“Know, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, that in reconfirming Dr. Nicola Magrini, in his current role as DG of Aifa, he is making a very serious mistake. This is because, after months, the behavior of Dr. Magrini in the well-known question of the experimentation of monoclonal antibodies in Italy remains completely inexplicable and unjustifiable, and this behavior in a matter of such great importance makes him clearly unsuitable to fill that role “. So the virologist Guido Silvestri, full professor and head of the Pathology department at Emory University in Atlanta, in a long post on Facebook addresses the Minister of Health on the reconfirmation of the general manager of Aifa, Nicola Magrini.
A reconfirmation on which the Italian scientist expresses various perplexities, reconstructing when it happened in recent months. “Know, Minister Speranza, that Dr. Magrini, in the autumn of 2020, effectively stopped the experimentation of monoclonals in Italy saying and writing publicly – remarked Silvestri – that this experimentation needed Ema authorization. On this point Magrini was disavowed by Luca Pani (former DG of Aifa), Giorgio Palù (president of Aifa), Beatrice Lorenzin (former Minister of Health) and Walter Ricciardi (consultant of the ministry) and at the end by the same Ministerial Decree of 6 February 2021 “.
“Know, Minister Speranza, that there are two possible explanations for Magrini’s behavior – continues Silvestri – The first is that he did not know the rules relating to emergency drug trials in Italy, and in this case he would be unsuitable to fill the role of Aifa CEO due to obvious incompetence. The second possibility, even worse, is that he knew these rules well, but that he, for reasons that are not yet known, decided to ignore them (and in this case it would be unsuitable for elementary ethical reasons) “.
“Know, Minister Speranza, that the media mini-crusade, all Italian and all political, launched against monoclonals by a group of ‘do-it-yourself’ experts according to which antibodies would be useless (spoiler: it is not at all true that they are useless) is, as well as scientifically senseless, also completely irrelevant – he notes – because if this had been the reason for blocking the experimentation in October 2020, then it would have been also had to be blocked in February 2021 “.
“Know, Minister Speranza, that, in reconfirming Dr. Magrini despite this behavior, he sends a wrong and deeply demoralizing message not only to all those who have suffered from Covid in our country, but also to all Italians who still want to believe and hope that, in our nation, positions of prestige and responsibility will be obtained and maintained on the basis of merit and behavior, and not for the political protections he enjoys “, concludes Silvestri.