“By 2020? A utopia, perhaps we will never have it” – Libero Quotidiano

“The vaccine needs its time. Please do not rush forward saying that we will already vaccinate a end of the year: it’s a’utopia scientifically unfounded. “It cuts off any optimistic hypothesis Maria Rita Gismondo, director of the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Diagnostics of Bioemergencies of theSacco hospital in Milan, commenting on the suspension of clinical trials on the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, in an interview with the news agency Adnkronos.

“Unfortunately in science to say I said so is very sad, because people’s health and hopes are at stake. But the news that AstraZeneca temporarily interrupted the vaccine tests “- Gismondo continues -” gives credit to what some of us said, such as the immunologist Alberto Mantovani: the vaccine takes a long time to be safe, no phase can be shortened. Already in the rush “, of tests to get a vaccine against the Sars-Cov2 virus as soon as possible,” we have some cases to examine and investigate for side and unwanted effects: do we still want to accelerate and take risks? “. “People cannot be deceived”, remarks Gismondo. Not only. “By doing so, running, let’s play the no vax game and we risk deaths from missing other vaccinations such as measles and other preventable communicable diseases, “he concludes.

Gismondo also intervenes on the problem “restart” school inviting to purchase “rapid tests” to be done on the spot, which “can immediately tell if the child is infected with Sars-CoV-2 or not”. He also asks for attention to “teachers” and “their role” in the possible transmission of the new coronavirus, because it is absolutely necessary to “avoid that children are identified as infectors in schools. It would be a serious psychological damage”, warns the expert. And he adds: “We have to to preserve our children from social and psychological damage – he warns – after the lockdown has already raged “in this sense on the little ones. But obviously” we must also help them so that they do not suffer a cultural damage“linked to” a delay in attendance. “Although” I would also like to specify another thing: if some school closes “, for Gismondo” we cannot speak of the failure of the reopening plan. It is a very complex topic that other nations are also addressing “.