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The opinion was there and it was negative. At the beginning of August, the Sardinian technical-scientific committee opposed the decision to keep the discos open, taken by Governor Christian Solinas with the support of his center-right board and part of the regional councilors. The opinion is contained in an email dated August 6. It is signed by the four consultants of the Committee and has been sent, among others, to the Regional Minister of Health Mario Nieddu and the Director General of Health Marcello Tidore. The consultants analyzed the first draft of the ordinance that contained the expansion to the dance halls and issued an unequivocal judgment: “The Committee does not approve the document.” More. They left their concern over the reunion scenes witnessed by the photos posted on social media. Despite this, on August 11, just five days later, Solinas signed ordinance number 38, which has now ended up at the center of the investigation of the Cagliari prosecutor who is investigating a guilty epidemic. What had the Sardinian CTS seen that they did not see or did not want to see in the Region?
Openings in repeal
The wild late-August nightlife at the Billionaire, Phi Beach, Sottovento, Just Cavalli and the other VIP clubs on the Emerald Coast, besieged by thousands of vacationers who did not wear masks or respect social distancing, favored the explosion of contagion outbreaks not only in Gallura, but also in the tourist return areas. In particular in Lazio, where the controversy over the management of movements inside and outside Sardinia has never abated.
Let’s go back to those days in early August. In the discussions between councilors and councilors a supreme issue reigns: how to protect the induced summer season, soul of the island’s economy, from the ax that the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, intends to lower to the discos. The nightclubs were able to reopen thanks to a first order from Solinas, issued in mid-July. But that provision, already extended once, expires on August 9. We need another one quickly. Also because businessmen in the tourism sector – as a regional advisor told Reporters on the broadcast last Monday – are pressing politics to stay open and protect profits. Solinas, therefore, has prepared the draft of a second ordinance that goes exactly in that direction. He sends it to Cts Sardo for his opinion. The last word, however, will be left to the governor.
The mail of August 6
The four professors Stefano Vella, Francesco Cucca, Giovanni Sotgiu, Piero Cappuccinelli, all renowned experts in the field of infectious diseases and epidemiology, tear that draft to pieces. They don’t save anything. They argue that it does not provide sufficient security conditions to reduce the probability of contagion, that the distance of one meter in nightclubs is inappropriate and that precise indications on hygiene regulations are lacking. They evaluate the confusing order, both in the part in which it anticipates the reduction of presences within the premises and in that which concerns the control device. Not only. The professors close the opinion with a consideration that should sound the alarm sirens. “We are attending – they write – to the opening of businesses where even the meeting flaunts an element of advertising appeal.”
Informal conversations
The August 6 email, which has remained unpublished until now, is the only article that can technically be defined as an “opinion.” Because it is motivated and signed by all the members of the CTS of Sardinia. However, in the ordinance of August 11 that allows activities “to take place in discos or other places similar to entertainment, exclusively outdoors, provided that the prohibition of meetings is guaranteed …”, we read among the locals : “Get the opinion expressed by the Scientific Technical Committee today.” What do you mean? According to Repubblica, not a collegiate and official opinion, but informal discussions between a regional executive and a couple of CTS members, which took place verbally and via email a few hours before Solinas was signed. Precisely as a result of that confrontation, in extremis and when it was already clear what the political will was, previously unforeseen exceptions and precautions appeared in the text, such as the specification that allows dances only in open-air discos.
Ordinance 38
Ordinance 38 signed on the night of August 11 has corrected a regulatory vacation, because for two days the nightlife in the premises passed without permits. It does not have an indiscriminate opening, as it imposes a series of precautionary measures on those in charge (guarantee different entry and exit paths, limit access to no more than 70 percent, measure body temperature at the entrance) that, as photos and reports from vacationers document, they have hardly ever been honored.
At this point, the matter becomes a matter of law and it will be up to the Cagliari magistrates to solve the problem. Can personal advice be considered the opinion of the entire Technical Scientific Committee? Having disregarded the indication of the Cts of August 6, which by statute is not binding, can it have criminal relevance? Who should prevail in case of epidemic, politics or science?
