by Fausto Fiorile
26 LUG –
Dear manager,
in recent days, the numbers reported by the news regarding swabs performed, the percentages of contagion and hospital admissions inform us that the Covid-19 virus, with the variants that have occurred in recent months, is still circulating; and this despite the overwhelming majority of the population having been vaccinated with two / three doses and has in many cases also contracted the infection directly. The Experts also tell us, and fortunately, that the characteristics of aggression have changed: over 65% of hospitalizations counted as Covid19 refer to patients who entered the hospital for other pathologies and discovered incidentally. Many are positive, but many are almost asymptomatic or with modest clinical manifestations. The incidence of respiratory complications is reduced.
The natural resumption of daily activities, including mass events, has allowed the virus to spread significantly among the population. This was to be expected and I am sure that the decisions taken by the government also started from this awareness. At the same time, all of us who have the responsibility to follow our patients by taking care of them and the collective health of the population, we are perfectly aware that attention to the circulation of the virus can never be relaxed and that they are precisely the weakest groups. (elderly and patients with multiple pathologies) to have to be observed and protected in a particular way.
We have learned that when radio, television and newspapers start the media tam tam as is happening these days, measures are announced immediately afterwards. There is talk of a fourth dose (new booster) and / or a new vaccine more specific than a virus that continues to change and against whose spread the current vaccination campaign has unfortunately not proved effective.
Now, without prejudice to the absolute validity and importance of vaccine prophylaxis to prevent contagion from any pathogen to safeguard the individual and the entire community, in the face of Covid19, the free choice of everyone to be able to undergo the administration of a fourth is guaranteed booster dose (or even probable fifth when the new vaccine will be ready), I want to state with great clarity that the hypothesis of a mandatory fourth dose for healthcare personnel and not only, arouses great perplexity in me for at least four reasons:
– Never before this pandemic has multiple doses of vaccines been administered in such a short period of time. Going beyond the three doses, to which one or more natural infections must be added in many cases, I believe may represent a potential risk for the onset of adverse events in light of the unchanged concepts of immunology as well as of the recent scientific evidence that has emerged; risk that each of us must be free to want to take. I believe that a further obligation for a fourth dose is not plausible from a scientific and legal point of view, also in the light of the numerous recent judgments of the jurisprudence.
– The health personnel who have spent so much and lavished themselves with a great sense of responsibility in the clinical activities of hospitals in the moment of serious emergency have been rightly praised and rewarded. It is now paradoxical that the same staff, faced with the manifest opposition to the vaccination obligation expiring on 31.12.2022, an opposition that could be even stronger in the case of a fourth mandatory dose, is instead pointed out as a smear and often demonized their behavior. as irresponsible. Today we are experiencing a climate of great conflict within the category and the whole community which I believe must absolutely be overcome. Is it right to deprive the healthcare professional or any other worker of their right to work for a choice that in my opinion must instead be respected also and above all in the light of recent scientific studies?
– Our public health service has been directed in the last two years on an extremely dangerous path. Early retirement by doctors and nurses fleeing from hospitals and territorial medicine, public competitions for health care positions that go deserted, widespread demotivation, burn-out, passage for many health professionals from public to private health, are bringing out a situation that it could soon be explosive for the NHS. If the hypothesis of the fourth mandatory dose became law, we would not be able to afford the luxury of continuing to leave suspended doctors and nurses at home, beyond the deadline of 31.12.2022, with an assistance system in clear distress where the help of instead is needed. all.
I believe that in a health context that has profoundly changed compared to two years ago when the hope that the vaccine could slow down the transmission of the virus was also widespread among experts, hence the vaccination obligation for the category, the right of choice for everyone in being able to choose whether or not to undergo any further vaccination treatments should be safeguarded again. A right guaranteed by the constitution that we cannot forget.
Having said that, I share my reflection for the purpose of a constructive discussion, in full respect of the institutions and technical bodies that in this dramatic period have been able to tackle a global health emergency firmly.
Fausto FiorileDentist
President Aio
The opinions expressed by the author are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of the association to which they belong
July 26, 2022
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