The health crisis in Italy is worsening due to the coronavirus and the vaccination is very slow

In a few days of the newborn 2021, bad news accumulates in Italy which belies the good year. The life-saving vaccination that delivered 470,000 doses Thursday is starting more slowly than a turtle. This Saturday afternoon only 46 thousand people received the Pfizer version from Belgium, the only vaccine to date accepted by the European Union.

In the first days of next week, 450,000 additional doses will arrive, because the commitment is weekly so as not to waste time already lost in part because special refrigerators have 90% of the first delivery.

The authorities must put the organizational turbo because 60 million people live in Italy and need the vaccine quickly as the only effective way to beat the virus.

At least 70% (42 million) must receive it to get community immunity that will protect everyone. We are talking about the end of summer, the third trimester, but so the delay goes back to next year. Mass vaccination must begin in March or April to avoid dangerous failure.

30% of health workers, including doctors, avoid the puncture. Because they are suspicious, not because they are convinced of “no vac” deniers. Very bad example for others. The Italian College of Physicians threatens disciplinary measures, others now prefer to consider that there may be no other choice but to make vaccination compulsory.

Political crisis

Added to this setback is a political crisis that smacks of absurdity. A clash that continues between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Prime Minister of the Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, who has created his own political force Italia Viva.

Renzi and his parliamentarians are in government, where two ministers sit, and negotiate threatening demands for more power, in the distribution of the mountain of 209 billion euros from the European Union this year, including 80 billion donations.

With Conte, the deal is broken and the danger is that it ends in a vote of confidence that the government loses because Renzi’s deputies and senators add their negative votes to the opposition.

The situation is also alarming. All turn to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who concentrates the greatest prestige, respect and popularity of the country.

In the event of a crisis, the president’s limited role is amplified because Matarella must steer him. Create a government other than Parliament to vote or go directly to the early general election, which Center-right opposition parties will win, according to all polls.

How is it possible that so much is being achieved amid the worst tragedy the country has seen since WWII and which has cost so far 75 thousand dead? It is already absurd that the tension has increased so much that political and institutional heart attacks are envisaged.

“The new year does not promise well. The figures of these days do not allow to be calm and foreshadow a third wave. Let’s hope that it is not a tsunami ”, testifies Professor Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the University of Milan and adviser to the Minister of Health.

Quarantine to contain the virus

The government has implemented a variable quarantine system for the end of year holidays, between December 24 and January 6. The goal is to contain the devastating momentum of the corona virus.

The first wave lasted from the start, on February 21, until the summer with a death toll of over 35,000, which made Italy the most punished country in Europe. The second wave started in October and continues. In much less time than the first, 75,000 deaths were reached.

“Important results have been achieved in recent times to contain the pandemic, but now the curve of the second wave is slowing down too slowly. It is urgent to intervene with new measures. “

The big fear is that the third wave will attack the national hospital system when the mass vaccination organization has just been deployed.

In addition, in southern Britain an “English variant” spread, exploding contagions and deaths.. The third wave could also contain similar mutated viruses. An “Italian variant” has been discovered which could be responsible for the worsening of the situation in the Veneto region, now the most infected region.

Professor Pregliasco believes the holiday season will lead to an increase in infections and deaths that will take the third wave. For that “We must continue the quarantines after January 7, when this period begins on Christmas Eve, ”he explains.

The scientist believes that “the vaccination will not yield results in a short time, so there is no choice but to apply the restrictions perhaps until the end of this year”.

Thursday 7, when the current flexible quarantine plan ends, schools should reopen, central theme of Italian life. Many think it is best to leave them closed to the start of the third wave.

Professor Pregliasco is not one of the optimists. “With the current circulation of the virus, schools are dangerous, both because of what is happening inside and because of the trafficking of people it sets in motion ”. But “it makes sense to reopen them partially, to assess the effects over time and possibly to recalibrate the situation”.

So far, the government’s decision is to reopen primary schools and secondary schools to reduce class attendance to 50% of students in the last three years, who must follow the DAD system, distance education, via Internet.

Schedule changes are underway so that high school students start classes later in order to avoid congestion of means of transport, which in turn would focus the bus offering on the new return home schedules.

In Italy for months, there has been a national curfew which empties the streets between 10 and 5 in the morning.

Professor Pregliasco recalled that the latest rate indicates a positive percentage for the virus of 14.1%, which is too high. “The situation is getting worse and making the danger of the third wave more real. Daily deaths average between 400 and 600 and will not decrease until the number of contagions drops below five thousand, when they are now 22 thousand.

Italians continue to patronize too much. If we do not change our customs, many more deaths await us. “This Saturday, because of the holidays, half of the usual checks were carried out with a toll reduced to 11,321 infected and 364 deaths, which has little statistical value.

DV