Anticipate and don’t chase the virus. Preventing months ago so as not to be out of breath behind an epidemic curve that has started running fast again. The reading of a complex moment like the present one, in which the country reached the over 10.000 cases of Covid-19 in one day, it seems to find a common dimension in the words of two scientists who very few times, until now, have agreed on the right anti Covid strategy to adopt. The professor of the University of Padua Andrea Crisanti and the infectious disease specialist of San Martino di Genova, Matteo Bassetti, often and willingly in contrast on many points, on one thing they now sadly seem to agree: after the first wave, you had to prepare quickly and well for the second.
Days ago Chrysanti it had been pretty clear on the need to set up a real investment plan for “new staff hires, new resources and skills that would have had a gradual impact”, convinced that “intervening exclusively with the Immuni app would make no sense today”. A time of respite in the transmission of infections that therefore had to be exploited much better, as explained in detail by the virologist Bassetti al Messenger. “The system needed to be strengthened”, declared the infectious disease specialist, arguing that with the current growth rate “it will be very difficult to hold out until March”. A rather clear position is that of the scientist who poses further questions on the preventive non-intervention of many regions of Italy.
“Bureaucracy is the worst enemy in the fight against the virus”
“In the last four months in Liguria we have worked to decide where the intensive care, semi-intensive, low and medium complexity places were” he explained, wondering why the preparation process for an expected second wave of infections is not it was also implemented by the rest of the country. “If there are regions already in difficulty, it means that what should have been done has not been done. We had to keep the car with the engine running »continued the professor.
Of course, the severity of the cases in March and April has, for now, nothing to do with the conditions of the current patients and Bassetti reiterates this by speaking of “low and medium complexity of today’s hospitalized” but the problems in the system will not succeed for long to deal with the growing number of positives. “When I see a person queuing for eight hours for a swab, I think clearly something has gone wrong” explains the infectious disease specialist, defining the Italian bureaucracy as “the worst enemy of the fight against Covid”. Clinics converted in biblical times, funding blocked, access to funds complicated. Difficulties that are evident also in the second wave and on which, according to Bassetti, not enough work has been done.
“We will heavily discount the delays”
Today as before, time remains the greatest enemy to fight against. Speed is needed on tampons, on diagnoses, on health care to be provided, personnel and departments that welcome low complexity hospitalizations in order to facilitate the management of the most serious cases. A race that, however, according to experts, could have started well before an alarm like the one triggered in the last few days, and which now sees the entire system forced to make great sacrifices again. “Covid is a disease in which time is of the essence. Must hurry. How do you manage it with a cumbersome slow system? ” asks the infectious disease specialist of San Martino, looking at the days to come. The future prospect, although unknown in detail, outlines an inability to keep up with the virus and the bitter discount of what unfortunately has not been able to be done with a sense of anticipation and prevention. “We risk heavily paying for these delays, the curve grows improperly” concludes Bassetti.
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