Vaccinations, chain of errors and delays. The Einaudi Foundation: “Ridiculous numbers”

Vaccinate everyone and fast. This is the challenge that 2021 launches to governments internationally. The stakes are high: each week of delay means human lives, but the economic question is also at stake with the long-awaited restart of the country’s productive and social system that can no longer wait.

Accounts in hand, Italy must win this match Catch the rhythm and the data, useless to surround it, is not good today. “To vaccinate 50% of Italians in 10 months, according to estimates developed by the Luigi Einaudi Foundation as part of the information campaign ‘How many vaccines’, approximately 60 million inoculations (30 for 2 doses) “. Which means “proceed with an average of 200 thousand daily vaccinations.” And although the president of the Superior Council of Health, Franco Locatelli, defined as “frankly not very generous” to underline the delay of Italy compared to other countries on the continent, – considering that France in 5 days vaccinated less than 400 people – compared to Germany the comparison is merciless: 52,037 doses administered yesterday in our country compared to the 165,575 Germans already vaccinated as of December 31. Even if at night a note from the commissioner Domenico Arcuri update ministerial website numbers: Italy ranks second in Europe, after Germany, by number of vaccinated, with 63,263. “But we are only at 0.08%”, attacks Malan from FI, when the vaccines still exceed 45 thousand.

Widening the gaze, according to data published by the University of Oxford, the world has already received at least one dose 9.95 million people. On the purchasing front, the problem is common to the entire EU and is attributable, in addition to the unpredictable delays in the approval of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, also to the relative weakness of the application in favor of the 27 member states, with a contract signed just in November. .

Critical issues for which, at the national level, there has been the current disorganization of what promises to be the largest vaccination campaign in history.

In the Italian regions, the trend towards vaccination advances slowly due to shortage of health personnel and of precision syringesand (as in Lombardy and the Marches), that efforts are also being made to compensate with retired doctors, volunteers and by using hospital supplies. And, while in Calabria doctors are forced to work overtime, in some structures in Sardinia phase 1 vaccination will start on January 7 due to staff on vacation. Overall, only slightly more than one in ten doses were administered out of the 469,950 vials of Pfizer-Biontech already delivered. This is because, to be on time, on duty 15 thousand health workers are still missing, or the 3,000 doctors and 12,000 nurses that the government began to contract with a tender only on December 28.

“The Regions must run, no dose can wait to be used even for a few hours. We also use the afternoon hours but we run ”, says Undersecretary of Health Sandra Zampa, announcing in the coming months, as the doses increase, the possibility of also involving general practitioners and pharmacies in the administration of vaccines. Meanwhile, in a context of delays and stock-outs, the ability to get vaccinated even for front-line categories runs the risk of being a luxury. More and more often – denounces the association ‘Who cares about you?’ – Specialist doctors are moved to the end of the waiting list with a lot of cancellation of their reservation to give priority to the Company’s employees, even when they are not working in the room.