Last week I took part in an online conversation in which a large group of American pediatricians listened as some of our colleagues from Italy talked about pediatrics in the coronavirus crisis, because what they are dealing with there is what we will be dealing with here very soon.

We Americans were hoping we could learn from our Italian colleagues, who are further along in handling this epidemic. On Feb. 23, several Italian towns were quarantined, with what then looked like fairly severe measures, and some large events — including Carnival in Venice — were canceled.