“Not being able to lockdown in Milan and Naples during the second wave” of Covid-19 in Italy is the “biggest” regret of Walter Ricciardi, advisor to the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza for the coronavirus emergency, who in an interview with ‘Il Mattino’ takes stock of the management of the pandemic in Italy, in the aftermath of the country’s exit from the state of emergency. Thinking about that October 2020, the professor of Hygiene at the Catholic University blames the failure to close it to the “strenuous opposition of the mayors (Sala and de Magistris) who wrote to the minister. In reality we would have avoided the second wave, blocked the transmission of infections and limited the third wave that involved all the Italian regions causing 70 thousand deaths. I was attacked by everyone, while I had seen it right “, he claims.
Even today, on the first day of a new phase, the line suggested by Ricciardi is that of caution: “The legal emergency ends and we return to ordinary administration, but the health alarm is not over – he warns – We must maintain the measures we have implemented so far, first of all vaccination, the Green pass, masks, safety distances, travel prudence “. And then, “to definitively defeat the virus, we need to vaccinate the world. There are millions of unvaccinated people who allow the virus to circulate as much as possible”.
In Riccardi’s memory, the most critical moment experienced were the first days, those “between the end of February and the beginning of March 2020”, when “on my part and the minister there was the need to make everyone understand the gravity and danger Fortunately – he underlines – Italy had a minister who immediately understood the risk we were running and who acted accordingly. The combination of science and politics here in Italy has worked well from the beginning “. The greatest difficulty was “to convince those who invited to go on as if nothing had happened, to make it clear to the mayors and presidents of the Region that the red areas could not be avoided and that indeed it was necessary to try to anticipate the moves of the virus, rather than chase it”. In general, “it was difficult to convince all the skeptics that the restrictive measures were absolutely necessary, as well as to completely close a country of 60 million inhabitants in a few days”.
Within the Technical Scientific Committee, “the first months – Ricciardi says – were very intense for meetings, discussions, agreements to suggest a line on the plan of political decisions. We worked closely with the Civil Protection. It was a question of making dramatic decisions. like the lockdown “. Was there any pressure? “On media and social media we read about everything and the opposite of everything – replies the adviser of Speranza – But the fundamental thing is to have maintained a line of absolute rigor. The decisions were all made on the basis of scientific evidence. USA and Great Britain , but also initially France, they regulated themselves differently, only to correct the shot “.
The expert has no doubts about the most beautiful moment: it was “the arrival of vaccines, the V-Day of December 27, 2020”, because “having effective vaccines available in a few months was not a foregone conclusion”. That vaccines have changed the history of the pandemic “was evident from the first months following the inoculations. Without it – assures Ricciardi – we would have paid a huge toll”.
But what was the difference between the first Sars of 2004, the MERS of 2013 and the current Covid? “Those infections had a higher mortality, but they were transmitted only between symptomatic patients – specifies the hygienist – and therefore they were easily contained”. Ever been afraid of getting sick? “I have always done everything possible not to get infected – Ricciardi replies – I didn’t mind getting vaccinated, wearing a mask. The contagiousness of this virus always gives a little fear”.