Home » Mario Pappagallo, pen of scientific medical journalism, died

Mario Pappagallo, pen of scientific medical journalism, died

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Mario Pappagallo, pen of scientific medical journalism, died

His colleague Mario Pappagallo died suddenly at the age of 68. For the small community that has been writing about Medicine and Health for a few decades and chasing congresses around the world, Mario was not only an authoritative and intelligently critical colleague, but a lovable, kind, respectable person. He worked for a few decades for Corriere della Sera, then retired for the Mattino di Napoli and Corriere dello Sport. Doctor, as well as journalist, author of books, many of which with Umberto Veronesi, he has won many journalistic awards for his medical articles. And he has had so many awards for his work.

A high-level professional, generous even with his younger colleagues, with whom he chatted and did not skimp on explanations when doubts overwhelmed certainties. But beyond his undisputed professionalism and competence, Mario was the one who at the dinners we had together, after days spent following the work of the congresses in Italy and abroad, and writing in a hurry to send the article to the newspaper, he made us smile with the stories of his many travels, of the encounters he made. Always smiling, recommending restaurants all over the world where you could eat the best steak, the best raw fish, the indigenous wines that had surprised him, the spices that he considered indispensable.

A good travel companion, even during intercontinental flights: having him on the seat next to you might not make you sleep as much as you would have liked, but it was a continuous alternation of professional anecdotes, even severe criticisms of what was happening in one area or another of Medicine , of the little scientific culture of our country. He was always there at press conferences, even when he was a big guy and could afford to leave earlier. And he instead he stayed, and asked questions, often uncomfortable. And he argued with everyone. Sometimes even with vehemence. For quite some time he had been passionate about new forms of social communication and at an American congress an early tweet sent him out of the press room. The attempts of us colleagues to have him readmitted were useless: it had been a trivial miscalculation of the time zone, there was no intention of violating the embargo. But the American communications managers were inflexible.

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I went with him on a beautiful trip to the Solomon Islands to talk about the canned tuna supply chain that we find in our supermarkets. We traveled on microscopic planes where in addition to the baggage also the passengers weighed to balance the flight well, we landed on a crowded dirt runway until a few minutes before the airplane lined up with vendors of all kinds of food. I do not forget the aperitifs at sunset chatting about our newspapers, about what we would have liked to write, about the extra time we would have liked, but also about our children and our life. He knew how to listen, Mario, and this too is not common. Dear Mario, in these hours it is a succession of messages and phone calls from colleagues of this small community to which you belonged. Incredulous, sincerely sorry and saddened. We will really miss you. Much.

The editorial staff of Salute, with all the collaborators of the Hub of the Gedi group, are close to the family and colleagues

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