Why Italy and Iran are hardest hit by the virus? Close ties to communist China...

[2aguy]

Italy has an incredibly old population....so one major issue creating their virus problem....the other one, which also effects Iran....close ties to communist China....

Why Italy and Iran?

Italy and Iran have been two of the countries hardest hit by the Wuhan coronavirus, outside of China. Why? Helen Raleigh explains at The Federalist:

The reason these two countries are suffering the most outside China is mainly due to their close ties with Beijing, primarily through the “One Belt and One Road” (OBOR) initiative.

OBOR is Beijing’s foreign policy play disguised as infrastructure investment. Here’s how it works: China and country X agree to do an infrastructure project in country X. Country X has to borrow from a Chinese bank to finance the project. A contract is always awarded to Chinese companies, which then bring supplies and Chinese employees to country X to build the project.

As a result of One Belt and One Road, there are more than 300,000 Chinese living in Italy.

Almost exactly a year ago in March 2019, against warnings from the EU and the United States, Italy became the first and only G7 country to sign onto OBOR. As part of the deal, Italy opened an array of sectors to Chinese investment, from infrastructure to transportation, including letting Chinese state-owned companies hold a stake in four major Italian ports. …
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The Iran case is interesting as well:

2019 was the year Iran officially signed up to OBOR. China sees Iran as a crucial player to this initiative because Iran is not only rich in oil but also lies in a direct path of an ambitious 2,000-mile railroad China wants to build, which will run from western China through Tehran and Turkey into Europe.

Today, Iranian health officials trace the country’s coronavirus outbreak to Qom, a city of a million people. According to the Wall Street Journal, “China Railway Engineering Corp. is building a $2.7 billion high-speed rail line through Qom. Chinese technicians have been helping refurbish a nuclear-power plant nearby.” Iranian medical professionals suspect either Chinese workers in Qom or an Iranian businessman who travelled to China from Qom caused the spread of the coronavirus in Qom.

News reports indicate that a number of high Iranian officials have contracted coronavirus, and I believe at least one or two have died. Raleigh explains:

 

[MarathonMike]

Both Iran and Italy have unusually large populations of old people.

 

[2aguy]

Italy is hard hit by the virus for 3 reasons...

1) Old population...2nd only to Japan

2) signing on to the Chinese agenda....bringing in over 300,000 Chinese nationals



The 3rd reason that Italy is harder hit.....more of the population smoke cigarettes....

The Latest On COVID-19 Suggests Most Of Us Will Be Fine

Risk Factors Vary by Person and Country
Some 319 million people in China smoke, about 23 percent of the population. In Italy, 19 percent of the population smokes. In South Korea, 40.7 percent of the male population smokes compared to 6.4 percent of the females. By comparison, about 37.8 million Americans smoke—18 percent of men and 14 percent of women.

Italy’s mortality numbers are further burdened by agedness. Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world, with almost 60 percent of Italians aged 40 and up and a national average age of 46. The median age in the United States is 38.2 years.


Even so, conflicting reports out of Italy suggest there may only be two people who died from the coronavirus who did not also present other pathologies.


This, as Silvio Brusaferro, the president of the Higher Institute of Health in Rome, noted that, “Positive deceased patients have an average of over 80 years—80.3 to be exact—and are essentially predominantly male.” Only 25.8 percent of deaths attributed to the virus were women.