Dear Wilders,
My name is Francesco and I am the manager of the first Wild Code School Italian campus, in Milan. As you may have heard, we have had to stop our in-class activities here, replacing them by remote training, as the entire country has entered a complete lock-down policy since a few days ago, following the terrible Covid-19 outbreak in the Northern region of Lombardia. A lock-down policy means that we are forbidden to go out of our own house. We are allowed to get out only for work, if this work can’t be done remotely, and for health-related issues. Supermarkets and drug stores are basically the only shops which stay open in town.
No need to say it. This has shocked all of us. Who could ever think of something similar harming our well-advanced countries of Europe?
We all first heard about Covid-19 (or Coronavirus) when China faced it, but that sounded far away from us, didn’t it? The reality is different, and it says that this virus has been circulating in our continent very likely for weeks.
Blocking a country, putting all our dreams, ambitions, habits, routines on hold, is the furthest thing possible from being a desirable or an easy process. Our modern society functions just differently. We were born and raised (we were coded) to constantly progress and to tirelessly push our limits. Well now it is maybe time to back off a bit, and put our safety and health back as first priorities.
In Italy, in the beginning, all of us were trying to hide from ourselves how dramatic the reality was becoming. Or at least I was. All of us were focused on keeping our businesses, jobs, and interests preserved. Safe and sound. I wanted to stay positive and to reduce to the minimum the impact that this issue might have on our respective objectives. On our lives.
We continued going on as if that was not a serious matter, while our true focus should have been on taking care of our weakest people.
Because those are the ones most affected by this pandemic (the WHO just called it one): elderly people and people suffering from other diseases, who have a low level of immune system capabilities. People with cancer, people with leukemia, people with immunosuppression and so forth. They are dying in hundreds per day at this very moment in Italy. There are wars that produce less damage than this calamity.
People of my age (28) are safe. Even if we got the virus, that would most certainly go away in a few days, causing no more than just regular flu. And perhaps a lot of us got it already, without even knowing it. The problem is, that by going around we are facilitating the spread of the virus, exposing all the rest of the population to it.
My suggestion is to thoroughly follow what the authorities will ask you in the next days. And to make all your best to try to stay home, if you can. Spend more time with your loved ones, read books, watch Netflix, play videogames, bake a pie and deep dive into studying coding with Wild Code School, remotely. We are so lucky to be able to turn all our activities into remote working so easily. Plus, we as Wild Code School team are working very hard to provide the best remote experience possible, until the situation gets back to normal.
This is the first time our generation faces such a situation of widespread unsafety and of nationwide danger. This is up to us to take responsibility and deal with it now.
I am glad and proud to be part of the Wilders Community and I can’t wait to get back into our own campus again and host our Wild Drinks.
Take care,
Francesco