Covid Italia, Ricciardi: “Third summer and we haven’t learned a lesson”

“It is the third summer that we have not learned the lesson on the pandemic from Covid-19”. This was said to Adnkronos Health by Walter Ricciardi, professor of Hygiene at the Catholic University and advisor to the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, commenting on the covid pandemic, with particular reference to the situation in Italy. “A lesson that mankind should have learned even in the hundreds of thousands of previous years of the fight against epidemics, but which at least in this pandemic still underway should be clear: in the most favorable periods to fight viruses, spring and summer, we must not let our guard down and, at the same time, we must prepare for when the unfavorable conditions are created, expected in the autumn. I do not think that any of this is being done “, he adds. Ricciardi recalls that, among other things, even in the summer “we record moments of growth in infections, like when last year we had cases imported from Croatia and Greece. And this should keep our ‘alarm system’ awake and the Caution. Unfortunately, human beings, compared to the fight against viruses, seem to have a very short memory. Not only does they not learn from the long history of the epidemic but even after two years it seems that the memories of the mistakes made have disappeared “. The hypothesis of eliminating the isolation of the positives is “a bad idea”. “Testing, tracing, isolation are all essential measures for controlling the epidemic. And when you lose control of the viral circulation, the risk is to run into the problem only when those who become infected are hospitalized or die”, He says. For Ricciardi, “if you want to control the epidemic, you have to follow the canons that have been taught in public health for hundreds of years. They are criteria developed in Italy, by the Serenissima Republic of Venice in 1500, consolidated and effective teachings. Do not follow testing , tracing and isolation means allowing the number of infected people, the sick, the dead to increase and prolonging the negative effects of the pandemic also in terms of economy “.