Uh no, Italy failed to enforce social distancing in the two most critical transmission choke points: public transport and health care. In the months after the

Uh no, Italy failed to enforce social distancing in the two most critical transmission choke points: public transport and health care. In the months after the first wave nobody bothered leasing new vehicles for an already over-capacity public transport network. Excuses abounded, someone even claimed the form for the vehicle registration certificate didn't have separate fields for owner and leaser... I'm not joking. The real reason? Debt. There's no money left and 20 years of defunding and spending-diversion left behind a crippled and stunted administrative apparatus. So, people and students traveled face to face in early September when schools and workplaces reopened. Hospitals are under-staffed after years of austerity measures trying to tame monstrous debts. General Practitioner networks have also been shut-down to favor private clinics and centralized hospitals. Infected people sat in ER waiting rooms for hours, and the few GPs that still operate were given 5 protective masks per month to work with. "COVID Hotels" - normal hotels rented out wholesale by government to keep low-grades and convalescents were never made operational and people were left home to infect family members or in hospital to infect other patients while overwhelming the already thin infrastructure. Some criminally-stupid civil servant even ordered them back to nursing homes, killing more of the aging population that fortuitously survived the first wave. This has nothing to do with the effectiveness of masks, but all to the culturally ingrained disorganization of Italians. Eg: In Germany the government is already planning the logistics for mass vaccination, while in Italy the Special Commissioner for Health of Calabria (try to imagine this like a bankruptcy executor, but for a regional government) resigned after an interview where to the question "where is the COVID plan for Calabria" he answered "why are you asking me? Do I have to make this plan? - shuffles papers - Oh yes, according to this document I'm responsible. Hmm." They're trying to find a replacement, but two other resigned for various reasons... it might have to do with the last political murder of Calabria some years ago: the hospital supply chain is in the hands of the 'Ndrangheta (the local organized crime syndicate)