Crisanti: ‘Dear fellow citizens, a choral effort that overcomes selfishness and political divisions’

“Dear fellow citizens, the reflections presented in this little book are dedicated to all those who have suffered from the pandemic. The virus has destroyed families, torn affections and endangered the economic security of many. Only a joint effort that overcomes selfishness and political divisions can heal this wound in our social fabric “. This appeal to collective responsibility is the premise for the new book by Andrea Crisanti, director of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua, the virologist we have come to know in these two years spent with the pandemic on us. It is called “Caccia al virus” and will be presented tomorrow: it is written together with the journalist Michele Mezza and is published by Donzelli as the previous “Il contagion of the algorithm” of ’20. An essay that develops from the different experiences of the authors: the researcher who – from the first days of the spread of the virus – has found himself at the forefront of fighting the contagion; and the journalist who documented and reported on the progress. “We are in a transition phase that does not look short, of an insidious transition from emergency to an endemic state. We need to study long-term solutions, which can be managed effectively”. Vaccinations plus surveillance: this is the formula they propose for the future that awaits us. (continues) ‘We are experiencing a transitional phase, an insidious passage to an endemic state’ The book explores with scientific and documentary rigor what has been done so far and what remains to be done, improving and increasing forms of active surveillance of the spread of the virus: Vaccines are undoubtedly an “indispensable but not exhaustive strategy” – the authors argue – also because it is unthinkable to repeat such massive vaccination campaigns. And as long as there are areas of the world excluded from access to vaccines – not having the resources to use those currently available – “we will not be able to stem the spread of variants”. In our country “the infection tracking system based on the Immuni app it failed because, behind the privacy screen, we gave up on making it truly capillary. Instead, it is a pivotal tool for moving to a geolocation of the virus that is truly effective. “To make this possible, however, it is necessary” to have access to the amount of data that the big players in information technology have. ” ‘use of health strategies, containment measures and a tight mapping of possible outbreaks “it will be possible to drain the swamp of the virus and set up a prevention system that – in the future – protects us from similar threats and saves us the immense burden of pain and suffering that we have known in the last year “. The words of Albert Camus in the novel” The Plague “exerged in the volume sound like a warning:” I only say that on earth there are plagues and victims, and that, as far as possible, we must refuse to be on the side of the scourge “. Here, absolutely avoiding ‘being on the side of the scourge’ is precisely what none of us, any role and profession has to date, must to do, thus contributing to the defeat of what was the greatest pandemic of a century that has just begun. (by Rossella Guadagnini)