ROMA – The secret plan to counter the coronavirus epidemic has already existed since February and was adopted by the government in early March, after the green light from the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza. And if it has not yet been made public, despite the pressure of the media and political controversy, it is because on 2 March the Technical Scientific Committee underlined, in black and white in official documents, the need to keep the content confidential.
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This is what emerges from the first 95 minutes of the CTS published yesterday afternoon on the Civil Protection website. Documents that reveal the crucial decisions, but also the changes of course of the experts, in the first six months of the Covid emergency. And they tell of the friction and the “rags” flown behind closed doors between the scientists and the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency, Domenico Arcuri.
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One plan, three scenarios
Minute number 15 conveys the drama of those days. In the meeting of 2 March, opened by the Minister of Health, there is talk of a new decalogue of behavior for public opinion, it is recommended to all people over 75 to avoid crowded places, remember that the day before it was decided of increase ICU beds by 50%. And finally, mention is made of the «Plan for the organization of Italy’s response in the event of an epidemic», with the recommendation that it remain classified.
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On March 4, the theme of the plan, “drawn up by the Higher Institute of Health, in agreement with the Ministry of Health and the Spallanzani hospital in Rome”, was addressed at the opening of the meeting, with the CTS inviting it to be updated “in consideration of the evolution of the epidemiological dynamics in the country “. And again it is recommended: “It is understood that the document must be considered classified“. Such confidentiality is explained by the words of the director general of the Ministry of Health Andrea Urbani. On April 21, interviewed by Courier service, reveals the existence of the secret plan and explains that the document contained three scenarios, one of which was too dramatic to disclose. “The line – said Urbani – was not to frighten the population and to work to contain the contagion».
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Closed schools
From the papers emerge the uncertainties of the experts on masks and pads and leaked doubts about the total closure of schools. Minister Speranza asks for an opinion on the advisability of sending home students of all levels throughout the country and the CTS writes on 4 March “there are currently no data that irrefutably address the usefulness of closing schools …” .
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Red areas
The minutes of March 7 are one of the most voluminous, the alarm for the spread of the infection is very high and the hospitals are collapsing. The need to create off-limits areas had already been highlighted on 28 February and on that day the scientists propose to overcome the distinction between red and yellow areas and impose a further tightening on Lombardy and the provinces of Parma, Piacenza, Rimini, Reggio Emilia and Modena, Pesaro Urbino, Venice, Padua and Treviso, Alessandria and Asti. Schools closed. Stop to sporting events, ski resorts closed, down the shutters of cinemas, theaters, discos. Measures that three days later will be extended to all of Italy.
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Interviews and speeches
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Institutional clashes
Between the pages and lines of the minutes, the tensions of those very hard days. The first institutional clash it is registered on March 15, in full lockdown, when the CTS invokes “firmly” a safeguard rule that protects the work of its members, otherwise “the CTS will resign in a unified manner”. The second institutional clash is on May 3, as can be seen from the many omitted that mourn the pages. In attendance there are, in alphabetical order, the coordinator Agostino Miozzo and then Ciciliano, Antonelli, Bernabei, Iavicoli, Ippolito, Magrini, Richeldi, Sebastiani, Urbani and Villani. Brusaferro, D’Amario, Dionisio, Guerra, Iachino, Locatelli, Maraglino and Zoli are connected by videoconference. There are also the Undersecretary of Health Sandra Zampa, Dr. Adriana Ammassari (Aifa) and the head of cabinet of Minister Speranza, Goffredo Zaccardi.
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The session begins at 11.10 am and the minutes reveal that at the beginning “a heated discussion took place” on the role and function of the CTS: “Great concern and deep regret emerged from all the members of the Committee, due to some notes received by the commissioner (Arcuri, ed), which can be interpreted as a delegitimization of the work carried out by the group due to presumed delays attributed to the CTS “.
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Scientists do not want to take responsibility for the “possible lack of masks”, whose finding is up to Arcuri and ask the minister to review their mandate, otherwise they will leave the post.
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Masks
Another unpublished passage concerns theuse of masks in the workplace. “There is no evidence to indiscriminately recommend workers to wear surgical masks,” read the report of March 13. Thrilling words, reread with hindsight.
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September 4, 2020 (change September 4, 2020 | 23:50)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
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