They demand that Italo-Argentines have access to the health passport in Italy: what is it for?

Having the health passport for the coronavirus in Italy is important for Italians and much more for residents abroad. For this reason, the Italian-Argentinian senator Ricardo merlo asked the government of Rome for measures to allow Italian citizens living abroad can get it.

In Argentina, lives the largest community one million peninsular out of the six million that make up the total that reside beyond the borders of Italy.

The “Green Pass”, or Green Certificate, as it is also called in Europe, it’s essential have access to closed places, such as bars, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, stadiums, cultural centers, gymnasiums and many other places of social meeting. Also for traveling by train long distance, planes and ships.

The government published this Thursday the measures that definitively give life to the Health Passport, which It will come into effect on Friday August 6.

Those vaccinated with Sputnik

In the case of residents abroad, the biggest problem “is not health but political,” said Senator Merlo. Bugle.

His request, addressed to Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, is to ensure that the Italian government also grants the green certificate to Italians residing abroad, who have been vaccinated beyond the limits.

The heart of the matter is that of the 27 countries of the European Community (EU), which have decided to take joint decisions throughout the fight against the pandemic, each nation has different vaccines, which depend on the laboratories with which it has signed supply contracts.

Popular brands in Europe are Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca, Johnson & Johnson and other minor brands. In Argentina he is vaccinated with the Russian Sputnik, products of two Chinese laboratories and other brands. The only vaccine common between Europeans and Argentina is Astrazeneca, Swedish-British and more recently Modern, which began to be applied in minors with risk factors.

“I don’t take care of health issues. The problem I pose is political, ”explains Senator Merlo. “This needs to be resolved by the Italian government. Residents abroad They have the right to come in Italian and receive the health passport this will allow them to make the life of the other compatriots who live on the peninsula ”and there are 60 million of them.

“The issue of Russia and China is a political issue, not a health issue,” Merlo reiterates. And that’s not an Italian problem either European fate, because it is the EMA entity, which is in charge of authorizations to exercise recourse in the space of 450 million inhabitants who reside in the 27 countries of the European Union.

It’s not easy to understand why you have not yet received authorization to sell their vaccine to Russian Sputnik, whose effectiveness has been proven. And also why not authorize any Chinese laboratory.

Senator Merlo pointed out that Italian residents abroad they are not aggressive “no vac”, that is to say, members of the anti-vaccine movement in Italy facing the government and its decision to give life to the Green Certificate.

“On the contrary, it is citizens who have been regularly vaccinated in their country of residence, as have the majority of citizens living in Italy, ”he added.

“This concept must be clear,” Merlo insists. “They are not against the vaccine, they wanted to be vaccinated and they were vaccinated “. But with the exception of those who were inoculated with AstraZeneca in the Argentine case, the others are not vaccinated with the brands accepted by the EU health entity EMA.

“It’s pretty amazing and must be resolved. The Italian-Argentinian deputy Mario Borghese, who like me has his residence in Argentina and not in Italy, got vaccinated with russian sputnik and he is unable to get a second dose of another vaccine in Italy because it has started to be practiced successfully, ”Merlo said.

The honorable senator gave other examples. The Republic of San Marino, a small enclave in central Italy, vaccinated its citizens with the Sputnik vaccine.

Also Russian Sputnik and a Chinese lab mark were added in Hungary vaccines authorized by the European Union. Will they not now allow them to use the Health Passport? European ”, asks Ricardo Merlo.

France, for example, has already launched a covid passport for French people living abroad. In the instructions, it specifies that those who have been vaccinated with a vaccine accepted by the EMA can obtain it. “the equivalent” and have a complete immunization schedule. But that does not specify what he means by equivalent.

Rome, correspondent

ap