Below is a message just sent out by Master Boot Record, a solo musician based in Italy. I'm posting this for the discussion of what's happening in Italy, which has been hit harder than anywhere else in Europe by COVID-19.

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SHOW IN MOSCOW CANCELLED // CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK.

Unfortunately our flights have been cancelled and Russia imposed self-quarantine of 14 days to anyone coming from Italy, Germany, France, China and many other countries due to the Coronavirus Outbreak. I really looked forward for this show and was ready to meet all my fans and friends in Russia but it's evident this is not the time for live performances. To be honest, given the severity of the situation and the pandemic nature of this crisis I think we all should realize as soon as possible that in this phase doing concerts means to put at risk our fans and would be very irresponsible to do them in any part of the world. Of course this situation is going to be a disaster for music as well as for everyone else in other fields but we must understand that we can't put money or entertainment before our life and that of our families and friends and especially the elders and the weak that are the most vulnerable.

Let me tell you what we've understood so far in Italy, the country most affected after China right now. COVID-19 is a serious infection with very sneaky characteristics. No one is immune to it, there's no vaccine and there's no effective cure. A good amount of people has mild symptoms but almost 30% require hospitalization and 10% require ICU or even ECMO. Yes, mostly the elders die but also younger people require intensive care and there is no ICU available for everyone. Not to mention in case of shortage of ICU literally anyone is at risk if needing it for other reasons. It's incubation is up to 14 days compared to the 3-4 days of normal flu. But what makes it seriously dangerous is the fact that also people without ANY symptoms can spread it without knowing it. Especially the young people or kids since they are mostly asymptomatic. Talking of death rate is just speculation because that depends on several factors from demographics, to healthcare response and case detection as well as estimation of asymptomatics but what is clear with all its fury here in Italy is that the contagion is escalating so rapidly that our healthcare system will soon collapse (7 days estimate) and will have to start chosing who has access to ICU basing on age and life expectancy. Also there isn't enough medical staff with proper specialization in ICU and surgery operation has been halted in some hospitals to reassign medics for ICU.

Now that being said, what's even more dangerous of the virus is the downplaying of it and minimizing the situation. We've seen this happening in Italy for weeks. From social media to media, from friends to doctors or scientists in TV we heard a brainwashing mantra that convinced the vast majority of people that this is "just a flu". But now when things escalated nobody believes it's even a threat anymore. Even if our president went on TV to urge everyone to follow guidedlines since we can't enforce them as a an authoritarian state like China do, people are simply ignoring them or even thinking that this whole thing is some sort of conspiracy or just media hype. We see people that keep going to bars or crowdy places even more than before. By closing schools and univeristies especially the younger generation is litearally feeling this whole situation as some sort of vacation. In some cases they even believe that going against guidelines is some sort of "revolutionary" act against the system. We have even people that are positive to the virus that escape from quarantine and goes around infecting others cause they just don't care. On the other hand a lot of people is panicking and escaping from red zones all over italy contributing to the spread. Even prisoners have been managed to revolt or evade today. In other words the situation is rapidly escalating on all fronts.

Finally, I have no reason make this up and believe me it's no fun at all to write this. Everything seems so surreal and I have an album coming soon and was working on touring that will most likely never happen at this point. I am sure there will be people that is going to say that this is all bullshit because they are living in a country that is still not in a phase so advanced like that we are living in Italy. But believe me, it's just a matter of time. It's unrealistic to think that a country like Italy is taking counter measures literally killing our economy for some conspiracy or for the pleasure to hurt their citizens comfortable life without a reason.

I urge you to get informed and understand the most you can of this situation so to protect yourself and your family. I really hope to be wrong and that this situation will end soon but unfortunately at the moment there is no reasonable evidence to think this is going to stop anytime soon.

Spread the code. Not the virus.