Italians share messages warning others about coronavirus impacts

'Much worse than you thought': Italians share messages warning others about coronavirus impacts

Italy has been particularly hard hit, with the large number of deaths.

The videos came from hundreds of Italians across the country as they watched a nationwide lockdown, but the message for other countries was the same: don't underestimate this.
Italy has been particularly hard hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic, with more than 35,000 confirmed cases and the second-highest number of fatalities behind China. The freelance filmmaker Olmo Parenti had in mind those astounding numbers when he collected messages from Italians to warn those in other countries what they could face if they weren't serious about self-isolating and social distancing.

Parenti said he wanted to record messages to people in the U.S., England, and France, fearing that people would not take the pandemic as seriously as they should.
"We were acting the same way until nine, ten days ago," said Parenti, who lives in Milan. "We were going outside to say, 'It's just a flu. We get it ... why should we worry about it?' But the thing is, we didn't realize how little we know about it." "We make assumptions that not only put us at risk, but others at risk," Parenti said.

Working with the film collective "A Thing By," Parenti was given hundreds of videos for the project. He said that he edited the whole thing in one night to get the message out as quickly as possible.
"What's going on is a lot worse than you thought it was," said Paola Costa in her message. "You will realize that even being able to breathe air in your own house is something you should be thankful for." A woman who works at a hospital in Italy said that she is now working "deadly shifts."