Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday discussed his recent op-ed calling on action to be taken to fight the coronavirus after seeing the pandemic hit Italy.
Gingrich praised Italy’s “strong response” to shut down schools, restaurants and churches after initially responding poorly in fighting the virus.
“We really need to get in the habit of telling people we want you to be physically separate but stay in touch with each other, keep your morale up, remain social — in an electronic sense, not personally,” Gingrich outlined. I think two things happened here. One is they didn’t move as fast as they should have, and this is what President Trump’s trying to react to, I think. When the first wave hit the villages, I don’t think anybody thought they would spread as fast as they did. So, that was a challenge, the government’s now reacted very strongly.”
He continued, “I would say Italians are more disciplined today than I’ve ever read about since the Roman Empire. It’s remarkable. You stand outside a store at a physical distance from each other, waiting for your turn to go in the store. And by the way, their stores are not empty. They are fully loaded, they have none of these problems of empty shelves. They’ve done a very disciplined, good job of that.”
Gingrich also warned the United States could look like Italy if it does not take the right precautions, saying he hopes to see the country end up being more like South Korea with how it has combatted the spread of the disease.
“This is a perfect moment for preventive care,” he emphasized. “If we get ahead of this, if we take the right precautions … if you’re careful about who you’re with I think that we have every chance to be closer to South Korea and to have learned a painful lesson from Italy.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent