Covid, Menichetti: “Close or Christmas will not be quiet”

“We have the fourth wave” of Covid “in Europe, the numbers in Italy are also recovering and the situation in the Northeast is beginning to be worrying. It is inevitable that we will go towards a further tightening, otherwise it would be sensationally denied, and I would be sorry , the president of the Higher Health Council and coordinator of the CTS, Franco “Locatelli, who foresees a more peaceful Christmas”. Virologist Francesco Menichetti, former head of infectious diseases at the hospital in Pisa, tells Adnkronos Salute. “We want to have a quiet Christmas – says the doctor – but if we want to do it it is better to gear up quickly. We are not crying wolf – he assures – we are saying: we are cautious now because we have reopened all the activities”. Dinner as Pregliasco says only among all vaccinated, over 60 with third dose, attention and distancing between families? “I absolutely agree – replies Menichetti – When I am in a forum I ask the guests to account for their vaccination status, I have the mask and I take it off only if I am calm, otherwise I am also available to leave. It is not worth the risk” “I think that the time for the” anti-Covid “vaccination in the 5-11 age group is absolutely ripe. Where the regulatory agencies give the consent I think it is time to proceed”, he added. “I have always had a very cautious attitude about vaccinating children but it must also be said that viral circulation, which is now recovering because – the doctor recalls – the Rt is higher than 1.2, it is very common in this age group. And children have a relative risk of disease and complications but – he stresses – not zero because there is multisystemic inflammatory syndrome, there are myocarditis, pericarditis. In short, it is rare to see them hospitalized and die fortunately, but they too risk. let’s not forget that they are a source of spread of the contagion “. As for the Green pass,” it is a good thing, but it should only be issued to the recovered and vaccinated, while for the swab it is necessary to go to a rapid exhaustion because it does not have an immunological protection role : it’s like saying ‘in order not to get pregnant, I don’t take contraception, but I do a pregnancy test every 48 hours’ “. “We have benefited enough from the positive effects of the swab for the identification of the infected – observes the doctor – We have reached 700 thousand a week, but I don’t think this can be sine die, we need to reach a turning point. does not assume the responsibility of making the vaccine mandatory, the only other way to go and scratch the bag of resistant – warns Menichetti – is to grant, in a progressive manner within a couple of months, the Green pass only to cured and vaccinated “.