Italy's death toll continues to skyrocket as the country grapples to contain its devastating outbreak of the novel coronavirus. As residents and visitors alike navigate the impacts of an unprecedented, nationwide lockdown, Italians want the world to know their struggle was avoidable.
The Milan-based artist collective A THING BY has created a compilation video of Italians on lockdown admitting what they could have done differently before COVID-19 found its firm foothold.
Italy has surpassed 35,700 cases and has reached almost 3000 deaths. Of those originally affected, just over 4000 have fully recovered while 2200 are in intensive care.
A THING BY shared the video to their YouTube channel on March 15, mere days before Italy's death toll rose by 475 within 24 hours - establishing the highest one-day death toll of any nation so far throughout the pandemic.
"We found ourselves being stuck at home and figured that we had to do something at a time like this, so we tried to come up with an idea that we could do from home," filmmaker and A THING BY member Olmo Parenti told Business Insider.
"It is believed that the US, England and France are nine to 10 days behind Italy in COVID-19 progression," a preface on the video reads. "We asked people from all around Italy to record a message for themselves of 10 days ago [sic]."
Many of the participants profess regret for not acknowledging directions to stay inside and practice social distancing before the measures became mandatory. Others suggest that within 10 days, the "usual boring things" of day-to-day life were no longer possible.
"It's just a flu... wait, maybe it's bad... well, I don't know. We took it lightly," one woman confessed in her recorded message.
"The issue is more serious than most of the world believes," said a man.
Advice from the video participants includes:
- "Stop making fun of mom for telling you to buy face masks and buy them, idiot"
- "If you must go outside, only do it if [it's] indispensable"
- "Stay at home... you can rest, watch movies, play the guitar... or learn guitar because right now you suck at it."
"We underestimated this. You don't have to do the same," the video concludes. "Stay at home."
The video has amassed more than three million views, many heralding the compilation as a necessary warning for nations working to contain their outbreaks.
"The aim of this video is to spread consciousness, not panic. Just use your good sense and keep yourself informed," one viewer commented, who also claimed to be an Italian on lockdown.
"This needs to be put in place of the commercials," another declared.
One New Yorker wrote: "This is a good message to the entire world... I thought people were overreacting two weeks ago... today, I know that I underestimated this damn virus and boy do I feel stupid thinking it was going to be nothing."
Parenti said the collective are excited about the influence their video is having on others.
"It seems like people are starting to take it seriously now," he told Business Insider.
"It's good to know we had an impact."
