What Other Countries Can Learn from Italy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

n the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Italy has been hit very hard,1 with 110 574 documented cases and 13 155 documented deaths related to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection as of April 1, 2020. The number of cases and deaths cannot be explained simply because of the epidemic starting in Italy earlier compared with other countries besides China. It is important to understand why death rates were so high in Italy to learn how to best prepare and how to plan for optimal actions in other countries. Some contributing factors may be immutable (eg, age structure of the population), but even these need to be laid out carefully in preparedness assessments. Some other contributing factors are potentially modifiable.