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“So doctor, when does the vaccine arrive?”, The president of the Order of Doctors of Milan, dr. Roberto Rossi speaks of the chaos that healthcare workers and patients are experiencing in Lombardy these days due to the dramatic absence of flu vaccines amid the Coronavirus pandemic. They are young and old to insist on the provision of doses, but for now what Dr. Rossi and all Lombard doctors are able to answer very little, “and not without much shame”, as he confesses. Open the same president.
President, the million and a half flu vaccines scheduled for the beginning of October in Lombardy have not arrived and at the moment it seems that they will not arrive. A few days ago the news of another failed tender was known while Councilor Giulio Gallera assures that everything is under control. Which scenario corresponds more to reality?
“The truth is that right now there are no vaccines in the pharmacy. Many of our patients have come personally to ask for them and have not found them, so in private there is no possibility of doing anything. The situation does not improve in the health companies that, instead, would have the task of directly administering the anti-flu and supplying it to doctors and pediatricians. There are no vaccinations, nor are there any communications regarding certain schedules.
We will have a good possibility of a staggered arrival so it will be necessary to make a new selection also among the patients. For now, only about 80 doses will reach the doctor in mid-October: very few. A really insignificant figure if we think that each of us has around 200 patients, and with 60 it reaches 300 ».
Four failed tenders by the Lombardy Region and a market that, to date, no longer has the possibility to respond to requests for running out of doses. What are the risks of this delay?
“The situation certainly does not seem rosy. As an Order, both at the national federative level and at the regional level, we had a clear expectation of being able to vaccinate at the beginning of October, that is, at least twenty days earlier than usual. Also following the same guidelines for infectious diseases and epidemiologists. There were and are basically two risks to avoid. The first is the overlap of the virus and therefore the lower diagnostic capacity of Covid-19 with the consequent increase in unnecessary tampons and more people at home. The second, no less important, is the intensification of the symptoms.
Will they be more serious?
“Until recently, it was fairly intuitive that the combination of flu infection and coronavirus infection would lead to more serious complications. But lately, confirmation has also come from the scientific community, the data reaffirms the risk of aggravating the symptoms of both infections if they are contracted in the same period.
In addition to these two most important risks, in principle it must be remembered, however, that the flu is a potentially lethal virus, although fortunately to a much lesser extent than the coronavirus. Therefore, it is still absurd to increase more risks, at a time, among other things, when the population is much more predisposed.
What do you mean?
“The sentiment of the population towards vaccines is very high, as has rarely been the case. It could have been a good year to achieve significant coverage of the target population. Not taking advantage of this wave of righteous will to get vaccinated is a mortal sin. I don’t see how it is possible to be late this year when everyone said to be quick.
According to some sources, the first tender in March failed due to a counter-offer to the downside from the Lombardy region. A degenerate attempt to save?
If so, it would be serious. Wasting public money is always wrong, but you have to know how to manage resources wisely. The prudent manager is not only the one who does not waste, he is also the one who spends the right when it is needed.
If it were confirmed that instead of doing a correct career, one was going to save money, to fail, it would be, I repeat, very serious. In other regions they have rightly thought about more competitive basic prices, taking into account the commercial nature of the companies. Saving at all costs is not a strategy that Lombardy can and can afford, it is playing with people’s skin.
At the moment the available doses correspond to 868 thousand for adults and 430 for children. More than 60 that should be vaccinated are more than 2 million. What are the categories most exposed to the welfare gap?
“Certainly, I would say elderly people who have pathologies, but also health workers. They must be protected because they have a responsibility to have contact with people. In addition to these, I point out that vaccination in general cannot be underestimated, even in the risk-free categories. If a 30-year-old who travels by subway and goes to a work environment with many people every day wants to be vaccinated to protect himself and perhaps even those who are at risk, he should be able to do so ”.
What do you think is the biggest mistake made by the Region during the purchase process, which began in the spring and has gone bankrupt to date?
«Not having listened to us. What I would have waited for several months, and am still waiting, is a greater willingness to listen to experts and the medical order, both nationally and regionally. Before they didn’t even call us from the Region, now they started asking for our opinion, but asking is not enough. We have to listen. We are technicians, we have a specific competence by which we express ourselves with full knowledge of the facts.
When did you not feel heard?
«In the last months hundreds of times, starting with the use of personal protective equipment that had to be distributed to the whole category, to move to the promotion of information technologies for health care that could have solved many useless contacts . Now the question of fighting the flu.
We had warned the Region about vaccinations in early summer, it was known. It is true that the first races, from what has now been learned, were held in the spring, but it is also true that having at least three months to go could mean a considerable adjustment in the shot. Nothing was done. All this provokes a lot of anger.
What prospects do you have now?
“I would like to know. What I hope is that the situation clears up and that everyone becomes aware that what has been said since the beginning of spring must happen as soon as possible.”
A delay that can be recovered?
“I find it quite difficult, industries obviously have their own production and distribution times. The possible alternative would be to do it yourself and then resort to moving to other regions to get vaccinated or to Switzerland. But this cannot be the solution, especially with regard to public health, which must guarantee effective and safe care ”.
the What advice do you think you can give to the population?
“The important thing is to be aware that now, even more so, the rules of social distancing and masks must be respected more than ever. This eliminates the spectrum of influenza and makes it especially unlikely that you will be infected with the coronavirus. Now restrictive measures can be a fundamental tool also, unfortunately, to curb the great health gap that is being experienced in Lombardy.
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