This viewpoint provides an explanation from the epidemiologist's point of view for the events up to date in Italy and some other European countries with regard to COVID-19 pandemic. A combination of an early relaxation over this epidemic, systematic lack of expertise in the field of epidemic infectious diseases in Europe, likely inexperience in containing the epidemic spread in this generation of health workers, relaxed immigration regulations for workers in certain industries, a Champions League football event and a series of further misfortunes and omissions have all been implied so far in the media as contributors to the late withdrawal of Lombardy into quarantine. This allowed, through exponential growth, for a large number of people to be infected in a very short time-far too large for health systems of Italy and other EU countries to cope with. © 2020 The Author(s).