Covid vaccine, Hope: “Rare adverse cases do not question safety”

“We are sure that the” anti-Covid “vaccine works and is effective and safe. I have great faith in both Ema and Aifa, and there are very rare cases of adverse reactions. We are continuing to study them but not an effect “such as vaccination” which is absolutely positive “can be questioned. Thus the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, interviewed on ‘Dimartedì’, broadcast this evening on La7, answers a question about the controversies raised by some experts on the ‘opening’ of the Open Days with the AstraZeneca vaccine also for the youngest the case of the 18-year-old girl, in serious condition at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, due to a cerebral thrombosis. “It is right to continue to verify, check and study all adverse cases – adds Speranza – but the basic message can only be clear and simple: vaccines are and remain the fundamental weapon we have to end this dramatic season” . The minister invites “everyone to look objectively at the number of deaths. Not only in Italy, we have had very very high numbers, in some days we have reached 7-800 deaths, now for a few weeks we have been below 100, but for me the best day will be when we have zero deaths. I look forward to that day with all the anxiety possible, “he says. Speranza then recalls that “at this moment only one vaccine for children has been approved, Pfizer for 12-16 years. I think it is an effective and safe vaccine, and that it is right to do it for children too, especially if we think about September. , at the reopening of schools “. “A vaccine given to a person of that age – he underlined – makes young people safe but at the same time all the most fragile and older people with whom one comes into contact. And if we really want to fight this virus and really contain it, it is right to vaccinate the generations of much lower age “. As for the situation of the pandemic in Italy, “the numbers are much better than in the past few weeks, this is the result of a vaccination campaign that is really going very well and also of the measures in recent months that have worked, but we still have to keep up the ‘attention”. Citing the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella who “said it in the best way, ‘we are not at the finish line but we are making significant steps'”, the minister then reiterated: “We need caution because the virus is still circulating, we have numbers that cannot be underestimated and number of cases that say that the virus is still there. So the use of masks, hand washing and distancing are rules that we must keep for a while, because they help us manage this transition phase ” . “The vaccine – he said – still needs several weeks to become ‘prevalent’ in our country, in the sense that we have exceeded 38 million doses administered but we are 60 million inhabitants, and many have been used to make the second dose. The numbers do not betray, we are running but we still need several weeks that will allow us to really open a new phase. But the road is the right one “. The minister then thanked “all the Italians who are responding with extraordinary intelligence to this call. It is nice to see in these days – he said – so many young people lining up to get vaccinated, the signal of a country that wants to start again”. And again, on vaccination: “We must acknowledge to our scientists and our NHS that we have put in place an incredible work that allows us today to have these numbers. Last year if they had told me that after a year we would have had 40 millions of doses already administered I would not have believed it “. Responding on the risks of finding ourselves with a fourth wave after the summer, as happened last year, Speranza finally stated:” The gradualness of the “anti-Covid measures adopted” has led positive results so far. We must not take the step too long because we would risk paying the price. Compared to last year there is a difference: last year the results were those of a total lockdown, this year we did lockdowns in zones but the real difference this year is that there is the vaccine, which is the real game changer “.