[simonh]

Those are good points. Because Italy was hit hardest first they had very little time to prepare. The UK has had about an extra month, which puts us in a different strategic position, so we might be able to afford an approach not viable for Italy.

[golem14]

How does the UK have an extra month, exactly ?

It did not take Italy 1 month to to go from 1,143 (today's UK number) positives to 21,157 (today's Italy number, per https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.h...), did it ?

[andy_ppp]

Testing in Italy was far less, the totals for there need to be inferred from the deaths and cases and the amount of testing!

[tigershark]

Italy had 21 deaths on the 28th feb, so 2 weeks ago.

[andy_ppp]

But the response will be less pronounced here with knowledge, self isolation and a lack of kissing when greeting. A month is probably a better guess than 2 weeks, but not a single person knows is rather the point...

[qbaqbaqba]

It takes a long time to acquire respirators and to train anesthesiologists.