Here’s an interesting article from Bergamo – Google translates it well enough. It gives many examples of how the death rate is much higher than the official estimates of the Italian government, largely because people are dying without ever getting to the hospital. Many of them are from mayors of various towns.

” Since the beginning of the month in Nembro we have had between 110 and 120 deaths. In the same period last year 14. This is enough to understand . ”

” In nearby Caravaggio 50 against an average of 6 in previous years. Only 2 “officials” for Covid-19.”

“70 people have died in Dalmine, including 2 officially for coronavirus. A year ago they had been 18.”

Mayor Roberto Scarpellini – ” We have had 16 deceased people since February 27, of which 3 officially for Covid-19, but also others with very clear symptoms. Throughout 2019 there were 28 deaths ”

All this means that official death count in Italy ( 743 today) is a serious underestimate: the actual numbers must be something like 4-9 times bigger – say 4000 a day. Does influenza do this? One did, back in 1918.

I hear a lot of people saying ” it’s just a flu”. I wonder why. Any ideas?