Italy and China: beyond fake news

Since the appearance of Coronavirus, now referred to as COVID-19, a series of theories have followed. As always, the news spread fast, but the fake news has increasingly dominated the whole wide world. The fact that the virus originated in China instigated many people and it did not take long until various hypotheses appeared, which at times were unlikely and absurd. Then the rest of the world had to deal with this new enemy, and no one actually knew how to act or how to repair the consequent tragedy. According to some people “it was China’s fault because it did not warn in time and did not communicate to WHO what was happening”. Initially, Trump called it the “Chinese virus”, but then the United States also had to deal with the Coronavirus. “It is a plot” someone else claimed. Everything has been said about the virus including that “it is a virus created in laboratory” and that “it is the fault of the United States that want to slow down the China’s rival race to the world power”.

Legal actions have been taken against China. For instance, in Italy the Hotel De La Poste in Cortina d’Ampezzo and the Codacons (Coordination of Associations for the Defence of the Environment and the Users and Consumers’ Rights) have reported the Chinese authorities because, as required by the international regulations, they should have initiated in time the adequate containment measures and communication to the WHO. Additionally, in the rest of the world, perhaps as a result of the confusion that this new virus has brought, considering the virus has never existed before in humans and therefore its symptoms, causes and effects are completely unknown, China was often targeted by those that felt like a victim due to the impact of the pandemic on the global economy.

The WHO declared that the source of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, is unknown to date. The currently available information, as stated by the World Health Organization, suggests that “it has an animal origin and therefore it was not genetically engineered in a lab” as some people claimed. Most likely the “ecological reservoir” of SARS-CoV-2 lies in bats. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a group of genetically related viruses, including SARS-CoV (the coronavirus that causes SARS) and a number of other coronaviruses, isolated from bat populations.

The National Institute of Health explains that “the outbreak among humans of new pathogenic viruses that previously circulated only in the animal world, is a phenomenon widely known as spillover or jumping from one species to another and it is thought to be at the origin of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The scientific community is currently trying to identify the source of the infection”.

On the other hand, China has always shown friendship to Italy and in full emergency sent relief and various types of aid. The result is that today 36% of the Italian population, as emerges from a SWG survey on the first days of April 2020, sees China as the main strategic partner in this time of emergency and post-emergency health care from Covid-19. A smaller percentage, that is 30%, believes that the ideal partner is the United States, while the remaining is undecided between one and the other countries.

This time we asked Carlo Cipria, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the lawyer Emiliano Vignola some questions about this situation. They expressed their personal opinions and the available information that they have regarding the origin of the virus, the relationship between Italy and China during this difficult period, and how they see it in the future. We also asked them what they think about the complaints of the Italian private institutions and bodies addressed to the Chinese authorities. We are glad to affirm that the friendship between Italy and China is confirmed and that in the future it will be stronger than ever; and give some explanations of the  complaints to the People’s Republic of China: could they be seen as an advertising strategy? Or could they be justified by the fear of being put out of work, or by the misinformation generated by fake news? All this and more on the topic can be found in the responses of our interviewees.