“My task as a clinician is to interpret reality. On May 31, 2020 I said that the virus was clinically non-existent, because a patient had not entered my hospital for a month to be hospitalized for Covid. Today I would repeat exactly the same thing, because in the last 11 infected people arrived a week, 8 of which were sent home and 3 were hospitalized for non-serious reasons “. Alberto Zangrillo, head of Anesthesia and Intensive Care at the Irccs San Raffaele hospital in Milan, Vice Rector of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, thus confirms in an interview with ‘La Stampa’ the evidence of a “clinically dead virus” at least in departments.
“Nobody wants to ignore the pandemic – he specifies – but there are also other patients that we must not forget. The real question is: in September will we have a health system capable of enhancing family doctors? Covid “, assures reiterating the need to strengthen assistance in the area. The expert repeats his enough to alarmism. “They only led to a negative climate – he observes – I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, when at 18 the Civil Protection rattled off real numbers, but which repeated every day dramatized the situation. Frightening people is never educational”. And today, according to Zangrillo, “there is no correlation between what is communicated and what happens. Forecasts, for example, are always negative and discourage the population”.
The specialist invites us to “refer to the data of the Higher Institute of Health, according to which in the under 30s 0.07% run the risk of death and in the under 40s 0.28%. This is to say that there is a big difference with those over 70 years old. The death rate in the under 40s is 800 times lower than in the over 80s “. But what to say to young people then? “Not to mind their own business, to use the mask and not to create unnecessary gatherings. I think they respond more to a discourse of responsibility than of fear. It is useless to tell them that they risk the hospital if it is not so”. That said, “I have 3 children ranging from 25 to 33 years all covered with 2 doses, and even if they were younger – assures Zangrillo – I would have vaccinated them”.
In short, “we must simply give more value to the mask instead of focusing on a thousand fears – insists the head physician of San Raffaele – Even the disinfectant gels in the shops are now useless. In the ward I no longer go harnessed like an astronaut, but only with the mask “.
As for the obligation of vaccination for doctors, nurses and other operators in contact with patients, “I disagree. I think we must vigorously follow the criterion of correct information and, if we are faced with obstinate people, it is necessary that measures be taken to protect patients. They are not obligatory – explains Zangrillo – because, as an article published in ‘Nature’ shows, it is difficult to go beyond 80% of vaccinated people and the remaining part will not be convinced or with insistence or force “.
On the ‘hesitant’ politicians, the doctor explains: “I have never discovered the arm in front of a camera, but certainly the ambiguity of politics is not a good example. In general, using health care as a subject of dispute is not nice. I don’t like this split between a coercive left and a libertarian right. “
Not even the Italian Green pass convinces Zangrillo: “For me, common sense and respect are worth more than any certificate – he says – Furthermore, it seems inappropriate to me to charge the managers of the various activities with responsibility for controls”. And the difference between restaurants and discos for which in the first case one dose of vaccine would be enough and in the second one would need 2? “Frankly it seems bullshit to me,” he replies.
And “with all due respect – he adds – I disagree” not even with Confindustria, which is thinking of asking workers for the Green pass. “There is a person in the government esteemed like Draghi. Let’s trust him, also because he decides on his own”.
And how is your most famous patient? “President Berlusconi follows my instructions and, despite his age of 85 and being a fragile person, he is experiencing a moment of good balance”, reassures his personal doctor. How recovered from Covid did you get vaccinated? “Yes, he is cured and vaccinated.”