They rose to five cases of Delta variant ascertained in a gym in Milan, where a Coronavirus outbreak has developed which has led to 14 infections so far. Fanpage.it asked Professor Massimo Galli, head of infectious diseases from the Sacco hospital in Milan as the spread of this variant in Lombardy (81 cases ascertained from December 2020 to last June 14, with a peak in May) should cause us to worry.
Professor, the cases of Delta variant ascertained in the Milan gym have increased. Do you need to worry?
It must be noted that the problem with this variant exists. It must be remembered that the Indian or Delta variant has very quickly replaced the Alpha or English variant that was predominant in India and having replaced it has created a problem that has resulted in cases in India from 12 thousand and 400 thousand a day in just over a month. Then now fortunately the situation has seen a decline or a reduction of the problem. However, this is what the Delta variant did in India and also, in terms of isolations implemented, in Great Britain, where it quickly replaced the circulating variants.
Should an increase similar to that seen in Great Britain be expected in Lombardy?
Look, both in Great Britain and here, the variable in our favor, compared to the variant, is the fact that we find ourselves so many people vaccinated. This helps to limit circulation but above all helps to prevent those who are most at risk from being seriously affected. All in all, this is the strongly reassuring and reassuring element: this variant comes to us at a time when we are not completely defended, but less defenseless.
What can be done to limit its circulation?
I hope that the phenomena can be contained and that we can act in a very valid way with the tracing starting from the observed outbreaks, so that it helps to limit the further circulation of the infection. Then the variant is there, and to think that it will not give us a hard time is unfortunately impossible.
Professor, does the fact that the outbreak developed in a gym mean that the reopening was a bit too rash? Has there perhaps been too much bet on the effectiveness of vaccination, compared to the risks associated with reopening?
Look, on the other hand, there isn’t much to say as an alternative: unfortunately we are in a situation where the problem is not over. However, with the number of vaccinations we can start living with it more is a fact. Obviously we lack the vaccinations of the youngest and many of the elderly, and therefore we must not miss the appropriate precautions. I am so tired and disgusted with the tug-of-war of certain politicians that I would like more than anything else to remind people, who are very good at grasping messages, that they have to be careful and act accordingly.
The tug of war in politics is now very much focused on masks. The government plans to eliminate the requirement to wear it, at least outdoors, in mid-July. What do you think?
Masks are a tool, not a fetish and as such should be used with the head. They helped us a lot, they even canceled along with the containment measures and the various lockdown a flu season in its entirety, because this year there were very few flu syndromes. But my advice to the elderly, frail, with various health problems is: keep the mask even if you are vaccinated, using it in crowded situations outdoors and indoors. To young people who are not yet vaccinated I say: keep it in the same situations to avoid infecting yourselves right now more or less consciously and unknowingly being a vehicle for infections for others. Frankly, it is useless to make a fuss about putting it on or not putting it on, it is useless to give it a symbolic meaning that it does not have: it is a tool, you have to use it with your head for those who have reason to use it, and in the end we are all still in it.
Returning to the Covid outbreak in the gym in Milan: the person who first tested positive for the Delta variant had completed the vaccination cycle.
We are vaccinating against admission to hospital, against entry into intensive care and against ending up in the cemetery. It may happen, as we have seen for the English variant, that the reason for the infection of a vaccinee is simply that despite having responded to the vaccine, the coverage offered by the vaccine has not been complete, but in this case, however, a mild infection develops. It may happen, however, that there are people, and a certain small percentage not entirely quantified certainly there is, who have not really responded to the vaccine: and it is therefore as if they had not been vaccinated. And this is another of the criteria for which it would be necessary for us doctors to be more free and supported in the possibility of going for the determination of the antibody response, which is not an exhaustive parameter but an important information element.
How long should this analysis take?
Depending on the circumstances, it might be interesting to do this already after the first dose or in other cases a fortnight after the second dose.
It could be a clinical test to standardize, then.
The reality is funny, because the world is doing it, but there is still a noisy silence from those who should deal with it directly in the general interest.
Are you referring to shortcomings in the national health policy?
That’s right, this is one of those cases where you have to take matters into your own hands, in an advanced, high-income country. Because it is clear that the WHO will not say these things publicly, considering the practically insurmountable difficulties that exist in carrying out these tests in low-income countries.