Italy's cases of the coronavirus have skyrocketed in recent weeks, resulting in overcrowded hospitals, closures of all stores except supermarkets and pharmacies, and travel allowed only with police permission. People in Italy want the world to know that all of these measures could have been prevented.
A collective of artists in Milan called A THING BY posted a video to their YouTube channel featuring Italians speaking to their past selves about the coronavirus, and what they wish they'd known 10 days ago.
"We found ourselves being stuck at home and figured that we had to do something at a time like this, so we tried to come up with an idea that we could do from home," Olmo Parenti, a filmmaker and member of A THING BY, told Insider.
Other countries, such as France and Germany, are reportedly 10 days behind Italy in terms of COVID-19's progression. Many of the people who appear in the video say they wish they had taken early directives to stay inside and practice social distancing more seriously.
"'It's just a flu ... wait, maybe it's bad ... well, I don't know ...' We took it lightly," a woman in the video says.
"We've seen worrisome videos from France and the US of people not taking this seriously," a man says. "The issue is more serious than most of the world believes."
The video now has 2 million views on YouTube.
"What we're most excited about is that it seems like people are starting to take it seriously now that they saw the video, so it's good to know we had an impact," Parenti said.
You can watch the video, entitled "Quarantined Italians record messages to 'themselves from 10 days ago' during Coronavirus pandemic," embedded below:
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