«We must not take this virus under the radar, on the contrary, we must move carefully and the weakest must be protected. Omicron Ba5 is very transmissible and, for example, is able to reinfect those who have already contracted the virus, and if it affects the frail and the elderly it entails important risks, hospitalization and mortality ».
This was stated by Silvio Brusaferro, president of the Higher Institute of Health, interviewed by Repubblica, underlining that it is not enough for them to take precautions alone, letting the virus run into the rest of the population. “The fact is that we are in full pandemic wave with a large number of people who contract the infection and who can transmit it and this, for example, also raises the problem of health personnel who are affected and therefore cannot work, with repercussions on services – remarks -. Without dramatizing, these are all aspects that prompt us to be careful and prudent ».
For Brusaferro «we must now face the coronavirus to prepare for the autumn. From this point of view it is good to keep the immune response high, always to protect the frail and the elderly. Thus it is necessary to use vaccines according to the recommendations but also drugs and monoclonal antibodies ».
Wrong to minimize
Let the virus run? Also for Franco Locatelli, president of the Superior Health Council, “in this epidemiological situation it does not even seem appropriate to hypothesize it,” he says in an interview with Corriere della Sera. «Such high numbers of cases – he underlines – fortunately, thanks to vaccines, do not translate into an impact on the health of the infected, as happened with the other waves. Omicron has a reduced ability to cause severe lung disease. Reduced does not mean absent-remember-him. We stop minimizing risks by comparing infection to that of a flu virus. It is deeply wrong. “
Then Locatelli recalls that on Friday the threshold of 100 deaths has been exceeded again, and he turns to his colleagues: “We try, especially us doctors, to foresee and understand the consequences of our statements and to imprint them on responsibility and scientific evidence”. Finally he reiterates the invitation to carry out the fourth dose, without waiting for the new updated vaccines: «The immune response generated by the vaccines available today largely protects against serious or life-threatening disease. We do not delay coverage by waiting for the new bivalent vaccines, which also contain the viral strain currently circulating in addition to the original one. It would be a big mistake ».