Covid, Bassetti: “Heat does not stop viruses, today more contagious than 2020”

During these two and a half years of the pandemic, one of the leitmotifs of many experts was that with the heat the covid could decrease its danger. “The Omicron 5 variant arrived in the hot season but could have arrived in the winter. The difference is that in 2020 a maximum of 3 people infected an infected patient. Today up to 20. Today’s virus is ten times more contagious in a context of sociability outdoors. It is not an anomaly. We have always seen people with colds or flu even in summer. Certainly not with such a contagious virus “. Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa says this to Adnkronos Health “In the world – continues Bassetti – at any time there is a Northern hemisphere where there are the seasons we know and one in the South with climate The opposite is true. Take India. When it is cold they have the temperatures we record in April-May. Yet they have had a lot of infections all year. The explosion of infections is continuous. The same goes for South America or Africa. It is not a climate issue but a question of social attitudes – he remarks – In winter we have fewer opportunities for socializing but we are more indoors. And this facilitates the circulation of the virus. In summer we are outdoors but having a lot more social life ( from aperitifs to concerts) it is natural that the virus still finds a way to spread “.