Covid, Andreoni: “It is not appropriate for scientists to pay TV”

“In a dramatic moment like the pandemic, it seems inappropriate to me to take a token to go and talk on TV”. So at Adnkronos Salute 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), comments on the controversy over the remuneration of virologists ‘star’ on TV. “Having said that, a personal evaluation must also be made, I never took money to intervene on TV – he continues – but there is nothing wrong if a professional, a doctor, a scientist, receives a fee if he is a regular guest of a broadcast. “. Andreoni clarifies that he has received offers from a TV program in these two years of the Covid emergency “but I did not accept because I do not want to tie them up”, while on the proposals that came from agents to enter the ‘stable’ of virologists, “no one has never contact “. However, the scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit) poses a question to his colleagues: “I wonder if, speaking of public health, vaccines, treatments, it is no longer correct to do it in a disinterested way, or – he concludes – without taking no attendance fee? “.