The only certainty they all have is uncertainty. Italian pharmacies don’t know how many doses of seasonal flu vaccine they will have. However, each one manages waiting in a different way. There are pharmacies that take reservations and others that wait for directions from the Local Health Authority. Everyone agrees: there will be few flu vaccines and in any case nothing before mid-October.
By calling pharmacies in different Italian cities, the answers are very different. TO Roma the waiting list is in a pharmacy, not in the other contacted, both say they get advice from the doctor for the type of vaccine and any priority over others in being able to buy the vaccine.
Two pharmacies Milanese they say they are waiting for indications from the Local Health Authority and for this reason they do not take reservations, the third says that everything will go through a portal where the doctors will make the requests and the vaccine will be collected at the pharmacy with the health card.
Many say that they know nothing, but that contact, without commitment, they take. This is the answer to Torino. A Bologna one pharmacy says it does not accept reservations, the other says that the waiting list is there and that it will be fulfilled to scale when it is known how many doses there are. The real point is this. Pharmacists seem to have no idea how many vaccines they will have.
In most Regions, a greater stock was made for subjects considered at risk, with vaccination no longer aged 65, but aged 60 and over, and availability for pharmacies has decreased. If last year they received about 10% of the total this year the percentage should be 1.5% (by decision of the State-Regions Conference). This year, the requests have at least doubled due to the fear of Covid.
The bill made by is merciless Federfarma. For the active population that is not part of the protected groups, there are 12 doses available for each single Italian pharmacy. The account was made by dividing the number of 250 thousand doses indicated by the State-Regions conference for pharmacies in the area. The vaccination campaign against the flu in mid-October, but there is no pharmacist who says he has not already had dozens more requests from those who do not fall into the categories and also a Region like Emilia-Romagna which has doubled the quota available for private individuals, bringing it to 3% will not meet the requests.
The 17.8 million doses purchased by the Regions will be able to guarantee the vaccine to only 1 Italian out of 3 according to the analysis of Gimbe Foundation. Last year just 18% of Italians did so and the advanced doses could arrive in pharmacies after vaccinations of subjects at risk, but they could arrive much further in time.
Nino Cartabellotta, president of the Gimbe Foundation, he explains: «The low availability of the flu vaccine in pharmacies is attributable to at least three determinants. First of all, the Ministry of Health and most of the Regions did not foresee well in advance the need to increase stocks for the population not at risk. Secondly, the increased demand on international markets, together with the delay with which the calls for tenders were launched, prevented some Regions from winning 100% of the required doses. Finally, the pharmacies were unable to obtain supplies due to the lack of availability of the vaccine on the market ».
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