Robert Gallo: “Facing a pandemic as if it were an invasion of Martians”

Health and culture were the protagonists of the second evening of the event “The narration of the South”, the prequel that was held in Piazza San Rocco on 27 and 28 August and which preceded the three days of the International Annual Meeting SudeFuturi III – (R) let’s innovate the South, which will be held at Castello Ruffo from 9 to 11 September. The culminating moment was the awarding of the virologist Robert Gallo, discoverer of the HIV virus. On stage, the journalists Paola Bottero and Alessandro Russo, who conducted the evening, together with the president of the Magna Grecia Foundation Nino Foti and Arnaldo Caruso, president of the Italian Society of Virology and a great friend of Dr. Gallo. “He is the most famous researcher in the world – Caruso began – He has advanced knowledge in all fields of medicine. He discovered the HIV virus, isolated many unknown viruses and first proved the existence of human retroviruses. Bob Gallo made the history of AIDS and carried out innovative studies that today have allowed us to arrive at a quick diagnosis of the coronavirus. And not only – added the president of the Italian Society of Virology – because Gallo has also provided us with all the information we have to fight numerous diseases, including cancers ”. Inevitable questions about the coronavirus in Gallo, also in light of the numbers again on the rise in some regions of Italy. When asked by Russo about a possible forecast of the end of the pandemic and the third round of vaccinations, Gallo replied that “no predictions can be made about the end of the pandemic. However, it is clear that the upsurge occurs when not everyone is vaccinated. In the world there are differences on how the disease was dealt with, but it is important to be united in fighting it because there is a moral and financial interest, not just a scientific one. All countries must work together and face these ‘Martians’ all together. We must face this pandemic as if on Earth there was an invasion of extraterrestrials and we had to fight them to save ourselves ”.