“Italy would still have had more deaths than the other countries”

Giovanni Di Perri – Photo by Ansa Foto

Speaking to iNews24, Giovanni Di Perri, head of infectious diseases at the Amedeo di Savoia hospital in Turin, comments on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s remarks on the Covid-19 pandemic, on the occasion of the vote of confidence in the hemicycle.

In her address this morning to the Chamber of Deputies, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that one of her government’s objectives is to shed light on the management of the pandemic, in particular on those who have taken advantage of masks and respirators.
“These are subjects that I read in the newspapers, I don’t know. In my hospital in Turin, masks have never been missing. I cannot say that there was anything then and I am not competent from the point of view of judicial investigations”;

Meloni also said that if a new wave arrives, her government will not apply measures restricting liberty, which she says have not served to contain the deaths.
“Well, that’s a technical fact and must be denied. Italy is the fifth oldest country in the world, so it would have had more casualties than the others anyway. It’s also a densely populated country. and was also the first to get hit, so he had less time to prepare. While there were mistakes, maybe, yes. Restrictions certainly helped in the first two waves , which were stricter. Today, no one would apply the restrictions, because the disease has completely changed. It is true that it is more contagious than before, but it is also true that it no longer causes the same damage as the first two waves. It is possible but unlikely that the disease will become as virulent again as before. In addition, we are very immune both for vaccinations and for the large number of spontaneous infections. I believe that ‘they will no longer resort to the restrictions that have existed’;

Are you saying what Meloni said was obvious?
“We have been battling Covid pneumonia for two years. Now it happens once in forty hospitalizations. It is a febrile disease that can lead to heart failure in people who are already suffering quite intensely or in old age”;

What is your opinion of the new Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci?
“I don’t know him, I hope he’s fine. I am happy that a technical figure was chosen. A voice close to the world of medical assistance, to the sick, is important. He works in the field, I think it’s good for us”;

Where to start to improve health?
“The huge difference in treatment economics and responsibility between local medicine and those working in hospitals must be tackled at the root. The employer is the same, the state. We must clarify the future, including contractual. Our doctors go abroad. This means that we are no longer competitive in terms of salaries, that we overload the hospital with responsibilities, where local doctors do a completely different job. This is the radical point to be addressed, I believe”;

Where are we with the Covid-19 pandemic?
“We are in a phase of transition to a phase of free circulation like other respiratory infections. It fits into a landscape that we have already faced every winter: the virus has joined the others. This winter will be transient because we will rule out the lack of spontaneous immunization against other respiratory viruses. After two winters in which we protected ourselves, we will overlook the fact that we have not been exposed to other viruses, such as sore throats, colds and in general the flu”.