The changes to the isolation rules for Covid positives “are choices in which politics makes decisions, always on a scientific basis, taking into account the changing situation of the pandemic. We have so far prevented the virus from circulating to avoid the disease. at this moment the disease is much rarer than in the past, and therefore the scenario changes, and with it the choices to be made “. So to ANSA the director of the Microbiology Unit of the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome, Carlo Federico Perno.
“I am convinced – affirms Perno – that the reduction of mortality, which took place largely thanks to the vaccine, requires a reflection on the rules, making important strategic decisions. As an example we can take the flu: We for the flu do not we have closed Italy. So, if we believe that this virus today has clinical characteristics that are getting closer and closer to the flu, we could go towards a relaxation of the rigor with which we lived the pandemic; if on the other hand we believe that the virus still has particularly serious characteristics, it should still be very rigorous “. And the expert explains: “Basically, we have to decide whether to run after the virus or the disease, knowing that until now by blocking the virus we also blocked the disease, but today it may no longer be strictly so. If we run after the virus, a mask for everyone and also lockdown, as they did in Shanghai. If our target is disease, we can loosen our grip a bit knowing that the virus, while circulating abundantly, would do much less damage than in the past. in essence, it loosens itself. a little bit to resume normal life knowing that in most cases, this virus, today, and I want to underline it, thanks to more than 50 million vaccinated people, does much less damage “.
“So yes – says Perno – I agree with a timely and updated review of the rules on isolation, which will then have to be modulated over time, as the natural path of this disease is evaluated”. Disease, notes the expert, highly fatal at first “while now we have a mortality reported below 1 per thousand, where the denominator is represented by the number of positive swabs (and we know that at least twice as many swabs that are positive are not declared, while the deaths yes). So – concludes Perno – we have a much lower mortality than in the past, that’s fine, remembering however that deaths are always many. So loosen up, but don’t free everyone “.