“During lockdown I’ve felt humiliated and offended because I could not go outside”

– Andrea Bocelli

These are the words the famous singer pronounced at a conference about COVID-19 in Italy which has already been renamed the “anti-COVID conference”.

Furthermore the guy is getting killed over the web because of his words and there is now a hashtag #vergognabocelli: shame on you Bocelli!

It took me a few day to understand what was going on and I was looking at tweets more and more mesmerised. I then listened to the whole speech Bocelli gave and I seriously cannot understand why so many people get upset for a guy expressing what he felt during his lockdown.

I mean, let’s face reality: COVID has definitely shook the whole world. We minimised it when we were seing what was happening in China thinking it was a simple flu; the Chinese government did not proceed to a prompt and transparent information sharing until very late; doctors didn’t know what they were facing as it was a new disease; the bugs of the healthcare became evident in many countries; governments were not reactive at the same time and so on…

For the first time in history most of the countries in the world, at different speed, imposed a lockdown because of a virus!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this because I underestimate the lethality of Coronavirus or because I don’t believe lockdown was an important measure. I’m just saying it has never happened before.

I do think that the lockdown has been hard for many people and that talking about it should be encouraged without the fear of being judged or associating it to an anti-COVID movement.

People suffered during the lockdown and it’s not just a matter of freedom, it’s not just a matter of principle, it’s a matter of mental health:

“I suddenly felt old, everyone was telling me that I shouldn’t or I couldn’t do this or that. I had to give up volunteering in the library, I had to give up my social life and I found myself confined in my small apartment. It so happens in February I had taken the decision not to die my hair anymore, how ironic! I’m so happy I can volunteer again!”

the 70 years old lady said to the psychologist she had just met.