Vaccination obligation over 40 or workers? What do Bassetti, Pregliasco, Crisanti say

Vaccination obligation yes, immediately. But with different shades. While the Omicron variant is in the spotlight, the control room is approaching which on Thursday – in the meeting with Prime Minister Mario Draghi – will evaluate possible measures on the basis of the data. For the experts, who have been managing the coronavirus emergency for over 20 months, regardless of the results of the ‘flash survey’ on the new variant, it is time for a turning point that must materialize in the vaccination campaign. Read also “The only measure that should be taken urgently would be to make the vaccine mandatory, taking advantage of these two weeks of school closures to vaccinate those who are not yet vaccinated. After that, everyone should be given the opportunity to vaccinate in open facilities without booking and saying that from 10 January those who are not vaccinated will pay a penalty “, says Professor Matteo Bassetti, director of the infectious disease clinic of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa.” It is not a question of imposing a tso as some say, it would be a matter of to impose an administrative sanction. It was right to impose the obligation on health professionals, teachers and law enforcement agencies, but now, rather than proceeding by categories of workers, we should proceed by age groups, from 40 years upwards, where the virus he hits very hard. Anyone over 40 years old should be vaccinated to be able to go out and go to work. As a doctor, I say that vaccination is mandatory, then decides re how to apply it is up to politicians, at least something they do “., he continues. Professor Massimo Andreoni, head of infectious disease at the Tor Vergata Polyclinic in Rome and scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit), has” always been in favor of compulsory vaccination. And they are even more so today given that the Omicron variant could become an important risk factor that could put hospitals in difficulty. This choice and that of the lockdown for the unvaccinated should be taken before reaching the red zone, when hospitalizations in the medical area and in intensive care are already at the limit. If Omicron becomes dominant also in Italy, it will be necessary to be prepared and the vaccination obligation, together with the restrictions for those who have not yet immunized, can help us “, he says.” Now the theme is twofold: how we widen the range of compulsory vaccination – and in my opinion all categories that are in contact with the public should be vaccinated – and above all how we update the vaccines to the new variants. On these two issues it will be necessary to quickly make decisions “, underlines the director of the Inmi Spallanzani of Rome, Francesco Vaia.” It is not the time to scare people but to insist on the measures that have proved effective and to update them “, he stresses. “I am obliged to vaccinate”, says Professor Maria Rita Gismondo, director of the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Diagnostic of Bioemergencies at the Sacco Hospital in Milan. for the frail of every age group “, he adds, following a line similar to that indicated by Bassetti.” The vaccination requirement creates further division while the obligation for workers could be an element on which there is already an agreement and an element that means greatly expanding the audience of those who have to be vaccinated “, says Professor Fabrizio Pregliasco, professor at the University of Milan, indicating the way forward.” Also with a view to monitoring – underlines the expert – it would be a more effective measure because then with the obligation “generalized, remembers the virologist,” it is not that you can go and get people and get them vaccinated “. It all comes down to a fine and “with a fine against a convinced no-vax – says Pregliasco who has repeatedly confronted the diehards – do you know what you are doing with it? Andrea Vrisanti, we need to go beyond the conception of obligation: the impact of such a decision “depends on how it is implemented. A vaccination obligation without a sanction is worth nothing. It is as if it becomes only the ferocious face of the State. If not there is the penalty we waste time, the obligation does not exist “, says the director of the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua. There are many elements to consider in relation to a vaccination obligation, explains Crisanti:” For example with the ‘obligation how much do you earn? What would be the disincentive not to get the vaccine? All these things must be clarified, otherwise we will remain in demagogy “, concludes the virologist.