“Since we started talking about vaccines, more or less since last December, I have become the scapegoat for those who are against the vaccination campaign and, therefore, often when things don’t go well and there is someone to blame, I they attack ferociously: it is unacceptable ». Matteo Bassetti, 50 years old, full professor of Infectious Diseases in Genoa, is in the crosshairs of the No Vax for the positions in favor (of course) of mass vaccination for the entire population. A persecution, so vehement and insidious, that now she has been to the head physician of the hospital assigned active surveillance by the police who, for example, follow him during public events and discreetly protect possible targets such as his home or hospital.
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Professor Matteo Bassetti are you afraid?
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“No and I will not retreat an inch from my positions. Indeed, given my character, the more they attack me and the more I think I have worked well because those who do it because they identify me as the symbol of the vaccination campaign in Italy. But let me say that this situation hurts me and is incomprehensible ».
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Don’t you think it’s the other side of the coin, precisely, due to the notoriety it has acquired in television salons and newspapers?
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«Not only the media exposure but it is a series of things that are held all together. The identification I mentioned earlier with the vaccination campaign makes some see you as the tool that the main stream has to promote inoculations. Here is the criticism that I am made of being in the service of Big Pharma, the state and the “bad guys” to get vaccinated. . This situation hurts me because I am just a doctor, a professional who lives in the hospital and who deeply believes in the countryside. However, I do not understand them because in the end I have no role in the political and regulatory decisions of our country. On my social spaces, I have always said that I am in favor of vaccines in adults and children and that it is the only tool to fight the pandemic. Obviously some people don’t like this position of mine but these attacks are vile and mean because they are not aimed only at me ».
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Who are these attacks aimed at other than you?
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“To my family and it hurts me a lot. However, I believe that in these attacks there is also a responsibility on the part of the institutions ».
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Why do you see a responsibility of the institutions?
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«If I am the target of the No Vax it is because they obviously see me as a point of reference and, instead, they do not see the institutional figures as such. They threaten me because maybe those who should have put their face on it more did not wear it enough. In a country other than ours who should become the object of attacks by those who are against vaccines should be an institutional figure like the Minister of Health and not the weakest link like a doctor ».
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How many threats have you received? Have you already filed complaints?
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“Thousands of threats, I don’t even count them anymore. With my legal staff I have already filed about twenty complaints and every day we file more because I want these people to be prosecuted by the law. Not for personal gain because, after deducting the court costs, I will allocate every euro received to charity. But we need a signal, we must realize that the measure is full that it is not possible that on social networks and the Net it is giving anyone the opportunity to offend “.
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Even among you doctors you have “sung” to each other in recent months …
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«See we are doctors and we discuss medicine but, after all these attacks, it becomes even difficult to take a scientific position. These haters are not fundamentally understanding a decisive passage ».
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What do these social haters not understand?
“I am not a minister, I have not chosen to go to parliament and I do not take political positions. I have no decision-making power and, anyway, it shouldn’t be right for politicians to be threatened either. I repeat, I am a doctor, I do my job, I read the articles, I write what I think.
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Have you been given guardianship for more violent attacks in recent days?
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“There has been a resurgence lately for two facts. The first is because I said that I would have my 12 and 16 year old children vaccinated and, even more so, today I am more and more convinced of doing it, so much so that on June 28th I will accompany them personally. The second fact is probably linked to the death of a girl from Sestri Levante, near Genoa, after she was vaccinated with Astrazeneca. But I had warned everyone in unsuspecting times … ».
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What had he warned everyone about?
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«I had said that in such a mass vaccination campaign it was necessary to intervene with commercials at full speed. Not just someone every now and then on TV channels but a hammering that also involved newspapers, social networks, radio and any media. For example, a specific Instagram or Facebook page from the ministry would have been needed with all the information and reasons for having to join the campaign. When you don’t do them, people don’t know who to attack and they don’t have official answers so they write where they think they can find free space. This is why Bassetti or Burioni on duty are massacred with insults: this is unacceptable ».
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What should you do now?
“I believe that the judiciary must give a strong signal because it is not possible that in a moment like this there is freedom to do these things as one can write that if he catches me he hangs me upside down. You have to pursue someone like this and make him understand that certain things are not written ».
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What leaves you the most bitter in your mouth about this bad story that involves you?
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«That of being perceived as if we doctors were on the side of the” bad guys “. It is truly paradoxical and, at times, I have to reply that if someone does not want vaccinations, it is his business because he risks dying. Sooner or later they will be convinced when they see that the immunized will no longer end up in the Covid wards or will have no problems while they do. I would like to remind you that the vaccine is optional, as it should be, for the population. Frankly, it is a controversy that I find sterile. But from all this sad story I have had a positive confirmation ».
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What positive confirmation did you get from such a bad story?
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“I met officials from the Genoa police headquarters, agents and men from the Digos who were fantastic. They call me, they cheer me up and I have renamed them my guardian angels because I have felt the neighboring state. I had no doubts because I have always believed in the police but when you go there in person you can touch how exceptional people are. ”
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Agents who shouldn’t protect a doctor who expresses opinions …
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«I would like it not to happen again but unfortunately we live in a particular country where the central institutions are weak towards public opinion. For this I envy my Anglo-Saxon colleagues a lot because from this point of view medical institutions enjoy very different protections ».
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June 14, 2021 (change June 14, 2021 | 20:19)
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