Italy and open bus, yellow card: “Contagions will increase”

Yellow card for the celebration of the European champion national team. The parade of Italy on the open bus, after the triumph at Euro 2020, was accompanied by a sea of ​​fans in the center of Rome. Images that have impressed virologists, epidemiologists and infectious diseases who have seen in the maxi-members an assist – to stay in the football field – to the Delta variant and to the resumption of the coronavirus infection. Read also “I didn’t want to say it, but honestly looking at it from outside Italy this summer 2021 looks like a cage of madmen. Until yesterday a person had to put on a mask, under penalty of very severe fines, if he went alone for a walk in a park or in a forest looking for mushrooms. With Italy’s victories at the European Football Championships, thousands of people, almost all without masks, are seen shouting and hugging each other for hours, all under the nose, if not with the blessing, of the official authorities “, observes the virologist Guido Silvestri, professor in the USA at Emory University in Atlanta.” An inhuman mess that could have been avoided “, is the verbal tackle of the virologist Francesco Menichetti, head of infectious diseases at the Pisa hospital. “First they went to the president who had already gone to over 80 years, at personal risk, in the wolf’s lair at Wembley – recalls Menichetti, trusting that ‘in his place I would not have gone even paid a golden weight’ – then, not satisfied, they went to Draghi’s and then took the bus to parade. In short, I say – concludes the virologist with a disheartened tone – that it could have been avoided “.” It was a useless and voluptuous way of gathering that could have been avoided “, is the formula used by the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, a professor at the State University of Milan. “Certainly – says the expert at Adnkronos Salute – this episode also helps the virus.” “There will be consequences in terms of increases in Covid cases. We hope they are not particularly dramatic,” Health Minister’s advisor Roberto Speranza told Adnkronos Health. “In fact – he underlines – what happened is that thousands of people gathered without wearing masks, but we hope that the consequences are not particularly serious”. “With the celebrations for the European Championships we went a little further. , however, it was enough to put the mask on as we have always said and as Minister Speranza repeated every day. At least the mask had to be put on. We didn’t do it and now let’s see how much we have to pay in terms of infection “, highlights Adnkronos Health Massimo Ciccozzi, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the Campus BioMedico University of Rome. “We will know the impact in about ten days. We will probably see something increase – Ciccozzi predicts – We hope little, because we were doing very well. I hope to see few cases and an incidence that is not high, because in this way we will lose the In short, I really hope that we have not spoiled everything for one or 2 days of celebration. “Silvio Garattini’s virtually unfortunate color tends to red. The images “made a bad impression on me. It was a serious mistake to allow the athletes’ bus to circulate around Rome. The victory of the national team was beautiful, but the gatherings were not absolutely necessary, useless and harmful in this phase of pandemic “, says the pharmacologist, founder and president of the Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negri Irccs. Professor Massimo Clementi, director of the Laboratory of microbiology and virology of the San Raffaele hospital in Milan and professor at the Vita-Salute University, awaits the data . “Next week we will be able to have an initial response on the possible impact of the gatherings that we have seen at the European Championships. I really hope that the hypothesized 30,000 infections per day will not be reached. These are predictions that certainly have a basis, but also in the past they are he said about the post-victory of Inter and gatherings in Piazza Duomo in Milan, and luckily the impact was little or nothing “, he says.
Matteo Bassetti takes sides in the other half. “Enough with the controversy over the celebrations for Italy’s victory in the European Championships. It could have been organized safely with the Green pass, but I don’t think there will be a peak in cases. There is already an increase in infections due to other factors . But today we have to look at other indicators, hospitalizations and intensive care admissions “, says the director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Genoa. “Even if there will be an increase in cases linked to the post-final carousels of the National team – Bassetti specifies – we should not worry. And then let’s stop giving it to the Italians because they celebrated. In my opinion doing it in Rome was a good sign of a return to normality. “. “Unfortunately – he observes – we had already seen a bit of an increase in infections. The level of contagion, today, is like what we had in July of last year. We will see what effects we will have from the gatherings of these days”.