When you don´t allow trees to die from natural bush fires now and then, there will be heavy accumulation of inflammable material inviting a mega-fire (no matter if the trigger is natural or an attack). Same goes for other bio-material like elderly, highly mobile humans (sounds harsh but is sometimes inevitable). Italy is part of the refugee route, I´m a bit concerned, we have free travel in Europe.
In my opinion, getting older should be in itself treated as an illness, not a fatality. Death is indeed a fatality, but that fatality should not necessarily happen because of getting older.
However, I do agree with you on the point that countries need to be prepared for extreme contingencies in a better way. I read many reports several years ago (Strategic defense-related) that in the near future, terrorists would use biological warfare instead of post-conventional warfare because of its effectiveness and operational cost. What we are seen today is a clear proof of how effective such warfare can be, and if older people are generally more prone to such things (even though all ages could be targeted with different pathogens), safety protocols need to be established accordingly to it.
I realized why the Italian outbreak was predictable.
https://sfl.global/en/news_post/the-mayor-of-florence-initiated-hug-a-chinese-on-twitter/
Natural selection weeds out those incapable of reason.