Ricciardi: “No lockdown, but no right choices covid for all of 2022”

“I exclude the lockdown. No to the vaccination obligation. But if we do not make the right choices, we will drag the covid for the whole of 2022”. Walter Ricciardi, advisor to the Minister of Health, analyzes the picture of the covid 19 epidemic in Italy. Infections are growing, while vaccination is about to begin with the third dose for the over 40s. “In 2022 we could have a good spring and a great summer. If we don’t make the right choices, we will carry the covid for the whole of 2022”, Ricciardi says to In Onda, on La7. In Italy, he says, a scenario like the one that characterizes other European countries is not conceivable at the moment: “I exclude the lockdown”, says Ricciardi, who also discards the hypothesis of general vaccination obligation. “There must be an obligation for those who are professionally in contact with fragile people. Children are unvaccinated and fragile people”, he says, extending the discussion to school staff as well. “The general obligation”, however, “is too divisive and extreme a measure, it is worth promoting a reinforced green pass that induces people to get vaccinated”. And the green pass, in effect, is about to change: “There is an adjustment in terms of duration. We have seen that after the basic vaccination cycle, 6 months later, there is a decrease in protection and there is a need for the third dose. The 12-month green pass has an excessive duration. Israel automatically expires it after 6 months, we must review it based on the effective protection, which passes through the third booster dose. convinced that people will get vaccinated again “, he says. Currently, the green pass is guaranteed even after a negative swab. “The antigenic swab is the real Achilles’ heel with the Delta variant, at best it leaves 30% of false negatives uncovered. With the Delta variant, a positive infects 6-7 people. For now, the increase in infections in Italy is incremental, the risk is that it will become exponential “.