State of emergency, extension yes or no? What the experts say

State of emergency, does it take an extension yes or no? The government is thinking about it, as Health Minister Roberto Speranza said. According to the Undersecretary for Health Andrea Costa it would be “reasonable” to think of an extension of the state of emergency because “it can be useful to face a delicate and decisive phase, relying on a commissioner structure, even for a vaccination campaign in progress”. From Matteo Bassetti to Rita Gismondo, passing through Walter Ricciardi: what do the experts think? Read also Bassetti “The epidemiological situation is not the best so if the state of emergency means that it is easier to hire doctors or maintain a commissioner structure that we badly need, I think it is better to keep it. they are the third doses to be carried out at speed for a good part of the Italians “. Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Genoa, underlines this to Adnkronos Health, intervening in the debate on the need or not of the extension of the state of emergency for Covid-19, which expires on 31 December.

Gismondo “I believe that at the moment there are no sanitary conditions for a state of emergency”, even if extending it or not beyond December 31 “obviously will be a political decision”. But “from the health point of view, I repeat, there is no emergency and this is an opinion shared also by other colleagues”. So at Adnkronos Salute Maria Rita Gismondo, director of the Laboratory of clinical microbiology, virology and diagnostics of bioemergencies at the Sacco hospital in Milan, in view of the approaching end of the year deadline. “Today – observes the expert – we have learned to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, we have effective vaccines and we are about to have excellent therapies. So there is no emergency, but there is a need for good continuous management. This, I repeat, speaking from a health point of view “. Ricciardi “The measures taken and the high number of vaccinated people mean that the increase in cases is linear and not exponential, but it is still a growth in contagion and deaths. But January is very worrying and the state of emergency should be extended “. Walter Ricciardi, full professor of Hygiene at the Catholic University and consultant to the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, told ‘La Stampa’, according to which it is the quota of unvaccinated that still makes us vulnerable:” There are 6 million adults and 3 of children, a significant reservoir of the virus, with numerous vulnerabilities that explain the many deaths. The Omicron variant could cause less disease, but if it were more contagious it would still worsen the situation. The first South African data are not indicative. The clarity will come from the findings English, but the first news is not comforting “. “The winter will be very hard and it will be necessary to take decisions aimed at containing the virus – he added – I am thinking of an intensification of the Super Green Pass with more controls. It is not enough to make the rules, they must be applied”.

Vaia “I don’t deal with politics, and I don’t want to go into these details, but I say that if today’s data does not worry me, if the Rt index tells us that by Christmas we will be even lower, if it is true that the vaccine works , and we have to take the third dose, from my technical point of view there are no conditions to prolong the emergency “. This was stated by Francesco Vaia, director of the Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome from the stage of Atreju. “Even today, like yesterday, the watchword must be ‘do not be afraid'”, he said.