| "On TV they call us heroes, but every hero needs a suit, and we have nothing," says Samantha Gonzalez, a 52-year-old nurse at a hospital in Vitoria, in northern Spain. The coronavirus pandemic is putting public health-care systems in Italy and Spain under incredible strain. Hospital workers in the Mediterranean nations not only struggle to keep up with the growing number of patients; they lack the equipment to protect themselves and others from contagion.  A tent stands at the entrance to the hospital in Cremona, Italy, on Friday, March 20. Photographer: Francesca Volpi/Bloomberg A shortage of gloves, masks and coats on the pandemic's new front lines means past protocols to prevent the spread of the virus have relaxed. In some Spanish hospitals, medical personnel wear garbage sacks because they've run out of disposable coats. This comes at a toll. About 8% of the more than 41,000 people infected in Italy are medical workers. Spain doesn't give official numbers, but about 14% of people diagnosed with coronavirus in the Catalonia region are health-care personnel, according to regional authorities. More sick doctors and nurses means fewer people available to treat the rising number of infected. In Spain, over 50,000 retired doctors, resident and medical and nursing students on their last year are on call for when the lack of hospital workers becomes a real problem. This is all happening in countries that in normal times provide some of the world's best care to a large number of older citizens. Spain has the world's third-most efficient health-care system, according to a Bloomberg index. Italy is fourth. Last year, Spain surpassed Italy to become the world's healthiest country, according to another Bloomberg index. Maybe it's something in the tapas or the paella, but free and universal health care probably played a role. Yet the countries' strength in pre-virus times is also its weakness now, as the virus affects older people more. This week, Italy overtook China as the most deadly center of the epidemic, while Spain recorded its grimmest day yet for fatalities on Friday. For the rest of the world, northern Spain offers a warning. "This is like a tsunami," said Gonzalez, the nurse. "By the time you realize a wave is coming, it's already on top of you and all you can do is run and run." —Laura Millan Lombrana | 
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