Sileri: “I will not apply again. I will be a surgeon in San Raffaele.” And on the criticisms of Zangrillo: “They come from those who do not understand”

“I will not reapply. I am a surgeon, I do not waste 25 years of sacrifice. On March 25, 2023, when this is all over, you will find me at San Raffaele of Milan, where I won a contest in 2016. “Thus, about Libero, the Vice Minister of Health Pierpaolo Sileri talks about his return, once his political experience ended, to work as a doctor in the hospital where the head of Anesthesia and Intensive Care and Silvio Berlusconi’s personal physician also works Alberto Zangrillo. Which he defends against the criticism that the anesthetist has received, saying that “they come from those who do not understand. I had Covid and when I was sick I myself told many that if something went wrong, San Raffaele would be the hospitalization home. Zangrillo used an unhappy expression, but many of those inside understood perfectly what he meant: that the virus was no longer reaching intensive care. Now yes, the virus is circulating, it is likely that more people go to the ICU. But there are differences. During the first wave, people died at home and the doctor arrived two days after death. Now this is no longer the case ”.

“Scientists – continues Sileri – have different personal points of view but also heated rivalries. Zangrillo’s words were exploited. It seems to me that many of my colleagues in white coats sometimes use television for personal purposes and challenges. I go to the San Raffaele in Milan because it is excellence in Italy. At this point, most of those who enter or remain in politics do so for money or power. I gained more as a doctor than as a vice minister and the power for me is to do the things that I think are useful for the country. As chairman of the Health Commission, I unblocked the law allowing body research, sped up the law on the cancer registry network, and much more. This is enough for me to feel that I have done my duty ”.

As for how the government is dealing with this wave of the epidemic, “I am about to expand the table of the Scientific Technical Committee and make operational logic and methods more transparent. Transparency strikes me as a must these days: fundamental decisions for the entire country cannot be entrusted to government-appointed consultants. There are still many places in the ICU and the growth of hospitalized patients is not exponential. The number of positives is very high but most of them are not sick: we must distinguish and not create unnecessary terrorism. We are paralyzing a country that hopes to pass saliva tests. Inconceivable”.

“The first thing to do is increase your diagnostic capabilities. We divide the population into three groups: low, medium and high risk. We use the rapid antigen test for those who are low and medium risk and we only clean the third band; so you manage to map 400 thousand people a day and we do not waste tampons for subjects who are not at high risk since they are not close contacts. It is absurd what we are witnessing, with thousands of people breaking into the emergency room for symptoms similar to those of Covid, or endless lines to get a swab. Having a simpler diagnostic offer than the swab and usable by general practitioners, in pharmacies or in the private sector and, why not, also in dental practices would help the system as a whole ”.

“We clean too many wrong people Sileri points out. If I test positive, my assistants can be cleaned, but not the entire floor. For others, a rapid or salivary antigen test that costs a fifth is sufficient and gives the result in an hour instead of five days. With Covid we must act as with all other pathologies. In colon cancer screening, a hidden stool test is provided and only if it is positive is a colonoscopy performed. The vaccine will not be a quick thing. It takes months to produce it, just like the flu. And we still don’t know how much it actually protects and what its side effects are. I think the drug will come before the prophylaxis. Many therapies are already being applied. I trust above all in the monoclonal antibodies or in the use of hyperimmune preparations obtained from the serum of the cured “.

Finally, when asked if “we are on the eve of a crisis like the one last March,” he replied: “I fight – he concludes – to imagine a similar scenario to March. I foresee a new increase in infections, but gradual in terms of places in intensive care and I hope that when the first effects of the Prime Minister’s decree are seen, the curve will soften. We needed, and still need, unscrupulous use of diagnostics. That was the big mistake ”.

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