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In August, when the virus granted a truce, the government asked Professor Andrea Crisanti, director of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Padua, who was one of the first in Italy to plan a winning strategy against the SarsCov epidemic. -2, to indicate a health policy program to deal with the second wave. And the professor had presented it, putting it in the hands of the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Federico D’Incà, and the Undersecretary of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri. With a clear recipe in mind: “We need to provide the country with an infrastructure that can process at least 400 thousand swabs a day” (the professor, it will be recalled, also presented it in general at the Corriere della Sera on August 31) . Well, after months, and with the scythe of the epidemic already strongly at work, it turns out that that plan has essentially remained closed in a drawer. “He has not received any more feedback,” wrote Crisanti himself, in the introduction to the full text of the “plan” (click here to read it all), which was published today by the site “Lettera150”, the family member’s magazine think tank About 250 academics from different disciplines adhere.
“The error persists”
“The goal – reads the introduction signed by the professor, not surprisingly titled” My unheard plan “- was equip Italy with an active surveillance system capable of stopping outbreaks of Sars-CoV-2 transmission in the bud. The plan, in the form of a blueprint, outlined the dynamics of virus transmission and the factors that influence the possible scenarios. In essence, it was meant to equip Italy with a network of fixed and mobile laboratories to increase swab capacity to 400,000 and eliminate regional differences in order to consolidate the results of the emergency shutdown and keep infections at a low level that does not interfere with quality of life and productive activities. And then, pulling the strings: ” I have had no further responses to my proposal.. Now, almost three months later, new decrees from the Prime Minister are issued, intended to impact our quality of life and our work activities, patiently endured in the hope that they will help reduce infection. Once again, however, the mistake remains of not asking how, once contagion is reduced with progressively restrictive measures, it is possible to keep it at low levels. Failure to answer this question will condemn us to a turn of restrictive measures and a return to normality which will have disastrous effects on the economy, education and social life. “
The case of China
But what does Crisanti’s forgotten program say (goes)? “The rationale for this proposal – continues the professor – was based on the notion that current contact tracing methods are laborious, difficult to scale and easily saturated, vice versa, the approach used in the town of Vo ‘and then applied in many other situations too Italy is extremely efficient and with lasting effects. We must imagine – we read – that each of us lives in a three-dimensional network of relationships whose plans can be school, work, neighbors, friends and family with both horizontal and vertical interactions. When an infected person is identified, if all those who are part of this relationship space are tested, it is very likely that the origin of the infection is in this relationship space, both the one who transmitted the infection and whoever was possibly infected , thus blocking the chain of transmission (network test) ». Hence the conclusion: “The best investment to support the economy and improve the quality of life that can and should be done now is to create an active surveillance system capable of make us live with low levels of viral transmission. A few days ago, to eliminate an outbreak of 10 cases, China made 10 million swabs in one day. The competitive advantage of an economy today goes mainly through the protection of public health.
October 20, 2020 (change October 20, 2020 | 14:42)
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