The Soccer Match that Kicked Off Italy's Coronavirus Disaster
On the afternoon of Feb. 19, Andrea Pontiggia was heading from Bergamo, Italy, to the biggest soccer match of his life—along with 40,000 of his closest friends.
The novel coronavirus, which had barely registered in Italy by that point, was the furthest thing from their minds.
The whole city seemed to be on the road. In 48 years of rooting for Bergamo’s local professional soccer team, a modest outfit called Atalanta, neither Mr. Pontiggia nor his hometown had ever seen anything like it. Atalanta was somehow the Cinderella of European soccer, and now it had a date in the sport’s most prestigious tournament, the Champions League. The match had even been moved to Milan for the occasion.
The stadium, San Siro, had enough room in the stands for twice as many Bergamaschi as Atalanta’s home park, and the Italian fans intended to cram into every available seat. None of them had yet heard the words social distancing.
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By then, the coronavirus was spreading through untold numbers of asymptomatic carriers. Forty thousand bouncing, hugging soccer fans were the perfect vector: Experts are now convinced that Atalanta’s 4-1 win over Valencia was a catalyst in turning Lombardy into one of the worst-hit regions on the planet. The coronavirus was so present inside the stadium that night that once Valencia returned to Spain, 35% of its traveling squad eventually tested positive.
“Two weeks after Feb. 19, there was an incredible explosion of cases,” said Dr. Francesco Le Foche, an immunologist in charge of infectious disease at Policlinico Umberto I in Rome. “The match played a huge role in disseminating coronavirus throughout Lombardy and in Bergamo in particular.”
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-soccer-match-that-kicked-off-italys-coronavirus-disaster-11585752012
The Tulsa rally is Trumps version of Jonestown.
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