Covid vaccine, 5 million Italians ‘on the run’

The rush of the vaccination campaign to immunize the greatest number of Italians has to deal with a hard core of compatriots ‘fleeing’ from the vaccine. A heterogeneous group of people who, for various reasons, may never get vaccinated against Covid. A first picture of this phenomenon was taken by the extraordinary emergency commissioner, General Figliuolo at the beginning of May: “The no-vax in the north-east of the country are 18%, in the other regions we are at 10-12%. phenomenon – he explained in an interview – is statistically significant if it rises above 5% “. Therefore, the Italians who most likely will not get the vaccine or wait until the end are about 5 million, calculating that 50 million over 16 are. Yesterday a no-vax demonstration took place in Rome that gathered thousands of people, including doctors. , opposed to the Covid vaccine. The latest of many events that take place every week in Italian squares. Alongside this phenomenon there are the data collected on May 17 by the Gimbe Foundation, an indicator of how this hard core is transversal. The Gimbe report which analyzes the trend of immunizations found that “22.6% of the 70-79 year old population and 9% of those over 80 have not received even a dose”. In this analysis “the numbers on non-adhesions and selective refusals (for example for AstraZeneca) are not known”, the Gimbe Foundation underlines at Adnkronos Salute. “Considering that the vaccination campaign is entering a phase conditioned by the accession of the population, it is necessary to integrate the voluntary booking with an active call system – the Foundation proposes – involving family doctors in a systematic and widespread manner and implementing an adequate institutional communication campaign and individual persuasion strategies “. having to make up for “the limits of a vaccination campaign designed for large numbers and not for the needs of the single patient, perhaps elderly, fragile and lonely – explains to Adnkronos Salute Pierluigi Bartoletti, provincial secretary of Fimmg Rome, the Federation of family doctors – Among my 1,110 clients in recent months I have only had to deal with two no-vaxes. If there is a percentage of people hesitant or not registered, the fault lies with the very rigid system of large ‘hubs’. These citizens live far from the large vaccination centers, they are alone and have no way of getting around, they are often fragile and even more often they are not registered in the system. For example, a heart patient who does not have 104, has no exemption and is therefore invisible to the system. I have had many reports of these cases, people lagging behind in the vaccination campaign “. Bartoletti also reports a problem that is occurring in Lazio.” If they ask me family doctor to convince these doubtful patients to vaccinate, because I know them well and I can be more convincing, but they also have to give me the vaccines – she warns – otherwise, as happened with an elderly woman just yesterday, I convinced her but afterwards there was no vaccine available and then I discover that they had organized an Open Day. Here this maybe shouldn’t happen: if I’m promised 50 doses, then I can’t have 2 “.” In conclusion, the ‘hub’ model pays in terms of numbers but not service – Bartoletti analyzes – We are at the forefront of start and we can also make a great contribution to get where the system fails, but we must be put in the conditions to do so in the best possible way.