Covid-19 is overwhelming Italy's medical system — it does not have the capacity to treat so many patients.

People who have other medical problems may die because the medical personnel have no time to treat everyone.

This demonstrates the error of prioritizing efficient operation in normal time by tuning medical capacity to the normal level of demand. A system such as the British NHS, which is operating over capacity even in normal times due to Tory budget cuts, is starting from a position of being overwhelmed.

*In opposing Medicaid expansion, Koch-funded organizations have increased the likelihood of the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S.*

Why is the US unprepared to deal with Covid-19? The same underlying reason that it is unprepared to deal with global heating: the 40-year plutocratist war on science, and its political reach.

*Deadly heatwaves, floods and rising hunger far greater threat to world than coronavirus, scientists say.*

*Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'.*

Italy's reaction to Covid-19 and its political consequences.

It appears that the right-wing extremist Liga party, in power in Lombardia, leaked the Lombardia quarantine plan so as to provoke chaos which it could then blame it on the government.

Praise for Italy's well-organized campaign to block spread of the virus, treat those who are sick (nearly all patients can survive with good treatment), and prevent the disastrous economic consequences that the epidemic is likely to have.

*There's no 'deadline' to save the world. Everything we do now has to pass the climate test.*

Growing trees does little lasting good against global heating if the wood is used in ways that will quickly decay and release the carbon again.