Nearly 6 million people in Italy have chosen not to get vaccinated. Among these there are two million people over the age of 50 and therefore risk developing serious complications if they become infected with Covid-19. Because? Simple: the age factor adds up to the health problem factor: from diabetes to cardiovascular disorders. The turning point after 50-60 years, in fact, marks the age group in which it is more likely to receive new diagnoses of chronic diseases. Choosing not to get vaccinated implies being aware of the risks. And Italy, which is going through the wave of Delta and Omicron, runs a registry risk. What does it mean? Italy is the European nation with the highest number of elderly people: about one in four Italians is over 65. And in the next few years this photograph will not rejuvenate. Aging also means experiencing pathologies that, added to a Sars-Cov-2 infection, can give rise to complications that require hospitalization or intensive care in an intensive care unit. The presence of two or more pathologies already characterizes 75% of Italian 65-year-olds, and almost 100% of over-eighty-year-olds.
This is a necessary premise to describe the danger these people run (all over 50 not vaccinated) on which the Scientific technical committee he lit a beacon asking for vaccination to be encouraged as much as possible. This is one of the arguments that emerged during the debate on shortening the quarantine. For counterbalance the potential increase in risk that could derive from the reduction of the quarantine, the CTS has in fact asked the government to incentivize mechanisms that favor vaccination especially of the over 50s.
The restrictions, the hospitals in trouble, the intensive care that gradually becomes saturated. These are the consequences of the circulation of the virus. And the age factor weighs. «If we were all vaccinated, the intensive beds occupied would be 20-25% of the current ones, so all of Italy would be white. Of the approximately 3 million unvaccinated over 50s, 1.4 million are over 60, approximately 8% of the total population of this age.. A minority that, however, fills the resuscitations and conditions the life of the 92% who fulfill their duty “, the immunologist told Corriere della Sera just a few days ago. Sergio Abrignani. The undersecretary Pierpaolo Sileri to get the same message across, he asks a rhetorical question instead: «Is it possible that it is not clear that with two doses of the vaccine, for example, the place is left free for those who have a heart attack? ”
The Gimbe Foundation has drawn up a graph in which it can be seen that the regions with the most unvaccinated over 50s are also those that float between yellow zone e orange zone and that, consequently, have the hospital wards most under pressure. The graph is this:
In first place is Calabria, already in the yellow zone and with 28% of hospital wards occupied by Covid patients. There are also Marche, Liguria and Veneto. Regions such as Sicily and Piedmont are popping up and are poised to enter the yellow zone.
Identikit of the serious case – Meanwhile, the national data collected by the 118 operations centers, with regional surveys, trace a possible identikit of the most serious cases: in Veneto for example they are unvaccinated and are between 35 and 60 years of age, Covid patients who call the ambulance from home when they already have a high fever, severe cough and acute respiratory distress. The ratio between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients with severe clinical symptoms has spread over the last few weeks: 85% of unvaccinated and 15% of vaccinated. “They avoid the hospital and stay at home until they can breathe”, they say from 118. This would also explain why Veneto is the region that has the highest percentage of suspected Covid cases out of the total access to the Pronto rescue. The latest data available is December 26, 2021: up 2,123 cases, 718 (33%) were classified as suspected Covid.
Unvaccinated they fill hospitals – From 7 December to 28 December the number of hospitalized unvaccinated Covid patients increased by 46%, while the increase in vaccinated stopped at 19%. In the intensive care unit, the unvaccinated are 71% of the total patients (in some regions such as Abruzzo they are 90%), against 29% of vaccinated. The president of Fiaso (Italian Federation of Healthcare and Hospital Companies) Giovanni Migliore explains that “it is probably, in part, the holiday effect that affects the greater number of hospitalizations for Covid, but what the numbers allow us to observe is more and more an epidemic of the unvaccinated».
Over 50 like the frail – It is also the WHO (World Health Organization) that recommends the vaccine for this category of people. WHO has asked governments to carefully consider prioritizing older adults admitted to long-term care or home care. And he also recommended extending this risk group to include adults over the age of 50 who are at the highest risk for severe COVID-19. Basically it equates an over 50 patient with an RSA as a potential risk.
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