Italy was the first western democracy to battle this year’s COVID-19 crisis, tallying nearly 10,000 deaths in the first 31 days of the outbreak.

 

By October 2020, the death toll had climbed to more than 38,000 as local and national governments announced new restrictions to stave off a cresting second wave of infections. Despite the significant death toll and the dangerous winter to come, these announcements have been met with opposition, not obedience. 

 

Our project provides a preliminary but systemic data gathering on forms of protests happening in Italy during the second wave of COVID-19 (autumn 2020). The research team is composed by Andrea Ruggeri, Giuseppe Spatafora, Adam McCauley and Fabio D'Aguanno.

 

Our first release is an overview of original data on three weeks of protest as reaction to anti-COVID-19 policies in Italy (23 October – 14 November 2020).

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We recorded - using Italian national and local newspapers as data source - 371 protests over the course of just 3 weeks.