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Michael Bryant is a citizen journalist, writer and researcher who has worked with various anti-war groups, environmental organisations and anti-globalist organisations on many issues ranging from US imperialism, domestic corporate crimes and the globalisation of agriculture.
Our conversation is based on a piece he penned, published on the third anniversary of the World Health Organisation’s declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic, in which he provides a detailed examination of how Italy became the epicentre for the creation and spread of the Covid narrative.
The Western world was brought to a standstill by the emergence of a supposedly super-spreading, deadlier-than-flu virus from China that first appeared in northern Italy. The first alleged case of Covid-19 in the West was reported in the Lombardy town of Codogno, Italy, on 20th February 2020, and the Italian government reported their first Covid-19 death later that day.
The media played a significant role in shaping the fear campaign, with dramatic reports from northern Italy painting a picture of a mysterious and lethal virus spreading rapidly across the region, causing a significant number of infections and deaths. Reports from Bergamo, a city in the Lombardy region, spoke of coffins stacked high, relentless growth in Covid-related deaths, and the need for military assistance to handle the increasing number of dead bodies.
In response to the crisis, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte issued a series of government decrees, leading to Italy becoming the first country in the world to implement a national lockdown. These measures set the precedent for lockdowns throughout the Western world.
However, Michael raises some questions.
- Were the overcrowded conditions in Italian hospitals genuinely the result of a unique viral pathogen?
- Were the spikes in excess deaths in northern Italy verifiably caused by the arrival and spread of a novel deadly virus?
As it happens, northern Italy has had significant pollution problems and long-standing chronic health conditions that have plagued the region for years.
Michael’s article also discusses the impact of austerity measures on the health infrastructure and the introduction of unprecedented health protocols specifically for Covid.
What happened in norther Italy was not an epidemiological or biological aberration.
It was a result of an unprecedented set of administrative mandates by the Italian government and public health officials.
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