Health warning against vaccine. The battle over obligation is ignited

ROMA. Eight out of ten ready to get vaccinated against Covid. This is the data, presented as a national media, which should photograph the adhesion by health professionals, the real protagonists of this first phase of the vaccination campaign. But, taking into consideration the numbers of the individual regions, it is clear that the answer is not so comforting everywhere. “80% of doctors and nurses have made themselves available”, confirm in fact the Department of Health of the Lazio Region. Where, however, about 70 thousand private health professionals remain outside the audience to immunize, freelancers who have no contracts with public structures. Even in Lombardy “we are over 80%,” assured the regional councilor for welfare, Giulio Gallera. But from the press office they specify: «It is a forecast, the result of a survey with the general managers of the health companies. We will have real data only when the interested parties have signed the informed consent, after reading the Aifa leaflet, which has just arrived ». Estimates in Piedmont, on the other hand, lower the bar a little: “We are around 65%”, let the staff of the commissioner for the regional vaccine plan, Antonio Rinaudo, know.

Of the more than 195 thousand people affected by this first phase of vaccination (120 thousand operators of health companies and 75 thousand operators and guests of the RSA) about two thirds have already expressed their willingness to undergo the double injection. But what makes us suspect that the national average is lower than the 80% advertised are the findings coming from the South. In Puglia, for example, the health workers who have registered on the portal of the Region are 53 thousand and the “reservations” are they will close the day after tomorrow. Just over half of the audience can be vaccinated, calculating that 95,000 Pfizer doses will arrive in the Apulian provinces by mid-January. It is worse in Sicily, where 40 thousand out of 118 operators potentially involved in the campaign filled out the form provided by the Region. But there is no deadline to come forward and, therefore, many could sign up after Epiphany. It must be said that, in any case, these adhesions are indicative and not binding, no one has signed anything yet: there is time to enter, but also to reconsider, until the time to fix the appointment for the vaccination.

Favorable and skeptical
Uncertainty fuels the debate on whether or not to provide for a form of obligation for doctors and nurses. In the government to push for this solution is the Undersecretary for Health Sandra Zampa: “If it were realized that there is a refusal that cannot be overcome, I believe it should be considered an obligation, because vaccinating must be a precondition for those works in the public ». The Minister of Public Administration, Fabiana Dadone, takes the opposite opinion: «I’m not a big fan of the vaccination obligation – she explained -. I think a strong recommendation is more correct ». Filippo Anelli, president of the Federation of Medical Orders (Fnomceo), is not against it, “because the right to refuse can be lost if it puts public health at risk, which is a higher interest. But Parliament must decide on this, as happened with the compulsory vaccines established by the then Minister Lorenzin ”.

Under accusation in Rome
Rings estimated that in Italy there are about a hundred doctors categorized as “deniers” with respect to vaccines, including the latest anti Covid arrivals. One hundred out of 400 thousand “is a small minority, perhaps noisy, on which the investigations of the regional orders are underway and in some cases there have already been sanctions”. The latest cases in Rome, where the Medical Association has initiated disciplinary proceedings against 13 members who had publicly expressed (also on social media) “no vax” positions, with reports from colleagues or patients. Three of them questioned, or directly denied, the existence of Covid. The “trial” against them is expected to end in January.

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