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“At the moment, talking about compulsory vaccination against Covid is just propaganda: there are many other problems to focus on.” So the journalist and science writer from Bergamo Villa Roberta, a graduate in medicine and surgery, expresses herself about a possible obligation of the coronavirus vaccine.
In recent days, an intense debate has arisen on the subject, in which experts and scientists but also politicians from all sides participate: we asked Dr. Villa for his opinion.
What do you think of a possible mandatory nature of the Covid vaccine?
I think that right now we have to avoid propaganda because the problems are different. Talking about the mandatory nature of the Covid vaccine is now a way of shifting the responsibility for any difficulties in the vaccination campaign to the citizens. We have the problem of not having vaccines, of not having enough, but there is also the issue of organization: the notice from the agency that must select the personnel who will then have to carry out the vaccines has expired … it is evident that now there are an objective difficulty. We have logistical, personnel and vaccine supply problems: in the midst of this difficulty, the fact that someone has resistance is really the least of the problems.
What are the main problems at the moment?
Today the Ema has declared that AstraZenca has not even submitted the application for approval of the Oxford vaccine, which is one of those for which Italy has reserved the largest number of doses, so the times will surely lengthen. In the situation we are going through, there are objective difficulties not only on the part of Italians, who are lagging behind other states, but also other countries. For example, Germany returned some supplies because they had not maintained the temperature and had some problems with the dosages and the vials: it is not easy to make the best use of their contents, they must be well prepared and no mistakes should be made.
And what do you think of the vaccine skeptics?
At this time it is absolutely normal that someone still has doubts, fears and resistance. Nor do I find anything strange in the fact that there are people who prefer to wait and see more clearly even among healthcare professionals – continuing to point them out is absolutely counterproductive. And the compulsory vaccination for health workers is even worse because our other problem is the lack of doctors and nurses: if as soon as one of them expresses a doubt or wants to wait to be vaccinated we deprive ourselves of it, we find ourselves in even greater difficulty. So, at this moment talking about mandatory vaccines is just propaganda, there are other problems: it does not mean that they are failures, there are objective difficulties.
Explain us
The fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine had to be the one with the best cards and instead had this setback is not the fault of the Italian government or anyone, but it is clear that at the moment this is a problem. In the same way, that the Sanofi vaccine, the other one that we had focused on relying on a company that has a great tradition in vaccines, in the early stages proved to work little so the whole study is restarted and will not be available before 2022. a serious problem. The fact that in front of millions and millions of Italians who do not wait for more than to get vaccinated there are some who do not want to undergo vaccination is good, they will give way to others. But there is another fundamental point.
Which?
In the communication it is assumed that vaccination is not carried out only for oneself, but to protect others by invoking the so-called herd immunity, which should be called herd immunity. In fact, we are still not sure that these vaccines actually block the transmission of the virus and therefore can give immunity to this group. Even the World Health Organization has clearly specified that at this time the goal of vaccination is to protect the most vulnerable people and reduce the burden on health services, it is not realistic to think about a virus elimination or obtaining group immunity. today. The problem, therefore, at the moment is not the anti-vax: I would like you to stop talking about obligation because in the face of a vaccine that is objectively new and it is even more understandable, having reserves would not help.
What do you mean?
Vaccination cannot be enforced by force, if a person is afraid and is forced, everything becomes more difficult and even those who might have been willing to do it in the face of an obligation become hardened. I am against the obligation in general, I conceive it in some cases, for example when we talk about vaccinations against measles I believe that in certain departments where there are very fragile patients such as oncology it is unthinkable that those who work there can be vehicles for infections such as measles or chickenpox because in that situation the right to individual choice contrasts with a strong danger of life for the patients entrusted to it. Those who work there, if they are not immune to measles and chickenpox and do not want to be vaccinated, must change the flag, but it is a very specific borderline case in which it is clear the danger that others run. In the case of the Covid vaccine, we don’t even know if it will protect other people and these are premature considerations.
Does the same apply when getting vaccinated to protect grandparents?
Yes, at this moment we don’t know yet, it is a hope. I hope that in a short time the studies will confirm this fact, but today we do not have the elements to take it for granted. We know that the incidence of symptomatic forms is reduced, but we do not know if these people are still asymptomatic carriers. We are seeing that people vaccinated in June today still have antibodies and that gives us hope but we do not know if these will last a year, two years or six months: it is still too early to draw conclusions.
Finally, what big scientific questions remain?
If the vaccines protect only the individual or also from the transmission of the virus and, therefore, can grant group immunity; whether they can also reduce mortality in serious ways; how long the protection they provide will last and if they will be able to respond to the new variants that circulate. These are the big questions: in my opinion, those who give certainty do so in an instrumental way, so maybe tomorrow the data will come out and we can know it, but day by day we have to say what we know and what we don’t know.
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