Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is trapped in Italy amid the deadly COVID-19 pandemic — and he has critical information to share with elderly Americans.
Gingrich has been living in Italy since 2017, when his wife Callista was appointed ambassador to the Vatican by President Donald Trump.
The outspoken conservative Gingrich has been advising the Americans on how to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic based on his experiences in Italy.
The Italians have seen the absolute worst of the virus.
Learn from them, he insists.
Writing in Newsweek , Gringrich specifically stressed the urgency in America learning from Italy’s problems surrounding elderly citizens.
“Italy has a unique vulnerability to coronavirus, because it has the second oldest-aged population in the world,” he wrote.
“This virus especially hits the elderly, and in Italy the average age of death is 81. The tragic experience of the Washington state nursing home simply reinforced the sense of vulnerability of older people.”
Gingrich explained that if the virus begins to spread around the homeless populations around America, “the losses could be catastrophic.”
Aljazeera reports that more than 2,500 Italians have died as a result of the pandemic, and there seems to be no relief in sight. Newt warns that coronavirus is a very serious threat to Americans.
“I was in South Korea when it broke earlier this year and now I’m living through the crisis in Italy,” he told POLITICO Magazine via phone. “This is a real threat.”
“You have to isolate the virus, minimize contact between people. If you can do it thoroughly enough, the virus begins to die out.”
“We must be very, very careful with something new,” he added.
The Horn editorial team