A recent report by the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) of the World Health Organization (WHO) brings to the international limelight the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from an animal or environmental spillover in the Huanan market and in other markets of the Chinese city of Wuhan. This Article has a Twofold Objective: On the one hand, to highlight the opportunity to study the possible link between the onset and spread of the pandemic in the regions of northern Italy and the thriving Chinese community that has resided there for decades through the flow of Chinese citizens traveling from the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to the Malpensa airport in Milan, as reported by the Customs Agency and on the other hand, after briefly describing the characteristics of the Italian Health System, to highlight the presence of flaws in the Italian Health Surveillance system that must be reviewed especially with regard to the foreign communities residing in Italy.

The effects of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, at the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, on the Italian older population were devastating, giving rise to what seems to be a paradox. The number of victims among the elderly population was higher in the more developed northern regions, where the local health authorities (L.H.A.s) and, in particular, the long-term care (L.T.C.) sector are known to be more efficient with respect to those of the other regions. The focus of this article is twofold: on the one hand, it tries to find a plausible answer to the relevant question ‘why was the number of victims, particularly among the older population, in the northern regions so high in Italy?’ In doing so, it highlights the need for a multiple factor analysis that simultaneously takes different elements into consideration, such as the demographic, territorial and economic characteristics of the areas in Italy most affected by the pandemic, while examining whether the health policies implemented by the Ministry of Health in Italy were the most appropriate. On the other hand, it sheds light on the fact that only a few pieces of information and data on the number of victims in the L.T.C. sector in Italy are available, with few exceptions such as the Northern region Friuli Venezia Giulia, and that more data collection and research is also needed regarding other factors, such as environmental factors, that might have worsened the impact of the pandemic in Italy on the older population.

The recent surge in the number of cases of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in Europe raises an important question about the management of the pandemic by the health authorities in Europe in light of the emergence of the new Omicron lineages B.A. 4 and B.A.5 that need to be further investigated. This article, which highlights the existence of a one-to-one relationship between the peaks of the –COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and the economic slowdown of the affected nations, raises an important question as to what the reasons are that led many European governments to decide to relax some of the emergency measures. The question is of no small importance considering the timing, which could outline a cause-effect relationship, between the relaxations of some emergency measures in Europe (such as the nonmandatory use of FFP2 masks outdoors and indoors) and the increase in infections.

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This paper reinterprets, differently from the existing literature, the relationship between law and economics not from the point of view of a lawyer-economist but rather from the point of view of an economist-mathematician, and it raises a methodological issue. To do so, some of the elements of the theory of sets are borrowed to argue that behavioral economics, its application to behavioral law and economics, and behavioral economists have generalized the pioneering work of Judge Calabresi, with reference to the famous books ‘Tragic Choices’ and ‘The Future of Law and Economics – Essays in Reform and Recollection’. Even if the usage of the theory of sets made in this paper is intuitive, some of its basics are reviewed in the appendix.