwide, with approximately 110,000, trailing only the U.S. And Italy has seen the most COVID-19 deaths out of any country, with over 13.000 Italians having lost their lives to the virus.

Since March 9Italy’s 60 million residents have been placed on lockdown.Data coming from various sources all suggest that Italy has flattened the curve.

National data suggest that from March 31 to April 1, Italy saw only a 4.5% increase in total cases.

Public health experts were anticipating that Italy would witness a diminishing number of new cases at the end of March and early April, as a result of the lockdown measures put in place a few weeks earlier.

Massimo Galli, the head of the infectious disease unit at Sacco Hospital in Milan, points out that the number of mild cases could be increasing but going undetected. “I’m not sure the virus is really in reduction,” says Galli. “It’s extremely difficult to forecast the progression of the disease, the curve, and the mythical peak of the epidemic in such conditions.”

Experts say that other countries can learn from both Italy’s mistakes and its successes.

Some say that even once discovered, Italian authorities were too slow to implement lockdown measures, for fear of compromising an already fragile national economy. 

But experts say there is also a lot the world can learn from what Italy did right.

While Italy was slow to detect the virus, the government moved relatively quickly once the virus was discovered.

Beyond what Italy did right and wrong, Italy’s outbreak—and its above average mortality rate—shows the world just how dangerous the virus can be.

But is this true? Can children be infected whit the coronavirus? Data from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reported that children under 19 years of age comprised 2% of covid-19 cases. So children are less attached but they are not immune. But why do children infected with the coronavirus fare better than adult? One of the reason is probably that the virus need a protein on the surface of a cell to get into the inside of a cell and start making problems. And adults have more of this protein than children do.

There’s no energy in the streets, there aren’t tourists, there’s nobody.

That’s not the NY anyone signed up for but this is the NY after nonessential business were ordered to shut down and people were implored to heed a stay at home mandate for their protection.

After one month the Covid-19 Also changed NY life’s:

For example Manatthan, an imposing destination when flooded whith a work force and enraptured tourists, has been whittled down to a bleak grid. 

In other more residential boroughs there’s still liveliness, but not as before...

Some events break the sense of isolation: when communities organized a clap and a whistle in unison, or when a motorcycle brigade sped down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, their engines shouting into the silence.

It’s a really odd thing to keep one’s distance in a place where stranger’s lives are meant to interwine in fantastic and untidy ways.

In a place where we find Central park and a lots of metro’s stations, and a place were everybody wants to live due to his vitality.

Now that’s not NY, Restlessness and uncertainty lie behind all the closed doors.

Speaking for the first time at number 10 after he got recovered, the PM apologised for not being able to work and promises new measures to tackle the economic crisis and he is sure that English people will be responsible and won’t throw away months of sacrifice.  He added that this virus is an “invisible mugger” and pledges to move on to the second phase when the death rate will slow down. Some politician don’t agree with what the PM said,like first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon; also Labour urge the government to publish its strategy for the second phase

France has limited the smells of nicotine in pharmacies and blocked it online(until 11 may). A study showed that the smokers have less chances to contract the virus(5.3%) and they limited the sells to make people understand that nicotine is anyway something very dangerous. 

Experts also warned that if smokers contract the virus they have more bad symptoms of the respiratory disease and they are more likely to end up in intensitive care.

The researchers are waiting for a positive answer from health authorities to carry out clinical trials and they plan to use nicotine patches to workers at the hospital as a test. 

Gabriele Scandaliato

The first important pandemic of XX century was called simply flu pandemic was after the first world war in 1918 and was caused by birds in Asia and made at least 50 million deaths.

After there was the Asian flu (1957) still caused by birds and killed 1.1 million people. 

Then between the ‘70s and ‘80s we had another virus that is currently in circulation that is HIV and was spread by chimpanzee’s blood in Africa. 

 

 Riccardo Frusteri

This divided line of action could emphasise the inequalities between two socioeconomic groups: the first one represented by well-educated and wealthy people who can continue work from home and avoid have external contacts, the second one composed by less educated people who will face a “bleak choice”: expose to a pandemic or lose their jobs. It has to be said this group is heavily black and Latino and they widely embody the essential worker category. 

Moreover this inequality could affect American children too as a longer-lasting school closure could disadvantage those children who are less likely to have access to education. 

Chiara Stratoti

While Britain is facing difficulties to manage the epidemic, South Korea is already emerging from the darkness. What makes this difference extraordinary is the country's proximity to China, the initial center of the pandemic, which should have left South Korea much more vulnerable than Britain. The South Korean authorities took it seriously and with their efficiency they managed the virus. In the middle of this catastrophe South Korea's success is a beacon for the world. In addition the result is impressive; the nation has not resorted to blocks. The South Korean football and baseball leagues will be open from the beginning of May. South Korea's secret is to have found a national strategy that combines responsibility and efficiency.

When we think of cities, our mind instinctively focuses on noise, cars and skyscrapers: animals are not even considered part of the urbanized landscape we live in. But this is about to change.

Coronavirus taught us humility: we’re starting to understand that Nature is stronger than us — and animals are not wasting this opportunity.

Even though we aren’t aware of this, everyday we compete with many species. While we go to work, boars, foxes and monkeys are watching us and thinking: “We’ll find a way in.” And it’s exactly what’s happening. 

It took them two weeks to find the courage to explore the empty cities. They noticed something was off, and instantly took advantage of it. Omnivorous species such as racoons, boars, foxes and rats are starting to rummage into trash cans — but also pumas and wolves are wandering around our recovering, cars-free streets. (Obviously the endangered species don’t even think about it.)

Not only we can hope for a reconciliation between human and animals, but this extraordinary phenomenon can help scientists study the origins of our cities: while humans are finding a cure for the new coronavirus, animals are discovering an undiscovered land.

 

The rules says on the second phase that: you can exercise only if you are 2 meter  away from everybody

And most of all you have to wear a antivirus mask (and many of them weren't wearing it).

A lot of video of the Napoli’s promenade went viral and in no time arrived the response from the president of the region (Vincenzo De Luca) that said to the neapolitans that if they continue like this they are going to come back in lockdown for a very long time.

Giacomo Nasta

Before COVID-19 ,  the diet quality and nutritional status of Americans was terrible.

More than 40% of U.S. adults are obese.

Researchers are just beginning to study what people are eating during the pandemic, and while there is no data yet, the shifts are obvious: People are eating almost every meal at home. A new research published in April in  found that Americans get about 21% of their calories from restaurants and most of that food is of poor nutritional quality .

 it is difficult to predict how the coronavirus pandemic will change how Americans eat, or if these changes will be permanent. But one thing is clear: The epidemic is  affecting diets, and our diets are likely affecting who dies because obesity is linked to cancer among younger people and poor diets are the number-one cause of poor health 

Luca trucco

From NYTimes,

Elena Laugeni 

-It’s not nearly as serious as the common flu.

-We’re going to have 50,000 or 60,000 deaths, and that's great.

-OK, we may have more than 100,000 deaths, but we’re doing a great job and should reopen the economy.

When people sometimes say that Donald Trump minimized the danger of covid-19,  and that this misjudgment helps explain why their policy response has been so inadequate. Trump and his minions grossly minimized  pandemic and its dangers week after week over a period of months. And they’re still doing it, he keep getting things wrong, but he supposed to engage in some self-reflection  and learn from his mistakes. To do this self-reflection, he have to admit that he was wrong in the first place. We all know that he never going to make this type of admission. In this  time of crisis, America is led by a man with ego too fragile to let him concede having made any kind of error. And he has surrounded himself with people who share his lack of character. Trump’s insecurity leads him to reject expertise and listen only to people who tell him what makes him feel good. His character, is what is leading to vast numbers of unnecessary deaths.

On May 12th, China sent two satellites into orbit to test the space-based Internet of Things (IoT) communications Technology. The satellites were launched at 9:16 a.m. from the Jiungan Satellite Launch Center. They will conduct tests on technologies, including inter-satellite laser communications, and they’ll be used for other many purposes, like the environmental monitoring. The satellite is part of the plan to establish a global 5G constellation based on "low-cost, high-performance" Galaxy-1 small satellite platform. The platform will be refined based on lessons from on-orbit testing. In other words, the firm aims providing high-speed, low-latency communications services globally, including remote areas. In addition, one of the two satellite launched (between 80) renamed “Wuhan” to honour the sacrifices made by the citizens for the Corona virus. On the satellite has been written “honour to the health workers”.
 MariaGiovanna Ferrazzi

 

However some studies focused on the positive things that happened as a consequence of the Covid-19, among which the most significant is that animals, also in big cities, woke up.

It goes without saying that the slowdown in productive activities is decreasing the gases that pollute the environment in  many metropolis.

Studies say that lots of cities have been transformed in a “urban jungle” where the animals feel  comfortable to go as they find food, heat, and a safe place. Some examples of this phenomenon are the owls that sleep in the cemetery, the dolphins which approach the ports,wild boards and fox in the streets, hares in the parks…

Nowadays we can really understand how many damages humans do to the nature every day, in only two months the earth seems to have woken up again, we can still help the environment partially and we have to do this also when all this will end 

Naomi Caporuscio 3E