“There will be no second wave.” “Don’t terrify people”: from Salvini to Bassetti, the summer prophecies of Covid’s “minimalists”

The question was simple: will Italy be prepared for a second wave of coronavirus? Like all scientists Matteo salvini had responded with another question: “But Why should there be a second wave? Why already? “In Italy, three-quarters of the country are free of infections and hospitalizations“, was the response of the secretary of the League, interviewed by 7Gold on June 25. Summer had just begun and Salvini, the most summery of the leaders, had already become the leader of the “minimalist“of Covid. A colorful and heterogeneous movement that encompasses politicians, celebrities, even virology, but that’s very different from deniers and let’s go Without mask. If conspiracy theorists show obvious limits to credibilityIn fact, the minimalists at Covid are more sober: they fail to deny the existence of the epidemic, but merely minimize it. the effects, with the sole objective of challenging the anti-contagion measures in this way. Thus riding the long wave of discontent: by managers of sell slot me dance halls ai restorers. Endorsed by the full-page headlines of area newspapers (The newspaper, Free, the truth) throughout the summer i Covid Minimalists met, danced (while clubs were open), protested (when clubs closed), trying to boycott any alerts about epidemiological situation. Starting with the main one: the risk of a second wave of epidemic.

Already on June 2, before the filming took place. reopening mobility between regions, the center-right took to the streets to protest against the government. It was one of the first demonstrations in which crowds, gatherings and lowered bezels. Starting with the “captain”, who wanted to expose his nose and mouth during selfies with fans. On the other hand, in his version as a virologist, Salvini has repeatedly denied the hypothesis of a second wave of Covid, arguing with indisputable and precise scientific data: “In Italy now three quarters of the country They are free of infections and hospitalizations, Italians have shown enormous common sense in recent months but it seems to me that at this point there are many doctors who are saying that the virus is now fortunately spreading and especially serious in new cases absolutely inferior compared to a few months ago. “Those were the days when Alberto Zangrillo considered the virus “brain dead“And therefore for Salvini it was” useless keep terrorizing people“.

But not only Zangrillo was there to give ideological and scientific coverage to the minimalists of Covid. Matteo bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Hospital in Genoa, on August 4 invited “don’t do terrorism“. “I don’t like talking about the second wave – he toldAdnkronos – The virus is present, it is among us. We have to learn to live with it. In autumn and winter there will be people infectedAt that time we will have to be good at treating these people properly, identifying new outbreaks. who says we’ll have a second wave how the spanish do terrorism: We are in 2020, the Spanish arrived when there were no vaccines, antibiotics, ventilators ”. Two days later he was a virologist Massimo clementi, professor at the San Raffaele in Milan, who declared to Print without any benefit of the doubt: “There will be no second wave, autumn will be like now, the virus is adapting to man, maybe it will make a ping pong with bat, that is to say, we will review it between species, but it will not disappear until the vaccine ”.

On the basis of these opinions, the Lega-powered center-right was able to carry out its strategy: assuming that the the coronavirus is gone, and therefore it is no longer a danger, we had to return to normality. On July 27, Salvini himself was among the protagonists of “Covid-19 in Italy, between information, science and rights”, an event with denialist tendencies that brought together philosophers, journalists, lawyers and doctors in the Senate. All united by the idea that Parliament should have rejected the resolutions to prolong it state of emergency. “In our hospitals there is no Covid,” he said Vittorio Sgarbi, an art critic who has worked for politics for 30 years. At the end of August, as mayor of Sutri, Sgarbi will sign an order to fine those who wear a mask on the street. “There has been a bit of exaggeration in the narrative of the virus”, was the reading of Armando Siri, the former undersecretary, accused of corruption, who in the coming weeks will give interviews to denounce “the fear campaign that confidently go after politicians, the media, scientists and public figures at various levels. The reasoning of the tenor Andrea Bocelliinstead, he followed the Galilean method: “I’ve never met anyone who has gone to intensive care, so why this severity?” Salvini’s speech is particularly detailed: “The salute with the elbow is there end of the human species, I refused, rather I did not say hello ”. To be more convincing, the former Interior Minister had presented himself without a mask. To the employees who invited him to cover his face, he replied: “I don’t have it and I’m not using itThen, with the anecdotes: “I saw a lady in the sea go into the water with a mask. It means that you have to do important recovery work, a cultural work“.

Unfortunately for Salvini, “cultural work” to convince people not to wear the mask has been blocked by the increase in infections. In fact, in late August, the number of new positives began to rise again. And Covid has also infected some familiar faces. How Silvio Berlusconi, interned in San Raffaele the first days of September. It was on that occasion that Zangrillo had to explain how his sentence on the “clinically dead virus” she had been “an out of tune expression“On the same occasion, however, Berlusconi’s personal physician said he was skeptical about the return of the epidemic:”I don’t believe in the second waveWe only have to apply the criteria of surveillance and control of the territory to come back to life ”. Unfortunately, it was different. And today someone points it out. “What has been done in these six months to avoid the Second wave? I don’t want anyone to have sat down in the last few months. waiting for the good lord what sent well and in October we will point and point again ”. Words that always belong to him: Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Covid minimalists, the same as the second wave until a few weeks ago he didn’t want to hear about it.

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