Rome, March 19 (beraking latest news Salute) – The transversal pact for science and the Italian biotechnology association “criticize the government’s decision to have suspended the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the absence of clear scientific evidence. We need more transparency in the reasons for such drastic choices that they risk having a strong impact on people’s trust in vaccines and on the success of the largest mass vaccination campaign in our recent history, “they point out in a statement.
“The decision to suspend, even for a few days, the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, moreover, especially if amplified by an alarmist, confused and contradictory communication – they report – will increase vaccination hesitation and mistrust of vaccines and science in general”.
The suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine, even if for a few days, will therefore have consequences, according to the Transversal Pact for Science and the Italian Biotechnology Association: “We are in the middle of a road and a truck is coming against us quickly. We are about to move on. , but we notice a small movement in the distance and suddenly we stop ‘as a precaution’. The outcome we already know what it is. We imagine it very well. Here, today we are in the same situation. With 300-500 deaths from Covid-19 per day , without counting the overload of hospital admissions and intensive care, the real risk is precisely stopping, especially for no more than valid reason and, in doing so, cracking the confidence consolidated in these first months of vaccination, just when the it is spreading to the whole population “.
For the transversal pact for science and the Italian biotechnology association, obviously “vigilance is fundamental, to check for any sign that highlights anomalies (contamination of batches, adverse events not detected during the experimental phases, etc.), but if the statistical evidence, as in this case, they indicate that we are well within the expected numbers (whether these are adverse effects or deaths from even rare diseases), suspending vaccination prophylaxis does not have the effect of increasing safety, but, on the contrary, of increase the collective risk we take “.
In cases like this of the vaccine, “our mind does not help us to correctly assess the risks. This is why political, scientific and even logistical decision-makers must be aware of these ‘risks of the mind’, because they can become ‘risks for life ‘, especially in a collective emergency situation. Faced with clear data on vaccination safety after millions of doses administered, and repeated yesterday by the EMA,’ not doing ‘just to indulge unfounded fears is very dangerous “, the experts remark .
According to the transversal pact for science and the Italian biotechnology association, “we will emerge from this emergency also and above all when we are able to elaborate a clear, strong and coherent communication based on objective and transparent data. Collective anxiety is part of the problem. not of the solution, it should neither be cultivated nor ridden. Now we have two urgencies to address immediately: recover as soon as possible the 200,000 vaccinations missed in recent days, but above all recover people’s trust, put in crisis by a self-defeating decision and communication really difficult to understand. Staying still, in a pandemic, kills. Let’s go back to running, to get back to life “.