Buzzetti: “Virus, it’s already the second wave, but Bergamo has learned to deal with it”

Attention is needed now. Just when everything seems to be under control. Because in the province of Bergamo everything is really under control. Weekly data and the voices of doctors arriving from hospitals say so. They have not stopped receiving patients, but are able to treat them more effectively than in recent months. Roberto Buzzetti, physician and statistician, former director of the Epidemiological Office of the then ASL in Bergamo, uses a suitable metaphor to explain what happened and what we learned: “In March and April there was a big fire here in Bergamo. Now there are many small fires that we can put out quickly. The surveillance system is on and working fine. ‘

What went wrong in the most dramatic months?


“Unfortunately, the virus came on suddenly and the local medicine could not respond effectively. Prevention is omitted. We all know that there were problems with the swabs and that only critically ill patients were tested in those weeks. In fact, sometimes not even them. To return to the fire metaphor: instead of sending firefighters to put it out, we have improved the burn center. Field hospitals and more beds in resuscitation rooms are needed, God forbid. But the epidemic must stop where it is born and where it develops. Now we have learned it.