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Italy was the first European country affected by the coronavirus earlier this year. Since then, more than 60,000 people have died in Italy in connection with coronavirus diseases. The highest death rate in Europe. The images showing military vehicles transporting coffins out of the city are hard to forget.
It is now the British quality newspaper The Guardian the question of whether at least some of the deaths could have been prevented.
At least that was the goal of Francesco Zambon’s report. The WHO scientist and his European colleagues describe in 102 pages how Italian doctors undertook the fight against the virus. The report was uploaded to the WHO home page on May 13, a day after it was no longer there.
Copy-Paste-Pandemieplan
The Guardian reported that the report contained sensitive details. According to this, Italy’s pandemic plan has not been updated since 2006, but has only been periodically copied. Sometimes that was one of the reasons that hospitals had to work on their own. They acted “impromptu, chaotic, and creative,” Zambon writes in his analysis.
Why was the document not allowed to remain on the WHO site? Ranieri Guerra is said to have commissioned the report’s removal. He is the deputy director general for strategic initiatives at WHO. Between 2014 and 2017 he was responsible for updating the pandemic plan at the Italian Ministry of Health. In addition, Guerra is in the task force of the Italian Crown.
Presumed agreement
According to Zambon and Guardian, there may have been an agreement between WHO and the Italian Health Ministry to keep the report secret.
In Bergamo it is currently investigating whether the authorities can be charged with criminal negligence. The pandemic plan that has not been updated is a central element of the investigation. The report’s author, Francesco Zambon, cannot speak there, despite repeated calls, nor can his European co-authors. The WHO prevented them from doing so, writes The Guardian, with the help of the Italian Foreign Ministry.
But Zambon himself wanted to testify, he told British journalists. “When I was first summoned, I reported it to the WHO Legal Office. A little later, my colleagues told me that I couldn’t testify because I was immune. Although I wanted to go, at least I had something to say. ” Guerra threatened to lose his job if he did not change the report. Zambon reported this to the responsible WHO authorities, but there was no internal investigation.
“New mechanism”
The Italian Health Ministry denies allegations that the document was never officially received. The WHO confirms that it wants to “clarify” the issue. Shortly after the report went offline, a new mechanism was created to control Covid-19. Therefore, the document was no longer necessary.
An analysis by Pier Paolo Lunelli, a former army general, concluded that some 10,000 deaths could have been prevented with a modern plan against a pandemic.
