By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin By — Ali Rogin Ali Rogin By — National Affairs National Affairs Leave a comment 0comments Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/italian-doctors-urge-the-u-s-to-learn-from-their-countrys-mistakes Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio With close to 7,000 deaths, Italy is the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic so far. Its health care system, one of Europe’s best, is mustering all its resources to respond to the flood of patients infected with COVID-19. But doctors and nurses are near their breaking points, and they warn the U.S. to learn from the Italian government’s mistakes. Nick Schifrin reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Judy Woodruff: With close to 7,000 deaths, Italy is the nation hardest-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.And as Nick Schifrin reports, Italy's doctors are urging the United States to learn from their national tragedy. And a warning: These scenes are difficult to watch. Nick Schifrin: In Northern Italy, the patients are gasping for air. At hospitals across the region, the horror is relentless.And the doctors and nurses who don't have enough protective equipment, don't have enough beds or machines, don't have enough hours in the day to save the sick, say they're losing a war. Romano Paolucci (through translator): We are at the end of our strength. This is a small hospital, and we are taking in a lot of people. I would say the capacity is finished. Nick Schifrin: Dr. Romano Paolucci was called out of retirement to help treat COVID-19 patients at Cremona's Oglio Po Hospital. Doctors are pulling 12-hour shifts. and they're starting to get sick. Six had to leave work after contracting COVID-19. Luca Dall’asta (through translator): Psychologically, it's very difficult. Nick Schifrin: Nurse Luca Dall'asta struggles to find the words. Luca Dall’asta (through translator): It will be at the end of this emergency that we will see how we stand up. But at the moment, we have the right spirit, even if we are very tired. Nick Schifrin: Doctors call the treatment for COVID-19 intense and lengthy. Patients need weeks to heal, if they heal. There are only so many ventilators, and they're prioritized for those most likely to survive.And so doctors are forced to decide who lives and who dies. And when patients die, they die alone. Funerals are illegal. Coffins sit for days. In this chapel in a crematorium, there are three times the normal number of dead. Michele Marinello (through translator): In theory, we are used to this, because our job deals with coffins. But now we understand the exceptional nature of the crisis. Nick Schifrin: In Bergamo, the cemetery is full, so army trucks brought coffins to a cemetery in a different region far from victims' families.This is one of Europe's best health care systems. But, in Brescia, the hospital admits COVID-19 is overwhelming. There are so many patients awaiting their COVID-19 test, they wait in cots in the hospital laundry room. Sergio Cattaneo (through translator): What is really shocking, something we had not been able to forecast and brought us to our knees, is how quickly the epidemic spreads. Nick Schifrin: Elsewhere, the streets and Italy's most famous sites are empty. Rome, the Eternal City, seems frozen in time. But critics say that isolation came too late. Andrea Crisanti: This was a missed opportunity. Nick Schifrin: Dr. Andrea Crisanti has been watching the virus ravage Italy since the first death in the tiny city of Vo on February 21. Local officials locked Vo down, and Crisanti's team tested all 3,000 residents. That allowed authorities to curtail infection at the earliest signs. Andrea Crisanti: Now, with experience that we have in Italy, you really need to bring the place to a standstill. Nobody moves for three to four weeks, and you do tests, as many as possible, around the place where the cluster has appeared. There's no other way. Nick Schifrin: Crisanti's team brought the infection rate in Vo to zero. But he said Italian authorities didn't learn his most-urgent lesson. Andrea Crisanti: Nobody has ever won a war by building more hospitals. You have to build more weapons. And I think the weapon to win in epidemics are measure of containment and surveillance and tracing.I regret that I didn't use my scientific approach to challenge and consolidated wisdom, because, you know, I'm a scientist. I tried to convey in a polite, educated way. Probably, I should have been more aggressive. Nick Schifrin: Despite all the fear, Italians have tried to maintain their hope. Despite their separation, they have maintained their connection.In a Lombardy hospital, Dr. Sarah Barbuto used a megaphone to play the Italian national anthem. Doctors sang along through their exhaustion. Sarah Barbuto (through translator): I wanted to tell you that, in all of Italy, people are thinking of you. They are hoping that we win this very tough battle. I am sure that this is how it will be. Nick Schifrin: Outside another hospital, there is a mural: A nurse holds Italy in her arms.Dr. Crisanti wants the U.S. to avoid Italy's mistakes. Andrea Crisanti: I think they have to take this very seriously, and I think they have to be ruthless in their effort to block the spread of the disease, ruthless in terms of measure and in terms of resource to pour into it. Nick Schifrin: But, for now, Italy's doctors have a warning: Get ready. Your country may be next.For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Mar 24, 2020 By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin By — Ali Rogin Ali Rogin Ali Rogin is a correspondent for the PBS News Hour and PBS News Weekend, reporting on a number of topics including foreign affairs, health care and arts and culture. She received a Peabody Award in 2021 for her work on News Hour’s series on the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect worldwide. Rogin is also the recipient of two Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and has been a part of several teams nominated for an Emmy, including for her work covering the fall of ISIS in 2020, the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017, the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2014, and the 2010 midterm elections. By — National Affairs National Affairs