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There was only one way, with the arrival of autumn, not to increase the pressure on the National Health Service, which has already struggled for almost a year with the Coronavirus emergency: to proceed with a massive vaccination campaign against the flu. seasonal. There was, because at this point it seems too late to be able to obtain in the market the necessary doses to satisfy the demand of the Italian population.
It was necessary, because flu viruses and Sars-CoV-2, in many cases, cause similar symptoms: the more people inject themselves with the flu, the fewer questionable cases will show up in the emergency room or clog the phone lines installed to the pandemic. .
The same Ministry of Health, in the circular of June 4, invited to be vaccinated “all subjects from 6 months of age who have no contraindications.” Not only risk categories, such as those over 60, the smallest or chronically ill, but the entire workforce.
The awareness campaign seems to have worked: so much so that many requests for vaccine reservations have reached pharmacies. Which, however, taking the average between their number, around 19 thousand, and the doses available for the uninsured groups, around 250 thousand, would have only 13 available vaccines each.
According to the study prepared by Gimbe, only one in 3 citizens, among those who are not within the protected sections of the population, will be able to buy the flu vaccine. However, there are complications also for people at risk in 7 regions and in the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano: the vaccination campaign guaranteed by the territorial ASL will not cover more than 75% of vulnerable subjects. These are the guaranteed coverage for the target population of the influenza vaccine:
- Trento (70.2%)
- Piedmont (67.9%)
- Lombardy (66.3%)
- Umbria (61.9%)
- Molise (57.1%)
- Aosta Valley (51.5%)
- Abruzzo (49%)
- Bolzano (38.3%)
- Basilicata (29%)
“The situation is extremely worrying: the vaccination campaign runs the risk of starting late and the opportunity to prevent doctors and hospitals from contracting cases of the flu will be lost, when on the other front we must combat the increase in positive cases of coronavirus.” says Gimbe president Nino Cartabellotta.
“It was necessary to move forward, like Puglia, which has 1,084,634 residual doses for the population that does not fall within the protected bands, and Lazio, 926,291 doses. The rest of the territories have insufficient stocks to satisfy the demand of the active population ”.
President, the regions bought 43% more vaccines than the previous year, for a total of around 17 million people. Why is there still a shortage of flu vaccines?
“The real problem behind this shortage is that the Ministry of Health has expanded the population at risk, including 3,846,237 people between 60 and 65 years of age plus 3,196,799 under the age of six. The offer has increased taking into account only these categories. At the same time, however, the ministry sent vaccination recommendations to the entire workforce. A mixed message given that, at the same time, no shares were bought for citizens between the ages of 6 and 59. Italy moved late ”.
Stay behind who?
“The UK closed all tenders for the purchase of fluid fluids in December 2019. The British have secured 33 million doses. Historically, Italy lags behind in the procurement of vaccines. This year, however, it would have been useful to play early for a Covid differential diagnosis strategy. Here, buying flu vaccines was part of managing the Coronavirus pandemic. “
What will the consequences be?
In addition to the well-known health problem, that is, a greater number of vaccinated people would have relieved the pressure of those affected on hospitals and helped the Covid tracking machine, this year vaccination had a social and economic role: not to stop school, so as not to stop work. There are millions of workers who do not fall into the protected categories, either for personal reasons or because they do not suffer from chronic diseases.
The country’s productivity depends on subjects in full health. Preventing the closure of companies due to alleged symptoms of Covid, which could actually be influences, would have been fundamental for the economy. I know many companies that are trying to recover, without success, doses of vaccines for their employees.
Is the situation really unrecoverable?
Let’s say the vaccines are finished in the conventional channels. However, we cannot know if the ministry and the regions are finding solutions in non-traditional circuits. Maybe they are managing to get doses from China, from Brazil. The fact is that the last call for Lombardy due to the flu, that of September 21, was deserted ».
Also in this case, as in other phases of the pandemic, the division of responsibilities between the State and the Regions in matters of health does not help.
«It is one more example of what we have been denouncing for a long time: an institutional short-circuit between the State and the Regions. The government defines the guidelines, then the part of health management is entrusted to the Regions. The government issues a circular recommending vaccination to everyone, the Regions should have moved well in advance. Who has arrived badly is badly lodged. Only Puglia and Lazio did well ».
In a phase of absolute emergency, the government could have taken over the issue of vaccines, as it is closely related to the pandemic.
“Yes, the hiring could fall within the scope of the extraordinary powers granted to Commissioner Arcuri. There was no agreement with the Regions on this step and therefore competition was left to the territories. Perhaps some regions thought that the state would be responsible for providing doses for those who were not within the risk ranges.
The State considered that the Regions had also calculated the active and healthy population in the total supply. In the end, no one thought about that. The government’s only alibi is that it should have thought about it in the spring, when we were experiencing the most acute phase of the pandemic. It would have been better to do it, but I realize that the priorities in March were very different.
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