Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 13, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A5 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2020 ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM A 5NEWS I WORLD ROME - Italy is reclaiming a record that nobody wants - the most corona- virus deaths in Europe - after the health-care system again failed to pro- tect the elderly and government author- ities delayed imposing new restrictions. This wasn't supposed to happen. Italy was the first country in the West to be overwhelmed by COVID-19 and, af- ter suffering a huge wave of death in spring, brought infections under con- trol. Italy then had the benefit of time and experience heading into the fall resurgence because it trailed Spain, France and Germany in recording big new clusters of infections. Yet the virus spread fast and wide, and Italy has add- ed nearly 29,000 dead since Sept. 1. "Obviously there needs to be some reflection," Guido Rasi, former execu- tive director of the European Pharma- ceutical Agency, told state TV after Italy reported a pandemic-high record of 993 deaths in one day. "This number of nearly 1,000 dead in 24 hours is much higher than the European average." Italy added 649 more victims Satur- day, bringing its official total to 64,036. According to the official British gov- ernment total of 64,024, Italy did over- take Britain, though the Johns Hopkins University tally late Saturday still showed Britain leading Europe with 64,123 dead. Both numbers are believed to greatly underestimate the real toll, due to missed infections, limited testing and different counting criteria. Italy is taking over the dishonour- able ranking despite having six million people fewer than the U.K.'s 66 million, to trail only the much larger U.S., Bra- zil, India and Mexico. According to the Hopkins tally, Italy has the most deaths per 100,000 population among the most affected countries. Public health officials argue Italy has the world's second-oldest population af- ter Japan, and the elderly are the most vulnerable to the virus. The average age of Italian victims has hovered around 80. In addition, 65 per cent of Italy's COVID-19 dead had three or more other health problems be- fore they tested positive, such as hyper- tension or diabetes, according to Italy's Superior Institute of Health. That doesn't explain the whole pic- ture. Germany has a similarly old demographic and yet its death toll is one-third of Italy's despite its larger population of 83 million. Germany recorded its highest daily number of coronavirus victims Friday - 598 - but has 21,500 dead overall. Analysts point to Germany's long- term higher per-capita spending on health care, which has resulted in greater ICU capacity, better testing and tracing capabilities and higher ratios of doctors and nurses to the population. But Germany also imposed an earlier, lighter lockdown this fall and is now poised to tighten it. "If you can act sooner, even a bit lighter in the measures, they work bet- ter than acting harshly a bit later or too late," said Matteo Villa, research fellow at the Institute for International Polit- ical Studies, a Milan-based think-tank . Italy, he said, waited too long after in- fections started ticking up in September and October to impose restrictions and didn't reinforce its medical system suf- ficiently during the summertime lull. "If you look at France and the U.K., you can see Italy did fare much worse," he said. "And if you look at a compar- able population with similar demo- graphics, which is Germany, Italy did a lot worse." With another wave of infections feared to be just around the corner with Christmas visits and the winter flu season, many are wondering how many more will die. Doctors have blamed systemic prob- lems with Italy's health-care system, especially in hardest-hit Lombardy, for failing to respond adequately. They have cited the growth of private hospi- tals in Lombardy in recent years at the expense of public ones. Brain drain and bureaucratic obstacles have resulted in fewer doctors going into practice, while general practitioners have complained of a lack of support despite being the backbone of the system. Nearly 80,000 Italian health-care workers have been infected and 255 doctors have died. "We asked for a lockdown at the start of November because the situation in- side hospitals was already difficult," said Dr. Filippo Anelli, head of the country's doctors' association. "We saw that it worked in the spring and allowed us to get out from under COVID. If this had been done, probably today the num- bers would be coming down." The Italian government resisted re- imposing a nationwide lockdown this fall, knowing the devastating impact on an economy that was just starting to come back to life after the springtime shutdown. Instead, on Nov. 3 the government div- ided the country into three risk zones with varying restrictions. By then infec- tions had been doubling each week for nearly a month and hospitals were al- ready overwhelmed in Milan and Naples. Italy also went into the pandemic poorly prepared. It had fewer per capita ICU beds than the average of developed countries. And in recent weeks, inves- tigative news reports have noted that Italy hadn't updated its influenza pan- demic preparedness plan since 2006 - which could help explain its critical shortage of protective equipment early on and its chaotic initial response to the pandemic. A World Health Organization re- port, which was posted and then im- mediately taken down from the WHO website, noted Italy's 2006 plan was merely "reconfirmed in 2017" without being updated. The report said the plan was "more theoretical than practical" and when COVID-19 hit, all hell broke loose. "Unprepared for such a flood of se- verely ill patients, the initial reaction of the hospitals was improvised, chaotic and creative," said the report. The UN health agency said it re- moved the report because it contained "inaccuracies and inconsistencies," and then decided not to republish it because it developed other ways to assess coun- tries' responses. Government officials admit they were caught unprepared but have strongly defended their response to the resurgence as scientifically sound and proportional to prevent the economy from collapsing. Domenico Arcuri, the government's virus commissioner, said Thursday that the November restric- tions were flattening Italy's infection curve. "Daily infections are coming down, hospital admissions are coming down, the number of people who unfortunate- ly are admitted to intensive care (is) coming down," Arcuri said. - The Associated Press ANTONIO CALANNI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Coffins are lined up on the floor in the San Giuseppe church in Seriate, one of the areas worst hit by coronavirus, near Bergamo, Italy. Italy is poised to reclaim the dishonour of reporting the most coronavirus deaths in Europe. NICOLE WINFIELD Italy's staggering COVID toll poses uncomfortable questions W ASHINGTON - Thousands of maskless rallygoers who re-fuse to accept the results of the election turned downtown Wash- ington into a falsehood-filled spectacle Saturday, two days before the electoral college will make the president's loss official. In smaller numbers than their gath- ering last month, they roamed from the Capitol to the National Mall and back again, seeking inspiration from speak- ers who railed against the Supreme Court, Fox News and president-elect Joe Biden. The crowds cheered for re- cently pardoned former national secur- ity adviser Michael Flynn, marched with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and stood in awe of a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One. "There he is! There is our guy!" a woman exclaimed, reaching toward the sky. After railing on Twitter about the failure of his most recent attempt to overturn the election results, U.S. President Trump praised the crowd that gathered in his honour, tweeting "Wow! Thousands of people forming in Washington (D.C.) for Stop the Steal. Didn't know about this, but I'll be see- ing them! #MAGA," he wrote. Later in the day, attention was fo- cused not on the president but on a group he once told to "stand back and stand by": the Proud Boys, a male-chau- vinist organization with ties to white nationalism. In helmets and bullet- proof vests, hundreds of men in their ranks marched through downtown in military-like rows, shouting "move out" and "1776!" They seemed intent on intimidating onlookers and adopted a chant popu- lar with counterprotesters: "Whose streets? Our streets." After the sun went down, the even- ing became violent. At least two people were stabbed as the Proud Boys and an- ti-Trump demonstrators clashed near 11th and F streets NW. Doug Buchanan, a District of Colum- bia fire department spokesman, said the victims were taken to a hospital, but details about their conditions were not available. The attacks were an escalation after an evening of faceoffs that took place near Black Lives Matter Plaza, Frank- lin Square, Harry's Bar - a hangout popular with Trump supporters - and other spots downtown. At first, officers in riot gear success- fully kept the two sides apart, even as the groups splintered and roamed. Members of the Proud Boys be- came increasingly angry as they wove through streets and alleys, only to find police continuously blocking their course with lines of bikes. "Both sides of the aisle hate you now. Congratulations," a Proud Boy shouted at the officers. Before long, the agitators determined to find one another were successful - and posturing quickly turned into punching, kicking and wrestling. Again and again, officers swarmed, pulling the instigators apart, firing chemical irritants and forming lines between the sides. Each time a fight was de-escalated, another soon began in a different part of town. District Police Chief Peter Newsham made a brief appearance in the chaos, telling protesters: "We're doing the best we can." Newsham said police units were de- ployed across downtown to keep the groups apart. He said smaller segments of people who splintered from larger gatherings seemed "intent on conflict." At least six people were arrested during Saturday's daytime demonstra- tions, in addition to five arrests that followed a Friday night brawl. More arrests were made into Saturday night, but a tally was not available. The scuffles seemed poised to con- tinue late into the night, as black-and- yellow-clad Proud Boys knocked back beers, whiskey and White Claw hard seltzers. Some stole a Black Lives Mat- ter banner, paraded it down M Street NW, then stomped on it. The tension came as most of the day's earlier rallygoers were on their way home or to hotels, after spending hours cheering for election fraud claims that have been disputed or debunked. The majority-white crowd ranged from grey-haired men and women in red hats to children in wagons, one of whom chanted "100 more years!" As the nation watches Biden's transi- tion, rising coronavirus cases and vac- cine development, many have tuned out Trump's attempts to maintain power. But to his most dedicated supporters, the president's megaphone is as loud as ever. He has continued to falsely claim the elec- tion was stolen from him, prompting his faithful to return to the nation's capital. Flynn appeared on the steps of the Supreme Court to encourage them to maintain hope, despite the justices' dismissal Friday night of Trump's long- shot bid to overturn election results. "Don't get bent out of shape," Flynn said. "There are still avenues. We're fighting with faith, and we're fighting with courage." The speakers painted a picture of a country in a battle between good and evil, in which God himself would ultimately ensure Trump remained in power. Sebastian Gorka, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump, said when he heard the Supreme Court had dismissed an election case from Texas on Friday night, he told himself to "stop, take a deep breath, count to 10, read the Bible and pray." "We, thanks to our lord and saviour, have already won," Gorka claimed. A priest featured on a Jumbotron prayed to "place thyself at the head of this army of thy children." Jones, the Infowars host known for his denial of the Sandy Hook massacre, alternated between speaking about God and the future president: "Joe Biden is a globalist, and Joe Biden will be removed one way or another," he said from a stage on the National Mall. Trump backer and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell argued that "Fox (News) was in on it," while podcaster David Harris Jr. riled the crowd by suggesting that if there were a civil war, "we're the ones with all the guns," he said. All day, the masses nodded along to falsehoods, prayed for the country and cheered beside one another without masks. District police did not enforce mask rules or issue fines to those who ig- nored social distancing guidelines, even as the region faces an unpreced- ented spike in coronavirus cases. Dozens of District police officers have tested positive in the weeks since the last pro-Trump rally in November. As of Friday, 94 remained in quaran- tine. Police have declined to draw a dir- ect link between demonstrations and the spike in infections among officers. District residents have expressed concern the influx of maskless protest- ers puts the entire city at risk, especial- ly workers in restaurants and hotels. Activists flooded the inboxes of city of- ficials, asking them to shut down busi- nesses that allow people to congregate without masks. They called hotels to ask that they refuse to host those plan- ning to attend Saturday's rallies, with little success. - The Washington Post 'We're the ones with all the guns' Thousands of Trump supporters rally in D.C. EMILY DAVIES, CLARENCE WILLIAMS, RACHEL WEINER, MEAGAN FLYNN AND JESSICA CONTRERA LUIS M. ALVAREZ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Proud Boys march at a rally for U.S. President Donald Trump Saturday in Washington, D.C. After the rally, the Proud Boys and anti-Trump demonstrators clashed. A_05_Dec-13-20_FP_01.indd A5 2020-12-12 10:46 PM ;