“Pressures to modify the Covid report”

Published on: 12/21/2020 9:08 PM

“If I received threats? Ranieri Guerra telephoned me and told me that he was at the general manager’s door and that if he had not changed the text as requested, he would have told me that I was behind the episode of the Report that accused the WHO” . But I knew absolutely nothing about the Report episode that night, and just looking at it I understood why: strong accusations were made about the ties between China, Ethiopia and other things and there was also a part dedicated to the pandemic plan. Geneva (WHO headquarters, ed.) There was great misgivings about the research and therefore Tedros certainly knew it too, which obviously would have put me in an extremely difficult position, I could be fired at any time ”. The WHO Europe researcher, Francesco Zambon, reveals the content of the phone call received by the WHO deputy director general, Ranieri Guerra, during the episode of Report that will be broadcast tonight.

Zambon then tells Report’s journalist Giulio Valesini that he will not change the content of the report in which he defined the Italian management of the first wave of the pandemic as “improvised, chaotic and creative.” He adds: “Frankly, I am very proud of the content of the report. I wanted people to read it and not just ministers and policy makers, I wanted people to read it so that they could also be prepared from an emotional point of view.” So in theory, a relationship that was supposed to literally save lives? “Yes, this was our hope.”

“After the publication of” the controversial report on the Italian pandemic plan “, a fire broke out in several institutions in Rome. I am sure there was a great stir. I must say that it hurt a lot.” In this sense, tonight’s Report will show an email from the WHO director for Europe, Hans Kluge, in which Kluge himself shows concern about the reaction of the Italian Health Minister, so much so that he writes: “It is the key question , my relationship with the minister who was very upset. “

And he adds: “I will write to the minister that we will set up a group of experts from the Ministry / Higher Institute of Health / WHO to review the document.” A proposal that Zambon found “strange. And in fact, later when they asked me that the text obviously make some changes – says Zambon – I together all the authors all agreed in saying that the WHO can do absolutely what it wants but without our name “.

“Ranieri Guerra has repeatedly asked me to change the date of the Italian plan for the pandemic, both by email and by phone,” accuses the WHO researcher in Europe, Francesco Zambon, during the transmission of the Report. “I wanted you to write in the report that the plan, since 2006, had been updated, using the same words updated and reconfirmed. In consulting with all the authors of the report, we absolutely decided that we could write it reconfirmed because in fact it had not even changed one. eat from 2006, but we certainly couldn’t write updated, that is, updated. This would have been false and I didn’t feel like it. “

WHO Europe researcher Francesco Zambon tells Report tonight about his vain attempt to warn WHO Director General Tedros about the risks associated with the decision to withdraw the report on the Italian pandemic plan to the reputation of the World Health Organization. .

“‘A WHO publication has been withdrawn (approved at all levels, including the chief scientist) – wrote Zambon on May 28 to Tedros – effectively damaging the credibility of the WHO. Terms of independence and transparency if a version were changed publication ‘censored’. ” He was talking about catastrophic reputational damage. Sadly, I don’t think I have gone too far. I never received a response to that email, “Zambon told Giulio Valesini.

Returning to the fact that the Zambon report highlighted how the Italian pandemic plan had in fact not been updated since 2006, the question is: would an updated pandemic plan have been useful so that Italy could better deal with Covid? “I think so – Zambon answers bluntly – it is not possible that a plan from 14 years ago could be in force. The pandemic flu plan is the foundation for preparing for pandemics that are caused by various viral agents. there were several that were caused by Coronavirus: Sars in 2003, then MERS in 2014-2015, that was also a wake-up call, and then this Coronavirus arrived in 2019 ”.