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A tale of two epicentres: Lombardy and New York City at the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2022

Luca Storti Open the ORCID record for Luca Storti [Opens in a new window] ,
John Torpey ,
Joselle Dagnes ,
Marianna Filandri  and
Justine Lyons
Luca Storti*
Affiliation:
Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Italy
John Torpey
Affiliation:
The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
Joselle Dagnes
Affiliation:
Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Italy
Marianna Filandri
Affiliation:
Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Italy
Justine Lyons
Affiliation:
The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA
*
Corresponding author: Luca Storti: email luca.storti@unito.it
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Abstract

The paper explores the tale of two 'epicentres’ – metropolitan New York and Lombardy – and seeks to depict the socio-demographic patterns that characterise the worst cases of infection, hospitalisation, and death during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. By drawing upon secondary data concerning sub-territorial units within the two regions – ZIP-code level and counties in New York and municipalities in Italy – the paper compares the characteristics of the two areas in an effort to understand both how they became the original major epicentres and how their experiences of the pandemic differed. We suspected initially that the pandemic in Lombardy was a function of a complex constellation of variables, such as the age of the population, the unexpected emergence of the virus, and features of the local health system. In New York, the pattern seemed to fit a more familiar dynamic, the kind one would expect from the course that most pandemics take: the poor suffer the worst. The paper tries to extend the understanding of the complex and not univocal mix of social variables that can facilitate the spread of a pandemic and make its effects extreme.

L'articolo esplora la storia di due ‘epicentri’ – l'area metropolitana di New York (USA) e buona parte della Lombardia (Italia) – con l'intento di descrivere i principali aspetti sociali che hanno caratterizzano i primi sei mesi della pandemia di Covid-19 nel 2020. L'analisi si basa su dati secondari relativi a unità sub-territoriali: le zone delimitate dagli ZIP-code e dalle contee a New York e dai comuni in Lombardia. Le principali acquisizioni empiriche mostrano che la pandemia in questa regione italiana è stata condizionata da una complessa costellazione di variabili, quali ad esempio l'elevata età media della popolazione, l'emergere inaspettato del virus e le caratteristiche del sistema sanitario locale. A New York, invece, l'origine della pandemia si dispiega seguendo una dinamica più familiare: sono le fasce meno abbienti della popolazion a soffrire di più. L'articolo cerca di estendere la comprensione del complesso e non univoco mix di variabili che agevola la diffusione di una pandemia e che ne rende estremi gli effetti.

Keywords

pandemic epicentrespattern of diffusionNew York Metro and Northern Italyinitiating and diffusion factors
Type
Research Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , May 2022 , pp. 155 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for the Study of Modern Italy

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Footnotes

†

The original version of this article was published with an error in the author order. A notice detailing this has been published and the error rectified in the online PDF and HTML copies.

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