Covid-19: in Italy, the statements of the singer Andrea Bocelli cause a scandal

31-07-2020 by Mirai

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli has been under fire for the past few days. The opera singer has made unwanted comments about the Covid-19 pandemic, underestimating the virus and denigrating the closure, after being part of the national union last March.

Although Italy has been seriously affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, the words spoken a few days ago by the tenor Andrea Bocelli in front of the Italian Senate go wrong. While a strong figure in the National Union was formed in March-April during the peak of the epidemic, the opera singer made almost "negative" comments about Sars-CoV-2.

"I tried to analyze reality and realized that things were not going as they told us," said Andrea Bocelli. "The first clashes took place at home. When I began to express doubts about the severity of this so-called pandemic, the first to attack me were my children who told me to take care of La Tosca and Madame Butterfly," the singer continued. The latter added that despite the fact that he knew many people in Italy, he did not know anyone who would have required a stay in intensive care due to Covid-19.

The tenor continued his speech denigrating the containment measures implemented by the Italian authorities: "There have been times when, when separating from any political side, I felt humiliated and offended. When I heard that they were depriving me of my freedom to leave my house without having committed a crime, I was offended. I want to confess publicly that sometimes I have voluntarily disobeyed this prohibition because it did not seem right, or even beneficial, to stay home, "Andrea Bocelli confessed.

Not to mention the fact that the tenor has passed his confinement in his grand mansion, these comments are frowned upon as the time has come for vigilance and maintenance of barrier gestures to avoid a surge in cases. Especially since the singer did not always deliver that speech, since last March, he called on everyone to stay home "for civic reasons", and took the health situation seriously. In late May, the opera singer even claimed to have been a victim of the coronavirus and to have lived "a nightmare" with his entire infected family.

Shocked by the singer's change in tone, several Italian public figures, including rapper Fedez, invited him to respect the 35,000 Covid-19 deaths in Italy and stop considering the pandemic as science fiction.

Forced to explain this controversial statement in the Senate, Andrea Bocelli apologized emphatically in a video, claiming to have been misunderstood: "I am not a denialist, I am optimistic and I am leaving there with a sentence," the tenor said.

Image: Angela George, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9688152